Kokoy

1st Assistant Director

"I've seen 1st AD's fired for nothing...I've seen a 1st AD have a heart attack on set" ~Yul Vasquez

Duties: Prepares everythign for the director. The main man with all the departments concerned. Make life easier for the director. Coordinate with sound/art director.

"I am the great facilitator."

- Organize the set for the director, if he wants anything make sure its there.

-Telling the camera department what kind of shots

- Handling the crowd

- In this movie there are 3 AD's

What makes a good 1st AD: - Able to adjust to the mood, try to balance things out, if the director is quiet you have to compensate, if he is loud you have to mediate. Try to get people smiling.

"A lot of 1st AD's are assholes. If you can't push you have to shove."

- "I am lucky because I am working with all my friends. That makes things easier."

- Most 1st AD's are very noisy. Sometimes you have to push during crunch time.

- "In this particular movie one of

the concerns is keeping the union actors on schedule. We strictly adhere to those rules. They have to be fed 6 hours after they're called in and that dictates the shooting schedule. We also have to keep track if they're going into overtime. The standard time is 10 hours, including travel."

How he got into the business: "The last movie I did was ages ago. Here in the Philippines I do documentaries, theatres, TV, live performances.

How he got the job: Met John through Mario the editor. Mario and Joel were his students at La Salle University in the Philippines. "We all belong to the same theatre group, so this movie is kind of a reunion for us."

On John Sayles: "It helps a lot if you're director is as organized as John. He's one of the few who is always 5 steps ahead of his crew. He is a master...during the rice paddy shoot it would have been easy to lose your patience - the squibs weren't going off, the weapons weren't firing, everyone was stuck in the mud, but John keeps his cool."

On the weather: Everything weather-wise has happened save for a typhoon.

What he will do next: Go back to old job as a freelance director in theatre and opera, maybe some commercials.

On using the RED Camera instead of 35 mm: It's cheaper to bump it up to 35 mm after than to shoot in 35 mm. A lot of fgeature films are using RED cams but you have to figure out a way to give it the texture and depth of 35 mm. That's why we use the smoke. If you don't do things with smoke or lighting the digital picture is going to look flat.