DIRECTOR MIKO LIVELO has done comedies with Regal, like “Love You to Death” and “Unli Life”. He now writes and directs for Vivamax, which has garnered one million subscribers all over the world in just nine months of operation.
His project with Viva is the horror-comedy, “Sa Haba ng Gabi”, a special Halloween presentation that starts streaming on October 29.
“Nabudol ko ang Viva, along with Reality Enterainment, to give the greenlight for me to do this project,” he says at the film’s zoompresscon. “Dahil pang-Hallowee ito, expect na maraming eksena ng gulatan at katatakutan, but with comic touches so it’s like a roller coaster ride.”
The movie is about zombie apocalypse, which has been done several times before. So how is “Sa Haba ng Gabi” any different from those past films? “
Yes, marami na ngang gumawa ng ganitong klaseng film, but this one is more about how three people trapped in one house are able to survive in one night and how it changed their lives and their relationships.
"Yes, one night lang nangyari ang buong movie.”
His stars are Jerald Napoles, Kim Molina and Candy Pangilinan. Kim and Candy are housemaids in the mansion of a senator while Jerald plays the senator’s driver who is Candy’s boyfriend. He feels blessed working with such a talented cast.
“Working with them is so enjoyable as they’re all very talented. They all shared some inputs on how the movie would go and even about the characters, kunsaan nila gustong dalhin the roles they play.
"You can see in their bonding na enjoy sila sa shoot and that’s made our work much easier kasi gabi ang setting ng movie so sa gabi lang kami nagsu-shoot.”
Jerald says they all enjoyed the fact that their director is very collaborative.
“May scenes, sasabihin niya sa amin, o mag-in put na kayo dyan ha. Kaya maraming eksena rito, nagi-improvise lang kami at okay namang lumabas.”
“Sinabihan ko talaga sila, o kaya no dyan, ha,” adds Direk Miko. “Natutulog na nga lang ako sa set at hinahayaan ko na lang sila. Tapos, gigising na ako, ‘O tapos na ba? Na-shoot na natin?’
"But it was really fun kasi nga weird ang working hours namin due to the health protocols na only 12 hours puede mag-shoot. So we start shooting at 5 pm hanggang 5 ng madaling araw.
"Baligtad ‘yung oras namin, kaya pagdating ng gabi gising na gising na kami. Masaya lang kasi magkakaibigan na kaming lahat.”
The movie is perfect set up for the pandemic.
“Kasi ngayon, bawal ang big scenes involving too many people. Restricted pati ang locations. Di puedeng palipat-lipat kasi may time frame na sinusunod.
"Nakaplano na ang lahat hanggang sa dulo ng shoot kasi kailangang matapos agad ang pelikula. With the pandemic and shooting within a bubble, you have to be more creative because you have to work within the constraints.
"We’re thankful to VIva kasi tuloy-tuloy pa rin sila sa paggawa ng movies sa kabila ng pandemic.”
