Urian nominations

Baby Angelo grabbed a couple of nominations for the 2009 Urian Awards (the only local award-giving body that matters, IMHO), which was two more than I actually expected, so, yay.

Archie Alemania is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as M.D., and my buddy Cristina Honrado is nominated for Production Design. Cristina is already an Urian winner for her work in Lav Diaz’ Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino. I’m especially happy that Archie’s work was noticed for such a small role. He played against type and was wonderful to work with.

That said I’m a little disappointed that Jojit Lorenzo, Katherine Luna (though she’s nominated for another movie) and Ces Quesada weren’t recognized for their performances. They were so low-key and grounded and played their ensemble roles well.

Once again indie films dominated the awards. Mainstream, take a hint.

Full list of nominees here. I hope Francis X Pasion’s Jay wins the whole thing, for the record.

BABY ANGELO month at IndieSine

BABY ANGELO’s last few screenings in IndieSine has been cancelled as of Friday, 26 June. Thanks to everyone who watched and to those who are planning to watch, keep posted for information on further screenings.

More on the movie at the official site.

Click the Baby Angelo link at the categories list your right for stories on the making of the movie. Here’s an interview with me at the excellent blogzine The Swank Style.

Bring your friends. Let’s have a beer if you wanna talk about it.

Joe in (P)Busan part 2. 아기 천사 premieres

Day 3, 3 Oct 2008

In case you’re wondering: in 2000 Korea switched to a new Romanization system, altering the spelling of many towns and cities. As a result, Pusan became “Busan”. By then the Pusan International Filmfest had grown in popularity, as did the acronym PIFF; that the PIFF people decided not to change the name of the festival to the less-catchy “BIFF”.

Today is a big day–the international premiere of Baby Angelo, at 12:30 PM, followed by a question and answer session with me. Nervous again, as always. My fear is that no one would show up.

Me and Monster (who's visibly hung-over)

So thankfully, Marge and Monster had already arrived. Monster apparently straight to the airport from drinking with the gang back home. Also in town were my parents, which was fantastic. It’s their 40th year wedding anniversary, and they’re celebrating by doing an Asian city tour. Busan/Seoul is the current leg of their trip, they coincided it with my screening.

My parents' 93rd honeymoon

Met with the PIFF volunteers who seemed really excited to see me. Monster arrived just in time for the screening, and promptly fell asleep the minute the Arkeofilms logo lit up the screen. Margie snuck in a couple minutes late. The screening was full, which was a surprise; about 90% where local Koreans. After five minutes I couldn’t take it anymore, so I left. Aside from a heart-stopping ten-second black (as they switched tapes), the screening went without a hitch.

Q&A

more Q&A

Afterwards was the Q&A, with a moderator and a translator, which meant it took a while to ask or reply. First off I’m pleasantly surprised that the people here are so appreciative of different kinds of cinema. Here’s an unknown film from a third world country, and it’s a full house. I wish we’d get that kind of response in Manila too. Generally it seems like the film was a hit.  A lot of people noted the music and the songs, which I appreciated because Peach, Abi and I put a lot of work into it, and it went largely unnoticed in Manila. The big Bong and Lisa argument was also a high note, with people asking me if it was based on an actual argument I had. I said it’s based on many big fights I’ve had with T, which are about nothing and everything. I also got asked why I know women so well, to which I credited T and my Mom, whom they asked to stand up. And they applauded her. Hehe. Good work daw Mom.

me and the audience

more Korean friends

Me and my parents

They had to cut the Q and A short because we were running out of time, and afterwards it was a lot of pictures and autographs, which was funny and a liiiitle embarrassing because it took a while. In Manila they’d hardly give us independent filmmakers the time of day, yet here, they’re very appreciative. They even snapped photos of my parents, hehe.

Lunch

Dad and Mom took me and Monster out (Margie had to get back to the PPP) for lunch, where we once again tried to order off a menu we didn’t understand. Food was good, a huge pan of spicy rice with some ulam in it. There was a bizarre soup that looked good but tasted like hugas-bigas. Which it actually was.

By the beach

Took the parents to the beach to see the sights. It was great having them there and see first-hand exactly what this film crap I’m trying to do is all about. Dad’s a Ilocano boy who escaped to the military after high school, Mom’s a sheltered, spoiled little princess/army brat; so they have little idea what it is I do exactly. It was nice to have them around and experience it with me. That afternoon Dad told us stories of the Korean War and the mentality of the Koreans because of it; stories of the DMZ and the Filipinos who fought in the Korean War. I love hearing Dad tell stories; all that’s missing was a fireplace and a pipe.

