Shooting A Short Film in Samal Island

Last night I came back from the Samal Island to my place in Santa Ana, Davao city. I was rather depressed and upset. Also I felt exhausted and homesick.

Presently I involved in a six week summer production workshop. The subject "the basic movie production workshop" is a requirement for those who are graduating this coming year. After two weeks in this class, we were arranged into groups of seven by our professor and sent to the production fields for short films.

Each member of the group has a specific role; director, producer, editor, cinematographer, writer, makeup artist or key grip. I was assigned the key grip position, which mainly handles the various equipments.

As I did not have a video camera it was not appropriate for me for the director and cinematographer posts. I am not keen on editing, and as far as producing is concerned, it requires a knowledge of the shooting sites' location and this I don't know. I like writing but unfortunately my group had already selected a writer and anyway I probably wouldn't have wanted to write about a hot-bloody film. Naturally the make-up artist is out of the question for me, so the key grip job was my only choice. How pitiful is this!

We went to Samal Island for two nights and three days to do the shooting. The short film was about a psycho killer. He killed four students who were having on summer vocation on the island. The film was in Tagalog, the Philippine national language.

The production process was long and depressing for me because I did not understand their Bisayan or Tagalog language except when they spoke on a rare occasion in English. Inevitably I was always out of tune with their conversations. However I had to drag myself through these long painful hours for the sake of my grades in the exam.

Apart from the language barrier, it is not really easy to work with these people. The actual shooting of the film would be only six hours and as a result we had a lot of free time because we were there for three days and two nights. During these times of doing nothing I felt alone and bored because the other group members invited their girlfriends, man friends, transsexuals, etc.... over to the island and spent their time with them. Of course, by our group doing this they were violating the rules. What was worse, these friends and lovers were brought into the film as so called actors in the film. Worst, we as a group had to contribute towards their return bus and boat fares. What lucky days for them!

Anyway for me I wanted to finish the shooting as soon as possible and go back to my place. However I was marooned out on this island and could not do anything about it except to be patient. Being in this kind of situation I learnt to control my emotions and practice that word patience. Fortunately, I brought a book "The Old Man and The Sea" by Hemingway. It was my good friend as I lost myself in its reading as my group members preoccupied themselves with their lovers. You know, this stupid idiotic film will only be screened for fifteen-minutes and probably nobody will watch it except ourselves.

Naturally we cooked food by ourselves during these days. One of my group members was a good cook. I liked Kinilau, a local food which is raw fish with quite heavy (vinegar) Calamanse.

It was the first morning on the island. I cooked noodles I bought them with my own money the previous day. My other friends were still asleep. I used coconut oil in cooking. That oil was supposed to use as blood in the shooting scenes. Definitely I did not know about it. Some of the members complained to me because of using the coconut oil.

Time by time, I noticed it was quite uncomfortable to work with the group if I kept differences and isolated from the rest. I had to do chores while other friends did not want to do. I had to be humble enough for them.

After all, we were done with shooting. Then, we prepared to go home. Inevitably when I heard the word home, it was the most romantic moment for me. It almost made me cry because my other friends would go home but mine was going back to my room.

However the Samal Island gave me pretty much similar atmosphere to me at dusk because I sensed like the places I grew up in Myanmar. As dusk fell, birds flew back to their nests. I was shivered with the cold evening breeze which passed across my face. The evening was very silent except for the sound of the birds and trembling sound of the trees. They were awfully beautiful while the swirl of the evening breeze rose close to the surface of the ground with dry leaves on the ways. They drove me into the clean evening smell of the Samal Island's forest. However I could not stop having homesickness and loneliness.

Thankfully, I said prayers to God. Somehow, I came back safely to my place in Davao city in the late evening.

Happy Easter!

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. I attended the Mass in the Sta Ana Church near my place in the evening.

After Mass, I bought two bottles of red wine in the store and came home.

My other housemates were surprised to see me with red wine.

I invited them to celebrate the Christ's resurrection.

"Happy Easter".

Most of us still do not know the most important part of being a Christian. Let's just ask ourselves. (I am not expert on this.)

Of course, maybe we have inherited Christian faith from our parents. We maintain it as a family tradition.

Generally, most of the Christians love to celebrate Christmas, Jesus Christ's birthday in December. Some of them spend thousands of Kyates (pesos) for the celebration. Today, it becomes one of the most popular celebrations in the world.

It is sad to say that many Christians even forget about the day of Christ's resurrection. It says that Jesus was born and he lived like us and then died. The question is how he died? Just died and then end..? Let's ask ourselves.

