new eq diaper shoot with vicky morales and her twin sons pipo and leon. this was a breeze to shoot, vicky is down to earth and a very gracious, generous woman. i enjoyed the final look of the set, i think it’s cute hehehe. here im posting some sketches and pegs of the set and costume design. tvc directed by joel lamangan (his first one). cinematog odie flores. prod design by me ! hehe yey!
finally posting photos and video of the charmee shoot we did with sarah geronimo. prod design by me. costume design by carlo, tailoring by young fashion designer gerswin qua. carlo didnt disappoint as even sarah herself loved the costume and asked to keep them after the shoot. a week after, we saw her wear the boots on ASAP. the design process of any undertaking is not at all easy. im posting a few of the original set and costume sketches and pegs upto the final output. cheers!
FROM THE PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER: A very indie Urian
By Bayani San Diego Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—For the fourth straight year, independent movies dominate the Urian awards, given by the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, the country’s oldest critics’ group.
The Manunuri, now in its 31st year, nominated only five mainstream works: Jinggoy Estrada in “Katas ng Saudi” for Best Actor; Judy Ann Santos in “Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo” and Lorna Tolentino in “Katas” for Best Actress; Jose Javier Reyes’ “Katas ng Saudi” for Best Screenplay; and Liza Lorena in “Katas” for Supporting Actress.
Clean sweep
Since 2003, the Manunuri has picked indie movies for Best Film.
This year, all six nominees for Best Film are indies: Jerrold Tarog and Ruel Dahis Antipuesto’s “Confessional,” Jade Castro’s “Endo,” Dante Mendoza’s “Foster Child” and “Tirador,” Lav Diaz’s “Death in the Land of Encantos” and Jim Libiran’s “Tribu.”
“It’s the first time for indies to have a clean sweep of the Best Film category,” says Lito Zulueta, Manunuri member. Adds National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera, founding member and former chair: “It’s an indication of the enthusiasm of indie directors. It’s a good sign… that the film industry is being revived by new filmmakers.”
Although it can be argued that “Foster Child,” produced by Seiko Films, can fall under the mainstream category, it is directed by Mendoza, known mainly for indie films.
“Foster” received the most nominations, along with “Tribu” and Adolf Alix Jr.’s “Tambolista” which each got 10 nods. (But “Tambolista” is not in the Best Film race.) “Tirador” got 9 noms; while “Endo” and “Confessional” each has 7.
Mendoza isn’t the only one who scored double nods, for Best Director and Film (“Tirador” and “Foster”). Jiro Manio is nominated for Actor (“Tambolista”) and Supporting Actor (“Foster”); and Sid Lucero is in the race for Actor (“Selda”) and Supporting Actor (“Tambolista”).
Tarog has the most nominations for an individual—six (Sound, Editing, Screenplay, Actor, Director and Film) for a single movie, “Confessional.”
just arrived from mindanao. brought over from cdo a lechon, 1kl of tuna jaw (panga) and 750 grams of tuna for kinilaw (including cdo’s famous tabon tabon). also brought bread hubs’ cinnamon rolls and sler’s chicharon. carlo prepared the now famous silofen cafe tuna pasta (dami kasi ngtanong sa recipe afterwards), garlic potatoes in butter, cheesecake and the crowd favorite all-around cheese sauce. people brought over 3 bottles of wine and 3 different kinds of cake. all for the late bday celeb of ben (june28) and early celeb of carlo (july13). yey!
thanks ronnie janice kitty jhem grace jun gian jonas rupher stan paul tovic tacox joven (absent ang cuzins ej jade miel tricie). next year, kung masmalaki budget maybe we can invite over more people for the celebration 😀 yey –>
despedida of tita penny and tito ramon, after enjoying a week long stay in cagayan. the dinner turned out to be a mini reunion as the seniors were in attendance. daddy ongcs and mommy lolet. tito ne and tita baby. tita leone. the bulans, esguerras, tongcos, padero rer and velez, mai mai and son paolo, johnmark, mike and zeny, dodjie and krystal (christian), katrina, and kirby with boyfriend and baby andre, ta edna borja.
birthday dinner at mamati’s house velez cagayan de oro city mindanao philippines milky way universe. less food than the previous cdo birthday but no less exciting. and with more photos! this SAME SET of photos appears on multiply for the 4th time (1st time was by cuzin may, 2nd time by cuzin pating, 3rd time byu cuzin ej). but that doesnt stop me from posting it yet again hehehe cheers to you all! thanks for a great year and a great time!
