Category Archives: movies

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.

safety not guaranteed

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, 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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art & design, filmmaking, movies, set design

shooting just below the clouds

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Me standing in so i could have this shot

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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.

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This man is a revelation. Pepe Smith on his guitar between takes.

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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.

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