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