Encantadia Trivia

When people learn I am part of Encantadia, they invariably ask some questions. However, since I am a member of the puppet team, my knowledge of the goings on is limited to a certain degree. There are two units that shoot at the same time, for example, one for the mortal world and another for the fantasy world. The former is a total mystery to me since our character’s scenes are usually in the realm of Encantadia.

Q. Where do you shoot the scenes?
A. A majority of the scenes are shot in a Pasig warehouse that was renovated to become a soundstage by GMA to the tune of P1M. Indoor scenes from Encantadia are usually shot there, including blue screen shots, scenes that are shot in front of a blue screen, enabling artists to add special effects later.

When the weather was still favorable, we used to shoot at Daranak falls in Taytay, but with the advent of the rainy season, that had to be stopped because it was too difficult to bring the heavy equipment through the slippery mud. The conditions worsened that there was even an occurence when the Encantadia team was stranded because of floods.

Another time we shot in Batangas. Although I love the sea, I got very apprehensive on the trip going there because during the last stretch there were only dirt roads, and then it was reduced to a one lane reclaimed dirt road in the middle of mangroves. Good thing there wasn’t any vehicle going the opposite direction. Otherwise, somebody would have had to back up.

In Subic, the same problem was met. Approximately a kilometer from the location, all car owners were told to leave their cars because only vans and 4-wheel drive vehicles can traverse the last stretch. And there was a nocturnal insect that wrecked havoc among the crew and artists. A bite caused a range of reactions from a simple red mark that disappeared within a couple of days to a swollen bump oozing with pus, which was the case, unfortunately, with actor/director Dingdong Dantes.

Q. How long do you shoot?
A. On the average, it’s usually an 18-hour shoot. But there are rare times when it can be as short as 4-6 hours. That usually happens when the scenes are just in one particular set-up, so there’s no need to wait for lights or scenery to be changed.

Q. What’s going to happen next in the story?
A. Believe it or not, we hardly know ourselves. There is a weekly meeting when the creative staff gets together to decide what’s going to happen for the coming week. Aside from the storyline, decisions are affected by other factors such as what the competition is doing, the actors’ health (as was in the case of Ms. Dawn Zulueta’s pregnancy), and even the weather.

There are times when I feel like I’m in a Shakespearean play, because in the days of old Shakespearean actors were only given the lines they were supposed to speak, in order to protect the material from being copied by a rival writer.

In the same way, we are given our parts of the script just before we’re about to shoot the scene. Since we’re four in the puppet team, the person providing Imaw’s voice, Noel, has to repeat the scene’s lines several times so that everybody’s on the same page, so to speak.

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