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From the "Insanity in the City" Files
Wednesday, April 21, 2004 Recorded by Trainee #06, Hades at around 2:56 AM RE: DAY 3I can just say un-elaborately that we were just ordered around, or we had to just follow everyone around. If I was entirely pessimistic, I can say that was merely what our jobs were yesterday, and I can even cook it up to look even lamer. But I wasn't looking at things like that yesterday and right now, in fact, I'm actually very optimistic, and it's not hard not to: we were blessed with great people around that made sure we were really involved and we would learn, although we were doing things more than 14 hours a day. To start our day, we have to pick up a lot of things up at RS Video/film Production in Makati at 5:00 am. Shit. I mean, at five am, I'm normally still dreaming about weird things. Jurette and EJ came late 10-15 minutes late, so we had to rush to RS Video in order to avoid being late. We picked up production things that cost a little less than 10 thousand for the rentals. EJ, being the guy, went with the production van while we rode on the fx they rented for the production staff. We arrived thirty minutes earlier at the client's place, but that doesn't make us relax a little: we had to fuss whether the materials were complete, whether the building was fixed, and whether the papers were okay. On top of that, we also had to give the production staff FF rented their breakfast at a nearby Mc Donalds. At 7:30, people started trickling in. Ms. C soon started giving orders, while Ike, Gen's director of photography, started to work with Gen on the building's facade and on the staff of the client. The whole day we had to contend with the lights, the lines, the extensions. We of course worked as production assistants, and lived the day far more than that: we were bag carriers, camera toters, camera battery changers, staff barkers (that being people barking the orders to those people of the client who fucking refused to cooperate), order executers, shot listers, and over-all in chargers. The Director and DOP also had to check with us frequently if there were shots to be made, and what other shots were on the list, and other things. The whole day it was just insan, and considering we had only four hours of sleep, things were not looking good. We even had to add a chapel location. It could have been okay, except... it was a funeral chapel. We also had to do crowd control because people thought there were going to be celebrities, aside from the fact that they were just plain curious. Can't do much about that, I guess. Things wrapped up at around 8 PM, although the entire process took about thirty minutes or so. By 8:30 we were on our way to UP Teachers' Village for a dinner at this place that served Persian food. Afterwards, we still had to go to Makati because Jurette had to tally some of the expenses. She was put in charge for the money, and I'm just thankful for that I guess, because at least I don't have to withdraw fucking 13 thousand from someone's ATM account and have it stuffed at my pocket. We helped her with the computing because she was in this sudden case of memory block (she couldn't remember the other expenses), and thankfully it tallied with the amount taken. EJ had to get his ID from the guard below because he forgot about it the other day. I took my new ID from the office too. 11 pm, that was when we were just starting to head for Ayala Ave. We were going home finally. Goodness. Anyway, that was last night. Today, Ms. C proclaimed this as rest day. Thursday, we're back on a hectic schedule. Sigh. Thank god. Bring it on to us while we can still last, and while we're still enjoying. From the "Insanity in the City" Files
Monday, April 19, 2004 Recorded by Trainee #06, JC at around 11:47 PM RE: DAY 2 We were back to our casuals at ten o'clock in the morning, for our technically second day at Filmless Films. Two of the other FF people were there, the usual two who we often meet around. Since they both have the same first names, we'll just call them K1 and K2: K1's also the Project Coordinator of .mov, this soft spoken girl who attended to us when we first passed our resumes. I don't know what k2 does (I mean, her position per se, since of course I'm sure she does a lot), but she had made her mark on me as this smile-a-lot girl who seemed pretty sincere with her humor, and she seemed very nice too. K1's almost the same only in a rather shy/soft manner, and we're thankful for that, since at least the atmosphere inside FF is something we might easily get used to, aside from that we also do not have to contend with snobbish people. We had to wait for two hours because apparently Ms. C, the head who'll supervise us, was out and was doing something somewhere else, so we had to wait for further orders. K1 and K2 did their best to talk to us despite their works, so they made themselves more endearing to us than they intended to. By around twelve the three of us, Jurette, EJ and I, were called to go down the building to meet up with Ms. C who we later on found inside a waiting taxi somewhere near the area. Jeff and Raymund, our other two classmates who went to have their OJT with us at Filmless Films too, stayed inside the office with the two Ks. Later on we learned they were just inside the office the whole day, fiddling with Photoshop filters. We went to Hit Productions, this Ad production that had their own recording studio. One of their main people is Rivermaya's Rico Blanco, told Ms. C while we were on the cab going to Makati Cinema Square. Actually I recall Hit Productions' name from JD, my classmate whose buddy Raissa worked for the production, and true enough, when we got there I found Raissa on their waiting area/canteen. She thought I was doing my training at Saatchi, but she was nevertheless glad to see me; she was one of my seniors back when our organization was at full blast in producing departmental TV productions. We were then ordered to copy a few papers, after which we took lunch, then headed to the production area. They were dubbing something for the client FF was currently working an AVP for, so we just looked around how they were editing the stuff, although we were aware how those things are done anyway. After an hour or so we all went down with the client's contact to discuss some things regarding a shoot the next day. Ms. C started to brief us about what the whole shoot's going to be about after the clients were gone and we were just waiting for the final output. Apparently, since there was going to be a shoot for the next day, she wanted us to scout the place with us, after we pick up the guy who's going to be the director for that production. We started to like her immediately. She seemed to always reach out to us, telling stuff about anything as we go around. From Makati we headed to Quezon City after we picked Gen, Ms. C's nephew who's the director for that production. Bringing a video camera along (still cam is better, Gen argues, but with the availability of it, the video cam would just have to suffice), Gen took shots of the area while we wandered around taking notes from Ms. C's directions. Just looking around the area took us until 7pm. Goodness. Afterwards, we went to Khavn's place to look for some DVDs that can be used for the production. When only a few turned up, we looked for some in Video 48, this store with a vast collection of videos up near Mushroom Burger. Never thought it would actually be that exhausting for our first day--actually, it's the change of locations that made us exhausted. Tomorrow, we're needed to be in Makati at 5 am. Oh lord. From the "Insanity in the City" Files
