PR for the film Pera-perahang Lata

PR for the film Pera-perahang Lata (2008)

After the success of her first two short films “Aninag” (New York International Independent Film and Video Festival 2005, Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival 2006, New York Filipino Film Festival 2005, UNESCO Audio-Visual E-Platform, 3rd Place at Viva’s PBO Digitales Film Competition 2006) and “Karsel” (Kodak Film Award 2003 and Best Production Thesis 2003 of the UP Film Institute, International Women’s Film Festival 2006 and Nominee for the Gawad Urian Best Short Film 2003), writer-director Rianne Hill Soriano saw an opportunity to make a third film with “Pera-perahang Lata,” a film that explores the journey of a young factory worker during the Christmas season.

She worked on the screenplay of “Pera-perahang Lata,” initially for almost a month, then kept it in her “baul of concepts,” made final revisions three years after, and pitched the project to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) last April 2007 after resigning from her day job and going back to freelance work as a production artist.

The cast is led by a talented newcomer for an independent film production, singer-actor Von Arroyo, making his film debut. The challenge of the casting process was to find a believable and realistic character around which the events of the story evolve. To play the main character ‘Nilo,’ Rianne looked for someone who could not just deliver well with his acting skills, but also carry the film with a certain look and way of thinking reflecting his moves, words, and expressions.

The setting is during the Christmas season where the needy, middle class, and rich people come together sharing gifts, giving and receiving alms, adorning their homes, offices and other establishments with Christmas decors, and attending the “Simbang Gabi.” The film’s look is a combination of: the dark and gritty; and the light and Yuletide. The realistic treatment mainly shows the dark alleys, tall buildings, and different kinds of people travailing public places. The film intends to bring a fresh perspective for a film with a common theme and story. The treatment upped the ante on the bits of drama, comedy, action, and suspense elements.

The film has many firsts: the writer-director’s first time to have a look at the world through a man’s eyes with male characters on major roles (her first film had a feminist theme and her second film, a children’s film, mostly had female characters as well); her first time to shoot a film pegged on realism (her previous films were generally dark, surreal, expressionist, and had tinges of magic realism); and her first time to assemble such a larger sphere of key players both behind the scenes and in front of the camera.

Rianne worked in a very free style way as she believes of bringing out the best of the film by having many brilliant and creative minds at work. With film being a collaborative medium, she lives up to the idea that all the people working in the filmmaking process are filmmakers – from the producer to the utilityman – as they all play significant roles in making things work effectively to finally come up with a film.

She was fortunate enough to bring back some members of her production team from her first and second films. This new film was shot primarily in Marikina City, and some scenes in Antipolo City and Pasig City as well, under the photographic aegis of cinematographer Wowie Hao and the knack for excellent visual design of production designer Joy Puntawe. Completing the major members of the production staff include: production manager Gavin Herrera, art director Armi Cacanindin, assistant director Karla Pambid, musical scorer/sound engineer Philip Arvin Jarilla, field sound recordist Mark Locsin, and casting by Gigi Pirote.

The film stars Von Arroyo, Arnold Reyes, Paul Sy, Judith Soriao, Dante Balois, Jocel Vergel de Dios, Loida Petalio, Henrex Alduezo, Gio Respall, Dido dela Paz, Marnie Lapus, Ces Aldaba, Karl Moro, Rommel Buenaventura, Ellen Estrada, and a number of other talented character actors and actresses in film, TV, and theater.

The film is produced by the NCCA and Colorwheel Media Studios. The production was blessed by the support of major production houses including Unitel Pictures for camera equipment, FILMEX for lighting equipment, Engine Room for offline editing requirements, Outpost Digital Frontier for online editing requirements, Optima for colorgrading requirements, and Hit Productions for sound production requirements. The city government of Marikina, Marikina Riverbanks, St. Francis Xavier Parish Church, Streetpark Productions and Brass Knuckles also gave support for the production.

The film is set to premiere on the first quarter of 2009. You can also visit HYPERLINK "http://www.peraperahanglata.blogspot.com" www.peraperahanglata.blogspot.com for more information about the film.

