let me count the ways why... :)

*biggest smile ever* mike gave me one of the best hardbound surprises of my life today...

mwaaaaaaaaaaaah! THANK YOU, HOOOOOOOOOON!

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!

hello...?

katangahan...?

is that you...?

reincarnation

i woke up to fading wedding flowers, beautifully crowned with soft rays streaming through our blinds. it was so profound that i had to capture it somehow...

i've noticed that i have this tendency to let out more thoughts when i'm depressed. i was reading through volume one last night and my oh my... did it have a LOT of (depressing) entries. last year was filled with so much angst and for some reason, it was easy for me to write about that. NOW that i'm finally okay, i BARELY have anything to say. how strange is that...? i should really work up my feel-good-writing-skills. after all, it always nice to read something... nice.


H-T DAY, 03 July 2005

weeks of sleepless nights and preparations truly paid off. ate rai and paul's wedding was super beautiful. yeah, there were a few stressful moments... actually, there were a lot... i had a really bad BF upon leaving for the church because of the heat, lack of sleep, and the fact that all the things i needed for the wedding were misplaced by i-dunno-who. hay. anyway... at least the whole entourage came on time. including the mother of the bride (yebbaaaah! snaps for momma T!). everyone was so beautiful and handsome. it's always fun to see people sharp in their formal wear (even mike came in his new barong. yehey.) the little boys were soooooooooo gwapo! and the flower girls were just the most adorable little things.

now... the procession. oh my the procession. it was so emotional for me. i tried my best not to cry at all. i mean... from the moment i saw ate's wedding dress... to the time she put it on... i did not give in to my evil tears. but my gaaaaaawd... when she started walking down that aisle with brave ol' daddy... i couldn't help it. i bawled like a baby. kakaiba. it was so embarrasing. funny, because before any of my siblings got married, i never understood why there'd be people sobbing during the walk-down-aisle. up until now, its hard to explain why that happens. i guess a sight so beautiful is just impossible to NOT cry over.

the ceremony was... well... long. the choir (hangad) was fantastic. bishop's sorra's homily was... well... i still can't think of a word for it. the vows were the usual ones we hear at (pinoy) weddings, but for some reason, when ate and paul said them, they sounded so original. i guess it was the way they looked at each other. haha. cheese.

everyone proceeded to the reception which lasted up until 11:30 PM. would you believe??? JUST 11:30?? heehee. it was fun. anthony, ate z, papa paul, mama indra (hi mama indra!), and daddy T gave beautiful, tear-jerking speeches. kuya paulo and alvin TRIED to host the show... okay fine... they did okay. the 'fellas came to perform as the main act... but haha... the poor guys were snubbed (i'm so sorry again boys!). after them, the DJ pumped up the music and before we knew it, everyone was on the dance floor grinding to BEP... INCLUDING PAPA PAUL and DADDY T! unfortunately, i was too tired... and mike doesn't dance (uh oh :P)... so i just ended up watching the freak show. it was such a treat.

i was stuck in bed the next day with fever and the chills. withdrawal syndrome from all the wedding work...? haha. most likely... :P

the newlyweds fly back to DC in the morning. we had our farewell dinner for them last night after dad's eventful hearing at the lower house (augh. some reps are just sooooooo.... augh. cringe. i'll save my thoughts on that for another day...)

to my dearest ate rai... you're still the designated "bathroom lady" on MY wedding day... haha... remember that. :P

BEST WISHES TO YOU and PAUL! can't wait for the little ones to arrive... wehehehehe... :P