Pre-prod., co-prod., cattle prod...

What do you do when you want to make a movie, and, let's face it, there's really no hope of it ever coming to fruition?...Pre-production!

I've tried a number of times to start storyboarding my flick...should be a good fit...me, latterly an animation person...storyboarding... A good storyboard would be a plus for any future pitch; but as you should know by now I've developed an allergy to deconstructing films into millions of little drawings...Gee, can't think why!

I'm also off-put by the trend which has developed over the last couple of decades which has become the industry standard to 'board everything with perfect sketches that look like panels from a graphic novel...thanks for raising the bar @$#*-wits!
On the one hand, this has the advantage of allowing the storyboard artist to direct the film...which is fine if he/she actually is directing the film...on the other hand it could potentially lock the shot or sequence in people's heads, stifling that impromptu ad lib inventiveness that can give rise to more interesting solutions.
Even in traditional animation; which never goes beyond being anything more than a drawing, simple sequences were often only storyboarded as rough thumbnails...which was more than sufficient.
In a live action shoot, particularly on location, outside of a controlled studio set up, a zillion variables will inevitably arise on the day and have to be dealt with to get something in the can. A storyboard is of course helpful, but not an end in itself, and needn't be treated as such.

O.K,. enough excuses. I've given a lot of thought to trying to shoot a few scenes to try to drum up some interest. I don't think anything is worth doing unless it can be done properly. You're better off not making a movie at all than making a bad one (hence this Blog!, which I realize is pretty crappy but not widely known)...a bad film is to a hopeful filmmaker what bad architecture is to an architect...you really don't want to get stuck with something that conspicuous.

What can I realistically shoot within my no budget; no real location; full body cast constraints?...well quite a bit perhaps...

The location requirements of Manila Envelope are, I feel, pretty flexible.

Much of the action is set in Makati; the modern business district of Manila. High rise office blocks look the same everywhere...as do large scale animation studios, Pizza Huts, McDonald's and mid range studio apartments.

haven't got time to finish this entry right now...

Sets appeal...


This is a photo-collage of a 1:50 scale model for a set of the first class cabin on a 747 (I designed and constructed the left hand wall floor and bulkhead from photo reference gleaned from the Internet)
Early in Manila Envelope we see our protagonist flying to Manila Mabuhay Class on Philippine Airlines...it just might be possible to shoot part of this seq. as a teaser...also test out some green screen...the idea is to reveal this grand beginning, travelling in opulent luxury; the protagonist will be awakened from a preceding dream sequence and be served breakfast. During this montage we will see a contemporaneous Pop video on the video projector at the front of the cabin...ideally a remake of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by a Filipina pop star. This is all MOS under the waltz from Coppelia.

Gringo's Digs



The protagonist's flat (1:50 scale) seen from off the balcony...



The protagonist's flat minus a few wild walls...sorry about the pix, my crappy digital camera died...I think I'll buy a new one today...

P.S. 07/07/07
Didn't buy a new camera yet.
I've seldom had access to a decent camera when I needed one...nice as it was; and seemingly very high tech at the time, I only shot a few pix with my SX-70 when I was in Manila...below is the view from that balcony modelled above...

Giant steps are what you take, walking on the Moon...

How best to show-off my custom made Boa Constrictor Winkle Pickers; then to pose on a BG rescued from the rubbish bin...took my even pointier blue suede shoes which I bought in trendy Sydney to the custom cobbler in the Greenbelt Mall in Makati...I asked him to make some of these out of some of that...he had me stand on a card; traced my foot; made a few measurements and voila; a week and about $35 later (this was 1985 remember!) I strode out of the shop in these...
About a year after I returned to Canada I even saw some in a shop here in Hooterville...didn't realize I was such a trend-setter did you!




...and, for about another $70, these; also custom made, Iguana and kidskin. YeeeHaa!

the PSDF; the Philippines in 2085

To whom it may concern...accidental return visitors...invited guests...the internet is pretty ginormous; so I suppose there's some chance that someone might have noticed that I've moved this post from My Unmade Movie (my original Blog), to here; its logical home.

