(Disclaimer: Maseselan na litrato ang iyong makikita. Patnubay ng magulang, hindi na kailangan. Baka kasi atakihin sila sa puso. Sariwang-sariwa pa ang ilan sa mga ito. Kaya bili na. Kung may angal, hala sige, manahimik, wala kang uwang dito. Ito ay ginagawa ko sa ngalan ng entertainment at pera, play money to be exact. Kung ayaw niyong mapabilang dito, burahin niyo na lang ang account ninyo.)

Napag-isip-isip ko na gawing special edition ito tungkol sa buhok. Crowning glory daw kasi natin ang ating buhok.  Ito ang nagpapaliwanag kung bakit isang pulubi si Bembol Roco at naging hari mula sa pagiging pulubi si Mark Gil.

Tama na ang satsat. Alam ko namang mga litrato lang naman ang habol niyo.

+

+

+

Salamaat sa Standard Electric Fan. May epeks na ang hair ko.  With matching sepia effect.

Heto, isa pang electric fan epek.

Kung hindi ka pa nauumay sa electric pan epek, heto pa. May kasamang dog pa yan, para sa mga pet lovers.

Kung utwa na kaso sa PEPE (pamatay na elektik pan epek), ito naman ang buhok na di nahinganan.

Kapag magpapapikyur, siguraduhing gawin ito limang oras pagkatapos maligo.

The Wet Hair Epek.

Naiingit si Bembol Roco!

Buhok across my face 1.

Buhok across my face 2.

Nagtitipid na ako sa litrato. Natatakot kasi ako na maubusan ng mga piktyurs. Alam niyo na, mahirap na, parang bigas.

Okay, it was a film shoot. And I had no idea what movie or tv show it was for, frankly, I don't care. The idea of spending an entire day out in the ocean for free was enticing. I agreed when I found out it was only for a day. To my delight he sent me a follow up SMS, '..rate is **** for one day to be paid after 30 days'. Heh, and I'll get paid for that too? Definitely going!

He picked me up at 2:30 the next morning. The director wanted us ready by the time the actors had their make-up on. The van was supposed to come by for us at 3am at the Diveshoppe (because that's where the gears are). But the driver was late, and on top of that he hadn't gotten his travel slip yet so we had to go get the slip at the ABS CBN office before finally leaving for Calatagan.

It was a shoot for Pedro Penduko. We had breakfast when we got there, and after about another half hour of waiting around, we got down to business. I was paired with Bajao for surface support, John and Sarge for the underwater support (with tanks and everything else) and Dave was the videographer. Dave wore a special bright yellow rashguard so he could tell the actors that yellow means camera. Bajao and I walked to the breakwater to start searching for an ideal area for the shoot. We needed a wide area with live corals at varied depths between 10 and 20 feet. It was a bad place to start searching. There was silt everywhere and the slightes fin strokes turned the water into murky darkness.

Dave sent a boat after us seeing as we've been moving around without direction. I could not pull myself up onto the boat for my life's worth. Bajao had to pull me up, that's how out of shape I was! And as if a bad start was necessary, Bajao's mask strap broke off at the pin. :( (thank goodness we bring extra gear all the time!)

We finally found a spot next to the small rocks where the surf breaks. The crown of thorns were rather abundant in the area and Dave had to move them under rocks later on to make sure no one lands on them. (would've been a rather painful experience..those toxic little things eating away at the corals..)

Our first actor was Jordan. I don't know his character name or his last name or screen surname, but he was supposed to be a prince of some sort, a club weilding leader of an amphibious race. He was apprehensive about being underwater for a longer period of time. Had prosthetic fins on his forearms and back of his lower legs and patches of prosthetic scales on his back (which I later found out was placed strategically to cover his tattoos). Afte a couple of scenes one of the fins started falling off and we had to wait until they re-attached it and had it all dried up and ready to get wet. Like most people, Jordan had trouble equalizing (the act of pinching your nose while blowing your nose in order to force air into your ear canal so that it matches the water pressure which ensures that the water pressure does not press your eardrums and make it hurt). We had to explain it to him a couple of times before he finally got it. It was quicker than I hoped for.

The next one to go was Janice the mermaid. She did really nice dolphin kicks! I wish I could swim like that. And then we had to shoot her scene with that merman (I forgot his name..). And then the merman had to finish his solo scenes. After that we had lunch. :) yay! By then it was already 2pm and my belly was in wild protest.

