Born on the 4th of July, the shooting in 1989.

This was a nice one. , meeting with the Hollywooders, great action days.

Me..

   Most of the action was shot at the beach all the way up north in Laoag-City, hometown of former pres. Ferdinand Marcos and capital of the province Ilocos Norte, a restless province with violence at a regular time . Besides the wardrobe and props, there was a large input from the Philippine Army, so were the APC´s, the Armoured Personnel Carriers. It was december 1988 and I was told that the tanks we were running next to on the set, had just been used to fight rebels or members of the NPA, the New Peoples Army, recently. One could say the barrels were still hot...

Me and ?( don't remember the names of the other guys.)

Oliver Stone, our director, had planned a sunset shoot. We were positioned at the beach and marched next to the huge tanks. Can´t say it was like walking your dog, no. We had to go on the double through the sand, me carrying a heavy M60 machine gun on my shoulder, the other guys were on top of the APC (they had the best part.... ). The caterpillar-links grind the sand and crunched at a high pitch. Very dusty and noisy and pretty damn dangerous when you were close next to them, cos they didn't move smoothly but sort of danced . The first time wasn't too bad, but the direct wanted another shot with a lower sun. We had to hurry back to nr.1 and take positions again. We did this for 3 or 4 times, and the sand became a heavy walk, both my shoulders were nearly bruised and getting painful, the M 60 seemed to get heavier every step I made, more stumbling than walking I reached the meet, and I never was more glad to hear 'cut'.

Once in awhile explosives add their effect to the scene..villagers are running around to save some of their belongings a few chickens, a goat or other precious things..it looked pretty real ..cos it WAS for real... most people saw their own houses burn to ashes.!!!

"The next scene we run from dune to dune while shot at, we aim our fire, shooting the enemy. The beach is on fire, all Nipa huts made of flammable materials are burning.."

It's a small barrio they're burning down, people were payed for, but still... It was calculated to be much cheaper to buy out the complete community than to build a 'look alike' village.
Besides the compensations they got to rebuild their homes, the inhabitants were cast to be part of the scene. I'm sure they had a christmas they'll never forget.....

Tom Cruise.

I had never heard of Tom Cruise before, I heard he just made it with 'Topgun', a film I didn't see yet.. He wasn't easy to become friends with, he didn't merge with the lower cast and the times I talked with him were more like formal than friendly. He preferred to stay at his room most of the time. There was a period he didn't feel well and had a fever, as a helot I offered my service but he insisted to be seen by a doctor. OK.

The international productions used to bring their own stunt people and doubles so I was pretty surprised when Ken Metcalfe asked me to be a stand-in for Willem Dafoe...so I got the chance to get to know him a little better.. A stand-in, well, it sounds more interesting than it is. A stand-in is a person who replaces an actor when the settings are being prepared for the next take. The camera is 'blocking' you while lights, reflectors and sounds are positioned and marks are made where the actors need to stand. When all is set, the 'money' comes to do the take....

A double, or body-double as they call it, is a person who takes over when the situation needs an expert to perform a stunt or otherwise. The 'star' steps aside and his double will do the action.

Even Chuck Norris used several doubles in case the stunts were too risky to have it done by himself. Now we're NOT talking fighting scenes, I mean no one else can do that better than him right.?? No, think about jumping down an airplane or other dangerous stuff that's not covered by the insurance....But to perform a stunt that's too dangerous to be done by Chuck Norris ???

In MIA-3, I was stand-by as 3rd double to Chuck Norris, just in case... But double #1 did a good job, so even # 2 had easy days...

Can't win 'm all..............

Oliver Stone

 http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/oliver-stone/147030/oliver-stone-an-independent-american-director

Born on the 4th of july. The action scenes were taken in Laoag during the holidays 1988-'89. Direct Oliver Stone had brought his family to join him on the shooting. His wife seemed to like his work behind the camera and she spent hours on the set. We had a nice New Year barbecue at the beach and I even celebrated my birthday, january 12, on the set. I think we stayed on this location for at least 3 weeks and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Full Movie, click here... 

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