04/02/2026
SHE'S LEAVING HOME has wrapped. Awards show speech time.
Thank you to our CAST. The thing about working with talented AND intelligent AND brave actors, specially in a micro-budget project like this, is you really can afford to close a scene in two, three takes and have at least two good ones.The thing about working with talented AND easygoing AND grounded actors is it makes you want to work with them over and over.
This was my second time working with Jas (Curtis-Smith) and Jess (Mendoza) and my first with Paolo (O'Hara) and Sam (Samarita) and I've lost count how many times with Herald (Chavez) but it WON'T be the LAST. No showbiz. No BS. Non-negotiable. Eto ang bato. Taga niyo.
Thanks to my non-negotiable super-team some of which I've been collaborating with since VIOLATOR: Albert, Timmy, Lawrence, Remton, Kulas, Mikee, Billy, Ross, Caloy, Barbie, and eventually Corinne, Vlad and the malas peeps. An almost telepathic synergy has always been our secret weapon and it has not, after eleven years, shot its wad.
Thanks, too, to the indeftaigable non-negotiable support team: Marienel, Noni, Ana, Val, Noah, Christian. Kuya Gee and boys. NEXT project na!
Thanks to my friends Bernard at Arsenal Pro and Tristan for the gear. NEXT na din! Also to Jun for the third 8mm reel.
Thanks to all the friends who visited and/or bought food: Mihk (Vergara), Malay, Joe and Betty, Jippy, Bico and Shaine, our 19th floor neighbor Steven (who also took the pic), newlywed Pat Paminutan and my cousin Jenny.
And OF COURSE, to my partner in work and art and life and love Patricia, who's the reason I was all smiles on set (and IN LIFE. Pak) and who was THE ONE who brought this film back from the dead and here it is now, in the FU***NG CAN. Love you to bits. ❤❤❤
Love you all.
Tiktok said it's a mark of a "bad director" to be sitting at the video village all shoot long. But cut me some slack. I was all over the set all day, standing, walking, going up stairs, all that. Last pong na 'tong pic na to. Masakit na likod. LOL.
First project of Monsoon Projects looking good. Onto the second.
- Dodo Dayao