update: so there’s no more link because multiply is no more. lol it’s 2018.
wow. the reviews for serbis are hot! scalding hot! except for a few, all the reviews are negative! hahaha one even went on to write, “What’s the worst so far? That’s easy. It’s Philippine director Brillante Mendoza’s “Serbis.” another wrote “overall thumbs down to Serbis, a shambolic picture of life in a Filipino porn cinema.” and my last post on serbis is filled with comments berating on bing lao being a brocka relic and dante’s supposed unoriginality. carlo and i were involved in the making of serbis (design part, not the writing) and this doesnt discount the fact that we are part and parcel of it. rather unfortunate for dante though that this film is getting worldwide lashing from critics and audiences mainly because since it’s on cannes, most everybody gets to see it and comment. otherwise, indie movies like this would have only generated curses from a few horny curious movie patrons at some sleazy cinema in recto who are just waiting to get serviced. how ironic haha
Brillante’s Serbis competes in Cannes
FUNFARE By Ricardo F. Lo
Thursday April 24, 2008
BREAKING NEWS: Director Brillante “Dante” Mendoza’s next film, Serbis, has been officially invited to the official competition section of the 61st Cannes Film Festival from May 14 to 25.
>This piece of good news was relayed at around 1:30 yesterday morning by Christian Jeune, director of Cannes’ Film Department, to Dante and producer Ferdinand Lapuz who just came from a preview of the rough copy of the film with executives of a major film distributor who flew in from Hong Kong.
The official announcement was made during a press conference in Cannes yesterday.
pic by neil daza. cheers!
visited caramoan island in camsur bicol a few weeks ago for a location check for the film. we brazenly took to the 8 hour road trip and hopped on a 1.5hour bangka ride to “shorten” our trip, that eventually got us at casa del roa by 11am the next day, almost 13 hours after we left manila. we then had to proceed to gota beach and get on another bangka to see the islands including honongan, lahos, matukad and tayak.
caramoan is beautiful. too bad when i got back last weekend to start work on the preparations for the film’s shoot this week, i learned that they clean-shaved the island forests in time for survivor asia’s leg here in the philippines in february. so what we saw of lush jungle forests set against the limestone rocky mountains in the middle of clear blue waters are no longer existing.
ergo hindi na pwede pang shoot! on top of that, the weather forecasts tell of thunderstorms and a low depression area in the vicinity and most likely a storm on its way. around 12hours after we arrived on camsur this weekend, we get a text from the line producer that the shoot there is packed-up and postponed indefinitely. and that we had to hurry back to manila immediately. good luck.
CHAPTER 3.
venezia by slippers
it was gonna be our last day at ludovisi palace on via veneto. since ferdie was still sick and coughing all night i couldnt get back to sleep after 5am so i decided to start packing, ready for checkout. didnt realize that the small luggage i brought would not be enough to keep all my stuff in. went back to sleep and waited for breakfast.
met dante down the lobby at around 8.30 and they were packed as well. aside from checking out, we were getting ready to leave for venezia. we got tickets the day before and were scheduled to board the train at around 10am.
venice is exactly 4 hours away from rome via eurostar. supposedly the fastest train in europe, i believe it’s around the same speed as our mrt lines running across edsa. but of course this is cleaner and seats are numbered, upholstered etc. on the pic to your left is dante and me. pie is seated across the aisle, next to her italian military guy stranger hehe
one thing we forgot was to buy lunch. and by 2pm we were really hungry. of course the italians who were seated beside us had started eating their baon pastriamis (sandwiches) and we could only stare.
ive said before italy has a lot of graffiti. at the railway to venezia we pass by tunnels and wall fences covered with the same kind of graffiti, words stylized written all over. interesting to note, they follow a particular style and is unique to its US counterpart. the window view also gave us a peak of the famous italian countryside. greens, olive trees and italian villas scattered all over. very beautiful
we arrived at venice by 3.30pm. famished and tired, we decided to buy a map first, change our ticket schedule for the next day’s trip to a later time, and get a hotel. i was amazed that stepping out of the terminal one is already greeted with a view of venetian chapels and its canals. very picturesque ! we’re finally in venice !
cherry pie picache and me
if rome were manila, venezia would be boracay ! lots of young tourists and the air is very festive. there is a particular energy hovering over the crowd and the streets. venice is a group of islets connected with foot bridges. there are no cars traversing through venice. to travel, one takes the ferry or water taxis that cruise through its canals or simply walk. everybody in venice walks !
