My first films with Cirio Santiago and Teddy Page.

-->1985 had a slow start, I didn't really hunt for the movies and had fun on the tatami in Rizal Memorial. I wanted those judoka of mine to perform at their best when they were about to join the ASEAN-games in Taiwan, but as far as I remember none of them succeeded to reach the podium. Well, it takes many years of preparation to reach that level. A little disappointed I decided to invest more of my time in this movie-thing. One way or another I was to meet with Cirio Santiago, a local giant in the film-industry who became president of the Philippine Film Development Fund in 1995.( He died last 3 years later).

Those also were the days I met with Richard Harrison and Teddy Page, sometimes I got confused in which film I was working in, cos I met a lot of the same guys, AD's and directors again. Working titles didn't help either...

This also was the periode James Gaines' 'Blackfire' was shot. I was on the set for a couple a days but can't really remember the stuff we did...hmmm

It was a period of shooting some scenes one day, then a couple a days later another call to do more action scenes or other fighting choreographics. I learned it was the shooting for Blooddepts.

Blood Debts, full movie

 It was fun to see Richard again not much later on the set of the Eliminators (or one of the others..!!), he didn't seem to bother the time-lap as he continued his story where he stopped it last time, telling about his number one pride, his son Sebastian.

He always talked about him. And wasn't it about his son, he would talk about the hundreds of movies he featured in. His filmography is phenomenal, and though most of his films rank B, he once in awhile had a peak coming up with a nice piece a shit.

I loved the guy and talked with him for hours. He seemed to have some problems with the retreating hairline, but solved that by implants. Yeah Rich, it's hard growin' older.

It was a wrap. I could add 2 more movies to my beginning filmography.... I thought....(it was 'n aka...!!!)

The same happened on the set with The Destroyers, King's Ransom and Devastator. I don't know how long it took to shoot these movies, cos I wasn't there all the time. I didn't live in Manila so I wasn't around every day. But I knew where to go though..! Easy and cheap by Jeepney, I studied my map and knew how to find my way in MM. It wasn't always necessary to visit the casting bureau's, a phone call would do to learn the location...I just went there...! Anyway, these 3 movies with Cirio lasted several weeks I guess, it didn't ring a bell that cast and crew were all the same.... Henry Strzalkowski, Nick Nicholson, Steve Rogers, James Gaines, Bill Kipp, David Light, Richard Harrison....and all the others...

Then there were the foreign releases with different/translated titles on the covers.

....It was only 25 years later I found out those 3 films were all the same shoot. Renewed contact with my old movie-Buddies helped me to refresh memories and to add or change details.

Kings Ransom. Or one of the others...!

Whatever. They were hunting us, shooting at us and trying to kill us. I didn't know why ( they gave me no script !). We were told to run and answer fire and fight.... Who were we ??

A couple a goons, some awkward hoodlums, roughnecks defending their weed plantation. I think Nick Nicholson called it something like: "We're the motherfuckin' bad guys, that's what we are..", as I asked him whom we should impersonate. 
 

Jeez, they did some character-casting on us....

Now, I don't know why I had several resurrections to die another violent death. May be there weren't enough stuntmen or Cirio just liked the way I died, who knows, but I was brutally murdered at least 5 times in this movie. After a metamorphoses I had to show up for another ready- to-die action.

The set-up for the next trap is pretty simple. While on the flee I ran in to an ambush. There's a rope's loop under a tree hiding a booby trap, the moment I hit the loop I'll be pulled up the tree hanging upside down swinging one leg.

At the evil place I go face first by hooking my own leg. I hit the ground, my rifle is flying away from me. At that point the camera stops rolling. The loop is carefully placed around my ankle. I'm not moving an inch... everybody is ready and there we go. Action.

OK, it was action I tell you. There were four guys, off-frame, pulling this rope with all their enthousiasm to the limit. So I ended off-frame as well, in top of the fucking tree. It had to be done again, so they got a mark where to stop pulling and I was placed back in position #1.

"Ready for take 2 ? ... Action !"

And up it went again. Oh yeah, at the right height this time, but I was moving and swinging and spinning around, clashing with the tree. I tried to make the best of it and started yelling and cursing for help. But Cirio didn't like it, he had planned something else. It had to be done a third time.

