the arriflex 35 III experience

we shot on film last tuesday for cinematography class and it has, so far, ranked the highest of my highs in film school (it beat you, mike! hehe). all i can say is that IBANG IBA TALAGA pag film ang gamit. i looooooooove it.

the assignment

cinematographer and wonderful instructor mama lee meily set up two days of shooting for each student in our class to come up with at least one minute of film with optional live sound, be it a super-duper short story or an advertisement. we were formed into groups of three, and each was given 400 feet worth of film (which equates to roughly 4 minutes on 24 fps), an arri 35 III camera (love it), an excellent crew, complete lighting and sound equipment, and enough pressure to be able to finish the exercise in 5 hours. mmm hmmm!

shooting day 1: JULY 12, 2005

ms. lee meily; cameraman uly; jose striking a pose... he taught me how to load film into the magazine... yeah!

after much deliberation and minimal pre-production (wahaha), my groupmates (micah and joy) and i decided to shoot a couple of text messaging ethics ads.

ad #1: "the date"

i wrote the script for this, but passed on all creative direction to joy. micah was director of photography, and i was in charge of production design and assisting direk joy. my assignments, however, multiplied as the shoot progressed... from make-up artist, to assistant camera woman, to focus pull person, to production manager. STRESS MEHN. and to think i only had a cup of coffee for breakfast. huwapak!

direk joy motivating our talents, reuben uy and bea garcia

the wonders and perils of being a multi-tasker... yebbaaah...

ad #2: "friendship"

it was my first time to direct ALONE. i had tim to help me with "kimberly", and red to help me with nicole's music video (wehehehe). i expected myself to be a total wreck by then end of our 5th hour... first of all, because i was left with one minute of film for the whole ad (we miscounted our film stock), which meant my one and only take had to be PERFECT or else... kaput...; second of all, i had to change location because it suddenly rained outside and an exterior shot was impossible to do...; which led to my third of all, i had to reevaluate the whole treatment of the ad...; which led to my fourth of all, i had the worst migraine and dysmenorhea of my life. yebaaaaaaaaah.

directing is such a challenge. i'd be an assistant director than a director ANY DAY - no matter how long the final output should be - mainly because creative thinking is much harder than technical supervision. but then i experienced something new in this exercise: a different high... a different level of fulfillment... something i have never felt before. it was sooooo amazing. i loved it.

there's me seated behind DOP micah while i explain the lighting effect that i want to my crew; my two talents, gabs santos and reubs, feeling their roles while we prepare (i love you guys! you did awesome!)

"suicide"
after micah, joy, and i finished with our shoot, the next group approached and begged me to be the talent of theirs. turned out that their actress backed out at the last minute. sigh. if i didn't love my friends... hehehe.

it was quite difficult playing the role. i hadn't acted in a few years, so i was a bit rusty. not to mention that it was a suicide story (i had to point a gun to my head! waaaaaah!) which required waking up monsters of my past. it was difficult at first... but i tried my best... including the gun part. it wasn't so bad...

the hot set

DOP alec; mic as a talent (yeaw!); AD tim and migraine direk jade

the cast and crew

snapshots from
shooting day 2: JULY 14, 2005

direk china, direk pow, DOP pierre at the "love story" shoot

scandalous melchor and pinks; mic and mike as the new sharon and gabby. wahahaha!

the five way test according to jade; (cryptic) IT'S PIERRE'S FAULT!

*ACHTUNG!*

aforementioned films, together with all other projects shot in film by the advanced class, will be open for screening at the next open house on august 13, 2005 at the asia pacific film institute. please click on the APFI website on the links section for more details. tenks!