efficiency

I got things done today.

First off, I finished off my shopping. Well, I have two more gifts to get. I just realized, looking at the stuff I bought, I've been buying more for the kids than the adults. That's what they get for begetting kids. But at the same time, I'm not getting anything from my aunts, uncles, and godparents. Maybe because I've become an uncle and godfather too. I've been bumped up and all the good stuff are going to the kids, damnit.

I also got a whole bunch of DVD-Rs. That's for archiving a year's worth of work. That's getting done while I write this thing up. It might take a while though. I think I'm barely one-fifth done.

Been getting a lot of new music lately. Liking MGMT and Silver Jews is up next.

I also finished watching Milk this morning. That was pretty good. It's so easy to make a mediocre biopic. Just get the guy to overcome some hurdle in life, or die trying, then cue the dramatic music. Well Milk does all that but it does it pretty good. Gus Van Sant gets awesome work out of Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch and company. He gets Harris Savides to light it like they're rioting in the 70's again. But at the heart of it, I mean aside from the solid acting, is the really great writing (Dustin Lance Black). I like what was said, how it was pieced together, and how they chose to show the end. It was just good filmmaking by Van Sant.

Just now, between archiving and writing, I set up my brother's laptop so my mother could talk to her sister in LA over Skype. They squealed like high schoolers. They're talking about yesterday's Christmas lunch menu and discussing New Year's menu already.

That's how I'm spent my day-after-Christmas. Very productive. But the two more gifts I have to get are actually for my parents. So I have to hurry up on those.

favorites

Chris Farley by Chris Buck from A Photo Editor

One of my few favorite portrait photographers, Chris Buck, gets interviewed on A Photo Editor. Chris talks about how living with your parents is good for your career while assisting isn't. Also how to work with publicists and his 10 year old lists of ideas.

Interview part 1.
Interview part 2.

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photos by Alec Soth

Another favorite, Alec Soth's last project commemorates the end of the George W. Bush era. This is just me but I feel that The Last Days Of W isn't as strong as his older work. It might be because I feel some fatigue for what seems to be the visual contemporization of conservative, anonymous, middle-America. But I don't doubt that it's very personal work for Soth, whose rise as photographer coincided with the years of W's presidency.

Alec Soth talks more about this body of work on PDN. The "Either Dusk or Dawn" interview is here.

goodbye Computer!

Majel Barrett, wife of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, erstwhile Number One (for the pilot, The Cage), erstwhile Nurse Chapel, whose love for Spock was forever unrequited, and also known as the voice of many a Federation Starship Computer died a couple of days ago.

Majel Barrett's video round up at the National Post.

lists

I think this is one of my few breaks in this hectic week. And it's actually just downtime between editing sessions. So here I am, checking out bands on Myspace, chatting people up... blogging.

I like that this is the season for making lists. And I'm not even talking about Christmas wishlists. Yet. 'Tis the season for Top 10 lists. Websites, bloggers are coming out with their own take on the top movies and music of the year. And it's season where I mooch off the opinions of others. Sure I make an effort. I list down songs from TV shows that I watch (haha), I watch trailers, read the reviews, interviews. But sometimes time is short so you trust the taste of selected buddies and the criteria of people who might know a thing or two more.

So in this little break I have, I'm writing this down, listening and liking Bon Iver a lot, and downloading Parts and Labor. Will source The Fall and Let The Right One In later.

Saka na yung Christmas wish list ko.

Stella Kalaw at Silverlens

Stella Kalaw at Silverlens. January 8, 2009.

I've been waiting for this show and I'm glad it's finally happening.

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It's been tough lately. I mean work coupled with the whole holiday stuff is taking its toll. While the whole country will be closing shop, I might be shooting during the week of Christmas. Then there are those 16-20 videos I have to produce by this weekend. Technically, I've been producing them for a couple of months now. But I've got a supplier who's just been very delinquent. It's nerve-wracking.

Seriously, the only break I think I've gotten was that three-day Iloilo trip where we only worked for one day of it. It was a good break. I made progress with my reading and I even caught two NBA games on the hotel's cable. Then I got back last Friday night, too late for meeting I was supposed to be at, but in time for one of many, many Christmas events.

Anyway, I'm just trying to keep it together. Hopefully everything will pass and I make it to celebrating Christmas on the day itself.

tune in, turn on

Caliph8 pa lang sulit na. Be there!

looks

A good friend of mine finally launched her chocolate business, Risa Chocolates. They’re so good, I said that, next time, she should get me to shoot her products because I’d be happy to be work for food. It wouldn't be the first time.

So many of my friends are striking out on their own this year. They’re leaving their office jobs to set up their own businesses and work for themselves. Bad economy or not, a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do and I’m all for that.

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Tomorrow, I’m leaving for what I think is the last working trip of the year. I was given the choice between shooting Iloilo and Bohol, and I picked Iloilo because I haven’t been. Only to realize that I have been, for an overnight quickie shoot. So now I get to stay a bit longer.

I was looking at the itinerary this afternoon, and it looks like a relatively easy trip. And I thought to myself, great, I can catch up with my reading.

That scared me. I’m turning into an old man who thinks trips are for catching up on reading and not for, well, travelling. So, while I still am bringing my copy of The Three Musketeers, I’m saving it for the downtime.

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There’s a reason why I’m re-reading one of my favorite Dumas novels (after Monte Cristo and Georges). It’s because I’ve read Musketeers and Man In The Iron Mask without realizing that they are the ends of a trilogy. I completely missed out on the middle book, Twenty Years After. Not only that, apparently Iron Mask is only a volume in a traditionally three-volume piece of work. So, damnit, I’ve got ground to cover.

