For Antigone VI

1, 2, 3, Take!

The cameras start rolling and on the first shot of the day was Chica sitting on his throne. He is saying something, which I do not remember. This part of the blog was written 35 days later due to my busy schedule, and I am not sure if I can remember all the details. Then, on the scene, Kervy came and started talking to his father, that is ironically much shorter than he is. I never knew that princes are made to be tall.

I sort of find Kervy’s accent as weird and very unusual to hear. All of his vowels seem to end in “h” and his eyes seem to travel 360 degrees. He cannot stop his body from moving when he points out things, given that these movements are not necessary because he is just talking to his father. In the end, Kervy’s movements were good in camera and Ma’am Benedicto appreciated his Greek-ish accent.

Chica, on the other hand, seems to have a monotonous voice. What he is doing is right however, for a king should not change tone. A ruler, on movies, is always strict, and always has a firm voice.

Alvin is just watching, and is continuously asking on what had happened on GPR. He is asking on how did the shoot went, how did we shoot the scenes, what notable events had happened her, and if we had lost all of our puri there.

I am holding the camera, because this is one of my favorite jobs – to be the camera operator! Chica and Kervy commits endless mistakes, and we gaggle endless laughs. This was the last day of the Antigone shoot, and lonely as it sounds, I have to make the most out of it. More than six Saturdays and a few Sundays have been sacrificed to this project, and I’m sure I’ll miss these weekend sessions. I’m gonna miss seeing the faces that have become part of my weekend routine.

Chica is now Kapampangan, he says, after repeatedly transposing the “h” sound wrongly in “his enemies”. He pronounces it as “is henemies”, and he repeated it for about five times. Even the cameraman (me) cannot stop but to laugh every time he approaches that line. Kervy is laughing, too, and Chica is really trying hard to pronounce it right.

After total silence and laugh control, Chica was able to perfect his line but erupts his straight-from-the-throat laugh instantly after the word “cut”.

The sun is setting, and yet they haven’t finished the scene that they are taking. The actors are having problems with memorization, and Chica asked me to cut the less important lines so that the time will be lessened and the memorization will be easier. Meanwhile, the cameraman is having some issues with battery power. After bursting laughs at the bloopers, the battery has exhausted its supply and it needs some charging. We charged it on small rounds of 15 minutes while chica and Kervy are memorizing their lines. A 15 minute charge is not long enough, and soon, the battery will be empty again. This interruption has cost us time, but who knows, I might thank the battery later in the story. 

If the three of us are having issues, Alvin also has his own. Earlier before, he has been trying to install Adobe Premiere on his laptop. The installation process takes about 20 minutes to complete, but every time he completes all the process, once he opens it, it always say that his product is not registered. His crack is not working, and he has tried different installation preferences for more than an hour now. He is getting impatient to it, and finally, he has googled a fix for it.

There are sites in the Web wherein before you can download a certain file, you have to wait for 600 seconds if you do not have a premium account on that site. A premium account costs dollars, and are only availed by those rich people who prefers convenience over money. Alvin stumbled upon one of those, all for the sake of a file less than one megabyte in size. He waited for the 600-second countdown to finish with all his patience.

At last, the countdown is over! Now, it is time to click “Download”. Accidentally, he clicked another link, and it caused the browser to navigate away from that page. Alvin has not clicked “download” yet, and the page is now gone. He tried to go back, but the countdown is starting all over again. Refreshing it does not have an effect, it always begin at the 600-second countdown.

Alvin patiently waited again for the 600 seconds to be over, and this time, he carefully rolled his finger so that the mouse cursor will be in an accurate position over the “Download” button, and gently clicked it, as not to click anything else. He made it like an expert surgeon, slowly but surely. He waited for the file to finish downloading.

A click – and I took a gulp. If this fix won’t work then it will be another terrible for delay for the already out-of-schedule project. We will face our total ruin. (and those words re from Ismene’s lines to Antigone. Haha).

Alvin began the long installation process and I waited as I sit on the most comfortable sala set in the world. Oh, the exaggerations. As the green bar slowly progresses on the black screen of the installation window of Adobe, I uttered, “Whoa, what? Overnight here?” Alvin and Kervy laughed, while Chica looked at me as if I was insane. I just joined there laughter, hiding that what they treated as a joke, was for me a serious suggestion. I never thought they would life, for I was really serious then. I decided not to open that topic again. I have brought extra clothes with me, expecting that the overnight will open. On the positive side, at least I am ready for anything.

“I will go home at 7pm,” Kervy said. Aw. I think that was too early. We haven’t reached the half mark of the shoot yet, and yet he’ll go home at 7? He also said back then at Salakot, when we are assigning positions to the members, that he is willing to stay overnight at Alvin’s house. I anticipated those words so much, but he shattered my thoughts with those words.