Thank you NCCA, Unitel, Filmex, Engine Room, Optima, Marikina City government, and Marikina Riverbanks

Thank you so much for making this film possible:

Pera-perahang Lata Copyright

It's official! :D

Behind the Lens: Nilo (Day 1 Shoot)

Looking From Behind... Day 1

Principal Photography - Day 1

Day 1 Shoot Storyboarding

Both graduates of De La Salle University and both being animators, Ramon del Prado and Dave Navarro made the storyboard for the "Pera-perahang Lata."


Ramon is a core group member of Tuldok Animation Studios and taking up his MFA at the School of Visual Arts. He also directed award-winning short animated films including "Egg," "I Am the Superhero," "Putek," "Dok," and "Libingan."

Dave currently works as a sound engineer and voice talent at Hit Productions.

Pera-perahang Lata Pre-prod for Day 1

Pera-perahang Lata Workshop for Day 1 Shoot

Workshop, getting-to-know, and bonding moments for the staff and cast (many secrets were revealed wehehe!)

Von Arroyo as Nilo
Judith Soriao as Gary's mom
Dante Balois as Gary's dad
Jocel Vergel de Dios as Gary's sister

Venue: Boardroom of the Avignon Tower, dela Costa St. Makati City
You also see my AD Karla Pambid and my casting coordinator Gigi Pirote (both very talented actresses I have worked with before) facing each other at the lower right side. Bor Ocampo is there too... bit playing as a lover with his girlfriend in the film Ayeen Pineda (who took all these pix as well hehe!)

Pera-perahang Lata Voice Recording of Nilo's Mom and Sister Characters

Gigi Pirote as Nilo's mom
Noemi Oineza as Nilo's little sister
Sound engineer: Philip Arvin Jarilla


Special thanks to:

Hit Productions
Dennis Cham, Senior Partner and Technical Director
Brian Cua, Senior Partner and Creative Director
Salomon Malca, Senior Partner and CFO
Vic Icasas, President and Managing partner
Eric Adorable, Director of Audio Engineering
Leticia Sarmiento, Traffic Manager
Vener Ariston, Transfer Technician
Dave Navarro, Audio Engineer
RJ Mortega, Audio Engineer
Philip Arvin Jarilla, Audio Engineer

Auditions for the Film

The dates Aug. 17 and 18, 2007 were stormy days... Good to know many came to the auditions still :D

Locations for Day 1 Shoot (Nilo's and Gary's Apartments, Wake Sequence)

We found the best locations for the film!!! We love Marikina City!


Special thanks to:

San Roque Barangay Hall (Brgy. Capt. Benjamin Cruz)

A Day After Pera-perahang Lata Day 1 Shoot

I have never updated much of this blog since I signed the MOA for my film grant. Well, after signing it last Aug. 2, 2007 at the NCCA, I had to focus on the pre-prod since I needed to shoot on Sept. 2 - yeah, exactly 1 month after. For the record, this is the shortest pre-prod I'm doin as a filmmaker. Really tough. I had exactly one month to do loc scouting, oculars, marketing, conducting auditions, workshops, pre-prod meetings, doing my pegs, making the storyboard, securing permits, and all other pre-prod stuff (all while documenting all the works as much as I could).

Today is Sept. 3, 2007. Day after my shoot. 6:50 p. m. I haven't had enough sleep and rest yet. I had class the entire day. Filmmaker yesterday, teacher today. :D Funny, one of my students brought that thing medical people use to measure blood pressure. haha! mine is 80/70. yeah. stress. I need to sleep first to recover. But hey, I'm home now. But I'm not yet sleepy. Had to work on stuff din. Ahehe! Anyway, since Day 1 is now accomplished, I can probably update this a bit with some pics or videos of the pre-prod and the Day 1 shoot of the film. I just have to get back on my work stuff and find time to get back to blogging then. =p

Yesterday was a blast. Another tough day. But when you love what you do, no matter how hard things become at certain aspects of it, you know you'll get through. Thanks to all who made this film possible! Day 2 shoot on December!!!

Casting Call for Short Film Pera-perahang Lata

Casting Call for Short Film Pera-perahang Lata (a film by Rianne Hill Soriano), NCCA Grant

Aug. 17 (Friday) and Aug. 18 (Saturday), 2007, 1pm-530pm at the Boardroom of the Avignon Tower 144 H. V. dela Costa St. Salcedo Village, Makati City (the building next Mcdo Valero-dela Costa, facing Mcdo, left side).

Pls. text Gigi to arrange schedule at 09193399053. Hope you can pass to actor/actress friends. Thanks!

