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...

the Back Story...80's Oz Pop Ephemera

An important part of any film is the back story...i.e., what has gone before the principle action starts. Parts of a back story are occasionally revealed as flashbacks, but more often it remains unseen; used only by the scriptwriter as reference to flesh out the characters, their actions and circumstances.
Because Manila Envelope, though semi-fictional, takes place over a specific period of time, historical accuracy is crucial. More to the point, audiences (of a certain age) tend to identify with things they can remember from their own experience. A younger audience, at the very least deserves to be accurately informed; and, dare I suggest it of my modest opus; in a greater context films can also serve as part of our collective historical record.

A big part of Manila Envelope is the main character's sense of rootlessness; he's a Canadian, who falls in love with another country (Australia)...but I digress...this verbose intro. is all by way of introducing this great piece of 80's Oz Pop ephemera....



I remember this program and remember this vid.; great reference for 80's motion graphics...Sweet and Sour was inspired by an earlier British series called Rock Dreams.


In hindsight, even by current standards, the Eighties were a tumultuous decade of rapidly accelerating change. A week, as they say, is a longtime in politics; by the 80's a week had become a long time in just about every sphere of human endeavour; and a decade is 520 weeks plus a couple of leap days... What hadn't changed much, just yet, was the arthritic snail's pace of making an animated film...

'Zard-Ilocano

Atop a hillside in Ferdinand Marcos' home province of Ilocos Norte there was once a Rushmoresque...(Rushmorish?) monument to who else...



I never did get there in person, but I first saw it on a post card in Manila.
CUT TO:
YEARS LATER:
After I had started writing my script and then thinking of things I could do in prep., I thought of doing some teaser shots using a large model of this apparition appearing Zardoz-like out of the mountain-top mist.




I did these photomontages to compare the progress of my sculpting with reference images of the Real McCoy. Unfortunately the whole thing dried too fast; cracked and fell apart...last summer was stinking hot!...like Manila!

Colour me Yellow

below are a few of my precious souvenirs of the People Power Revolution of 1986; often since refered to as EDSA I; as it was reprised some years later...



Anti-Marcos (and obviously pro-Cory) campaign sticker; Doy Laurel was Cory's running mate;'85-'86




and another...in the Philippines a Macoy is a big shot, often a foreigner or a wheel with foreign connections.




Ninoy and Cory bumper sticker, '85-'86





President Cory Aquino and her daughter Chris 1986

Regretably I didn't purchase one of the Cory rag dolls which were being sold all over everywhere in shops and by street venders...They were really cute! I've searched on EBay to no avail...they were quite small; maybe six or eight inches tall...Cory in her trademark, "simple housewife" A-line yellow shift...they had little yellow framed eyeglasses made of wire.
Curiously, there were also available at the time similar rag dolls of the ubiquitous Metro Manila Aid, who were street cleaners and maintenance people...very Democratic don't you think?

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You

to follow shortly...Here be my various and sundry souvenirs, designs, bits of writing and other peripheral and not so peripheral material re: Manila Envelope.