Transferring my Photoblog

I finally got tired of theblogger.net's page errors and decided to slowly transfer my photoblog to flickr.com. Here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjieordonez.

Please bear with me for a couple of weeks as I slowly transfer my old photos to the new site.

What made me decide to transfer to flickr.com?

- No limit on the number of pictures that can be uploaded. Though limited to only 10MB transfer per month, there is no storage space limit.

- Easier organization of photos using their organizr tool.

- Easy uploading of multiple photos

benjieordonez.com

I'm now in the process of creating our family website at http://www.benjieordonez.com. Yes, I finally got my own domain. Pity that ordonez.com wasn't available. What's in there? Well, you get the 411 on the Ordoñez clan. Today, I uploaded Val's page and will be working on Carlos's in the coming weeks. Of course, updates will exclusively be posted here.

Nude

It has always been a challenge for me to shoot nudes. How to highlight the curves and lines of the human body has always escaped my newly-formed photographic eye. But it does amaze me how each curve, joint and line can turn into a fluid work of art.

As I struggled with compensating my aperture and shutter speed, I can't help but wonder how such intricate figures were built. The curves on the human body (no matter how many) are flawless by nature. The lines that create the highlights and tones of the body structure are enough cause to have it recorded by a photograph.

Mantawi Festival Documentary Competition

I received a call from Ted Madamba telling me that I am being considered to chair the Mantawi Festival Documentary Competition which will be held sometime this May.

Apparently, the city government of Mandaue wants to replicate the documentary competition that was held during the Sinulog festival. Will I accept the chairmanship? I really don't know. Otherwise, I will bring all members of SineBuano aboard to help out.

Hmm..May, still a lot of time to work out things such as sponsorships and logistics.

Cebu Divided

A couple of legislators think that by dividing the province of Cebu will mean faster progress for certain municipalities outside the metro. I guess they didn't have anything better to do. How did it go?

INT. Session Hall. Day

The congressmen are having a session. Tongressman #1 taps the shoulder of Tongressman #2.

Tongressman #1
"Hey, we don't seem to have any new legislation."

Tongressman #2
"I know! let's cut up a small province!"

Tongressman #1
"Hmmm...but wouldn't that... aaah what the heck! sure! I'm in!"

Tongressman #2
"Just think, more provinces will mean more Country Development Fund for us"

Tongressman #1
"Yeah! And we'll make them think they need it for independence! Let's tell the Tomas about this new plan!"

CUT TO:

INT. CITY HALL. DAY

Tongressman #1
"....and Tommy, we really think it's about time that the other provinces have their own identity"

Tongressman #2
"Yes, and we also believe that it will mean progress for these municipalities"

Mayor Osmeña
"As much as I respect your opinions..."

Mayor Osmeña reaches back and slaps the heads of the two Tongressmen.

Mayor Osmeña (CONT'D)
"I think you two should stop smoking, smoke is getting to your heads!"

To quote a post from a forum:

Talking about Provincial Secession:

First of all I want to say all those three cebuano ligislators have no idea what it takes to do a provincial secession.

They don't know that it's going to cost probably in the billions of pesos just to do a feasibility study. Where are they going to get the money? For sure Cebu wouldn't be willing to pay for it.

How about the areas that wants to secede from Cebu? Can they afford to buy back the infrastructure that Cebu has already constructed? Can they afford to maintain it?

How about public utilities? Cable, Telephone, Water, Power and Gas? Will they be willing to pay more for utility fees?

How about sewer or storm drain fees if there are any?

How about public services like police, fire department, trash collectors and the like?

I'm sure Cebu is going to get it's money back from the separating body in the form of assessment, tranfer taxes or other fees.

Can the separating body sustain on it's own?

One thing for sure these three legislators have to prove that they are not going to make it's citizens life misearable.

Will the separating body have enough commmerce to generate enough revenue to maintain or improve it's own?

I say good luck to those legislators!

Struggling with Words

I'm stuck on page 3. The lack of inspiration got the better of my somewhat creative talent. What will I do? what will the lead character do next? how will his first encounter with the villain happen? aargh!

I'll probably resolve this by watching a few movies of that genre and hopefully get enough ideas to get me going.

.Mov pushes through in Cebu

.MOV 2005 Internation Digital Film Festival is slated on March 2-8 to be held again at SM Cinemas 1 and 4. Here's an article from the .MOV website

The second .MOV International Digital Film Festival will be moved to March 2 to 8, 2005 at the SM Cinemas in Cebu City, organizers revealed at a press conference here today.

The change in schedule from the original December 1 to 7 is primarily due to a strong clamor from filmmakers and enthusiasts to have a simultaneous staging in Manila after the final line-up of entries made by local and foreign filmmakers was completed and the facilitators on the digital filmmaking workshop were confirmed. Thus, .MOV will also screen selected film entries and conduct similar workshops in SM Megamall on March 9 to 15, 2005.

However, the deadlines for SMART CUTS, the newly launched 60- second short film competition sponsored by leading wireless services provider Smart Communications Inc., and SILVERSHORTS, a competition for Best Philippine Short Film and Best SouthEast Asian Short Film, were not extended. Selection of the ten most outstanding works for both categories will still push through on November 20.

The other featured categories in .MOV are Philippine Digital Features, Southeast Asian Digital Features, World Documentaries, and a selection of seminal digital works from around the globe.

.MOV, which aims to promote and advance digital filmmaking in the country and to establish it as the future of Philippine cinema, intends to reach out to more students, professors, film practitioners, filmmakers, and cineastes in the most effective way and in the largest possible venue.

Organized by independent production company Filmless Films, the festival showcases innovative films from independent filmmakers, empowered by new digital production tools such as digital video cameras, non-linear editing systems, digital audio and visual effects software and hardware.

"This is the Filipino's response to the call of the Digital Revolution, which has been continuously altering the terrain of World Cinema during the past few years." said Festival Director Khavn De La Cruz.

To encourage more participation from student filmmakers, .MOV conducted campus tours in more than 75 colleges and universities in Metro Manila, Baguio, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, La Union, Laguna, Legaspi, Lucena, Naga, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao.

In line with the March festival, Filmless Films will conduct more seminars on Digital Filmmaking in the Philippines and film screenings of Silvershorts 2002 Top Ten Finalists in the following colleges and universities in Cebu: University of the Philippines, Cebu Normal University, Southwestern University, University of San Jose-Recoletos, St. Theresa's College, University of San Carlos, University of the Visayas and University of Cebu.

Cueshe

A local artist management organization has tapped me to take photos of a new band named Cueshe. From what they tell me, they are supposed to be an "Alternative Showband"...errr...ok.

Anyway, a meeting is set for tommorow to familiarize myself with the band and to start building our rapport.

Project:Genesis

For a long time I have delayed the planning and execution of Project:Genesis. The project, slated on August, is a public screening of Visayan short films in schools and have one indie director interact with the students for a Q&A.

My first step is collecting as many short films as I can and screen which ones SineBuano will bring during the tour. Aside from the Visayan short films, SineBuano will also give tagalog short films exposure in Cebu. I have been promised by Kidlat de Guia and Kiri Dalen that they will send their films for showing, of course "The Witness" will be shown. I need some more.

I have also talked to people whose primary function is to get the sponsors we need to run the show. As usual, updates will be posted here.

By August there will be another public screening by the Revive Cebu Films Movement and an "international" film festival by Ron Heri Tan's Cebu Filmmakers Society.