compost movie

24 hours ago. day 4 of Project Compost, done at 4 am.

exhausting, heavy day. hehe. what's new.

we were shooting on location in lahar country. in the morning and high noon it was so dang searing hot in the wastelands, everyone's working speed was cut by half. lunch, thanks to the uber-efficient catering staff, was two hours late, the fuelless generator delayed production by around an hour, and my phone was one bar away from being dead. wonderful day to get to work.


in the afternoon the clouds started turning ash gray and the rain fell. hard. with winds, to boot. the cracked parched earth gave way to mudflow and the winds were blowing away our tents. shooting was halted because the whole place was grimed up in decade-old lahar, and the mudflow just wouldn't stop. amazing. we realized that we had to get out of there before the water became knee-deep so we braved the rains and ran across the field and against the current.



man, the current! it was strong. if i lay down on the field and let myself go with the flow i would've been several meters away from point A in seconds. all the while as i ran amidst all that lahar i was yelling "Mama! Help!" in jest. first time ko kasing naranasang tumakbo sa gitna ng nag-uumapaw na lahar. soaking wet, grimed up, but secretly happy for the rain. kasi ang hirap magtrabaho nang nakabilad sa araw. haha.



well, work was halted as well. we had to evacuate and go back to manila for the next location. shot scenes on chroma. uber-controlled ang environment pero inabot pa rin kami ng madaling araw. hay.

ang hirap ng pelikulang ito. hindi lang para sa kin, kundi para sa lahat. first time kong magtrabaho sa isang action movie and continuity is a much harder task here than in any genre. kasi maraming galaw, malalaki ang eksena, at ilang beses bang masusugatan/maduduguan/magkakapasa ang isang karakter sa buong pelikula? syempre kelangang bantayan.

mabuti kung action lang in the pinoy old-school bara-bara tradition. yung tipong mabilisan where it would be enough to put an action star and a bunch of goons in an old warehouse, to throw in a car chase or two and a bundle of blastings here and there. puro big hollywood epics ang peg para sa pelikulang to, and the gods have big dreams for it. kaya lahat, busisi. lahat, karir. in fairness, i appreciate the director's passion and hard work. i appreciate his dedication. pero kung magiging objective ako, i'd say hodge-podge sya ng sandosenang hollywood blockbusters na napanood na natin in the past two decades. which is a minus for moviegoer-me. kasi, kahit gano pa kagaling ang production value, kung me rip-off factor, turn off. mas gugustuhin ko pang manood ng isang pelikulang low-budget at poorly executed pero brilliantly unique ang konsepto.

pero let's look at the bright side. feeling ko, kikita sya sa krismas. papanoorin sya ng mga tao. at kung ibebenta ko ang pelikulang to, i'd probably say this:

"Wanna see STAR WARS, THE MATRIX, LORD OF THE RINGS, 300, and DIE HARD 4.0 in one movie? Then watch the Compost Movie! Cause (dapat pakanta tong part na to) we got it all...for you!"

hihi.