First one after lunch was Agot Isidro who did really well. It helped that she was also a diver and that she was one of Dave's students too. She was comfortable in the water in spite of her fears of jelly fish (of which I assured her there were none as I had been in the water all morning and had not seen any jellies..). She had a couple of scenes that were finished in no time at all, even if we had to keep adding weights so she could sink properly.

Next one to go was Iya whose dress kept falling apart. It was more of a free dive for her. I trailed behind collecting remnants of her dress. Her mascara started bleeding after her first free dive. They should've used waterproof mascara. It was frustrating that the costume designers failed to consider the scenes. Her dress kept on getting tangled up around her feet and legs making it hard for her to swim. She was a good swimmer too, very confident in her strokes, but the dress was just too much.

After that was Albert Martinez. He had a very smooth face, much like the ones I've seen on the barber shop posters. I thought it was make-up. He didn't even ask to be towed to the shoot area, he took the life ring from me and started kicking his way towards Dave. When he started acting, I couldn't tell if he was truly distressed that I should give the ring or to back off and let him finish the scene. After his solo scenes he had to do some scenes with Matt. By the time he was done, he was tired. He had jeans and two shirts on. I can imagine how heavy it was. On top of that he was worried about the jellyfish because he was allergic. He had this amused expression on his face when I started towing him back to the boat. I kind of wondered if my face looked funny, or if there was something on my teeth or face..I'll never know now. Maybe it amused him that this little girl was pulling him towards the boat. Ngeh. Maybe that's just how his face looks all the time.

I wasn't there when they shot Matt's scenes. Bajao was the one who took care of him. But I knew he was having trouble with his shoes. It's nearly impossible to propel oneself using flutter kicks when one has shoes on. What baffled me was the way his hair was unaffected by the water. It looked exactly the same as when it was still dry. I wonder what they put in it? He had this brown mop of curly hair that was almost like the Afro big hair. And he was a small kid too. (I think he's in his late teens..a kid compared to my 26 years..okay I'm just too old, almost everyone called me "Ate" the Filipino term of respect for an older sister).

The next ones to go were the siokoys (sea monsters). There were two of them. They had the most uncomfortable costumes of all. Those headress/mask thinggies seemed itchy and heavy! But these guys swam so well! Their scenes were the quickest to shoot and they didn't even need my help. They looked scary too. Had nightmares about them coming after me during a dive. And I was dumb enough to have my photo taken after the day was done.

The last ones were the people that had fins like Jordan. It was really difficult because we had to get all three of them together in one shot. The girl Jessa was having such a difficult time. She was so afraid of being in the ocean. She almost drowned me and John because she held on to us for dear life instead of accepting the life ring.
After the Nth try, it was finally over.

And my wrinkled skin was able to breathe once again! :)

Dave had to shoot another scene in the shallows as the third camera. But we were left to drink water (lots of it!) and start packing up the gear. Jordan came over and asked to have his photo taken with us. He really appreciated all we've done for him that day.

And then I had my photo taken with Bembol Roco. :) This guy was a successful actor long before I was in highschool. They made us watch his films too. And it was cool that he was just a regular guy curious about our gear. He kept on checking out our stuff. And then when I headed out to the beach to take photos of the sunset he even joined me. We had a conversation. The Bembol Roco gave me pointers on taking photos of the sunset. In the half hour with him, I found out that he had been a recreational diver certified in 1977. He is also a photographer and he liked the ocean too. We talked about cameras, dive gear, places to dive, Anilao, sunsets..he spoke eloquently too. But I forgot to tell him my name. :( Not that I'd expect him to remember. I just forgot to introduce myself and I realized it only too late. If I see him again I'll come up to him and say hi and hopefully he'll remember and then I'll tell him my name. But I doubt I'll be able to remember to do all that. Hahaha..and I forgot to ask for his autograph. So engaging was the conversation that it never crossed my mind.

We finally took showers when Dave got back. The place had no electricity. It was dark and scary at the open showers area. I don't know if I'm lucky or unfortunate to get dressed in the dark with ants crawling all over my feet and taking painful bites out of me. For some reason I was relieved that no one could see me washing myself even when I could hardly see a thing. It was a long day that had to end.

After showers we packed the rest of our stuff into the van, had dinner and left. :) I fell asleep after we passed that cemetery and woke up when we were back at the Diveshoppe.

My butt hurt all weekend, so did my triceps and abdomen. I am hell bent out of shape, and I am only twenty six. I wonder how useless I'm going to be when I'm fifty..