After the last blog, which incidentally became a small novella, I’ve realized that I have some catch-up to do before filming commences again. I think I’ll start this off with a little about myself and why I am doing this project. Eon’s ago I worked for MDS Metro clinical laboratories. Growing weary of the job and life in general, I traveled through Asia. This was life changing and introduced me to a whole new look at film industries. Having always been a movie buff, I returned to Canada and decided to get involved in the film industry. I started off trying my hand at acting and realized that I have a serious lack of talent there – sometimes your heart being in it just isn’t enough. I did however get a few small roles (good for you if you can find out what they were). During an audition in Vancouver I was herded in and stood in front of the camera, lights, director, producer and casting director and thought, “I want to be sitting over there.” I abandoned acting and went to film school. I got hired as a technical coordinator before graduation and then moved up to teaching digital filmmaking, a film history class and substituting for the editing instructor. During this time I decided I wanted to make a film on Thailand – mainly the tourist trail. Despising the Canadian funding system and the diabolical institution known as the CRTC, I funded the film on my own. It was an easy decision to make because I believed in myself and my abilities. After months of filming, a year of editing, and thousands invested monetarily and in sweat equity I sold a license to CBC Canada. The film was shot on a PD-150 by myself, so don’t let anyone say you can’t do it. I was fortunate enough to make back my original investment plus some. “Bangkok Girl” is now distributed through Moving Images in Vancouver. More information can be found out about it at highbanks.ca I’ve done lots of freelance editing, camera, directing and DVD authoring, but my desire always lies within my own projects. For the last few years I have been toying around with ideas regarding the Aswang, which – simply put – is a witch or vampire type creature in Filipino folklore. The same problem always arose - doing a project and not compromising look because of the technology that is affordable or accessible. You see I believe we are in the middle of a cinema movement. Most of us don’t realize this because those who are involved in a movement rarely do. History always repeats itself; in this case it is film history. Cinema as we know it today was formed in the late sixties and early seventies – yes influence came from earlier cinema, but it was what was accessible that truly formed the stories and style of today. With films like Troy, Alexander, King Kong, and Poseidon showing disappointing results at the box office, it’s hard not to draw parallels to the 1963 flop of Cleopatra and the subsequent big budget failures at the cinema in the following years. With the studios in jeopardy the first film school filmmakers began making their mark - Dennis Hopper's (although not a film school grad was a "student" in the Roger Corman factory)"Easy Rider" being the first monetarily successful project. Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese, Coppola, Friedkn, to name a few, began adding realism to film that audiences so desperately wanted. Of course we’ve evolved in our tastes and many of these films seem boring in comparison to what we see today. A common mistake is that Tarantino and Rodriguez started a new indie film movement with Reservoir Dogs and El Mariachi. While I appreciate these films and certainly consider Rodriguez the consummate indie filmmaker, I believe they have only added a certain stylization to film as opposed to any new direction. Instead it is in the digital realm where the movement truly lies. Starting with “The Blair Witch Project” and more recently, Fubar, Open Water and the sudden tolerance for documentary. Yes, I know that some of the films are not great, but we’ve yet to have our Spielberg in this realm. Remember, Roger Corman and John Cassavettes films paved the way for Spielberg and Scorsese although neither have a Duel or Mean Streets to their credit. Patience, the talent is coming. Knowing what to do with a medium is far from being able to do it. There are thousands of digital films being shot as we speak. This brings me to my point. The trouble with attempting an ultra low budget film is that the story and style need to lend itself to the medium you are working in. I made a decision to shoot in DVCam, so a decision needed to be made on how I do that. A common mistake is to shoot it regular, just on video. This can work great, just look at 28 Days Later and Full Frontal. Trouble is, I don’t have $300, 000 to spend on a DOP or $200,000 to spend on lighting rentals. So the equation I am left with is the usual film school approach: DV + No Budget + inexperienced actors = suck. The question that needed to be addressed is how I avoid this almost certain equation? I came up with the following: Documentary Style + an interesting story + talented actors cast on personality type vs. character type + real people playing themselves + the secret ingredient = well we’ve yet to see what it equals. Another decision to make was the locations. Well, it’s Filipino folklore, so it makes sense to film part of it in the Philippines. Yes this is a huge added expense, but come on, put a little effort into it – your back yard can only look like so many things. So with a talented cast, a great story and the tools needed we began filming. The Aswang is my second major attempt at believing in myself. I am of the mentality that if