now that i actually have material to post on my blog i get really bored. there were too many events that happened when my family and i were in cambodia that i decided to post about it in segments. after the 2nd or 3rd article about siem reap i got bored. then came the shoot we did in the mountain province. took photos for blogging and i got bored posting again. i hoped it would have been easier since i was already in a bit of a roll. then tardiness and laziness crept in. oh well.
Author Archives: paderewski
shooting just below the clouds 2
the second leg of shooting above the clouds brought us to sagada, a quiet little town in the mountain province. we’ve spent about a week here shooting exterior scenes of the forest, burial sites, and caves. after having stayed for about a week in baguio, we eventually got used to 17 deg centigrade weather, thank God! i did come prepared with multiple layers of thermal wear and bubble jackets as i freeze easily even in the malls in manila. pleasantly surprised how my body adjusted to the cold weather so i can say, i may just be able to survive the temperate countries.
on set a chilly morning, ms tonee acejo had the gall to be in short shorts while we were all covered up.
pepe smith on his guitar in-between setups.
closeup of the pine trees covered with moss in sagada
sketching the location
me with pepe smith against the beautiful lake danum (danum means lake so that means it’s “lake lake”)
carlo and i hit the backwoods while a shot was taking place in another part of the forest
showing the immense cavern of sumaging cave, an ancient and protected burial site to the residents of the area. we had to build mockup coffins for the shoot so we wouldnt disturb the actual coffins on location.
the crew raises hands for a photo
shooting late in the night and deep in the cave to finish this scene with ruru madrid
Food and Art Part 2
By saturday, february 9, we travelled early out of quezon city to be at the PICC by 9am for the 8th Graphika Manila, a graphic design forum similar to the format of TEDX. Pepe Diokno, our director for Above the Clouds, invited us to attend as he was part of Philippine Star Supreme, a media partner of the event.
A long line met us outside the venue and an even longer line snaked inside the humongous lobby of the PICC. This would be our first time attending Graphika Manila and the lineup of speakers got us really excited, esp with sagmeister partner jessica walsh and the post-house of game of thrones sent their guy in.
It took a rather long time for organizers to get the people inside the theater though. Some probably have been there 3 hours before the scheduled start but we only got in 45mins after 10 and the thing started after 11am.
Out of the speakers, the ones we loved were james white, a graphic designer from canada, jessica walsh, and benja, a paper engineer also from canada.
Being the first speaker, James managed to cheer up the crowd as he started. Loved that he worked from home and was a one-man team. I first thought his designs were too dated but he got really good stuff that were still influenced by 80s graphic design. He revealed he was practically my age and grew up in the 80s. Then he included a poster of the original Masters of the Universe in his slide presentation that largely left the young attendees unfazed but made us 80s kids cheer like crazy.
Jessica walsh’s presentation was something she really gave time to make. Very informative yet still very casual. Been a fan of stefan sagmeister and since i wasnt able to attend years ago when he spoke at Graphika Manila, this would be my closest at being with the design rockstar. Jessica showed photos of her work as a teenager, from college all the way to stuff done with sagmeister. She also included one of stefan and herself naked to promote their business partnership.
A running joke occurred when the 2nd set of speakers from japan, the Tofu guys, started their presentation with photos of their flag and photos of their office because james white did it with this. Every speaker after them did the same and made their own version of Tofu.
Benja, the paper engineer, was charming and his small snippets on professionalism made us cheer for him. He works with a small team and although paper folding may seem like child’s play, it just goes to show that a simple idea can go a long way.
Overall the day was well spent. Inspired to continue whatever creative work we are doing right now. When i was younger, i waxed poetic anything i did. Obviously ive stopped as i got older but if needed, im sure id find my life now pretty cool, too. And i can have vacations whenever i want. Ha!
Jm, carlo and i headed to magsaysay avenue to look for a place to have dinner and found ourselves in a kebab place. Pretty good stuff, we found it was almost like we were in mr. kebab in west ave qc just like in college. Ahh, youth.
We missed going to the art fair in makati on sunday so that was it for our artsy fartsy weekend. Looking forward to the next!
surviving mount pulag
still shooting pepe diokno’s above the clouds in the mountain province with a trek up mount pulag to culminate the shoot. i cant post most of the photos yet as we are still shooting a few more scenes down in baguio but here’s a shot of the art department at the peak with a view of the sea of clouds. it pays to not work a day in your life with projects like this.
clockwise from left: arman montallana, mikee supetran, carlo tabije, ramon recana, docdoc, russel amis, randy, and me
the yoghurt house
one of the charming places we’ve gone to in sagada is the yoghurt house. famous for the quaint interiors and their home-made yoghurt, this resto is included in trip advisory’s roster of go-to places in the area. the banana strawberry jam and granola yoghurt is a winner but their pasta selections were also worth the trip. they do use ordinary cheese instead of parmesan, something that is very hard to have in the area so generally it’s forgivable. also try the beef dishes and their open-faced sandwiches.