PS William Eggleston is color blind. Crazy man.

going, going, gone

I am brain dead. But before I got to being that way, I had a great, if not busy, last week.

Last week, I screened my short for friends and family and the turnout was really good. Also, I think they liked it. No one walked out or was particularly obnoxious. People were interested, commenting, asking questions on the technicals, plot points and the ending. I suppose the worse thing for any work is to be ignored so thanks from the bottom of my heart. I’ve also been asked about a sequel. Not that I’ve ever heard of a sequel for a short film. But you know, with the way it ended, it’s not such an out-of-this-world idea… Still I don’t know. There’s a part of me that wants to move on to other stories and there’s another part that’s just easy to tempt.

Anyway, after the midweek screening, there was this legendary, ”industry” party hosted by one of the top post-prod houses last Friday. That was crazy. It was like 1999 all over again. And the thing with this industry where it’s okay to come to work in a t-shirt and a pair of sneakers is that nobody really gets violent. Sure there’s backstabbing, pirating and lowballing, but hey, we still like to party and go home in one piece. No nightclub shootings or parking lot scuffles for the creative types.

Also, a high school buddy got hitched last night. They had a Chinese Lauriat at the reception. Scallops, steamed fish, prawn salad, peking duck ang mango sago! High fives! But the MSG got to me, and I was knocked out pretty quick.

I woke up to today, where I had a postponed pre-prod meeting, a short, relatively easy shoot, and where I’ll have the rescheduled pre-prod meeting after dinner. I’m in a coffee shop right now, drinking just water, because the house is an Internet-less black hole. And the madness that is the rush hour, Yultide season, low-priced gas traffic just makes it plain nuts to go back and forth.

I’m sitting here, my day not quite done, and I’m taking stock of my week ahead.

There’s my full day video shoot tomorrow, which will be capped by a possibly late night, long-haul shoot for an advertising buddy. I’m actually going to try to get that late night shoot moved. Only because, Wednesday, I have to be in the airport by 7AM for a three-day Iloilo travel feature. That’s actually something I’ve been looking forward to (and I still do) but the thought that I’ll be flying in on a Friday night, get through Friday-night traffic during the Christmas season, to get to either a rehearsal for this concert I’m producing videos for, a high school reunion, or that late-night shoot I want to cancel is just killing me in already. Who said foresight was going to save you?

So there, just sitting here, sipping water, thinking how sad it is to start liking the microwaved, hot food of a coffee chain, trying not to remember the comfort of my bed, or the joy of re-reading The Three Musketeers, while waiting for a pre-prod meeting to get going two hours from now, I am brain dead.

shout out!

That was really cool of all of you to come. A big thanks to everyone!

Found this on Horses Think and Hollister Hovey.

In the early 1900s, Frenchman Albert Kahn was such a damn rich banker that he sent photographers around the world to shoot anything using the newly invented Autochrome method. The results, gathered from around 72,000 images and 183,000 meters of film, is a rich visual record of the world in the midst of major upheavals. The philanthropist in Kahn believed that his archive of the planet could foster multiculturalism and peace. He did badly during the depression but managed to leave behind a museum to house his precious Autochromes.

The idea of a such a huge project notwithstanding, the images themselves are great. In this time where everyone is used to a having a camera pointed at them, and the making of strong images is a cute pastiche at the least, or a deliberate, post-modern parody at the most, these old/lost world images are striking in their simplicity.

BBC made a documentary (with more of a historical slant) and came out a with a book, The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn: Color Photographs From A Lost Age. There’s another book out on the same thing, The Dawn of the Color Photography: Albert Kahn’s Archive of the Planet, and I still haven’t figured out how they are different. Honestly, I might just end up ordering both.

*Old colored photos give me an excuse to rip off a Cut Copy album title as my own.

secret prospekt

Today, I’m almost literally twiddling my thumbs. It’s a holiday and I can’t do errands because the places I have to go to are closed. So I spent time listening to the new Coldplay EP and checking out PostSecret, and then suddenly, it all clicked. If I had to make a PostSecret postcard, it would say: I really like Coldplay.

Hehe…

PS. Happy birthday Pa, I’ll see you soon!

You know, I wanted to be many things growing up. I went from wanting to be a taho vendor, to being in the army, to being a painter, to having my own burger joint, to wanting to be scientist, to being writer, and all that. Then I discovered film in high school (Cinema Paradiso!) but I got sidetracked by this whole photography thing.

I love photography, I’ll never stop taking pictures, and I believe in the power of the single, still image. It’s like my own version of poetry (since I never got literal poetry anyway). Yet, I’ve always felt that making a movie would be like writing and telling story. Quite a different thing from the little visual poetry I already try to do. So I never forgot that I wanted to do the whole story telling thing too.

So I went to workshops and all that. Came up with a story, discarded it, then sat down again to finally get it done. Got a great bunch of really cool and great people together, became friends, and made the damn short film.

It was great doing it. I’m glad I did it. I learned a lot. Just today, while writing this little note, I realized that my title is also quite apt for the whole experience of making this short.
So. Sa madaling salita, I’m finally screening my short film, “TRAINING” for friends and family. (Email me for details.)

Salamat sa lahat nag sabing, “sige gawin mo yan!,” sa mga kaibigang nagbasa, sa mga astig na taong tumulong sa akin sa pag gawa! Kita kits tayo dun!