Not used to road travel on long hours, by bus particularly, I am conditioning myself to take a regular trip to Isabela at nighttime because of the urgency of the situation.
Our joint production of Agos Media and BVV Media Productions are looking for three young girls to play daughters to cancer survivor-actress Vida Verde in a film to be directed by visual artist, naturalist, polymath, innovator, environmentalist, educator and culture advocate Bon Labora.
Bon represents Agos Media while I embody BVV8 company.
We aren't really in a hurry to shoot and finish the film project but because we are understaff, we want to personally and meticulously oversee everything in the production process.
We subsist on a shoestring budget so Bon and I would like see that every centavo is worth the flow of the pre-prod in the indie spirit.
Making sure to achieve at least a professional score in filmmaking, we step-by-step follow the usual formula of planning like what is being done in a studio system project.
The moment Vida agreed to star and to also participate in some looking for sponsorships for the movie which has a working title of "Pasasalamat," Bon and I went to meet her. Although I am closer to Verde because of the longest time of our personal and professional relationship that dates back to the mid-80s, Labora is a guy easy to deal with.
Last September, we started our exploration of Tumauini, Isabela, the hometown of Vida, Catherine Mejia in real life.
Bon and I took a night trip to Tumauini for ten straight hours to look for a balete tree, a river wild and a thick forest as focal settings of the film.
We trekked up Sierra Madre to discover Dy-Abra River (named after the political clan and bailiwick of the Dys), luscious greens, and at least, four giant and sturday trees so we have choices where to locate the final shots.
I thought of Verde to tackle the major role simply because she fits the character of the main character as a mother.
Beyond her absence from the entertainment scene for almost three decades due to scarcity of offers, pittance talent fees, overexposure, outmoded bold trend and a little later, contraction of breast cancer, Vida was praised as a competent actress by now National Artist for Film Lino Brocka who directed her in one TV drama in her heyday.
Credible screen artists and showbiz insiders, then and now, also believe she has it to truly transform into a genuine actress which she also believes in without being conceited. "Noon, napanood ko si Snooky Serna, sabi ko, kaya ko rin 'yong kanyang ginagawa niya (I saw her acting and I told myself I could also do it)," she chuckled.
Being in Tumauini, for one, could work practically for her and other homegrown stars to speed up the completion of the project as they would be at our beck and call.
Bon, to begin with, has already written the sequence treatment of the script which he promised to finish off in December, to breakdown sequences on the same month for their clustering for practical and economical purposes like promixity of distance of locations from each one so that transfer of workforce and facilities after respective scenes are shot are easier or the availibility of stars is on the dot.
The narrative calls for three daughters of the mom.
After another long travel from Manila for the second time, we conducted our first audition at DJ Bonehead (a local online show host)'s office but no one showed up despite regular on air and personal annoucements because according to Vida, young girls in their town are timid.
The third time we held the audition at Xentro Mall, we posted tarps about the search and there were already interested tryouts such as twelve-year-olds Jandy Jacinto and Krishna Fria Somera. Other prospective auditionees just milled around but they, too, said Verde, were shy and conscious of peer jeers.
In that case, we need to come back for another set of auditions hopefully to finally find the right young actresses from the countryside.
Shorts: The 6th Eddys' awards night of the Society of Philippine Entertainment Editors (SPEED) recently held at the Aliw Theater at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) grounds has decided to proclaim two Best Actress winners, namely Max Eigenmann for "12 Weeks" and Janine Gutierrez for "Bakit Di Mo Sabihin?" Max in an Albert Figueras' gown personally received the award while Lotlot de Leon accepted the plum in behalf of her daughter. Heaven's Best Productions' "Blue Room" and Cineko Productions' "Family Matters" tied for Best Film with Nuel Naval winning Best Director for the latter project. Elijah Canlas took home the Best Actor plum for "Blue Room" while Nikki Valdez won Best Supporting Actress for " Family Matters" and Mon Confiado earned Best Supporting Actor for "Nanahimik ang Gabi." Glamorous hosts for the night were Piolo Pascual and Uza Calzado...Richard Gutierrez and Sarah Labahti have called it quits as husband and wife.
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