For the time being...I put this up on YouTube so that I could embed it later; I've made a few little animatics etc., amongst the smattering of preparatory work for Manila Envelope...There's a dream seq. near the beginning which is done in the style of an Anime cartoon, which gradually blends to live action...sounds expensive huh?, doesn't really have to be...this is the "alert" screen on an astronaut's wrist communicator in an insert shot...



PSDF is the Philippine Space Defence Force

...almost forgot...quelle coincidence!...last night (that would have been Monday, 11/June/07) as I was leaving work, I looked up and there was the I.S.S....with its new solar array and Atlantis docked...way brighter than Jupiter!...watched it for a couple of minutes 'til it disappeared into the Earth's shadow...stunning!

Time Out

When I was at film school in London from '77-'78 (and when we lived there later from '88-'01) I would often buy Time Out...the weekly guide to all that was going on in the Big Smoke.
When I settled in to my room at the Manila Garden Hotel, at the start of the great adventure that would later spawn Manila Envelope (My unmade Movie), I found a complementary copy of What's On In Manila...which I kept; note the date; click to enlarge...great set dressing!

1985: A Philippine Odyssey...Getting there was more than half the fun...

You've got to believe me when I tell you that when I wrote it; "product placement" was the furthest thing from my mind. The fact of the matter was that because of some mix-up in Sydney a junior secretary had misunderstood and booked me a ticket from L.A. to Manila travelling Mabuhay Class on Philippine Airlines...it was the Zenith of luxury; private boarding lounge the whole bit...what a great start to a great adventure!

There is a cliched way of indicating with a few shots that a character in a film is going from A to B...the stock shot of the plane in flight; then maybe that underbelly shot of the landing, wheels chirping as they kiss the tarmac...BORING!
...my intent was to reference Floyd's flight to the Moon in 2001...because, a.) I loved that film!; b.) Our protaganist is dreaming a sci-fi cartoon which mixes to the live action at this point; c.) parts of the original seq. in 2001 were shot on an Oxberry animation stand...cel animated photographs of models, which have an unmistakable look and which represent a high point in cel animtion as an effects tool...and d.) the accompanying music would be the Waltz from Coppelia; (rather than the Blue Danube)...see Filipina Ballerinas below

As the story began to take shape and I recalled watching the events of the People Power revolution unfold...(oh yes! the revolution was televised!)...one of the Guerilla reporters read on air, a letter from the then president of Philippine Airlines tendering their resignation to the Marcos Gov't and placing their services and those of the company at the service of Cory Acquino's new administration. The reporter then added that PAL was the first such company to do so., it was a watershed moment.

Later, I also remembered that PAL underwent a revamp of it's livery after the revolution and, to my mind, it became a palpable symbol of the resurgence of optimism and change that had taken hold in the country after the Miracle of EDSA. I had my perfect "leaving Manila" sequence with the new PAL Jumbo in it's gorgeous new colour scheme...a perfect visual metaphor...and that's what movies are about...flying off; (CGI this time) not into the sunset but into the sunrise.



Mabuhay Class...It was mind-bogglingly luxurious...




almost contemporaneous, to My Unmade Movie...found this ad on YouTube, sited as circa 1987.
Philippine Airlines is also the oldest Airline in Asia (est. 1941)

Filipina Ballerinas...CoppeliaX2

It wasn't an entirely Filipino troupe...guest artist Yoko Morishita; then Japan's Prima Ballerina, danced Coppelia.

Just days before my 30th birthday and a couple of weeks before the Revolution, I took my then fiancee (now my wife), her sister and another friend to see Coppelia at the CCP (Cultural Centre of the Philippines)...I had seen the Australian Ballet's performance about ten months earlier at the Sydney Opera House...and that is why the Waltz from Coppelia is to be used as BG music in the flight to Manila seq. near the beginning of Manila Envelope.

A good night on telly...

Saturday was T.V. night in Manila, that was when the only good foreign (i.e. all English language) things were on...Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre (a delightful little family diversion) followed, rather incongruously, by The Equalizer with that incredible Stewart Copeland theme tune...



to once again wheel out that well worn phrase..."as originally conceived, in Manila Envelope"...I wanted to mix from watching the Equalizer on T.V., with that fantastic kick-ass music to Enrile and Ramos meeting to make preparations for the Coup d'Etat...which coincidentally really did happen on a Saturday night...