Cheers to Every January 1 of Our Lives!

Wow! 2006!

Time. Our sneaky little friend/foe.

The year that passed wasn't so bad. Scratch that. It was actually good. Not exceptional, but good. And so, to justify that statement, here's a quick recount of what happened to this boring little pseudo-existence for the last 12 months:

JANUARY. Project-monitoring work for Cinemalaya carried-over from 2004. Did my first speaking-role as a bit player in the Jeffrey Jeturian movie, "Bikini Open". Hahaha! I got the part because I'd worked as script continuity for Direk Jeffrey before (in the Cebu project). No, didn't wear a bikini (I can't imagine me wearing one). My role: casting agent to Diana Zubiri's ad model-wannabe role. Hahahay!

FEBRUARY. First music video racket for the year: Johann Escanan's song "After All". Not exactly proud of this one. And I've had my share of horror stories about the record company's budget concerns (let's just say that I owe someone a pretty big sum right now, and I will always carry that guilt with me until I gather enough money to pay her up, NO THANKS to the recording company who held out on the 10% balance of the production budget they were supposed to give me), but I enjoyed the day-long shoot a lot.
my cheesiest project of the year...aside from Qpids!

My work as writer/segment producer for the then-reality show Qpids officially began this month. Little did I know that this show would ultimately be my biggest adventure (loventure? heehaw!) for 2005.

MARCH. Qpids work, preproduction phase. The meetings were coming in more often, but I somehow managed to squeeze in...

...the last shooting day of "Nasaan Ka Man" (the Claudine-Diether-Jericho movie) as script continuity/2nd AD. Thanks to the several hectic months that would come later, I totally missed seeing "Nasaan Ka Man" in theaters. Haven't even seen it on video! Haha. Regardless of how it came out, though (have heard bad reviews from friends), this film will always be special. In a lot of ways, it validated my existence as a worker in the film industry.
my most adventurous movie project of the year.

...a cinema commercial shoot for the Boracay Funship as production manager/assistant director. with director/cinematographer eli, production designer joy, and art director sheryll, this project took me to that much-heard-about island Boracay for the very first time. after packup, Sheryll and I decided to stay for another day to enjoy an early-summer vacation in the famous resort paradise. my most vivid memories: swimming alone in the sea at high noon; the furious swaying of the coconut trees against the wind at nightfall; the horizon at sunset.
Took this sunset scene with my Nokia 3200, God bless the one who stole it.

Taping for the first two weeks of Qpids in Subic came soon. 48 hours with little sleep in between, you can say that the loventure was definitely beginning.
A fun afternoon at Nabasan Beach in Subic with the Qpidskada. One of the last rare leisurely moments before everyone became officially ngarag. Haha!
the boys of summer: contributing writer ewong, writer marcus, director jon, headwriter ted. yes, they all sucked in their tummies for this shoot. hahahaha

APRIL. Qpids work went hectic. For the entire month my life revolved around deadlines, meetings, 24-hour shoots, sleepless nights in postproduction, yosi, and extra joss. I was a zombie, like nearly everybody else in the staff. Spent my 25th birthday at home, writing all day to meet a deadline. Times like these, I found myself turning to the usual vices of the non-normal girl: yosi, coffee, extra joss, and insane, irrational (albeit unrequited) lurve. Haha!

MAY. Qpids pilot aired on May 15 (did it? it's been moved so many times I forgot the actual date). Hectic days and nights as a semi-vampire kept on. We were airing daily and I spent most of my waking hours at the polar regions of ABSCBN, doing postproduction. Still coping via the usual vices. Sick-o, hehe.

JUNE. Qpids was moved from primetime to pre-early evening News, which kinda rattled some people in the team, but the work load had somehow lightened as compared to the previous two months. I was getting endeared by the teen stars of our show--I'd completely attuned my mindset to the culture of "kilig" that the show was somehow proliferating. Awww!

Despite the fact that the show was monopolizing my life, I managed to shoot another music video: folk singer Gary Granada's "Kung Ika'y Wala". Haggard. I couldn't focus entirely on it during preproduction but I gave my all during the two-day shoot. Wasn't there during postprod so I really couldn't say that the finished product came out as I had wanted it to be, but I actually liked this more than the Johann video.

my weirdest project of the year!

JULY. Turning point for Qpids. Two adventurous shoots in two "exotic" locations: Hongkong and Bohol.

Headwriter Ted and I went on the one-day taping of the Hongkong loventure race among loveteams CarVane, MhyZel, and PauGi. It was my first time in Hongkong. I love traveling to new places so it was one of the best perks that the show had ever given me. A lot of running all over the streets of Kowloon under the burning sun (try running backwards while filming two teeners on a race! whew!), got a whiff of culture and local color every which way we went. Definitely one of the most adventurous days of 2005, that day we had in HK.
A random shot of a street in Hongkong Island, HK. We were hikers, nearly all the way.
Victoria's Peak in Hongkong Island, the last pitstop for the three racing loveteams. Soon after packup, the sightseeing was about to begin!

It was also in July when award-winning screenwriter Adolf, whom I met through St@r Cinem@, came into our Qpids lives as a third writer (before, there was only Marcus and me). The workload had significantly lightened, and by the time that we did the taping for the Bohol Loventure Race, Adolf had curiously became a significant part of my most vivid memories during our two-day stay in Bohol, newcomer that he was. Hahaha! He's so cool!

It was when the Bohol episode aired that Qpids started airing weekly. A lot less work for us writers. But it put several staffers out of work, too. Happy-sad turning point. But our Qpids lives had to go on.