After my parents left for their hotel and their trip to Seoul, Monster and I had coffee and she told me about Caye’s memorial. It was a strange mix of sadness and pain, but also happiness about Caye’s short but full life, and gratitude that he was our friend. And how many people loved the guy. One can only hope to have left that kind of legacy.

Margie and Rianne, Korean-style

That evening we met Margie at the ACF party, a lot of shmoozing over drinks with all these movie people, and still I was exhausted and could barely stand. Met up at Bennigan’s (decided to play it safe tonight) with Rianne Soriano, a filmmaker studying in Seoul, and Egay Certeza, a Korean-based Pinoy engineer who always attends the festival. Had a great time, and ended up not even paying for the bill. Still not sure how that happened. I think we must have crashed a corporate event by accident, and because of the language barrier no one could tell we didn’t belong there.

It was a good day today. Thought I wouldn’t be having one of those for a while.

Next: movies, and coming home.

photos courtesy of MGen Guillermo Ruiz (ret) and Egay Certeza.

Joe in (P)Busan part 1.

Baby Angelo’s international premiere is in the prestigious Pusan International Film Festival, as part of the program A Window on Asian Cinema, a selection of new films from the continent, including five from the Philippines: us, Francis Pasion’s Jay, Adolf Alix’s Adela, Dante Mendoza’s Serbis, Jerrold Tarog and Ruel Antipuesto’s Confessional. In competition is Chris Martinez’s 100.

Also heading to Busan are my two partners: Monster’s coming for her documentary Kano: An American and His Harem which received a grant from the Asian Network of Documentary and Margie’s also arriving for the Pusan Promotion Plan, for our next film, Wi Ding Ho’s Pinoy Sunday.

Should be a festive time but my good friend Caye passed away four days before, and I’m still reeling from it.

Day 1. MNL-ICN-BUS (1 October 2008)

Got to stay at a lounge thanks to my new but practically obsolete Diner's Club card.

From Caye’s wake I headed home to pack, took a nap and flew out to Busan. At the airport I saw other Pinoys bound for Busan: Nes Jardin, Digna Santiago and Manet Dayrit. Spent a few minutes chatting about the festival in the airport’s chimney (smoking room) and saw them again at Incheon International in Seoul.

Arrived at my hotel room in Busan close to midnight, starving. Took a short walk around the hotel area to look for food, but gave up upon finding no English signs on the restaurants. Had room service instead.

It’s been days since I got any decent sleep, not since Caye passed. For the first time in almost a week I slept nine hours.

Day 2. 2 October 2008
Thought it would be cold here in Busan but it’s actually quite pleasant. Baguio weather without the pollution. Missing Tracy, it’s supposed to be our little trip together but she had to stay behind for Corinne, Caye’s fiancee. For the rest of the trip my heart would be with them in Manila.

Busan

More Busan

Busan is a city on the coast of the Korea Strait. It’s cosmopolitan but not exteremely so. It’s like the Cebu of the Korea. It’s developed and first-worldly enough to feel like I’m on vacation. The festival itself is HUGE. Huge. The PIFF center is on a gorgeous beach.

View from the PIFF center

Picked up my festival badge and kit, first friendly face was that of Ansgar Vogt of Berlinale, who was also a judge at Cinemalaya. Exchanged a few words before I visited the Philippine booth at BIFCOMM, where Manet, Nes and Digna were setting up. FDCP are here to promote the Philippines as a filming location. Asked Manet to adopt me that evening as I knew no one in town. Margie would arrive that night, Monster tomorrow. After that, went around to check out the city including the venue of my premiere tomorrow, which was a 15-minute walk from my hotel.

Got too lazy to explore, so I went to a cafe that had “kamusta ka?” sign on the door, had a few beers and chicken wings. Back at home the memorial of Caye was ongoing, and he was being cremated and laid to rest. I imagined Caye sitting across me, and began talking to him. A Slavic couple beside me began staring, as did the Korean waiter. “Kamusta ka?” he said.

Dinner that night was with Manet and Emma, also of FDCP, to have dinner at a restaurant that serves nothing but fish head stew. Manet tells me that 50% of the Koreans she’s met thus far have all been to the Philippines. No surprise there. Then the manager of the restaurant comes up to us saying he’s in Cebu 4x a year and plans to open a restaurant. After that, I helped the FDCP ladies mix a mango-based cocktail for giveaways during the FDCP exhibit.

That evening was the opening ceremony of the festival, complete with red carpet and the stars of Korean cinema, a lot of whom were billeted at my hotel, the Grand Hotel. Ed Cabagnot, here as jury for one of the competitions, tells me to go. But I brought nothing dressier than a collared shirt. I didn’t want to look like some Korean superstar’s P.A.

