As promised, here's my interview with
Reclusion's Team. Also included in the interview are
NineMoons and
Fiksdotter, who were the scriptwriters for
Not Another Love Story (1 & 2) and
Le Blanc, respectively. Do also note that NineMoons and Fiksdotter were involved in both films as well (as voice actors & moral support cheering squad XD).
DeSanggria (DS): What was your initial reaction upon learning that you won the 2 top spots in the competition? 
Reclusion (R): Stunned...tumbling in the air while doing cappoera, diablo, verticals and a split in the finale.
Not to be a braggart and all, but I did expect that one of my entries will land on any of the 3 spots, but the shocking thing was both of my entries landed first and second!
NineMoons (NM): Initial reaction was, of course, to punch the air. Couldn't help but feel giddy, buoyant, happy. I had been waiting for the announcement with not a little dread, so when we heard, it was a huge relief.
Fiksdotter (F): I was really surprised about the result because the final week was opened for new entries and there was the possibility that there will be changes in results.
DS: Where did you get the idea to create Le Blanc and Not Another Love Story (NALS)?R: For Le Blanc, I just told Fiksdotter that I want a movie that will promote the game as a whole. So we decided to make a biographical movie about Andre Janzur. By involving Andre, it involved in-game fashion since we were making a movie about the game's couturier.
Another thing notable thing in Le Blanc is the dialogue. I wanted a movie ala Will Ferell, where you can appreciate their quotable quotes. Zoolander was also one of Fiksdotter's inspiration for Le Blanc.
For NALS, we just wanted an out of the box idea with regards to the streotyping of the Royalists and Republicans. The first thing that you'll upon hearing the word Royalist Vs. Republicans is war, right? But my team begged to differ. We wanted something different! Talk about a failed love story from the leaders and making the Republican head a gay dude! Special thanks to you for your wild idea during the first bloggers' meet! [DS notes: Was it me? I thought it was all of us who thought about it. Hehehe.]
The musical part was also borne out of the idea that we wanted to something different yet again. Hrin commented that one of the edges of Le Blanc was the voice overs. But we already did that, so we thought of something else...WE WILL SING! Obviously, the musical was inspired from Disney films.
NM: The initial idea for NALS came about from silly, funny, half-joking discussions we'd had among our group of friends. We wanted to do a unique story, and we also wanted to be funny - and that's where we realized that the screwball/romantic comedy approach would work. We also wanted to poke fun at Gabriella and Simon - they were the leaders of the political parties, but why the heck were they fighting? The answer to that became the initial seed for NALS.
F: As the scriptwriter of Le Blanc, I was greatly influenced by Western films and some films here
in the Philippines.
DS: What was your most enjoyable experience in making the videos?R: Sleepless nights! Yeah it's hard, but I enjoyed it! The bonding moments with my team in the Mountains of Sierra Madre...and the sGE secret Bloggers-turned-my-team meeting!
NM: I was responsible for half the scripts of the two NALS movies; the other team members contributed more than half of the humor to the dialogue. It was fun for me because I wanted to see if I could write the way sitcom writers do.
F: I should say doing voice over for the characters. This was really out of plan since we plotted the story for Le Blanc last November 2007.
DS: What was the most difficult experience in making both movies?R: It's difficult to coordinate with your team especially when you're far away and the only means of communication is Yahoo Messenger and a telephone!
NM: The voice overs! Hands down! I was supposed to voice some of the minor female characters, but lost my recorder *grumble grumble*
F: Actually, I was really mixed up at first because as much as possible, there should be no external influence from other movies that I have watched. But thankfully, I made a good script out of it. In addition, the most difficult thing on writing Le Blanc's story is how to make a new character out of it.
DS: Who do you consider your biggest competitors in the FFA?R: I admit I was shocked to see The Artist Society Team! Knowing that they are already "professionals in this kind of competition", they've already made movies such as 3D animations and real life movies. They're contest people in short.
NM: ...Ourselves? I mean, our director had three films in the competition, and every single one stood a more than decent chance of making the Grand Finale.
F: I found Fetuccini's team as a good competitor because their transitions were really good with clean feel on each scene, which made it outstanding.
DS: If you had the opportunity to create another GE flick, what theme would it be and why?R: Let's try horror (I already did a test run to it!) and action-comedy. [DS notes: The horror film Reclusion's talking about is
Circlo.]
NM: I want to try and do something like a kung fu movie! ...Maybe when Bai Hu comes out? I want him and Feng Ling to do something like my favorite Hong Kong action film, Hero! All nobility and flying swords and gorgeous cinematography!
F: I really would take the course of having a story about M'Boma.
DS: Do you plan to create more GE films in the future?R: I'm planning to do a real-life-movie-meets-machinima this summer + teh sequel for Le Blanc. But for now, I don't even want to see a FRAPS watermark in my GE window!
NM: As scriptwriter, absolutely. As a movie maker myself, I think I owe it to myself to try my hand at it very soon.
F: If there will be an opportunity, why not!
DS: How are you going to spend your prize loot?R: Me and Ace (Artaxerxes) are planning to go to Hong Kong to enjoy and relax this summer! Wanna come? [DS notes: Sure, as long as you provide teh moolah for the air fare. Bwahaha!]
NM: A nice day out with my BF, and buying lots of clothes. I've already got a shopping list in mind....
F: I would love to enroll myself for a crash course in computer multimedia as offered to me by an institution here in the Philippines.
DS: Any message to your teammates/FFA participants?R: Three words: Boom we rock!
NM: Let's do this again! We must keep our banner flying! Remember - story first, video second, and friendship all the way!
F: To my teammates in FFA, it was really an honor to be with you guys working on this project. To the other participants, thanks for the competition and it was really worth competing with you guys.
Team Le Blanc (l-r): Artaxerxes (VO for Andres), Mena (VO for Andre/Andrew, La Stinka), Fiksdotter (scriptwriter, VO for La Passion), Behringer (subber, chocnut hoarder), DeSanggria (VO for 3 elem ladies), Reclusion (legendary director)
Team NALS (l-r): Artaxerxes (VO for Simon/Joseph), Reclusion (legendary director), Behringer (subber, VO for Jacobe), NineMoons (scriptwriter), DeSanggria (VO for Gabriella/Caridad/Graves)
Zeh magazine cover
W00t! My family's screenies are there!
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