It is the day we, all Christians, should be proud and happy for becoming His chosen people. It should be more popular and important than Christmas.

Some of us will be very uncomfortable or even awkward to say "Happy Easter" with each other like we do at Christmas. Of course, I realize people are very excited to greet with each other during Christmas. Probably it is because we don't have enough courage and strength to confess as Christians or still doubt about His resurrection. Let's ask ourselves.

According to the Bible historians, on the day after Jesus had risen from the tomb, the chief priests of the Temple bribed the Roman guards to tell the people that the body of Jesus Christ was stolen by His disciples while they were asleep. What a funny stupidity...!

Look at the real fact. Obviously, during those days, the Roman soldiers were the most discipline and the best fighters in the world. They followed orders with their lives It is not easy to steal the body. Imagine this kind of accident could happen.

Hello !!!!!

Of course, later, the true story of that Resurrection came out from the lips of those soldiers themselves. Christ had truly risen!

Let's have a party during this week. It is not late to witness by celebrating His Resurrection and greeting with each other.

Happy Easter...!

Thank You, Lord..For Being With Me..

In the next morning, I heard the morning prayer coming through my half-open door. At the same time, I smelled something like rotten eggs from the fishery factory near the house. Honestly it was the very first morning I woke up with hope and peace.

"Wow! Here's a snake!" I said with a surprise.

I thought the snake was Ronald's pet. I saw it in a big jar in front of the house while I looked around the place.

In a hurry, Ronald was by my side with a stone and asked me where the snake was. My first thought was wrong. It was not Ronald's pet at all. ( Also I myself killed a snake before I went to the Philippines)

In Ranong, most of the local people were Burmese coming from the southern part of Myanmar, mainly the Mon tribe. Unfortunately, I did not understand their Burmese. Our neighbors were Burmese too. They called the Thais "Shans". At first, I was confused with the Shans in Ranong and those in Myanmar. I still remembered a Burmese fellow gave a comment about the Thais that the "Shans" were very rude.

Next morning, I heard Fr. John talking to Ronald. I was so excited that I jumped out of my bed and ran to the kitchen. Of course, I was so happy to see him again. We did not talk much that morning.

After two-day stay in Ranong, Fr. John and I travelled to Bangkok for my enrollment in St. John's University. Fr. John worked very hard for me with that scholarship.

We arrived in Bangkok very early morning. We went to the Redeemptorist Church where we had accommodation. We had very early breakfast there and took some rest for a few minutes. Then, we set off to St. John's University.

In the school office, we found two Thai ladies. Supposedly they were secretaries but did not speak English well. Finally, One of them went out and brought a Burmese stuff who spoke Thai and Burmese. I was so disappointed and dismayed about that. I could not imagine how I could study in the school like that.

I learned through the Burmese stuff there was no program in English except a Marketing course. Of course, I had no choice because I did not come to choose but I came there to take whatever they could offer.

On the other hand, Fr. John worked it for many weeks. I should appreciate it. I should not come home empty-handed.

In my mind, I asked God if it was really for me. I prayed hard to thank Him and tried to accept the gift.

Suddenly, I got a second thought and I suggested Fr. John if we could go to see Assumption University. Fr. John sensed that I was not happy about the school. But I assured him that I was very much grateful to have a scholarship.

He honestly told me that he did not know about the Assumption University and he did not have any friends there. Surprisingly he agreed to go and see. I still remembered his common word," Let's see, Paul." On the other hand, he was also not sure.

On the way to Assumption University, I felt guilty and unfair to propose him with such an unprepared visit.

Honestly I just heard about the name of Assumption University from a friend.

When we arrived at the principle's office, we learned that the principle went out for his lunch but we could see him at 1:00 pm. So, we looked around the school to kill time.

When we came back to the office again, one of the secretaries came out and told Fr. John to go inside the office. Before he entered into the office, he told me to pray for him.

After about 30 minutes, Fr. John came out but his whole face turned red. I thought it was not a good sign. Then slowly, he smiled at me. We both went into the office to see the principle Bro. Bancha Saenghiran.

It was amazing. It left both of us speechless and overwhelmingly happy. Of course, I would have a full scholarship for my four years undergraduate. ( but later, I had an inconvenient problem with the registrar about my scholarship).

Later in that evening, I was in a deep thinking about that day. It would be impossible for us. Also I did not expect it. Truly, I felt guilty because I was very bold to ask Fr. John with such an idea and I seemed to take an advantage on his kindness and selfishness.

I did not know what to say to Fr. John, but I said a Rosary for him and said prayer thanking to God.