Bought some Korean beer and conked out in the hotel room past midnight.

Next: Baby Angelo international premiere!

Hitting the ground running

No sooner had Cinemalaya ‘08 ended when Rhona slapped two projects on my lap. Time to get back to work, she said. After 7 months of non-employment, I’m back.

Just wasn’t physically prepared for Tuesday’s shoot as I was still exhausted.

So Baby Angelo won an award Sunday, for Production Design; quite the shocker since we really weren’t expecting to get anything. I think my speech was something like uh, Cristina would probably want to thank Shobe. Later on I heard that the jury were impressed with how the film looked, hence the award. Great! Also I was thrilled that Ranchero and Huling Pasada won one award apiece. I feel like our three films belonged in the same category: love it or hate it– but definitely different. I thought that was a nice gesture on the part of the jury. If my deductions are correct, some jurors sought to recognize films that lost out on the bigger awards.

Here’s to being different.

On another note, got an invitation today from the Pusan IFF for Baby Angelo. Nice to know that festival programmer Kim Ji-Seok, also a juror in Cinemalaya, was a fan.

BABY ANGELO and ANG IBANG MGA PAMILYA at Cinemalaya 2008!

Finally, I’m DONE!!!

BABY ANGELO

The OFFICIAL SITE: www.arkeofilms.com/babyangelo

TRAILER:

And our screening times and venues:

12 July / Sat / 6:15PM / Tanghalang Huseng Batute
13 July / Sun / 3:30PM / Tanghalang Nicanor Aberlardo (CCP Main Theatre)
15 July / Tue / 9:00PM / Bulwangang Alagad Ng Sining (CCP MKP Hall)
17 July / Thu / 9:00PM / Tanghalang Nicanor Aberlardo (CCP Main Theatre) – GALA SCREENING!
18 July / Fri / 12:45PM / Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theatre)
18 July / Fri / 6:15PM / Bulwangang Alagad Ng Sining (CCP MKP Hall)

Come to the gala! Drop me a line to reserve tickets. With appearances by the cast and crew of Baby Angelo.

ANG IBANG MGA PAMILYA

Let’s not forget my other film which is also in competition, the short film “Ang Ibang Mga Pamilya”:

The OFFICIAL SITE: www.arkeofilms.com/connie

TRAILER:

And screening times:

12 July / Sat / 3:30PM / Tanghalang Nicanor Aberlardo (CCP Main Theatre)
13 July / Sun / 6:15PM / Tanghalang Huseng Batute
16 July / Wed / 9:00PM / Bulwangang Alagad Ng Sining (CCP MKP Hall)
17 July / Thu / 6:15PM / Tanghalang Nicanor Aberlardo (CCP Main Theatre)
17 July / Thu / 12:45PM / Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theatre)
20 July / Sun / 12:45PM / Bulwangang Alagad Ng Sining (CCP MKP Hall)

See you there!!

Poster

Poster design by Jojit Lorenzo. We really only hired him as our lead because of the free poster photography and design.

Click for full size.

Baby A shoot day 13. Last day!

While we’re languishing in the most rushed post-production ever, I’ll be posting entries about how it was like to shoot Baby Angelo)

Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 5 / Day 6 / Day 7 / Day 8 / Day 9 / Day 10 / Day 11 / Day 12

Call sheet: “Bong and Apple”
1 May / No. of sequences: 6 / No. of actors: 7 / Call-time: 8 am / Estimated pack-up: 3 am / Actual pack-up: 7 am

Photos courtesy of Sam Kioumarsy

Last day! People’s spirits were lightening up as this day finally arrived. As usual, the day went by smoothly and lazily. Note to self: stop making movies with everything happening at night.

Can you spot the straight person?

Camwhoring was especially prevalent today, which I believe is some kind of therapy for stressed workers. Alma consequently did the whole day with goth makeup on.

The rains came in the evening, and it wasn’t the type of big storm that would leave in an hour. It was the steady, gentle type of rain that normally would be refreshing and wonderful, but I WAS PULLING MY F@CKING HAIR OUT because it was pushing back my shoot. For two. f*cking. hours. And we had four scenes to go. And these scenes happened to be the meat of my movie. POTA.

The first time…

…and the last time. Diana Malahay (“Apple”) and Jojit Lorenzo (“Bong”) strut their stuff today. That’s all I can say without spoiling the movie.

