August 2011 Works and Developments

Our FB Group has been very busy for the past weeks. Lots of concept studies and developments. This FB platform is really very helpful with our production set-up. Plus, we don't need to always print out materials and the documents and photos always come in handy any time. :)

Here's one photo I found while doing some archiving of my old hard drive and finding some old pix along the way. This photo was an ocular we had in Montalban from many years back -- the time when we were about to shoot my film "Aninag" (Light's Play). So I readily took the uploaded photos in our FB group for references for our backgrounds.

Who would have thought that after a number of years, after shooting a live-action fantasy children's film, I'll be going back to this very location to shoot a new short?

It's actually an animated film about the Legend of Bernardo Carpio, but there are minimal live action parts in the script. So, see you soon again, Wawa Gorge! :)

Rough Works and Juggling Around... May 2011

I've been working on the sequence treatment for the film, finalizing it, actually. And at the same time, I've been juggling in between researches, preliminary sketches, concept artworks, character designs, and background designs. All those on the side since professional works are really piling up (need to pay the bills!!). So I've been pretty much working on my free times for this indie project. It's very much like how the rest of the team are working. Like the rest of other Tuldok projects, it's always been a "virtual office" set-up given our limited resources. That's not something to stop you from doing things anyway ;-)

So far, I've been working online with my previous production designer for most of my other live action films for initial ideas on the costumes. I am also regularly working with the project's concept artist/background and set artist. I've been giving some updates and asking for creative inputs from my editor and art director/storyboard artist as well.

I'm starting to pile up on lots of materials from documents to artworks. Looking good!!

It's really a work-in-progress... but it's definitely taking some shape now. Ayos. =D

Presenting My Story and Treatment from 8,000 Miles Away: From the Other End of the Line... The Manila Perspective

So here are the events that happened from the other end of the line... Thanks to Frank Aldana for sharing the photos! =D

Working out the kinks:

Finally! Connected!!

Pitching session!!

I'm definitely missing here... =p

Presenting My Story and Treatment from 8,000 Miles Away: So This is What Happened...

After a couple of Internet issues, iChat and YM blocked by the office network in Manila, troubleshooting, iChat started working but screen sharing disabled! Thinking fast... Screen sharing via Skype worked! Took a few good minutes. Well worth the wait, at least I was able to present on my own and not with the last option of having video conference then Mon is gonna click the Keynote presentation for me from there -- as I look on the video for the cue for the next slide to show.

Took a few shots. Here they are:

Presenting My Story and Treatment from 8,000 Miles Away: Planning and Testing

Artheus, my workhorse MBP

Yesterday, I woke up quite early with Internet as breakfast. I actually slept quite late, just a few hours before, but I think it has something to do with the music playing on the background that woke me up in no time. After falling asleep with my laptop on my bed (it was a productively tiring work night as usual), The LOTR 1 soundtrack has been looping in my iPod and it's not really a "pro-sleeping soundtrack."

Anyway, I think it was about 10pm or so in Manila. And had to talk to Ramon for the pitching session for the stories.

I have to present my project as well. But obviously, I can't be there until the last quarter of 2011. I'm currently in the U.S. and the most I can do is to provide all the materials to people in Manila. I got a spoonfeeding type of Keynote presentation with PDF backup and video peg for the animation also sent  separately so all materials are already there prior to the Saturday session.

A slide from my Keynote presentation exported in PDF format (backup copy I sent to people in Manila)

I could have sent a representative from my creative team already, but decided not to first. I thought it would be better to have somebody from my team once we "officially start," with their contracts on hand. There are other options anyway. I'm looking for ways to present, that for the first ever pitching and presentation about my plans for my film, I'm taking charge.

Initially, Ramon will be my "proxy." He has the materials from me and he considerably knows my story. We actually developed it while riding the plane back to Manila from our animation workshop in Aklan last March.

So Ramon was online that morning. Good! So it's time to talk about how the presentation will go. Prior to that, we were looking for ways to make an online presentation possible. Suggestions included Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Facetime, Google Wave, the Share button in Keynote, among others. Apparently, only one option seemed appropriate: Apple's iChat.

Awesome MBP!!!

Since we both have Macs, we started exploring the program. In a breeze, my screen got shared to his screen from 8,000 miles away! Awesome! Successful test! Technology is so cool!!!  Best of all... it's free!! It's as simple as opening iChat in the two Macs. =D

His laptop is going to be an extension of my laptop. Then his laptop will connect to the projector and an external speaker for better audio from the conference room where the presentation will be done in the Philippines.

The plan is to also have one of the many laptops during the presentation to be used for Skype or YM. I'll be there via video conference. That laptop will just be beside Mon's Mac and the projector so people can see my face and I can see them. It helps, too, that the conference room's table was long and rectangular (with a vertical orientation from the projection wall) -- making me have a good view of people there during the video conference. They see me, I see them!

This is my first time to do a professional presentation from thousands of miles away. Really cool. Let's see what happens... session starts in about 12 hours from now. It's 2pm, Saturday, Philippine time, which is also 11pm, Friday, Pacific Standard Time.

Going back to Wawa Dam in Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal

I shot my second film “Aninag” (Light's Play) at the exact location of the story of Bernardo Carpio -- at the Wawa Dam. I have lots of footage in video and also in 35mm film (those used on the film plus the out takes/unused footage). The film featured locations around "The Two Clashing Boulders" from "The Legend of Bernardo Carpio."

Almost a decade later, it's time to go back to do updated research and documentation for Tuldok's animation project "Folktales Animated." This includes our "Project Bernardo Carpio,"

You can check out more about the "Aninag" at: www.riannehillsoriano.com/aninag.html.

Here's the 15-minute short film "Aninag." Enjoy!

Researching About "The Legend of Bernardo Carpio"

Bernardo Carpio: a being of great strength trapped in between two great rocks in the Mountains of Rodriguez, Rizal.

Some versions say he is keeping the mountains from crashing into each other (similar to the Greek titan Atlas holding up the sky), and some versions say he is trapped and trying to break free. When Bernardo Carpio shrugs his shoulder, an earthquake occurs.

Some say it is one form of revolutionary story against the abuses done during the Spanish occupation.

Filipino revolutionary heroes Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio are said to have paid homage to the Bernardo Carpio legend - the former by making a pilgrimage to Montalban, and the latter making the caves of Montalban the secret meeting place for the Katipunan.

From Wikipedia: The Spanish hired a local engkantado (shaman) and conspired to trap him through supernatural means. The engkantado used his agimat (talisman) and he was caught between two boulders which the shaman had caused to grind each other. The legend says he was not killed, but was trapped between these two boulders, unable to escape because the talisman's power was as great as his own strength.

People soon surmised that whenever an earthquake happens, it is caused by Bernardo Carpio trying to free himself from the mountain.

The tale of Bernardo Carpio can be considered an etiological myth which explains the occurrence of Earthquakes. Interestingly, the area hosting the legend is also home to the Valley Fault System (formerly called the Marikina Valley Fault System).

Damiana Eugenio was able to find and document a 1940 compilation of tales detailing the legend of Bernardo Carpio. It specifically says that "Bernardo Carpio is considered the savior of the Filipinos against national oppression and enslavement."

According to that particular telling of the tale, when the last link on the chains binding Carpio is broken, "the enslavement and oppression of the Filipino race will be replaced with freedom and happiness."

While this belief apparently referred to the Spanish Occupation of the Philippines and the later occupation by the Philippines by the U.S. and by Japan in WWII, the legend has continued to be told this way, an apparent reference to freedom from poverty rather than foreign domination.