Eyes On Me, Baby (COMPLETED)

Chapter 45

Chapter 45

For the last requirement for my graduation, we needed to team up with the students from the other creative degrees to come up with a production team. I had an idea kung ano ang gagawin dahil kasama ko si George palagi, but this still felt different because this would be a graduation requirement.

"Thank you for meeting me," sabi ko kay Serj. He already graduated from SCA and he's doing very well in the indie film industry. One of his films did very well that it was picked up by a mainstream production and it was distributed to cinemas around the country and some abroad. I was proud of him.

"No problem," sagot niya sa akin.

"As you know, I'm down to my last sem in Creative Writing."

He nodded. "Bilis ng panahon," he replied. "Dati drop out ka lang."

I nodded because it was true. Ang bilis ng panahon. It seemed like only yesterday I was still studying Legal Management and decided to quit so I had to be the assistant of the basketball team. And then I became a Creative Writing student. I apparently experienced heart break. I failed Math, so I had to go back to the team. I did what was necessary to move forward. I continued to study under Creative Writing. I made some friends from the production teams I joined. I was regularly going into therapy. I finished a lot of seminars. I took all summer classes, so I was graduating earlier than initially planned.

And now, all I needed was to participate in producing a short film and I would be done with my degree.

"I know," I agreed. "I had some film students approach me, but I still want to ask for your opinion kung ano ang magandang gawin ko sa pagpili ng production team."

Based on experience, kailangan kasundo ko sa vision and work ethics ang makakasama ko. I did not want delays. I did not want people giving me excuses when I was very clear about deadlines. I wanted to be informed kung hindi magagawa. It's a waste of everybody's time. And I thought this would be the norm and the standard, but joining a lot of productions, alam ko na hindi lahat ay pare-pareho ng work ethics. I learned that the hard way.

Serj and I talked about the production. He gave me a lot of good tips and insights. George was very good and I learned a lot from her, but since Serj was already working in the industry, I learned new things.

"Do you have a script in mind?" he asked.

"Yes," I quickly replied. I knew that this would be the last requirement, so I had been working on this script for two years. It had gone through five revisions already. And finally, I was contented with what I had written. I wanted to write a simple story—it was about a lawyer who was burned out with her work, so she decided to go abroad for a one month vacation. There, she met this DJ and they had a whirlwind romance that led to her staying there. They lived together. She learned about his ex-wife and his son who was living with the ex-wife. Since she was a lawyer, she helped her boyfriend get weekend custody. But since the boyfriend had a bad record, the requirement was that she had to be there whenever the kid would visit. At first it was good, but later she realized that she was not meant to be there and she wanted to go home. But she was trapped. If she leaves, the boyfriend would lose custody. Her week would begin and end that way until it was Monday again.

"Do you have an actor in mind?" Serj asked.

"I'll have to consult with the director," sabi ko dahil gusto ko na laging collaborative. Hindi porke ako iyong writer ay alam ko na lahat. Sometimes, mas maganda iyong vision ng director. I just wanted to keep my options open.

After my meeting with Serj ay nagstay ako sa coffee shop habang hinihintay ko si Ryder. When he texted me that he was outside ay lumabas na ako para puntahan siya.