Characters:

Nilo
24-year old struggling, introvert, and critical man and breadwinner of the family (his mother and two siblings) who travels his way going to work and back home everyday and sees through the different people inside the jeep and the different sights along the highways.

Gary
Nilo’s good friend and co-worker. In his late 20’s, medium built, a jester and an extrovert type. The struggling Manila-born Gary comes from a big family of 8 children (the 5th child of the family). He is a very family-oriented guy who serves as a principled comic jester of the family and his co-workers.

Juda
The large-built Juda is the arrogant substitute to the permanent supervisor of the factory who is under maternity leave. The egotistic attitude of this bully-type man becomes the root of fight inside the factory.

Adult beggar
The adult beggar who was given alms by Nilo that morning turns out to be a beggar, and at the same time, an alcoholic and addict, a parasite of the society.

Mae
Nilo’s 8-year old sister who has a very cute voice on the phone. Makulit and active type, she calls her kuya to ask for money for the exchange gift.

Nilo’s mother
Nilo’s sickly, quite melodramatic mother

Gary’s mother
A longing mother full of hurting moments for her son.

Gary’s father
A longing father full of grief.

Gary’s sister
Gary’s sister who calms her mother during her lowest point.

Beggar boy
The beggar boy who desperately asks for alms or food to Nilo for his starving and dying mother. His painstakingly harsh condition puts guilt on Nilo upon seeing one shocking moment.

Beggar mother
The beggar boy’s sick and starving mother.

Boss
The firm boss whose voice reverberates in the whole place when making his speech, but at the latter part, it turns out he has some loose and comic side, too.

Boss’ wife
The boss’ stern, quite bulky, and all dressed up wife who turns out to have some loose and comic side, too.

Carinderia owner
The Filipina-Chinese owner of the newly-opened carinderia near the factory where Nilo works.

Pare 1 and Pare 2
Two middle-aged men wearing the typical pambahay clothes. They are seriously discussing the state of the Philippines inside the jeep as if they are intellectuals (but each of them turns out more comic than intellectual).

Drunk maniac
The drunk maniac who tries to take advantage of a woman beside Nilo while inside the jeep.

Snatcher
The snatcher who robs the purse of the woman with umbrella (the woman who also became the victim of the maniac inside the jeep Nilo rides).

Policeman
The policeman who interviews the father of the murdered guy during his wake.

URGENT: We need help for our locations for a new film (factory, church, funeraria, lower-middle class apartment) to be shot on September

In line with the new independent short film (a film grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts) we are shooting on Sept. 2, 2007 and December 2007, I would like to ask your help in getting the right locations for the film. Due to certain turn of events, we are officially starting pre-prod today and we have less than a month for pre-prod in order to shoot the film. And so, we are seeking your help and suggestions for the following locations that we need:

- A small-, medium- or large-scale factory (within the vicinity of Metro Manila) that is primarily manufacturing such products as milk or soda or any other canned goods.
- A cinematic church or chapel with a grand opening of the Simbang Gabi this coming Dec. 16 (if possible, if we can also get the contact person and contact numbers of maybe the parish priest and administrative people of the church so we can further discuss our plans and intentions)
- A lower-middle class small house where we can shoot a “burol” scene inside the house and extend the seats and giving of “tong,” etc. outside the house. If anybody can help as in getting the art requirements for a “burol” scene as well like a funeraria where we can rent a coffin, some lights, and the rest of the stuff we normally seen during a “burol,” and maybe flowers too, we would gladly appreciate these things really.
- An apartment with a window and door beside each other and the window showing the outside of the apartment

If you have any idea for these locations that we need, or maybe you own any of these, kindly email at svelte_rianne@yahoo.com or text at 0920-9273651 so that we can discuss the possibilities of getting your place as location. We would really appreciate your suggestions. We are paying the locations and we will fix the permits needed, but we hope that you would understand that we cannot provide the commercial rates that others get for a TV commercial, mainstream film, or a TV production. We are allotting a budget for our locations, but it wouldn’t be as high as the likes of getting a location for an advertising project. With regards to the factory, and if it’s okay, with the church location, possible x-deals and media mileage can be something to consider as well upon further discussion of such possibilities. We really need these locations “super-urgent.” Thank you very much for your time!


Sincerely,
Rianne