Archive for April, 2010

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Michael meets John

By Ant Speak | April 21, 2010

(Films Division staffer Michael Cardoz shares his experiences as a production coordinator for Hollywood indie director John Sayles’ latest movie, ‘Baryo’.)

“Maybe we’ll meet again at the airport.”
This is how John Sayles said goodbye to me before I left the set of “Baryo” in Bohol. It was 5 a.m. and they were on their way to look for somewhere to stay in the beautiful province of Bohol to do the rough cut. I, on the other hand, was getting ready for my trip to Cebu for another assignment. John Sayles is the director of “Baryo,” a full-length film set during the Philippine-American war.

My work for this project was mainly in Manila, assisting American cast and crew at the airport. And I was very lucky to be invited to visit the set in Bohol before the production ended. I stayed there for three days and devoted one whole day to observe in the set. The film may be about the Philippine-American war but the mood on the set was far from being chaotic. Everybody knows what they’re doing. I believe the producers were very lucky to have found very competent Filipino and American staff to work on the project.

John’s Set
The day began early. People started coming in at around 6 a.m. to take their breakfast. At 8 o’clock John’s vehicle arrived. I waited for him to join us in our breakfast table but our Producer Maggie Renzi told me that he doesn’t eat breakfast and goes directly to the set. Since I have no business on the set I just stand in one spot and watch everyone do their job- especially John. I’m very curious as to how he manages the whole production team. I noticed that he comes on the set well prepared; he keeps with him a folder where he places his notes and script. The whole time I never heard him yell orders to anyone, usually I see him calmly instructing our Assistant Director (Cocoy Jimenez) and Cinematographer (Lee Meilly). And by five in the afternoon, we were done for the day.

It wasn’t just meeting John again that made my visit to Bohol memorable. It’s also meeting everyone in the production team. I’ve worked for the project for three months, and communicated with the other staff only though phone calls and emails. Some of them I haven’t even seen personally, which is why going to the set in Bohol was like homecoming for me. It made me feel more involved with “Baryo”.

“I’ll be waiting at the airport” that was what I wanted to tell John when we were saying our goodbyes but instead I just smiled. I am very lucky to have spent even just one day in the set watching him. More so, I am blessed to have been part of his film and get to work with many wonderful people.

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