this is a project based on mental tabs and notetaking at odd hours. this was also the secret shell i would hide in, to forget about the impending grief in the family -someone close to me in a terminal state; a long, hard wait for that last breath that would free her from all the pain in this world.
i wanted this short to grow on its own and this is where it had gotten me. i am pleased with it, on a personal level this is what i wanted. life in urban manila, not in the outskirts, but where our generation often is, working and tied to an office chair, a slave to routine.
the whole process of shooting was a matter of chance. thanks to Janus, I got Jen to agree to play the part of the girl perennially waiting or Arvin to come home to their love nest. if it wasn't meeting Arvin in Berlin, I would have never gotten him to play the part. arvin is a very funny guy who likes to shock the Africans at the BTC off with his supposed bolitas. a daring bluff and absurd point of conversation, but arvin's persona is just like that, unpredictable- he seems to feed off the attention or he's just crazy to be in character all the time. that's just my opinion anyways.
i'm taking my time with this short, its all about missed connections and creating new ones at different tangents; its about being miserable, heartbroken and broke.
Midori Hirano provides the ethereal tracks for the short. Her dreamy music sums up a lot of the mood and emotions I want to convey. she is a japanese electronic artist who loves to blend computer textures with traditional music by way of piano, cello, violin, guitar and digital equipment. I got to talk to her while waiting to get into the Dine and Shine event, my fingers were freezing, and our breaths were vapors trailing away into the cold air. Midori opted to leave the last minute, catching the next bus to the japanese embassy. there were a lot of maybes and possibilities back then.
i'm in post right now, i'm trying to see if i need more shots of Jen. I feel there isn't enough of her in good light. There were two shooting days where the weather was extremely cloudy.
there isn't any conclusion to the narrative of "the measure of space between A and B", just a long drawn out process of reflecting and absorbing, just like grief, until you learn to accept it for what it is.