"The direct is shouting action again, the guys start pulling and I go up". But half-way only, from there I went back down with the same fucking speed as I got up. I had a split second to duck my head before I hit the ground with a serious impact. The knot to extend the rope didn't hold and slipped. All four guys were on their asses as well. I was mad like hell, threw away my wig and told them to find another fucking stupid asshole to perform in their fucking amateur approach.

I didn't hurt myself at all cos I could break the fall just in time, but I didn't feel much like hanging up/down again. I mean I perished a couple a times already that day, where was my enthousiasm ? Puh...

Now I expected someone to come down and ask me to try again. I probably would have. But they didn't. They didn't dare fucking me up one more time.. hahaha. Well they found me a double to finish the high-light. I was watching this picture from a distance and noticed that my double was placed in up/down position directly. He needed to hang to a complete still. I had no idea what was going on. I still didn't get it when they placed a bamboo frame, having sharp spears all over, around his body. Curiously I asked a smartass what they were intent to do. He explained to me that the booby trap had a follow-up. This bamboo frame is suppose to pierce the person as it swings down from the trees. Now it will be shot backwards. The frame is pulled away in this shot, but edited the reverse way. Yeah, now I got the picture why I had to hang in pose. But I wasn't told. Never mind.

I found myself a nice place behind the cams to value the first class trick. The same four guys, holding another rope with the bamboo frame now, were ready on action. I remember me thinking: I hope they made a good knot this time. There was no rehearsal, they pulled at action...

Now, how many times can you fuck up ???????? Cameras are rolling, ACTION... and they pull their asses off. Oh, believe it or not, two of them slipped out of their slippers and the frame ( quite heavy), went back the way it came. I tell you, my heart stopped beating for a while...Only inches before it was to hit my double, the move came to a hold. I had this 'funny' feeling in my stomach I can't explain to you. Wasn't I suppose to have hung there ??........ This was A Dangerous Life, was my conclusion. But I would do some more films with Cirio !!!! read more .

Blind man sees through tooth

Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth implanted into his eye

Seeing clearly: Martin Jones opens his newly-sighted eye fitted with a tooth

When Martin Jones met his wife four years ago, he never imagined that one day he would get to see what she looked like.
The 42-year-old builder was left blind after an accident at work more than a decade ago.
But a remarkable operation - which implants part of his tooth in his eye - has now pierced his world of darkness.
The procedure, performed fewer than 50 times before in Britain, uses the segment of tooth as a holder for a new lens grafted from his skin.
'The doctors took the bandages off and it was like looking through water and then I saw this figure and it was her,' he said today.
'She's wonderful and lovely. It was unbelievable to see her for the first time.'
He added: 'When I found out there was a chance I would get my sight back, the first person I wanted to see was her.'
Mr Jones, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, married his wife Gill, 50, four years ago.
By that time he had already spent eight years without his sight after a tub of white hot aluminium exploded in his face at work in a scrapyard.
He suffered 37 per cent burns and had to wear a special body stocking for 23 hours a day. He also had his left eye removed.

Enlarge

But surgeons were able to save the right eye, even though he was unable to see through it.
At first specialists in Nottingham tried to save his sight using stem cells from a donor but the attempt failed.
It was only when a revolutionary new operation was pioneered at the Sussex Eye Clinic in Brighton that he was given a chance to have his sight back.

Surgeon Christopher Liu used a living tooth to carry a new lens because Mr Jones' eye could reject a plastic implant

During the procedure, a minute section of a patient's tooth is removed, reshaped and chiselled through to grip the man-made lens which is then placed in its core.
It is implanted under an eyelid where it becomes covered in tissue.
The process requires a living tooth as an implant because doctors suggest there are chances the eye would reject a plastic equivalent.
So a canine - which is the best option due to its shape and size - was taken out of Mr Jones' mouth.
A patch of skin is then taken from the inside of the cheek and placed in the eye for two months, where it gradually acquires its own blood supply.
The tooth segment is finally transplanted into the eye socket. The flap of grafted skin is then partially lifted from the eye and placed over its new sturdy base.

Cannabis policy...

