My very first film back in 1998, Manny Montelibano asked me if I wanted to do tag-team with Lawrence Fajardo and do short films. It was providential because I had wanted to do my very first film then. We would put up one production and do each of our short films and do role-reversal and help each other out. In the end, I became the lead actor for Lawrence Fajardo’s very first ever short film. And he acted also in mine. Yep, Lao (his nickname) is actually in 7-Cut!
I shot this a V-8 camera without any formal training in film, I din’t even know what a shotlist was. Manny Montelibano guided me a lot. I just asked a lot of questions I remember. But one person made the biggest contribution and it was Louie Gumapas who did magic in the editing of 7-Cut.
This short film introduced me to the world of filmmaking and the late Alexis Tioseco who brought me and the film to Singapore 8 years later in 2006.
