We’re just about ready to roll. I’m leaving tomorrow early morning for our location to better visualize my shotlist against the locations. By March 18 we’ll start principal photography.
What can I say? It feels like opening night of a theater production. Even though you’ve prepared for it, somehow you still get some jitters.
But just like in theater, I know that when the show starts, it’s all going to work out alright.
Break a leg team!
Hooo! Time flies!
I’m shooting in 5 days and it seems there are still a lot of things to prepare. I’m excited and anxious at the same time. It kinda reminds me of getting married or having a baby. It feels like you’re never completely prepared for it. Hahaha!
art dep! paki urong ang waterfall!
We did some last-minute arrangements at the location last March 9-10. Everyone in Suyo is so excited already.
Today, we’re having a script reading and look test with the cast.
I just finished the final written revision of the script yesterday. What a relief. This exercise made me realize that a script is never really final. As long as there is time available, a writer will revise and revise. Hahaha! Well, it feels good to finally let go. Any other revisions will just have to happen on the set.
My script went through my team of usiseros and advisers these past few days. Today I’ll be revising it again, hopefully for the last time.
It’s a blessing in disguise that I had to move my shoot to March 18, instead of February 25. With all the script revisions, I would’ve been so unprepared if I forced myself to shoot next week.
Funny how this directing business has turned me into a more spiritual person.
Met with Bing Lao yesterday, who is fresh from his directing debut of Biyaheng Lupa. He shared some stories and anecdotes and lessons he learned from (more…)
Sa wakas! Finally! Hallelujah!
I’m done with my script revisions!
I can go back to having a social life!
Whew! What a relief.
I’ll still have the script go through my team of advisers and usiseros, but i’m pretty satisfied with it. I need to let it lie for a few days before i read it again and see if it needs more work.
I’m itching to put on my director’s cap and work on my shot list. Aha. That should be fun.
by ana agabin
From the moment I wake up in the morning to the minute I sleep, my mind is on the script of 24k. Man, I am under a lot of pressure.
Every now and then I drift back to the time when I was 12 years old hanging out with my cousins in my uncle’s house in Laguna.
12-year-old ana with cousins at a dig site in Laguna
That was the time I witnessed it all: the digging, the praying, the sessions with (more…)
Cast and crew of 24k
(top from left) Alchris Galura, Edwin Guillermo, Recci Bacolor, moi, Arturo Escabusa, (bottom from left) Jojit Lorenzo, Archi Adamos, Andoy Ranay, Julio Diaz, Joy Puntawe
We met our main cast for the first time today. I tried to scare them off by telling them how much hiking they’d be doing, and showing them photos of the locations and the 30 feet hole they’d be going into. I wanted them to join with eyes wide open.
Well, they must be a bunch of real masochists cause they seemed to be (more…)
by ana agabin
We got back from Ilocos Sur earlier than scheduled. I tried, I really tried, to rewrite my script while I was in Vigan, but there were just too many distractions, especially with a festival going on. So I opted to go home on Feb 2 after our ocular and get some real work done.
Here’s Edwin and I fooling around in Vigan (ahem, instead of working on my script).
by ana agabin
It’s less than a month before our scheduled start of shoot for 24k. My assistant director, Edwin Guillermo, and I just arrived in Vigan and are enjoying the festivities of the Kannawidan festival. Tomorrow my new director of photography, Pao Orendain, will come over and we’ll all be going to our locations in Suyo for another ocular. I hope he followed my advice and did some jogging before coming over. Our locations are not for the weak and squirmish.
Suyo, with its mountains, and rivers, and hanging bridges, and its mysterious, rustic ambiance, is my favorite place in Ilocos Sur. I can’t wait to start shooting there.