A Dutch policy, which allows the consumption of limited quantities of soft drugs, may change as a government commission has admitted the policy has gone too far, Radio Netherlands reported yesterday. Our relaxed policy on cannabis (and other soft drugs), should become much stricter to contain the negative effects such as drugs tourism and organized crime, a report by the commission said. (It was published on Thursday. )
The report said a strictly monitored supply of soft drugs to coffee shops, sold to local customers only, would help stem drugs tourism, where clients come from far to buy soft drugs.

Under the current policy, the sale of soft drugs is allowed, but growing and supplying them remains illegal. The report acknowledged that this was (still is) an almost impossible situation.

The commission recommended that supply should be allowed under strict rules. It foresaw possibilities for a regulated way of growing cannabis and other soft drugs in Holland. This would sideline organized crime, which currently plays a major role in the growing of illegal cannabis and making big money of course, imagine that 1 gram will make it to 10 Euro or even more, depends on the brand. These illegal growers don't mind to tap electricity before it reaches the meter, or add a lot of forbidden ingredients to the fertilizer. Pesticides are used without any control now and that's one of the reasons I'm growing my own lady's ...

Only regulated, Dutch grown soft drugs should be allowed to be on sale in coffee shops, the commission said.

It also called for an independent drugs authority to control the soft drugs market and to monitor any future changes in drug policies.

The report was commissioned by the Dutch government after city councils in the south of the Netherlands expressed their growing doubts over the current relaxed policy.

Cities like Maastricht, Breda, Eindhoven -- all close to the Belgian border -- have endured the negative effects of heavy drug tourism, attracting people from Belgium, France and Germany where the sale (and use) of soft drugs is prohibited. And not just weedlovers from neighboring countries are in to a visit on Dutch soil. What to think about are colleagues from the States, eg. George Cloony, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and the rest of "Oceans" cast. They can frequently be found around Amsterdam's coffee-shops. ( and the red-light district as well).

All those tourists feel like God in France, the relaxed policy creates a relaxed smoker cos he is not chased by the cops, though rules get more strict every year and in many a city it's not allowed to blow your dooby in public. But you know, as long as you can do such in your own house or backyard without being brought to justice I don't care. It will never come back the way it was in the 60's and 70's, may be it was just a little too liberal at that time.

Fact is, that the quality of the 'Nederwiet' became first class and worldwide recognized as close to hard drugs due to the high level of THC. The organized crime and foreign governments are screwing up for us. Brussels rather saw us to close down all our shops, fuck them, that's why I voted against the European constitution some time ago. Holland is unique in its soft-drug policy, let's keep it that way, it's not bad to the economy either.


Let us smoke our joint in peace....

Born on the 4th of July (NL)

(for English scroll down)

De 4de juli kan ik niet zo maar voorbij laten gaan. Bijna iedereen weet dat op deze dag de onafhankelijkheid van de US wordt gevierd. Maar ik heb het uiteraard over de film die een andere kijk op de Vietnam-oorlog geeft. Er zat weer een grote jongen aan te komen, dat het een grote jongen werd wist ik toen natuurlijk nog niet... Pas later als zo'n productie allerlei awards binnensleept en een kaskraker wordt krijg je enig idee waaraan je hebt meegewerkt. Willem Dafoe met in zijn kielzog Tom Cruise die er net 'Topgun' op had zitten. Ik had op dat moment nog nooit van hem gehoord en de film ook niet gezien..

Willem

Tom

  En Tom Berringer, inmiddels ook een legende op het witte doek.. Als director verscheen ook een oude bekende, Oliver Stone, deze keer vergezeld door vrouw en kinderen die de kerstvakantie op de set kwamen doorbrengen..

j Als director verscheen ook een oude bekende, Oliver Stone, deze keer vergezeld door vrouw en kinderen die de kerstvakantie op de set kwamen doorbrengen. Ik kende hem al van Platoon. Deze keer gingen we voor 'Born on the 4th of July. De oorlogs-scenes voor deze film werden geschoten in hetb uiterste noorden van de Filippijnen, op het strand van Laoag, de hoofdstad van Ilocos-Norte, de thuisprovincie van president Marcos. Een onrustige provincie met regelmatig geweld, het militaire materieel dat we gebruikten was eigendom van de Philippine Army zo ook de tanks, APC's die werden ingezet. Echt spul dus. Het was eind december 1988, de geplande opnamen werden aangepast omdat de tanks die we nodig hadden de nacht ervoor waren ingezet tegen rebellen en nog niet terug op de set waren.. Toen ze uiteindelijk arriveerden waren de lopen bij wijze van spreken nog warm.... De 'Direct' wilde de dag afsluiten met een ondergaande zon tegen een decor van oprukkende troepen tussen zandopstuivende APC's Armoured Personnel Carrier.