the room temp yoghurt with their ginger and lemongrass pandan teas make an interesting combination
the mushroom and cheese pasta 😉 awesome!
the interiors on the ground floor. you can see nanay on the lower left making yoghurt early that morning.
the interiors at the 2nd floor at night
a lot of foreign tourists were dining and drinking at yoghurt on the few times we were there. definitely one of our favorites in sagada. and the dogs there are gorgeous 😉
shooting just below the clouds
it’s day 9 for our shoot of pepe diokno’s above the clouds with protegé’s ruru madrid and philippine rock legend pepe smith. we started with about 5 days of shoot in baguio before moving to sagada, also in the mountain province. altitude in baguio is about 1600 meters and attitude is ubber cool. temperature during the day is about 22 deg celsius and evenings drop to 14 although it felt more like 10 degrees.
One thing i love about pd work with locations is that we get to go ahead of the team and sometimes make stops when we like, like taking a photo at the famous Lion head along the highway. With carlo and me is ramon recana, art director.
One of our main sets in baguio was pepe smith’s character’s house. It had to look rundown and textured and his emotions are boxed up in storage for a later reveal. It was challenging not to go overboard with the clutter and it was fun shooting in that location in camp allen, not to mention it wasnt as cold as shooting the exterior scenes at night.
Photos from home used as a prop. At the upper left corner is a photo of my sister, tina, when she was about 3 years old.
Me standing in so i could have this shot
Director Pepe Diokno takes a break on our set
first time for us to work with Pepe Diokno, who directed his first film Enkwentro that got him the Lion of the future award in 2009 at the venice film festival. This would only be his second film and we’re thrilled to be a part of it. Producer bianca balbuena was the one who brought us into the project along with the motley crew from jerrold tarog’s other films: ben tolentino (script con), nicholas varela (sound recordist), cris aquino (ad), and on-set mascot oniel parker (pm). First time to also work with dop carlo mendoza, tonee acejo (lp), mark locsin (sound recordist and engineer), and a slew of others.
This man is a revelation. Pepe Smith on his guitar between takes.
Me doing a pepe smith while playing the chords to a nirvana song (the only two guitar chords i know how to play)
currently we are now in sagada prior to climbing mt pulag. really enjoying the shoot. I thought id freeze to death in the mountains but i slowly adjusted to the weather and im enjoying the company of friends. It’s true you’ll never have to work a day in your life if you enjoy what you’re doing, like art directing the forest and designing for a film about a boy orphaned and finding where his home now lies above the clouds.
this is A MAP FOR SATURDAY, a 2007 documentary written and directed by Brook Silva-Braga, about backpacking solo around the world and living an unending weekend for 365 days. unlike most of us who would only dream of doing such things, Braga decides to quit his day job and go see the world. this movie comes at a critical time in my life when i just came from a trip in siem reap, cambodia and am already itching to pack my bags again and travel.
this is feeding on my current state of unrest (and a bit of insomnia) and further aggravating my need to fly away. this, despite im actually on my way back to baguio and sagada this month and climbing mt pulag all for a film shoot. after this “work project”, im already dreaming and planning a trip to boracay with co-workers in may, and a pre-scheduled trip to cagayan de oro and camiguin in june. ive currently semi-recruited two other people to join Carlo and me to backpack to batanes towards the 2nd half of the year. next year, we’re hoping to be trekking down southeast asia again. or maybe paris, who knows? these ideas are keeping me awake longer, you know?
i need to sleep already.
wherein we wander into artsy fartsy territory
when i was looking for hotels to stay in siem reap, some friends suggested 1961, an art cafe hotel gallery space exhibit space slash slash slash artsy fartsy place. this is owned by loven and faith, a pinoy couple and would have been perfect except that we were traveling with a big group and the place is not that kind of touristy hotel. it’s more for the crazies like carlo and me. and jetro of van gogh is bipolar.
nevertheless, we made sure to visit this place while in siem reap. the hotel is located towards the end of the river in a quiet side of town. there were exhibits on display when we got there but since we went at 3 in the afternoon, there were no people around except for a russian photographer moonlighting as a tour guide named olga who i spoke with, and a few others. this place is just awesome, just standing there made me want to pick up paper and start to draw. or a hammer. very quaint, really nice space and actually reminded us of home. chos. Continue reading
wherein we were being educated at the war museum
the war museum in siem reap, cambodia, was nothing like the one in ho chi minh in vietnam. it looked like some plantation grove from outside and one could see it was really a war tank graveyard once you get in.
we were met at the entrance by a middle-aged man with a slight limp. he introduced himself as rottana (pronounced rotna) and explained he will be our tour guide. he asked us if we knew about the history of cambodia and clearly we knew very little so he started to explain about his country’s travails much better than any history book would.
benjamin padero 