AUGUST. Now that Qpids was airing weekly, I had some time in my hands for another racket: an audiovisual presentation (AVP) for an NGO. Still had to juggle it with the Day Job but it came out okay, somehow. Whew. The pay was fine but the creative journey where that project was concerned hadn't been absolute for me. Wasn't there the whole time during postprod. The hazards of juggling jobs!

After the Bohol loventure episode the show made a drastic re-format from reality to fiction drama, a la SCQ Reload. That was good news for me, being more of a fiction-writer than a reality-show writer.

Later that month Adolf had to beg off from a couple of the writing assignments due to prior commitments for other projects, and Marcus and I were pretty much left to co-write most of the drama episodes. It was much easier writing fiction and I loved the process--I suddenly discovered that I could actually hack kilig-fiction writing. Awww. Haha! For someone who hates watching cheesy romantic chick-flicks, that came as a surprise to me.

Just when I was getting comfy with the new working setup a new change came: Marcus had to leave the show to write for the then-emerging PBB. Since Adolf was also busy, I was left to write on my own. I didn't mind, but in a way I did. It wouldn't have been difficult, but in a way it was. Not the writing per se, but other dawdangies attached to it.

And the vices went on. Haha. Man, was I stupid.

SEPTEMBER. The loventure was coming to a close. Final four loveteams turned out to be JarLa, JilWyn, PawEl, and MhyZel. We were all amazed when PawEl ran off with the Qpids Grand Loveteam title--of the four, they were the only ones who hadn't evolved into a real-life couple!

The Final Four at the Qpids Finals, grabbed from the Qpids blog by CF

And so, on September, my ultimate adventure for the year wrapped up. Amidst hugs and heartfelt utterings of "byers" and "see you soon"s, I realized that it was going to take me some time to move on--the experience was too extensive/intensive; eight months was eight months. Old habits die hard, so the old non-normal girl's vices stayed. Movin' on was somekinda hard to do, ha! Hehe. Dito lang ako nahirapan talagang mag-detach, sa lahat ng projects ko.

OCTOBER. The early part of October I spent partying, resting, partying some more. Made up for those months that I was too busy with work. I was usually up all night and asleep all day. Fractured my heart for the Nth time over some bombshell news that was dropped on me but I eventually bounced back. Times like those, friends+videoke proved to be an effective pain-relieving combination somehow.

A remarkable blessing came when the personal projects of writer-friends Dennis, Monj, and I got into the semi-finals of the Cinemalaya. I was inspired! Eventually Monj (sayang ang project nya, sobrang interesting pa naman) had to back out but Dennis and I stayed. We had every intention of nurturing this baby to life. Hopefully, with God's help.

Well, after a number of crying sessions I'd had because of that, er, heart-fracturing bombshell, the Lord is good, indeed. He whips up a coupla rainbows for you after every storm (pardon the cliche). Not long after the good news of Cinemalaya, I got a call from one of Adolf's acquaintances about a Fil-Am New Y@rk University graduate's first feature-length movie that was going to be shot here. They needed a script continuity supervisor and Adolf had referred them to me. The job offer was an answered prayer (and a speedy one, at that..thanks talaga Lord!). Time to move on, God said. And I was ready.

NOVEMBER. Whether it was by divine intervention, fate, or plain coincidence I wouldn't know, but a Halloween party at the house of friends Ted, Rose, and Michiko led me to meet the person who would help me and Dennis produce our personal project: JP. Soon JP, Dennis, I, and JP's friend Tita Emily were knee-deep in on preprod discussions. Dennis and I were really grateful. You don't meet instant benefactors everyday. God has got to have something to do with it. Apart from the business side, of course, is the fact that I gained a friend, as well. JP is one of the most colorful characters I've met in 2005!

Shoots for the feature film began second week of November. It was to be my last (income-generating) project for the year. And a turning point in my film-worker's career, as well--the first movie project that I had handled as script continuity from Day 1 til last (in two of my previous projects I came in at the latter half of the production phase; in the first one I came in as trainee under an official script cont). An adventure on its own, from Sta. Mesa's railways in Altura to the busy streets of Quiapo to the suburbs of Quezon City and Antipolo.

DECEMBER. The shoots for the feature-film project went on til second week of December. 25 working days, all went smoothly--it was amazing. Work-wise, I learned a lot about my job, and from the director as well. On the personal side, I gained friends. I love this troupe! Everyone was so nice, and I won't tire of saying that. Had somekinduva schoolgirl crush on the Leader of the Tribe, too (hehe) but the work had always been top priority.

In between shoots I was also working on the personal project. Oculars, meetings, calendars. We would have been gearing up for a February grind date had it not been for an unexpected project that came up: a short film, also intended for submission to Cinemalaya on January 16. And so, on the last week of December, we put the first personal project on hold to accommodate another personal project of greater urgency: GeeGee and Waterina, an award-winning stage play that is soon to become a film. God-willing.

I'm anxious, because the timetable for preproduction is so short. I'm anxious, because I'm directing it, and this isn't just going to be another music video/AVP racket--it's going to be my baby. And so, there's no other option but a good film. A beautiful film, if possible.

Christmas and New Year's Eve breezed by in a flurry of parties, get-togethers, shopping horrors, and last-minute backlog work. The last week of December I dedicated to preparing for the short film shoot on January 7--now just a week away. Lord, help us!

Whew. What a long year. I hope I didn't bore you. Haha. Nearly every TV station does a "Yearender Review" on the nation's happenings every end-of-the-year, and I guess most bloggers would do the same on their own lives, as well. I'm no different. But I had to do this, because I'm proud of my 2005. It's not necessarily better than the past years I've had, but it's unique. A year of adventures.

One year from now I hope I'd look back to my 2006 with as much pride and enthusiasm, if not more. I really pray for more happy adventures ahead.