Chased the night again today and had to shoot our last two scenes covered in miles of black backing. People were dropping like flies. Pearl was too sick to move. At around 5 am it’s like I gave away free lines of coke because people started moving like they were on speed to get the shots before night. At 7 am, we wrapped principal photography of Baby Angelo. Yesssss.

Pero pucha, unbeatable feeling. I can’t wait to shoot again. Up ahead: post-production in a mindblowing two months. Lord help us.

Who’s Who in Baby Angelo

Diana Malahay as Apple
Diana was supposed to play Julie in my new short Ang Ibang Mga Pamilya, but she had so much impact on me I wanted to save her for a bigger film. Initially she was going to play Laica, but after her re-audition, and seeing her in Skin Deep, I had to cast her as Apple. Diana’s a smart, thinking actress. This is her fifth onscreen puta, and I told her to play the role a specific, different way. With very little effort, she nailed it.

Mitch Literal and Mercy Chiu as Makeup Artists

Our makeup artists were sponsored by CAS, a makeup school, who backed out after our last day. Odd. So now we’re crediting the more than a dozen makeup artists who helped out during our shoot. Multiple staff also includes 3 assistant cameramen, daily additions to the art dept, and more than a dozen interns. Of all the makeup artists these two are my favorites. Mitch especially was very attentive and alert, and she quickly became part of the gang. Some of the makeup artists they sent were clunkers, choosing to kiss ass to the artistas (if I was a wannabe makeup artist I’d kiss ass to the producer!) and vanishing on whims. But the rest, especially these two, have my gratitude. I’ll be hiring them over and over and over (with actual pay this time!)

Baby A day 12. Independent Day

While we’re languishing in the most rushed post-production ever, I’ll be posting entries about how it was like to shoot Baby Angelo)

Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 5 / Day 6 / Day 7 / Day 8 / Day 9 / Day 10 / Day 11

Call sheet: “Independent Locations”
29 April / No. of sequences: 6 / No. of actors: 4 and extras / Call-time: 8 am / Estimated pack-up: 12 am / Actual pack-up: 9 am

Photos courtesy of Sam Kioumarsy

Isang araw na lang!! Everyone seems to be in higher spirits. Today’s an easy shoot, it’s all the scenes that don’t occur in the complex. All SIX of them. Four locations. One is in a mall, and it’s a relief to finally have an airconditioned location. Monster calls this day the Most Likely To End Up on the Cutting Room Floor Day.

It’s also Kat Luna’s last day, which is sad. Masaya kasama sa set. Her last scene was a bit unceremonious though as it was in a cab. Only Alma can fit inside, and when she was done, she took the cab all the way home. It was also Archie’s last day today, and all he had to do was walk.

Several visitors today: my barkada showed up for the last sequence (with Archie) and became extras. Gigi even got a speaking role. Everyone did a bang-up (though slightly hammy) job. Thanks guys! My nephew Paolo (at 17, he’s as tall as me) also makes a cameo appearance as a bored student.

Abi and I tuckerized a lot of our friends in this film. “Raven” is almost wholly based on our good friend and teammate Raven Morato. “MD” is one of Abi’s bosses and possesses the same likeability factor. “Noel” is a good buddy from disc, and I promised I won’t say here why the character is named after him. “Pearl the White Satin Lady” comes from Pearl the Continuity Lady. Incidentally White Satin also appears in my first short film, Mansyon. “Ike” is after one of our favorite DOP’s Ike Avellana. “Apple” was supposed to be named Nina after one of Abi’s ex-officemates, but I thought Nina sounds too slutty. The name, not the person. “Mrs. Khemlani” is named after my hot Indian friend Neenu.

Who’s Who in Baby Angelo

Cedrick Lamberte as Ike

I love this kid. I saw him in Pepot Artista and though Elijah did a good job, I thought Cedrick was the best one in the lot. Since then I’ve been trying to get him into the things I do. He has an unconventional look to him, and his performances are unforced, and entirely believable. I wish this kid well. In the film though he only gets a few lines, but he hovers throughout like a ghost.

Tracy Sarte as Co-Producer

Again… what would I do without her???? Pictured here with me and my nephew.

Edwin Velasco and co. as Caterer

Edwin is at the far left, accompanied by his boy Friday and our utility boys. Nothing lifts the spirits up like good food. The food is fantastic for its price. With dessert! Hire this guy!

