mababang langit

so, got my face on a komikon poster and i guess it's all downhill from here. the maskot film and DVDs seemed pretty well-received, and by that i mean no one's complained about it, except maybe for that one social studies teacher at the panel (mediated by jason inocencio of and the geek shall inherit the earth ) who wanted to know why ketchup had to swear so much in that one scene. ketchup and i made long-winded explanations about maskot's pent-up rage and need for catharsis, and then direk chris just says "it was funnier that way." people seemed excited to get two new issues of school run , and to hear that the end is in sight with about four issues to go--that's only two more releases, if i can stick to two new issues per event. i feel rather proud of school run 6 and 7, the culmination of quite a bit of setting things up between robert and maki. still, it feels like i've been doing school run for a decade, and it'll be good to start on s...

i finally got to see chris costello and mihk vergara's adaptation last saturday at cinemanila 2013 at sm aura in taguig. it was a tiny audience--just 30 seats(!)--but what an experience it was. with its stellar cast, liberal use of SFX (the little bird was animated by arnold arre!), and awesome music (including an actual jholliebird jingle, variations of which were used as theme music throughout the film), ang maskot feels like either an overachieving short or a full-length feature crammed into twenty minutes. the filmmakers are planning on additional screenings early next year, and a DVD release some time after. i can't wait for the film to be shown to a wider audience. here's a comic i made about my viewing experience:

well, chris costello and mihk vergara's short film adaptation of "ang maskot" unfortunately did not make the cut for this year's cinemalaya festival.  the directors, however, have their sights set on november's cinema one film festival, so we will be crossing our fingers that the film will fare better there. direk chris says the film's chances are pretty good, so, positive thoughts, visualizing, asking the universe, etc. that said, after the cinamalaya rejection, and with reboots being all the rage these days in hollywood, i think i'd like to do a reboot of "ang maskot," you know, to make it more palatable to local film fest judging panels. NOTES FOR ANG MASKOT: SOCIAL RELEVANCE EDITION 1.) instead of a fastfood restaurant mascot, the protagonist is now a gay dancer working in a seedy furry fetish gay bar, in which all the lights are tinted red. 2.) the manager is mean to the protagonist because the latter rejects the former...

the "ang maskot" short film just got featured on yahoo! philippines, including a curse-free version of the trailer (the middle fingers stayed in, though) and some chitchat with the directors: "I wanted to make this movie the second Mihk [Vergara] showed it to me,” says [Chris] Costello. “It was a great story that was full of great funny moments, and was full of heart. It was also already structured like a movie—it was so visually appealing." The 20-minute film required a grueling, nonetheless fun, three-day shoot. Vergara explains, “All our friends and family who helped out really came through for Chris and me.  It's less tiring if you're surrounded by people who really, really get you.” Costello also has a bigger vision for their short film. “My dream is to get a producer interested in further producing it as a full-length film.” UPDATE: front page, baby!

aside from selling komiks again, the other thing that got me really excited about this komikon was the release of the first trailer for chris costello and mihk vergara's "ang maskot" short film:  both chris and mihk were there, and thankfully mihk brought his laptop because the AV guy's laptop couldn't read chris' USB stick for some reason. photo by bien del rosario i think we got a pretty good crowd reaction, considering that not many people know about my comic. i think having a super-recognizable cast really helped pull in the otherwise uninterested. the second time they rolled the trailer got a much better pop, so i suggested to our host, sherry baet-zamar, that we loop the trailer for the remainder of our allotted time. she just laughed; i think she thought i was kidding. after a quick Q&A, carljoe javier and bogart the explorer took the stage to unveil a trailer and crowdfunding pitch of their own. and then i went back to my ind...

photos by maui mauricio and knox balbastro location: rajah sulaiman park, roxas blvd.

