sleep. oh sleep. ooooh sleeep.

there are chickens cockadoodling in our backyard. what the...?


ANYWAY.
my ate z and her husband are currently in boracay for a wedding. ate erika and i are therefore the dakilang yayas in charge of their two little skinny dippers....

yeah. it's too hot to even wear tiny pompie protectors.

they've been enjoying the freedom, i think. or raphael, at least. he's the older one. and he certainly knows how to abuse the minor authority. for example, he refused to get in bed at his usual hour last night. he was giving me the hardest time. first, he wanted to wear shorts. when i changed him to shorts, he wanted to wear his pajamas again. pfft. he wanted to watch tv before sleeping. when i firmly said no, he tried to threaten me...

raph: sige! i'm going to... i'm going to... (pause).... sige!

HEHEHE. evil grin.
after a while, he asked for cold milk. so i went down to get him milk. when i got up, he said he wanted it warm. so i went down to warm it up. when i got up, he said it wasn't warm enough. so i went down to warm it some more. when i got up the third time, he said it wasn't his bottle and he couldn't drink it if it's not his bottle. so i changed the bottle. finally... when he accepted it, he started to drink it, then he stopped. "i want it cold, tita mic..." auuuugh! the boy is just too manipulative. AT THREE YEARS OLD! and that's not it, ha?

me: time to sleep raph... come on.
raphael: NOOO. my mom's supposed to sleep beside matt (the 1 yr old)!
me: your mom told me to sleep here 'til they get back.
raphael: but tita mic... i don't like it when my titas sleep in the room when matt and i sleep.
me: talaga? matt doesn't seem to mind...
raphael: NOOO... you cannot sleep here.
me: hmmm. well, i promised your mom that i'd sleep beside matt while she's gone. maybe matt and i will sleep in my room nalang... since you don't like me sleeping here in your room... (evil smirk)
raphael: (long thinking pause) i won't sleep nalang. you and matt can sleep here. but i won't sleep, ha? i don't like sleeping when you're sleeping here too. okay? okay?

mmm hmmm... talk about smooth. i swear. he is SUCH a palusot king. it's unbelievable.
after fighting for two long hours, he dozed off to dreamland. wehehehe. matthew, on the other hand, kept waking up every other hour. it seemed like he was having a bad dream cuz he'd wake up crying and calling out either "maaaa..." or "miiiic..." i couldn't really tell.

needless to say... my head is hurting due to lack of sleep last night. augh. i hate this feeling. it's like i want to puke and my body's really weak and i feel like total crap. hmmm.


on the other side of things...
we had our last formal classroom session yesterday for the basic program. from now til june, it's all consultations with direk abaya and production for our final project. i'm not sure if i should rejoice or not... because like what she said, the real work starts here and now. so far, there are at least three projects lined up. yeheeeey.

i wonder tho if i'll be able to have a real break. not that i want or need one, really. i guess i just want to be able to see my friends for a change. didn't get to see much of them since school started. thank god for their understanding.


crap.
sleeeeeep. i need sleeep.

back from the jungle

weeks have passed, projects have been acomplished, and basic course in film school is about to come to an end. but before moving on to the advanced, it's only right that i get to share all the awesome-ness i've experienced these past 3 months...

PHOTOGRAPHY. after the class trip to the hot air balloon festival in pampanga, the class went to a few more location sites to set, point, and shoot. here are some of my digital photos.

Fort Santiago. altho capturing heroism is never easy, i had fun immersing in such an historic place with the class.

ruins


black beauty


tunnel to heaven

Bulacan. we were invited to visit the set of "Tall as Trees," a filipino-american production to be submitted to the Sundance festival next year. one of our advanced program professors, rodell cruz, designed the set. it cost them hundreds of thousands to make a flood set like this...

yes. that is an ACTUAL set built on a canal of some sort.


that's sir rodell cruz... being guarded by security. hehe.


ms. chinchin gutierrez played a part in the film.


buhay grip



not only was it an experience for me and my classmates.
the children of bulacan stopped to watch the shoot in seriousness and awe.

Baywalk. before sunset... ;)

i obviously still need to work on my photographs, but heck... i think i'm better now than i was before.

Class Pics. sir tom put up a studio set up in the classroom. we decided to have some fun. :)

PRODUCTION. my wonderful group, Pustiso Productions, has done over six projects since we were formed last january: the three one-minute films, two commercials for mccan erickson (which aired during the holy week!!! will dig up some pics from the shoot), and our miraculous 15 minute midterm project, Kimberly.

yes. i have put a snippet of my life on the big screen. but for those who'll get to watch it eventually, it's not the real story as you've read in my previous post. inspired by those true events, the group modified it to make it more suited for the film medium. will write a more detailed post on the production, but for now... all i can say is that i am very proud of the group for having worked so hard on this. since the class airing and open house a couple of weeks back, it has received numerous of positive remarks from its audiences. i have never felt so graced and fulfilled in my life. thank you, God! :)

as learned, there is no way we can EVER perfect Kimberly, as there is no such thing as a perfect film. but we plan on adding a couple of shots more this weekend to sharpen it anyhow. yeah... we're sort of "perfectionists" that way. if not perfect, expect only the best. yebbah.

here are some photos (from the apfi website) of the wonderfully stressful shoot dated march 31 to april 3 at bellevue du lac in tagaytay.

the little girl's name is crystal. she plays alyssa, one of the main characters of the short.
there's me trying to train the damn fishes in the aquarium. as you can see, mike, my assistant director, was very helpful and supportive. hmmm.


here's the whole gang shooting our prized sequence (yebbah!)
.

alyssa and kimberly have lunch with titotim.


ivan, the production designer, and joy, the super mama and production manager, wade in the pool. by the way, ivan can swim. hehe.


our water boys (DOP micah, co-direk tim, bestboy elber) strike a pose with the ever-reliable "underwater camera."


yebbaaaah... directing kids is my life's purpose.


the crew: Pustiso Productions (clockwise)
mic (director), mike (assistant director), joy (production manager), ivan (production designer), tim (director/editor), micah (director of photography)

WOW.

a month and a half???
grabe. i didn't even realize how long it's been. things have been so hectic in school kasi. sigh. the bags on my eyes have given birth. they're about 6 generations already.

anyhoo... i'm actually in a rush at the moment (BOOOOOOOOO!!!). just wanted to tell the wonderful void how sorry i am for neglecting you. rest assured, i will be back with the most exciting stories from film school. it has been soooooooooo much fun.

'til then...