Baby A shoot day 11. The Singing Ladies

While we’re languishing in the most rushed post-production ever, I’ll be posting entries about how it was like to shoot Baby Angelo)

Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 5 / Day 6 / Day 7 / Day 8 / Day 9 / Day 10

Call sheet: “1-F Girls”
27 April / No. of sequences: 10 / No. of actors: 12 / Call-time: 9 am / Estimated pack-up: 3 am / Actual pack-up: 6 am

Photos courtesy of Sam Kioumarsy

Alma is really sick today and we spent the afternoon looking for people who’d pitch in, thankfully Ike Avellana (Big Time) said yes, along with Mario Cornejo as AD. Also today the rains began to start, one month before they’re supposed to. Al Gore is right. The rains ruined my day, causing us to be hours late, and as usual we had to chase the daylight.

The fun part of the day is shooting the 1F Girls. I love them. I have an image of them as untouchable, ethereal women. Tracy’s cousin Vanessa Liwanag is a movement/dance instructor and I had the Girls do an afternoon workshop with them. I want them to move like they were one being, finishing each other’s sentences, their forms constantly shifting, if you pull one of them off they’d spill like water on the ground. Unfortunately thanks to the rain they had to wait almost 15 hours for their turn.

I also squeezed in the shoot today my lucky prop- a red perfume bottle (above), which also starred in Mansyon, Big Time, and my new short Ang Ibang Mga Pamilya. See if you can spot it in the movie.

Also shot my favorite scene in the film. And I’m saying this right now, in case someone calls me out on it. It’s an homage (read: rip-off) to one of my favorite scenes in My So-Called Life. MSCL is a TV show from the nineties, definitely one of the best television shows to air ever. I’m hoping to capture some of that romance from that shot into this scene.

Jojit being interviewed by our ever-present behind-the-scenes crew. Thanks to BE Media for doing the BTS video.

Alma and Sig left at 3 or so, Ike and Mario took over. Once again, we ran out of night. Rap, one of the girls, had a flight at 9 am. Ike had to get home by 7 am because his car was banned. The last four sequences were shot in rapid succession and with my heart almost bursting out of my chest.

Today a few visitors came in to help out, who work for another Cinemalaya film. I knew one of them and approached to say hi. I was a little bothered by what they said, I asked O why are you here? And they said, tinitingnan lang yung kalaban. I blinked and completely didn’t get it until it was explained to me. Obviously they were just kidding, and I wasn’t offended at all, but it does lead me to this rant:

Cinemalaya has mutated into something else. I remember in the first year of Cinemalaya, it was all new and no one really knew what they were doing. We had no choice but to band together. We helped each other out. There was a lot of communication between the filmmakers (and this included the shorts). It was because of us sticking together that we were able to have the MOA be more fair to us. We lent and borrowed equipment, visited each other’s shoots, became extras. It was tougher then; “indie” wasn’t the tired cliche that it is now. It was exciting. Come festival time there was a real sense of community. The success of one (the monster hit Maximo Oliveros was from that batch) was the success of all.

Things are different now. I don’t even know the other guys. That can be my fault of course, but Cinemalaya now feels too much like a competition. What for? For 200,000 bucks? Ridiculous. I hope it’s not true but I heard that one of the Cinemalaya TPTBs told a finalist that this should be treated like a competition, we’re not even supposed to speak to each other. That’s foolish. Together we can protect movies like Angela: the Bading Assassin, Antiparang Basag, Anino sa Apuhap, and vault the highly underrated ones like In Da Red Korner to the public eye.

It’s because of many things: Cinemalaya TPTB’s being insanely hawk-like in their monitoring, actors and other talents charging more than they ever did for a small production, filmmakers becoming more savvy with PR, gunning for awards (awards are good for your film, for sure; but really, at the end of the day it’s the opinion of five people). So many things can happen to your movie outside of Cinemalaya. Maybe if we keep that in mind then we probably won’t feel like we have to one-up each other. Or tell each other jokingly that the other guy is the enemy.

End rant.

Who’s Who in Baby Angelo

The 1-F Girls

(Clockwise from bottom left): KC Hollman, Bebs Hollman, Lara Tarranco, Rapunzel Hernandez
Ah, my pretty ladies. All talented and very professional. And I have twins, how cool is that! I really worked on all the girls, hiring a movement instructor and teaching them four songs (and more to go during post). KC and Bebs are soon-to-be stars, Lara is a drama teacher which I highly respect, and Rap is a flight attendant whose heart is in acting.

The OJT Girls (and one guy)
De La Salle Cavite sent us around 12 OJTs over the summer and we worked them all to the bone for this movie. They finished their 200 hours in just five shooting days. It was great having them around, and I dunno if working on Baby Angelo traumatized them or inspired them. To all students reading this: At Arkeo you’d be thrown in the deep end in production, should you choose to OJT with us. If you like that, join us.

Denise Gonzales as Mrs. Khemlani
I have a huge crush on her. Look at her.