TUKSO Journal No. 1
TUKSO is my digital film project for this years 2007 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, scheduled from July 19 to 29 at the CCP.
Last week, our production team went on location hunt in Lipa City where most of the scenes for the film will be shot. Lipa is an obvious choice as it is where I was born and had my primary and secondary education, and where my mother still lives and teaches (she will be 75 this year.)
TUKSO's script requires a subdivision project as one of the locations, and we found one in Barangay San Celestino. We also found a small river that divides Lipa and Quezon Province, and Barangay Chairman de Silva of nearby San Francisco helped us out in getting there. Wanting to keep the locations close to each other, we found the picture houses that we need in the same area, and intend to use a road in neighboring Barangay Malitlit as well. Thanks to Aylene and Anna from the City Government's Community Affairs Office, we managed to speed things up and actually identified all the sites we needed before sundown. Now, its only a matter of getting the necessary permits to be able to shoot in these locations.
The following day (Friday), we had our first cast reading, and while we didn't have everybody present, it was heartening to have the following actors around: Ricky Davao, Ping Medina, Shamaine Buencamino, Irma Adlawan, and Diana Malahay. Diana plays a pivotal role in the film, and though quite unknown to many, she had played leading roles onstage in UP and even in Tanghalang Pilipino. I have been told more than once that there were doubts about her playing the role, expressed more out of her being relatively unknown than for anything else, and I hope I will be proven right in my casting choice when the film comes out. The production team were also one in agreeing with me about the casting not just of Diana but about the others, and we are all glad that the actors were not only looking at their individual characters but in the entirety of the film when they stated their reactions/questions/comments at the end of the session.
We hope to start filming next week, and there's a lot more to be done this week in pre-production. I have essentially the same team from Sa North Diversion Road (Soc Jose, Mo Zee, Bianca Gonzales Dadivas and Ching Danseco, Rey David, and Jesse Lucas) on board, and I know they are and will be wonderful collaborators in TUKSO as well.
Dennis
Last week, our production team went on location hunt in Lipa City where most of the scenes for the film will be shot. Lipa is an obvious choice as it is where I was born and had my primary and secondary education, and where my mother still lives and teaches (she will be 75 this year.)
TUKSO's script requires a subdivision project as one of the locations, and we found one in Barangay San Celestino. We also found a small river that divides Lipa and Quezon Province, and Barangay Chairman de Silva of nearby San Francisco helped us out in getting there. Wanting to keep the locations close to each other, we found the picture houses that we need in the same area, and intend to use a road in neighboring Barangay Malitlit as well. Thanks to Aylene and Anna from the City Government's Community Affairs Office, we managed to speed things up and actually identified all the sites we needed before sundown. Now, its only a matter of getting the necessary permits to be able to shoot in these locations.
The following day (Friday), we had our first cast reading, and while we didn't have everybody present, it was heartening to have the following actors around: Ricky Davao, Ping Medina, Shamaine Buencamino, Irma Adlawan, and Diana Malahay. Diana plays a pivotal role in the film, and though quite unknown to many, she had played leading roles onstage in UP and even in Tanghalang Pilipino. I have been told more than once that there were doubts about her playing the role, expressed more out of her being relatively unknown than for anything else, and I hope I will be proven right in my casting choice when the film comes out. The production team were also one in agreeing with me about the casting not just of Diana but about the others, and we are all glad that the actors were not only looking at their individual characters but in the entirety of the film when they stated their reactions/questions/comments at the end of the session.
We hope to start filming next week, and there's a lot more to be done this week in pre-production. I have essentially the same team from Sa North Diversion Road (Soc Jose, Mo Zee, Bianca Gonzales Dadivas and Ching Danseco, Rey David, and Jesse Lucas) on board, and I know they are and will be wonderful collaborators in TUKSO as well.
Dennis
Comments
(Hooray for your blog!)