you truly want something, in this case to make a film that I would want to see, then just go for it. The first rule of filmmaking is “never use your own money”. Well, those who say that can talk with Kevin Smith, Daniel Murich & Eduardo Sanchez, Michael Dowse, Edward Burns, Robert Rodriguez, Chris Kentis, Morgan Spurlock, and Mel Gibson. Most of who took a risk on themselves. Granted, the odds are stacked highly against you, but isn’t that a risk worth taking. Just do your research and spend time developing your ideas. You’ll have good days and bad days; the idea is to not let the bad days get you down. So why call this blog post The Digital Revolution? Well that is a term coined by the corporations bringing you the next great prosumer digital camera (Sony with DVCam, Panasonic with 24p, Canon with interchangeable lenses, HD) creating an urgency for you to run out and buy their wares before the revolution passes you by. Just remember, we should all have HDTV by now – what they fail to mention is that when the “HDTV switch is thrown” you can purchase a $30 down conversion box and still use your 480i television. Change, with any meaning, takes time – slow and steady. Remember that passing reality TV craze – you know the one that never passed? This is part and parcel to the success we will see in the digital movement. People want reality – a reality that they can relate to and disassociate themselves with at the same time. This gives room for people to experiment and create within a digital medium, because reality is expected to look like crap. People accepted the dirty looking films in the early seventies and they will accept them now. So concludes another novel. Please remember that this is just my very subjective opinion and is intended only as insight into why I am moving forward with “The Aswang”. It may also be used in lieu of sleeping pills.
Later we filmed two scenes where the actors find out the guts of the story and begin their journey. I had held unsuccessful auditions for the next role. On recommendation from John Emmet Tracy, I auditioned and cast Ryan Wong, a young actor still in acting school. I was hesitant at first to let him run with the scene and when we were shooting I felt I wasn’t getting what I really wanted. However, Art mentioned that the kid was doing well. After reviewing the footage later that night, I saw what Ryan was doing with his performance and he was totally right with how he portrayed the character. I phoned Ryan to tell him how well I thought he did and also phoned Art to tell him he was right. I have become so used to following my instincts that I almost lost something better by closing myself off. I’m glad that I had Ryan – who had enough confidence to bring his character where it needed to be – and didn’t let me ruin his performance. Now that being said, I think this was one of those situations that just happened to work out. Although I’ve discussed a few scenes with the actors and changed the direction through these conversations, I don’t think a director should compromise his vision for a performance – like I said, it just worked out. However, this day, Janice, Rosalynd and I sat down and talked about the improv and direction that had been given. I saw that I needed to rework the approach or the bottom could fall out of the project. Although they were performing the scenes perfectly, the approach and style of filmmaking is new to us all. We are working with guidelines as opposed to script. I wanted the actor’s personalities to come through, rather than delivering memorized lines of someone else’s words. Realizing that the actors now had a good idea of who their characters were and that the film was now taking the characters further away from their personalities, the need arose to start scripting. We will be shooting the scripted scenes in the near future. All the cast are so talented and the trust I have in their abilities and their trust in my direction and vision has been a wonderful dynamic that I hope to experience on every film I make. 
I should also mention again, an important element in this film is the ability to react to the current surrounding. Filming in Chinatown on a busy Sunday put the actors to the test and we were on constant guard, studying the frame to make sure we had nobody in the background that could be visibly singled out, or staring in the camera. I have been diligent with releases on this film. If they are recognizably on camera, they have a signed release. I have also been adamant about location and property releases – needed or not. After being put through the Errors and Omissions Insurance grinder on “Bangkok Girl” and having a lawyer who went over everything with an ultra microscopic fine tooth comb, I figured I would cover my butt. There are still several occasions where we take the approach, “it is better to beg for forgiveness than ask permission” – however these are situations with no legal recourse. Also, another piece of subjective information to new filmmakers: Make sure you have a limited liability company set up for your film. When you get to the Insurance, Legal, Finance, and Royalties stage in your project you will need this. To save hours of redoing documents to transfer rights, get it done right off the bat. A “do it yourself” Incorporation kit can be bought at any bookstore for about $30-40. Register your name, and then you just bring your documents down to the corporate registry. The total costs are around $450 – or you can spend $1200 and have a lawyer do it for you. I still have shoot days 4 and 5 to write about and then we are all caught up. Check back in the next week and it should be posted. 