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 Recorded by Trainee #06, JC at around 11:29 PM RE: DAY 1 Although we have been expecting an immediate grind on our first day, we were disappointed to learn that the head was absent and therefore, orders for the trainees would not be available until Monday. But we were able to stay for two hours inside the office and were briefed by one of the staffs. Since I am now confident of my internship/training over at this company, I am now disclosing to readers the name of the company I shall work for, however I shall not include names of people inside the workforce apart from the main man, and also details about activities and clients will and shall be held due to the existence of company privacy. If I recall it well, it all started with one man. Khavn De La Cruz has been a huge believer of guerilla/independent movements, and being a huge film fanatic, he has been moved to take guerilla film one step further--he created films independently and for his creative talents he won a lot of awards, both here and abroad. But as much as films are backed up with producers, independent filmmakers are backed up with only passion; rarely anyone commits to producing underground films that Khavn and his contemporaries create. However, they would stop at nothing--and with that came the alternative to the celluloid: digital film making. Khavn believes that if you really wish to do something, you will be able to find a way to make it push through—and for them, the realization of their dreams was digital film making. Anyone can see the difference: both can produce high quality films, yet digital becomes flexible for those with the tight budget. So for them, passion pushed through. If there's a will, there's definitely a way--and fuck all those celluloids at that. And with this, the rise of Filmless Films started among other independent movements along Khavn's realm as well (independent writings, avant-pop indie music and others). They were here to "promote and advance the digital filmmaking in the Philippines," as well as "to establish digital cinema as the future of the Philippine film." (.mov objectives) With the rise of Filmless Films, they were suddenly able to scream out loud that, hell, they are out here to release their creativities, and they have digital film making to back them up. Soon, they created their own films, released it for competitions here and abroad, and started garnering awards left and right. They also had tie-ins with other creative organizations as well. But of course, it doesn't stop there. With the pressing demands of the working world behind them they decided to explore further by doing Audio Visual Presentations for companies aside from films. They do the promotion of one's work, and sometimes organize events around the metro--one of which is the upcoming .mov event. As most of us know, .mov is the extension name of Quick time movies/files, and with this is the point that, well, these movies are digital. .mov is "the first Philippine digital film festival dedicated to the exhibition and promotion of digital filmmaking." (.mov handout) With digital full lengths, shorts, panels and presentations and exhibits included with .mov's program, they aimed at promoting creativity at its best, with a lower cost value at that. But since .mov's slated for probably later May, chances of our working for the festival may be slim, with only us being involved in the pre-production stage. So, to be able to maximize our training time, they are going to put us into the hands of one of their heads, and soon we'll start helping with the other projects of Filmless Films. If you're interested to know more (or you wish to explore the possibility of being enthralled with their website too), do visit www.indieman.com. You can take it from there.
From the "Insanity in the City" Files
Monday, April 12, 2004 Recorded by Trainee #06, Hades at around 10:44 AM RE: Up for Starters.People around have been asking what in hell do I mean by a non school-affiliated OJT. Some think I should have done better and enrolled the practicum course instead this summer. My dad thinks alike, and even scoffs at the company I got into. Get your stubborn ass in ABS-CBN, he says. Or better yet, GMA 7. Fine, shoot me; I'm doing things my way. If I see myself asking for a hitch somewhere along highway 27 or some other obscure place, I'm not going to bring it on to anybody I'm going to be the one who'll pay. Thank god for some friends who gave me slight hope by actually supporting me even if I'm being a bit mad. Too much into supporting me, in fact, that when they learned about my idea they joined me in my courageous search for my kind of experience. Now I heard almost everyone in our class learned about my secret, and they wanted to do a double-training this summer as well. I'm not the only inane person in the world after all. What am I looking at anyway? It's this: this summer, I will try to get as much hands-on experiences as I can, without crediting any of them for my Practicum course. Just work, work and more work, and hopefully it will be on those small time or indie companies--they're the ones that really grind you and give you the real training, or so I've heard. I've found a place right now somewhere around Herrera in Makati, this production company that’s into films. It's just starting out, I believe, but the guy spearheading the group has already made a mark on the young generation of indie/guerilla filmmakers. They have the ideals which I share with them, so I thought it's fit I start out with the company. Before, when we were starting out with our thesis we were trying to move a proposal that students should have at least 2-3 different practicum experiences in different areas of Comm expertise: Advertising, Radio Production, Television Production, Print Journalism and even Film. The idea was scraped because we learned eventually that we can actually choose to be trained on different areas as much as we want if we choose to, only students opt for single-training because of the hassle of complying with the hours; we were also scraped due to the fact that our advisers thought we were valiant but insane. Ergo, I am going to prove to them that I, JC, the head damsel of the distressed council of idiots, am indeed, uh, insane. If the work goes well, I am then looking at another training experience for this coming semester, another on the sembreak (the main practicum I'll really credit), and the last blow come 2nd semester. Hopefully I wouldn't end up too deranged by then. But for now, I'm sticking to that Makati-based production. Day by day I'll try to record the things I have learned or encountered all through out the time I'll be there. If pictures would be available/possible, then I'll thank my lucky stars for that, and of course, I'll show it here. But for now, I'm going to take it one step at a time. One neurotic step, I might add.
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