Creative Chemistry in SineBuano

CEBU, Philippines - In a bid to become a significant player in the  revitalization of Bisdak cinema—just like the many others who blazed trails like Leonard Chiu, Ruel Dahis Antipuesto, Jerrold Tarog, Remton Siega Zuasola, Ryan Zarra, Publio Briones III, Allan Jayme Rabaya and the late Benjie Ordonez, among a parliament of film buffs—the SineBuano crew converged to test creative chemistry and new equipment through a short film exercise like “Siya’y Tig” and comedy skits dubbed “Butangeee”.

However, there were sequences and frames that were hard to achieve at first because of the absence of certain gadgets and equipment.

In the final week of October, this writer as well members of SineBuano gathered to watch and study an assembly of improvised equipment purchased by the group’s producer/production manager and creative director Diem Judilla and director Allan Layaguen. Assembled and tested were two new additions to indie filmmaking arsenal—a camera crane and a camera dolly.

Diem and Allan are one in saying that filmmaking sometimes require specialized equipment such as boom poles and tripods—equipment that would usually cost several hundred dollars (or tens of thousands of pesos) to purchase for use.

But for independent filmmakers, resourcefulness, mechanical skills and DIY (do-it-yourself) ingenuity can compensate for cash and bring about equipment that can work just as effective as the genuine articles, according to Judilla.

For the sake of those who find filmmaking terms Greek, a camera dolly is a wheeled platform that allows smooth camera movement in a scene that requires motion. The camera dolly was built from plyboard, angle bars and wheelers with PVC piping to serve as rails.

A camera crane, meanwhile, allows the camera to go vertically up and down, horizontally left to right at a certain height or depth. Using aluminum and metal channels to make up its arm structure, a spare tripod as its base, a 15-foot camera crane was produced.

Plenty of helpful guides and instructions were obtained from the worldwide web to help create these DIY projects. According to Allan and Diem, “it’s a fun learning experience and activity to build and test the equipment.”

After two half-days spent at the Turtle’s Nest Café along Gorordo Avenue tinkering to make sense of the parts purchased by Allan, the creative chemistry of the SineBuano crew was put to “litmus paper test.” (Thanks to Turtle’s Nest’s Ms. Bambi Beltran for allowing the crew to use the driveway as workshop).

Off we trooped to barangay Agay-ay in Poblacion, Liloan for trial shoots on a major project. From my end, I expected to serve as production assistant but you can never really tell how the work would proceed until you’re actually there. Call time was 4 a.m. but because of the downpour, plans were temporarily cancelled. At late morning, the weather proved favorable for work to resume. Scenes at Tunay Beach were completed. Also, shoots as to how a coastal community would look most of the days were taken successfully. However, the demand to multitask as continuity clerk, as gaffer, and as script supervisor took a toll on my leg muscles. Twice, my left leg got back at me with those painful twitches.

After four hours of standing, and the world slowly losing the skylights, I heard thirst and hunger pangs throwing expletives at me. The grip men weren’t complaining at all, but obviously they could not hide the drain. First cinematographer was also soaked in sweat—grains shooting out of his shaved head. The leading lady began acting cranky complaining on some threads of continuity in her script as against the available props used. The gaffer kept complaining of the noisy, annoying drunk who went his way past kibitzers into the shanty where the other actors were receiving instructions from the director. The makeup artist helped herself to a serving of steaming clam soup in a nearby house to appease an already grumbling tummy. An actor who prepared for an afternoon shoot had to wait five hours before his less-than-a-minute exposure could be taken. Diem was trying to hold on to sanity while the drunk was trying to grab some attention from the rest of the crew.

Whew! Now I know why filmmaking is a convergence of creative chemistry. It’s the perfect blend of bitter-sweet situations and opportunities to imbibe new things by first indulging in backbreaking work to achieve that promising value of every good take; that creamy aftertaste of patience stretched and tolerance triumphant.

It’s the perfect tapestry of views and emotions from people of diverse backgrounds moving in synergy amid various humongous roles to play. Bit playing is, after all, a misnomer. There are no small parts in a movie; each person and each scene is an integral part of the conflict, complexity and redeeming values meant to be told, and on silver screen to unfold.