. . .FIREBERT: Hellcamp aka Opposing force and senior visiting

Senior as a POW, on the set of Hellcamp.
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My father in Holland who had been reading all my letters about the sweet life in the Philippines and the adventures on the film sets, couldn't resist my invitation to come over for a couple of months and stay in my place.... Oh, I tell you, he had ears to that. Now you need to know that my old man only spoke Dutch and a few words of German.. In his youth ( he was born in 1910) there wasn't enough money to support high school. So when he turned 12 he had to find a job and he ended up with a local newspaper-writer/printer in our hometown. He learned the job, got his diplomas and stayed there for the rest of his carrier, I mean 53 years in a row !!! He never reported sick until his early 60's when he needed an ear surgery. He was a perfectionist in his labor, worked late and in the weekends.
In his 20's he started a second job for the weekends, and that was in the movie theater in our place. It didn't take long for him to learn how to handle the projectors. During the intermission he was selling soft drinks and candy bars.

Now it happened that both, the owner of the newspaper and the movie house operator were jewish and they were transported to labor camps in Germany during WW2, like a lot of civilian boys and men from that area. But the Germans wanted the newspaper-press to keep on rolling and they told my dad he was exempted from labor abroad so he ended up to run the store single handed . But even more LOL, cos they needed him in the theater as well.

My parents were able to survive the war without too much suffering, living in the province was better than in the big cities, the '1944 winter was the hardest part when food became scarce. Both of his employers returned from prison camps and got back to work after the war....

Now can you imagine my father when he was watching 'my movies' in his theater , 40 years later.........:)

He didn't hesitate for a moment when I asked him to come and see with his own eyes what was going on over here !!! He was 75 already and never tasted the experience of flying, so his maiden trip ( over 20 hrs from Amsterdam-Manila) was a good one for sure.

I wanted to spent some time with him and didn't mind the movie busyness for the moment.

At the beach after a typhoon..

We did a trip Manila, Ermita of course, where it all started, Luneta and the rest.

.. we headed for Pagsanjan and the rapids, oh he loved that trip by banca and the beautiful views of the province and thought it a nice place to live.

The rapids

Well, I had planned some more, oh yeah, I took him all the way up to Baguio, 300 km up north and at a comfortable 1500 meters altitude.

Most of the time of this 6 hrs trip was spent on numerous mountain-passes and hairpin bends that slowed us down quite a bit, but the sight, this beautiful sight wow, when y're above the clouds for a while, leaving us a view we'ld never forget for the rest of our life. By plane it will take about 3/4 of an hour, but travelling by bus is an event you should taste for at least once in your lifetime The difference in temperature is a 10 C. jump. From 35 down to 25 is cool man. During the hot summers the government settles here and so do another quarter of a million tourists to double the population of the city during the hot season.

When you want more than Baguio you need to take another 6 hours drive to Banaue and Sagada in the middle of the Mountain province. And it's worth it. Pa didn't mind the trip but faced some problems when he needed to dump a load. It aren't really comfort rooms, its a hole, there's no toilet paper and it's stinky and filthy. He came back to get some tissues but wasn't amused at all, well shit happens hahaha...

The beautiful Sagada falls, but not easy to come there

I had been here before and knew where to find us a nice and cheap place to stay. Oh and I knew where to get me a joint, well not too difficult, just follow the nice smells.

Banaue, an ingenious system

Sagada view.

The reason why tourists come to this small mountain village is the marvelous cave system ,and the hanging coffins of course which make it a lugubrious attraction. And to ride the rapids...

The coffins ( with contents ) are placed at various unreachable ridges along the sides.

Some of them are at closer distance and give a morbide look to the degraded remains.

We had a 12 hours journey ahead of us back to Manila. One way or another we managed to get one of the last busses to my place. We were exhausted at arrival. ...As soon as we were recovered from our 'worldtrip' we went to Manila once again. I wanted to have a look at Central Casting's cos there was something comin'up in a while as I'd learned. And it was a hit, Maria Metcalfe passed me a contract which I had to sign instantly. "You are playing a guard", she said. The shootings were to start by next week, that's all I knew... When we got outside, we walked in to Peta and Peter ( from the Firebird) they had no plans for the rest of the day so they joined us to the beach. My father finally met with his first movie stars :))

and there were more to come...

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I told him I would be gone for the whole week to shoot that movie, but he didn't mind he said, he could use a rest hahaha. And he wasn't alone. My 'alalay' came to visit him with her children every day, she did the shoppings and cooked him a meal. He was in good hands with my friends from the barrio . I took off for Manila and at arrival in 'Film-more' Avenue I met with old buddies. Steve Rogers was there, Willie Williams, David Light and Henry Strzalkowski. And some more guys I never met before. Our location ??... My favorite province Laguna !! We were heading for "Hidden Valley' near Alaminos.

This valley is situated between Laguna-lake ...

View on Taal lake.

...and Taal-lake and was formed ages ago when the whole area was blown apart by a huge eruption. The volcanic activities didn't stop since, it still rumbles and bumbles once in a while. There are hot water springs all over the place, small lakes, a unique flora and fauna, little rivers every were, the sound of falling water, the smell of the jungle. It was such a nice place to be, a real Wonderland.

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FULL Movie CLICK HERE

'Clay Pigeons'.. aka 'Hellcamp'.. aka 'Opposing Force'

The film set was a prisoner camp, supposed to be on a remote island in the middle of nowhere. The prisoners needed to be guarded and I was one of them. The shootings might take as long as three weeks, weekends off..

... Prisoner Steve Rogers, 'guarded' by Bill Kipp and me, with Rafael Shulz and Henry Strzalkowski flanking

Cast and crew

It was a relaxed set, there were more crew than cast. There was plenty of time to smoke a doobie and to enjoy the nature at its best. Henry really was a nice guy, typing his name is the only unpleasant part of it, hahaha. I think this was the 5th or 6th movie I worked for him and he joined many a joint. Henry didn't give it a second thought when I asked him how about bringing my old man to the set next week? He said it was a nice plan and would ask higher-up. Production didn't mind and it was OK'd. When I told the cast about my fathers visit next week they all saw it as a very nice opportunity for a retiree to experience this adventure....

Bertus sr. jumped sky high when I told him about things to come. He couldn't wait the weekend to pass...

Pa had a good time on the set and it didn't bother him at all that nobody understood what he said and that came vice versa..

Housing wasn't a problem either, there was plenty of room and an extra bed was provided in one of our nice bungalows. I wanted to pay for the food but he was an 'all in' gast and it was for free. My father was surprised by all this hospitality and felt a little like a movie star already. He was allowed to stay for a couple of days and he enjoyed every minute of it.

Hell Camp (AKA Opposing Force or Clay Pigeons) — withDing Navasero, Nato Morado, Bert Spoor, Vic Ordonez, Steve Cook, Jim Gaines Jr, Rafael Schulz, Henry Strzalkowski, David Light, Sgt. Boy Ibanez, Bill Kipp and Tony Williams.

The second day we switched to night shooting, means we had to work after the 6 o'clock diner!!

At 7 it was almost dark already and cameras were rolling. We did our things until midnight.. then all of a sudden the lights were switched off. I thought it was an early wrap, but the lights went on again while everybody was singing "happy birthday".

Our direct, Eric Carson was celebrating his birthday and there was the party..

It wasn't just snacks and drinks, no there was a show attached. Two Philippina's started a striptease and were drinking champagne from eachothers navels. Dad liked it....