photos by knox balbastro and maui mauricio          

house scenes today. arrived past noon. found the crew shooting street scenes along a narrow alleyway. sizeable crowds have gathered at either end. alessandra and ketchup are walking along in the sunshine, people peeking from behind parked vehicles or out of doors and windows that open directly onto the street. crowd control is a bit of a problem; thankfully the barangay tanods are there to help. "never make a movie without the cooperation of the barangay tanods," i am told. hub pacheco is there too, he's making a behind-the-scenes photo essay. after the take i am introduced to alessandra, whom everyone calls alex. the shoot moves indoors. the indoor location is on the second floor of a rickety-looking house, now crammed full of people and equipment. the wooden floorboards bend and squeak beneath my feet. the floor under the kitchen sink has rotted away and you can see the ground floor below. no one else seems to be worried though. photo by maui mauricio i han...

mara andres managed production on the ang maskot short, and she recently blogged about the experience here . lots of behind-the-scenes stuff and photos! "...Day 2. Metrica St, Manila First shot of the day. It was obviously a pretty hot day. The stress of Day 1 made Day 2 seem so much more…relaxed, so to speak. Alessandra’s management initially said that she only had until 12 midnight but Alex was kind enough to stay until around 12:30 or 1 in the morning to finish her scenes. Alessandra de Rossi and Ketchup Eusebio acting amidst the presence of styros. Haha. We had a lot of exterior shots that afternoon. Thank goodness the skies were kind enough to give us sun. Crowd control was quite a hassle and because the houses in the neighborhood were so close to each other, it was kind of difficult to filter out unexpected noise. But hey, it wasn’t as bad the as the incidents that occurred during first day." i can attest to the fact that these gals n guys ...

the restaurant scenes are being shot in the sta. cruz area of binondo. i arrive late, sneak past the guard, sit down behind ramon bautista, and steal glances while he updates his twitter. celeb stalking is off to a good start. ketchup is resting at the far side of the room, and they are filming the kids at the center of the room. once the scene is finisihed i am greeted by chris and mihk and introduced to a few people. i sit down, watching various crewmembers busily carrying stuff around, ant-like. they are shooting two scenes simultaneously. soak in the magic. this is happening. this is really, really happening. i am a clueless awkward bumpkin to everyone. i see lau and momon handling the maskot costume and ask them if they made it. "erm, no..." mara lets me listen to the jhollebird jingle on her iphone and i ask her if she composed it. "erm, no..." i mistake lau for director of photography dan villegas, and i ask him (lau) how he's related to dennis ville...

 photos by ramon bautista, sharon see, and assistant director maui mauricio: ketchup eusebio as maskot! ramon bautista as the manager. he's a riot. directors chris costello (left) and mihk vergara (right) the mcbird counter. doesn't look like it here, but this is the fastfood birthday party from hell. don't get too excited, ketchup. bandang june pa ang cinemanila.

aside from costello and vergara's  ang maskot short film, there's also a group of DLSU students turning the first issue of trese, murder on balete drive , into a short film . and then there's that mysterious letter gerry alanguilan received from peter jackson's wingnut films...

had a chat the other day with norby ela over at flipgeeks. we talked about the maskot movie, school run, and ricky lo. LOKAL GRIND: Macoy – Komiks & ‘Ang Maskot’ in Film

i had the best, most amazing day of my life as a cartoonist yesterday: watching a bunch of wonderfully talented, extremely hardworking people turn a comic i drew into a movie. that is to say, yesterday was day one of shooting for "ang maskot," a short film being produced for competition in this year's cinemanila film festival. chris costello (of the much-missed sputnik comics) and mihk vergara are directing. i've been sworn to secrecy about many things, but i can tell you they've put together an ace production crew, a stellar cast, found some really great locations to match the scenes in the comic, and commissioned an actual jholeebird jingle that will make your ears bleed . i was graciously allowed to hang around the set, get in the way of the production staff, etc. and ogle the people while they were working. naturally my camera  chose that day to conk out, the pictures it took going from this: to this: to this. and that's jholeebi...