Me with an M60.

  We rennen tussen de beschietingen door van duin naar duin en richten ons vuur op de vijand. Het strand staat in lichterlaaie, alle huisjes, gebouwd van riet, bamboe en palmbladeren geven een geel-oranje vuurgloed, dat alles nog aangewakkerd door extra brandstof en explosieven. De dorpelingen rennen en vliegen rond om nog iets van hun hebben en houden te kunnen redden. Een paar kippen, een geit en andere belangrijke zaken worden opgepakt en meegenomen

.Daar wordt je moe van

Al deze mensen zagen ook echt  hun boeltje in vlammen opgaan, het bleek goedkoper het hele dorp uit te kopen dan een set na te bouwen die er net zo realistisch en gedetailleerd uitzag. Het scheelde zeker veel tijd en behalve een royale schadevergoeding kregen de meesten ook de kans als figurant mee te spelen en nog wat extra's op te strijken.. Zo'n kerstcadeautje zal best van pas gekomen zijn. 

  Het lopen, eigenlijk meer snelwandelen door het mulle zand met een M-60 machinegun op m'n schouder, valt de eerste keer best mee. De tanks knarsen tussen hun rupsbanden, het is stoffig en lawaaierig, en best wel link als je te dicht in de buurt loopt. Als die dingen zich wenden gat dat schoksgewijs en huppelt het gevaarte met een sprongetje de gestuurde kant op. Daar wilde je niet onderkomen... Maar hetis niet gauw goed. Heer Olivier wilde beter en riep geregeld 'cut, back to # one'.. wat inhield dat we terugmoesten naar ons beginpunt en de scene opnieuw gefilmd werd. Dan is zo'n stukje ganzenpas van een paar minuten ineens een flinke afstand geworden dat je moet terugkuieren..! En niet één keer, nee, wel vier keer opnieuw..Zo'n M-60 wordt dan looiig en moet tijdens het rennen van de ene schouder naar de andere gegooid worden. Daar deed Oliver het ook voor, de vermoeidheid straalde van ons af, de jongens bovenop de tanks waren beter af en zaten te grijnzen.. die soldatenkisten voelden steeds zwaarder aan en m'n schouders waren beurs, soms werd het rennen een beetje struikelen en strompelen en dat zal er best een stuk echter hebben uitgezien...

  De bekkentrekkende Willem Dafoe was populair op de set, dit in tegenstelling tot zijn collega Tom Cruise die zich eerder afzonderde en bij zijn eigen clubje bleef. Ik heb me kostelijk vermaakt tijdens de opnamen waarbij Dafoe obsceen zij draaiende tong liet filmen. De on-gein en hilariteit vóór de opnames waren eigenlijk leuker dan de scenen zelf. Op dezelfde locatie werd trouwens ook het revalidatiecentrum met de rolstoelen gefilmd.

  De grote internationale producties brengen meestal zelf hun eigen stuntmensen en dubbels mee, ik was dan ook aangenaam verrast toen de casting-director mij vroeg stand-in te zijn voor Willem Dafoe. Dat klinkt interessanter dan het is. Stand-ins worden gebruikt voor het 'blocken' voor de camera, de belichting en camera-instellingen worden zo ingesteld en er wordt een rehearsel gedraaid. Als alles dan klopt en er gefilmd kan worden komen de grote jongen zelf opdraven.. Een ander verhaal is het als je als body-double de plaats inneemt van de acteur wanneer er een stunt moet worden verricht of indien er een andere gevaarlijke situatie is. Zelfs Chuck Norris had dubbels rondlopen voor als het te gevaarlijk voor hem werd, en dan moet je niet denken aan een vechtscène maar bijvoorbeeld een risicovolle sprong vanuit een vliegtuig, de productie mag geen gevaar lopen en vaak dekt de verzekering het risico niet.. 

English:

http://bert-firebert.blogspot.nl/2009/10/born-on-4th-of-july-shooting-in-1989.html

Full Movie click here..