dec 23 2011
since the announcement of brillante mendoza’s new film (formerly titled PREY) CAPTIVE’s inclusion in the 2012 berlin international film festival main competition and having my photos properly credited on the local news (thanks, tv patrol), i reckon it safe to repost and make public this blog article on the film, posted february 15, 2011  😉 merry christmas and enjoy!

============================

here’s explaining my busy schedule for the last few months.  carlo and i worked on brillante mendoza’s new opus PREY (international title CAPTURED), shot in january 2011.  preparations took months and since november 2010 we’ve been going around the locations and meeting a lot with the director for this film. i had to stop doing tv commercials by december so i could focus on pre-production for the movie.

i had to forgo a good amount of my christmas vacation and pretty much the new year’s celebration as well to work on the film. we started to shoot PREY by january 11, starting in calatagan batangas (which ive no photos of) then moved to mauban quezon.

after the two locations we moved to tanay rizal then to the forests of subic. this would be our biggest production ever, the 1st for the director and definitely for me and my staff.  to dress up around 60 actors everyday, in different levels of aging and dirt, to always be ahead in set-ups, to always keeping up with the director is a daily challenge.  to shoot practically everyday for 21 days is no small feat.  this really is one for the books.

the movie is about the dos palmas kidnappings organized by the abu sayyaf in 2001. the most famous of their victims is gracia burnham, who wrote her own account in the book IN THE HANDS OF MY ENEMIES.  our film covered the experience based from available material and more interviews from both hostage takers and victims.

PREY stars isabelle huppert (shown above with rustica carpio), a french actress famous for her roles in movies like francois ozon’s 8 WOMEN and her award-winning THE PIANO TEACHER.  she’s joined by great filipino actors like raymond bagatsing, ronnie lazaro, sid lucero and angel aquino.

rustica carpio, an 80+ yo actor who braved shooting on speed boats, walking on bamboo poles in the middle of the ocean, being infested with fire ants, running through the forest with her hands tied and with mortar blastings around her and never complained, not once. a true professional.

in a lot of ways, i count this production as a reunion of sorts (since i haven’t been able to work with dante in his last 2 films). aside from getting me to do Production Desig for PREY (the first time was in masahista) along with carlo (foster child and serbis), brillante also got dop odie flores (of course) and assistant director william thayer jr (kaleldo), actors rustica carpio and anita linda (lola), maria isabel lopez (kinatay), angel aquino (kaleldo), mercedes cabral (serbis) sid lucero (siquijor), kristoffer king (masahista), lauren novero (kaleldo), harold montano (tirador), jess evardone (foster child) and coco martin (in a cameo role), the art department with fer galindez (props), patrick arboleda (set) and deans habal (wardrobe), brillante’s staff tony del rosario, harley alcasid, aurora cruz with husband rey, even ara flores, mama rene, orlan abion and a slew of waiters who’ve been in his catering staff throughout the years.

it’s also a delight working again with actors ive met in jerrold tarog’s productions (jerrold i came to know when he scored brillante’s masahista and kaleldo, and did PD work for him): che ramos, neil ryan sese, bea garcia and mads nicolas in mangatyanan and archie adamos in senior year.

centerstage productions and swift productions present PREY, directed by brillante mendoza, executive producer didier costet, cinematography by odyssey flores, production design benjamin padero, screenplay boots pastor and brillante mendoza with arlyn dela cruz, musical score teresa barrozo, sound mike idioma, editor kats serraon and assistant editor jane malapitan, line producer larry castillo, associate producer cherry cornell and production manager rose conde with weng concepcion.  assistant directors william thayer jr and roli inocencio, stunt director rigo ramirez with johnny casayuran, gaffer benjie de veyra with cameramen wally bolanos and jeffrey dela cruz, script supervisor toffer guela, production coordinator ed jaluag with assistants amen clavio, gino santos and thomas villar, caster julie ysla with vangie torcino, makeup noli villalobos with ruffa, john, eric and josephine, prosthetics by rene abelardo, special effects by peping and paul carmona, publicist rene durian.

art director carlo tabije, 2nd art director patrick “pj” arboleda, props fer galindez with propsmen ramon recana and jerico de leon, wardrobe deans habal with assists kitch napigkit, hejie calagui, grace venzon and caretaker ferdie quemquem. head setmen rajie avila and additional set by buboy crauz. stylist for isabelle huppert is ien beltran.

PREY stars isabelle huppert, raymond bagatsing, ronnie lazaro, sid lucero, angel aquino, tado, mon confiado, neil ryan sese, kristoffer king, timothy mabalot, oliver gaton, pipo alfad, bombi plata, raul morit, raymond nullan, perry dizon, lauren novero, vince rillon, ronaldo nacianceno, rustica carpio, mark zanneta, kathy mulville, peter overbeeke, apollo abraham, bianca zalcita, maria isabel lopez, mercedes cabral, bobby jerome go, jon achaval, madeline nicolas, archi adamos, bea garcia, richard manabat, boom latorre, elizabeth chua, bernand palanca, jess evardone, nico antonio, che ramos, marinela lumeran, allan paule, jelyn chong, goldilyn uy, perry escanio, harold montano, micah munoz, evelyn vargas, with special participation of arlyn dela cruz, joel torre, anita linda and coco martin.

these photos i took were for personal use only but they turned out better than expected and are now used for promotions of the film. maybe i should rethink my career and shift to still photography in movies? hehe

more photos are in my facebook albums:
stills from the film
behind the scenes
wrap party