Recently, the XS freshmen had a project in Filipino. The project was to make a movie on the classic Filipini tale "Ibong Adarna". The setting was back in the medieval times. In a kingdom, Berbanya, the ruling family was well loved by the people. The king, Fernando, the queen, Valeriana, and the the princes, Don Pedro, Don Diego and Don Juan. Don Fernando, the king, one night had an awful dream of Don Juan being killed. Because of this, he got ill and could not be cured by any medic in the kingdom. They called for the ancient priest to find a cure. He did. The cure was for the king to hear the song of the fabled Adarna, a mythical bird. The bird was to be found in Bundok Tabor, where it stays in a tree isolated by other birds. Don Pedro was first sent, but of to no avail. He fell asleep during the singing of the Adarna and turned into stone. The same fate befalled Don Diego. Now Don Juan, being the king's favourite, was not allowed to go. But he insisted and he was finally allowed to go. He did not ask for any horse like his brothers, just some rations. On his way, he encountered a leper who asked for some food. He generously gave all his food. He later found out that this leper was a forest spirit or something. The ermitanyo gave him instructions on how to find the Adarna and what to do when he does. He was given a knife and "calamansi". When he hears the bird sing, he was to cut himself and place some of the clamansi juice on the wound to avoid falling asleep. He succeeded in his journey and restored his borthers from stone. On the way home, the brothers planned to nab the bird and leave Don Juan behind, therefore they would get all the glory. They did this, beating all the life out of Don Juan. Now the ermitanyo enters the scene and gives Don juan some food and water which made him well again. At the castle, the two brothers told of the bad news. When they asked the bird to sing, it wouldn't. When Don Juan came, the bird started singing. The bird's song told of all that Don Juan had gone through which made the king very mad. He was to punish Don Pedro and Don Diego but Don Juan asked him not to. Now that the king was well, the Adarna was to be kept. They took turns guarding it. One night when it was Don Juan's turn, the two let the bird escape. Because of this, Don Juan left. They looked for hima and found him in Armenya where they found a well.
Don Juan was to enter the well, and he encountered Donya Juana and the giant. Then he was aksed to go to Reynos de los Cristal to find Prinsesa Leonora. There he fought the 3 headed snake. Don Perdro cut the rope so that Don Juan could not get up. A series of hrlpers came and helped Don Juan get back to the castle. In the wedding, Don Juan was to marry Leonora but Maria Blanca stopped it and they got married. Leonora was married to Don Pedro and Juana was married to Diego.
They had a little trouble finding a female casting. They went to ICA freshmen but unfortunately they did not know how to act. Grade 7 turned down the offer so they went for grade 6. Andrea Go from a different section was Maria Blanca, Ivee was Leonora and Icelle was Juana. Shaela was supposed to be the Queen but she couldn't make it on the second shoot. I must admit, Ivee and Icelle were good. I was hoping to take Ivee as Maria Blanca but Dexter says it had to be Andrea. They were brought on the first shoot to a remote location, Taytay Rizal. It was quite an adventure since we still had to make a stop at the mall to buy extra costumes and eat our lunch. We had to be separated with some of our groupmates which slowed us down terribly. Anyway, when we got there, they showed us the costumes that they brought. Our first reaction was "what the hell is that?". Their costumes were waaaaaay too princess type like for our costumes. Anyway, the cave scene. They were very good there. The problem was Don Juan wasn't. First booboo was he forgot his line. Next was he went too fast talking that he was talking at the same time Icelle was talking. Then he kept smiling and all. Those kinda stuff. Then the well scene. They all got their line except for one teenie weenie fault: Gaspar could not get up from inside. We had to pull hime out and reshoot the scene from a different position. They said they enjoyed it, which I think was the reason why they came on the second shoot. But there was one problem they say: the guys didn't mind them much so they were kinda OP. Anyway, on the second shoot, there wasn't much to do so they just played truth or dare and all that while we were playing billards. They asked each other such funny quesions that everytime they did, we look guys look at each other wondering where they got humor like that.
The wedding scene wasn't very easy either. Someone always makes a tiny mistake. The first was Andrea kept smiling which sent Gaspar laughing. Then Pierre was smiling which sent Bea laughing. Those kinds of mistakes caused us about 30 minutes shooting the wedding scene. Anyway, next year there's another project like this so.....
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