Category Archives: filmmaking

filmmaking, food trip, movies, musings

coffee before the movie

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sharing a cup of brewed coffee with carlo before stepping into the theater at trinoma to watch OTJ (ON THE JOB). it has become a ritual for us mainly because somewhere between 20mins to 40 minutes into the movie i always doze off. and it’s not because the movie was bad but because im old like that.

ive slept through tons of the greatest movies of this generation. ok, all movies. prometheus, pacific rim, man of steel, snow white and the huntsman, the avengers, superman returns, avatar, harry potter 7.1 and 7.2, the dark knight rises, jerrold tarog’s aswang, alvin yapan’s debosyon and even erik matti’s the arrival.

it’s not the film, it’s me.

hence the coffee. i love you guys. i love you papa p. i love you pelikula.

watch OTJ. out now in cinemas. i think i read on twitter direk erik matti said the screening copy at trinoma is film, not dcp. cant wait! 😉

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filmmaking, movies, musings

PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER (2012)

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

people lambast a movie with an adapted screenplay when it fails at capturing the essence of the original book from which it was based on. some are successful, especially if the screenplay is written by the same author of the book. what happens when the same author not only writes the screenplay but also directs the movie and does a damn good job at it? we get this.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Movie Stills (12)

i watched this movie this afternoon and i had to take a break just so i could process my emotions. perhaps the last time i felt this way was when i watched AMERICAN BEAUTY way back in 1999. incidentally, the novel from which this film was based on was published that same year.  PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER is about misfits and wallflowers towards the end of an era in their lives dealing with issues of love, loss, sexuality and relationships. apart from chbosky’s genius, the biggest draw here are the strong performances of the three leads, logan lerman, emma watson, and ezra miller. i especially love lerman’s performance here, it’s rare to see someone so young with that gamut of emotions.

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this story was just so beautifully written it hurts. there were moments though where i had to scream, “hipster,” but the movie goes on and these characters just became real to me. love the music too, reminds me of that era when i was in college and we fell in love with everything textured and vintage, except that this movie is set a decade before this.  mixed tapes, typewriters, floral printed blouses and boots, the smiths, rocky horror picture show, slr cameras, and everything made hazy by the mist machine. it’s so gorgeous and heartbreaking and life affirming that i could only express myself by quoting ricky fitts from american beauty:

Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can’t take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.

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and the only way to celebrate this is to listen to david bowie’s “heroes,” get on somebody’s truck, zip through the mandaluyong tunnel and scream, “im the king of the world.”

Right now we are alive and in this moment I swear we are infinite.

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filmmaking, movies

THE IMPOSSIBLE (2012)

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this is a horror film. no ghosts, no psychopaths. no people wielding knives or chainsaws. no white ladies, no flying creatures in the night. this is a movie where mother nature wreaks havok and thousands die. this is a horror film. now watch this and thank God we live to see another day. naomi watts is fantastic. tom holland, who played her son, lucas, is A. MA.ZING. and i dont know how they shot this, it’s crazy. and amazing.

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although the event struck in southeast asia and affected more locals than tourists, this movie centers on this particular english family vacationing khao lak, thailand and not the thousands of people who lost houses, livestock, and family members. the real family that this movie was based on were actually spanish and the wife chose naomi watts to play her in the movie. a documentary about the tsunami in thailand (you can find this in youtube) showed the wave’s approach not as fast nor as crazy as it was in the film but maybe because it’s a movie. but it happened. and either way, you cant turn your head and not look.

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filmmaking, movies

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED (2012)

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this is soo awesome! audrey plaza the lead actually reminded me of a friend, Ica Fernandez haha SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED is a small indie movie from the makers of little miss sunshine and is about a journalist and his interns investigating a newspaper ad posted by a guy who claimed to have gone back in time.

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the whole thing feels like it used to be graphic novel by daniel clowes or something, the characters are fun and the actors are actually really good. the movie is deceptively simple but funny and lots of heart, there were scenes where i just laughed out loud (LOL would be appropriate pero i like to spell it out). rotten tomatoes actually gave this a 91% rating! the song on the sitar was really nice as well. there might be small details i would have preferred, changed or smoothened out for the ending but still, this movie rocks.

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filmmaking, movies

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY (2012)

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watched this again two days ago with carlo on 720p. still great. i enjoyed watching this in the theaters in 3D and i still enjoyed it at home. that scene with bilbo and gollum is still winner for me even the 2nd time around. it was somewhat how i pictured the scene when i read the book years ago. it’s true that thorin is just a few baths away from aragorn, he’s too beautiful and i loved this casting right away. martin freeman is perfect as bilbo baggins. cant wait for the other two movies.

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filmmaking, movies, musings

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE 3RD KIND (1977)

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this is honestly the first time ive seen this film in full. i used to be a big spielberg fan until i was exposed to world cinema. my most memorable memories of his movies as a child were with E.T. this was his other take on the genre. and i dont like it.

btw, we watched the special edition director’s cut bluray version. i get what he was trying to say but the direction was dismissing so much plot holes and not smoothening out loose ends. it dragged on in a lot of parts, the domestic drama was irrational and stupid, the shared visions, the abductions, etc. i get it but what’s the deal? at best, it was sloppy and i wonder how this became such a classic. star wars was made that same year and it was clearly fantastic. ridley scott’s alien was made in 79 and that was awesome. kubrick’s 2001 was made even earlier in ’69 and this spielberg movie felt more dated than the former.

ive seen E.T. even as an adult and still loved it. this close encounters, i get it but didnt make much sense at all. might need to rewatch cameron’s aliens to wash off the stale taste from my brain. my brain can taste. haha

this is a repost from my facebook wall

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art & design, filmmaking, movies, set design

ABOVE THE CLOUDS Production Diary #2

the next installment to the behind the scenes videos for ABOVE THE CLOUDS was released a few days ago. here it is:


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the 1st video is posted here.

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art & design, filmmaking, movies, musings

ABOVE THE CLOUDS Production Diary #1

here’s a behind the scenes video produced to promote the film we are currently working on. we’ve already done about 80% of the movie and we’re down to the last 8 days of shoot by may 2013. here’s the first video released on the making of ABOVE THE CLOUDS.

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art & design, filmmaking

shooting just below the clouds 2

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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.

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on set a chilly morning, ms tonee acejo had the gall to be in short shorts while we were all covered up.

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pepe smith on his guitar in-between setups.

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closeup of the pine trees covered with moss in sagada

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sketching the location

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me with pepe smith against the beautiful lake danum (danum means lake so that means it’s “lake lake”)

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carlo and i hit the backwoods while a shot was taking place in another part of the forest

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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.

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the crew raises hands for a photo

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shooting late in the night and deep in the cave to finish this scene with ruru madrid

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art & design, filmmaking, movies, save the earth, sketch

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.

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clockwise from left: arman montallana, mikee supetran, carlo tabije, ramon recana, docdoc, russel amis, randy, and me

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