Sunday 26 February 2012

I've Lived A Century [Part 1]


 That was an amazing experience. I joined this competition along with Marge, Thirdy, Jeremy, Sweet, Julio, Eunice, and Migui. We all had a great time, but the best part was experiencing the overflow of God's favor and blessings on us.

 If you don't know, the competition we joined is one where the competitors have to make a 12-15 minute film about the apocalypse in just 24 hours. We were split up into two teams. Marge, Thirdy, Jeremy, and I make up Third Day Films. We chose this name, because number one: Jesus rose on the third day. Number two: We found out about the competition only three days before it. Sweet, Julio, Eunice, and Migui's team is called Clue Piece Films.

 This competition is meant for college students only, and it's part of the rules that two of the members have to be enrolled in St. Benilde. One of the chairmen, Mr. Jag Garcia, made an exception for us after seeing one of our videos. First favor from God.

 We seriously could not have done anything without Him. The whole experience proved that apart from God, we cannot do anything. And I mean ANYTHING. Even something as simple (sort of) as making a film, we can't do it without Him.

 On Friday, we were at school at 6:30, and left for St. Benilde's School of Design and Arts. Our group was quite stressed out in the morning, because we only came up with our story in school. Good thing Ms. Janette was there to help us.

about to leave
outside St. Benilde


 One of the marshals of the competition gave us an envelope with the rules and a map of the locations that needed to be in our film. Two of them were in Intramuros (Plaza Moriones and Baluarte de San Diego). The other location was Roxas Boulevard. Also, our films needed to have a scene with a taong grasa, and we needed to show an HTC phone. (They lent each team a brand new HTC phone.)

 There was a problem, though. The Intramuros locations were only open to us from 10am-12pm. Everyone rushed there, but we were late because of traffic. We thought we wouldn't make it, but they gave us a 30 minute grace period. Second favor.

Baluarte de San Diego




  After shooting the scenes we needed in Intramuros, we went to Harbor Square (right across the Cultural Center of the Philippines), and had lunch in Army Navy. We shot a few scenes there, but had to get permission first. We were allowed, and the weather was great. Third and fourth favors.

Army Navy
the whole team 
Marge took a picture of Eunice taking a picture of Julio taking a picture.

 We had dessert in Starbucks, charged our batteries, and took close-up pictures of each other.

Eunice 
Julio 
Ms. Janette 
the boys 
Jeremy 
Migui
Marge
me 
Julio (I think he was singing when I took this)

Thirdy. The people in Starbucks misheard him when he gave his name.

no dolly, so we used a longboard
 We really needed the taong grasa, but it was quite scary to just approach one and ask if they could act. I didn't know this till later, but Sweet was praying for the taong grasa to come to us. Moments later, a couple of kids approached Mrs. Rocha, asking for money in exchange for a song number. We told them that we needed them to be artistas for a while, and they willingly agreed. They were so friendly, too! We paid them with burger, fries, and water from Jollibee. Fifth favor.

Joanna and Christina

Coach JC naks
  We moved on to another place where we experienced God's protection and favor yet again. First, we found a tricycle with the words 'ONE LIFE ONE CHANCE' painted on the back, which was just what the other group needed in their film.

 Second, there was a crazy, drunk man who kept on asking us for money. He kept mumbling things we couldn't understand, and wouldn't stop following us around. He even gave Ms. Gaile the finger, and picked up some rocks to throw at us. When we hurried back to the car, he was still following us. Meanwhile, Sweet and I were praying really hard for protection. We were all scared, but managed to get in the car and drive off before he was able to do anything. It was scary and exciting at the same time. Sixth favor.





PERFECT

about to cross the street in Roxas Boulevard
hai Coach hai 
Ms. Gaile
in CCP 
 We finished shooting in Roxas and were about to get into the car, when we found a broken road as if an earthquake had just hit it. It was perfect, since our film needed a scene with a messed up place. The sunset at the back was lovely, too. Seventh favor.

After shooting that scene, we drove along the road between Star City and CCP. We were thinking about how we were going to get a taxi to shoot our taxi scene, when right at that moment, we found a taxi parked on the roadside. The driver agreed to let us use his taxi, and all we had to pay him was 57 pesos. Eighth favor.

We were supposed to shoot a scene in a cemetery and in Resorts World, but lack of daylight and traffic stopped us. We decided to just shoot the extra scenes in school and start editing. At first, both teams were mixed up in the two cars, but then we split up. On the way back to school, it was really traffic. I tried to keep calm, but couldn't help feeling nervous. We made the most of our time by planning our next scenes and looking for songs to use in the film. Also, we got bored and took pictures.

 During the ride, we were talking about God's faithfulness and how good He'd been the past day. I was just saying how I couldn't ask for anything more, when I got a text from Jireh saying that I'd gotten a Paquita solo in our upcoming ballet recital. I couldn't believe it and screamed then explained to my confused group mates what had just happened. I'd been praying to get a solo in Paquita since last year. Ninth favor.



  We made it to school, and ran upstairs to start shooting and editing. We got to use the library and production room, which was really sweet. We barely spent our money, since they gave us 200 pesos for lunch, and provided dinner and snacks. Sweet's parents even brought us Starbucks drinks and burgers.

 We needed more actors, so we called Thirdy D. (who was still in Fort Bonifacio when we called), and asked him to come to school to act for us. He came and even stayed up with us until the next morning! He didn't want to go home, even though he was sick. So, he was our saling kit-kit. We made him do some behind-the-scenes stuff, too, like holding the lights and whatever.

in the production room
Jeremy importing the videos into the laptop

 I acted as Max, the main character of our film. I honestly don't think I'm a good actress, and I'm not just saying that. There was a scene where I had to break down and cry, but no one could get me to cry. I tried everything; from praying, drinking lots of warm water, thinking of extremely sad thoughts, to thinking of extremely happy thoughts (tears of joy, you know?). Ms. Janette tried to tell me to internalize my character. Marge pretended to be mad at me. Migui pretended to be pissed off at me. Thirdy D tried feeding negative things into my brain by telling me a tragic story of my brother dying from drugs, smoking, and alcohol. NOTHING WORKED. (They all apologized to me later for doing and saying the things they said, haha).

 It's not because I'm heartless. It's because I'm well guarded against these things, and to top it off, I am a very happy person. Plus, I've got lots of hope. And faith. It sucks, because I wasn't able to cry; but in real life, it's a good thing.


 I will stop there, because this blog is too long already. I'll continue in Part 2. Don't worry, it'll be shorter. I promise.

2 comments:

  1. Nice!!! Keep it up!! So proud of you guys!!! Miss ko na kayooooo!!!

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    1. Hi, T. Azir! Thanks so much! Miss you too :D Visit soon

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