from the train station we started walking east and hoping to find a good enough but cheap hotel. we were offered by a stranger earlier to bunk in at their family hotel for 70 euros a night (3beds shared bathroom). apparently there wasnt anything else cheaper than that so we detoured to hotel leonardo, which turned out to be a cozy place to stay, found in the inner streets of venice.
for the last 3 days of airtravel and going around rome ive been wearing my shoes and closefriends know that i am not akin to wearing shoes all the time ! so in venice, despite protests of the fact that nobody wears them in italy, i wore my beachwalk (not havaianas!) flipflops on the streets of venezia. coolness !
hungry we found a little shop that sold big pizza slices for 2euros. not bad, and thank God it tasted great as well. dante and pie then had gelato (ice cream) and sat on benches facing the street for some people watching. since im lactose intolerant i was wary of eating gelato so i opted for yoghurt, which was ok but too sweet for my taste.
we then started walking down south en route to the piazza san marco, which is supposed to be a major destination for venezia. we took our time enjoying the sights of the place, the crowd, the streets of venice, its architecture and the shops, ice cream and the gondolas.
my dad told me i had to ride the gondola, and i would have if it werent so friggin expensive ! 80euros is pretty steep for a ride on a boat, even if it was in venice. besides i would probably have to eat my slippers for dinner if i were to take the famous romantic boat ride. unfortunately the gondola drivers dont sing opera as well while you go and it’s better to take the trip when youre with a loved one. ill save the ride for the next time im in venice.
it was only when we were in venice that we realized its culture and history were full of masquerading and the theater. the shops of venice sold a lot of masks of varying degrees of simplicity and intricate, exuberant design. they were absolutely fantastic and i wished i could have bought at least one of the lavishly decorated ones. i decided to just get the bare, white ones as souvenirs.
nearing the piazza san marco we came across this bridge at dusk and were overwhelmed by the magnificent view of the canals at sunset. everywhere we looked lovers began pulling their partners close, got googoo-eyed and started kissing on the bridge. it was really romantic and wonderful and to be awed by the beauty of venice would just put you under its spell. unfortunate for us 3 loveless beings, we couldnt help but bask in the magnificent view and lament on being single in venice. *sigh*
finally we got to piazza san marco and it was a sight to marvel at. the square was surrounded by tall venetian architecture and flanked by the basilica at one end. there were cafes open that night and string quintets on each cafe. when one band started playing the crowd moved to that cafe and the other bands would stop playing. as soon as they finish a song or two, the band in the other cafe started playing and the crowd would move towards them. sometimes theyd play a crowd pleaser but a lot of times theyd play romantic songs and some couples would start dancing to it.
we sat in one of the cafes al fresco and the band started playing il mundo, which is my parents’ love theme. so i got that on video. we then ordered beer and wine just to get into the feel and mood, basking in the moment of being in venice and the emotions that surround us. when the bill came we were not only charge our drinks but music as well. good thing there were 3 of us because if it were just me and my beer, it would have cost me around 25euros ! yikes.
we slowly walked back to our hotel, stopping by a few more shops along the way. there were less people on the streets and the night air was colder than in rome. a lot of armani and versace shops and other clothing boutiques around. i love how italians dress up, theyre not sloppy dressers for one thing. most of their clothes are tailorfit and sharp. very casual but very clean, unlike americans and their hiphop style or excessively sexy, almost-nothing-there clothing. of course the weather also affords them to dress up in layers, that way you can dress up in cotton, wool and other fabrics. colors are also limited to dark tones. blacks and greys, deep reds and dark blues, natural shades of hide, nothing bright. and dont get me started on the shoes! casual or dress shoes, leather or suede, panalo siya! very sleek and fit. love it !
nearing the hotel we started to get hungry so we stopped over a nearby restaurant at around 10pm and ordered pasta. i had spaghetti al ragu (meat sauce) and it tasted great. nothing fancy, puttanesca was expensive and the last time i had that in rome didnt thrill me that much. their water were bottled in glass, not plastic and sold like coke litro. and it came in naturale or sparkling haha. olive oil is in abundance of course in italy because olive trees grow everywhere, like utot-utot in the pilipinas ! haha
our hotel room is small, with a bigbed for two and an extra bed, which i took. airconditioning is non-existent at this part of the world and we had to close the windows lest we freeze to death during the night. tomorrow we head off to murano and check out the now dying art of glassblowing.
bridge near the train station
album cover for benjamin in venice ost
buona serra ! to be continued
benjamin padero 