DAVID ARCHULETA in Manila 2012 Day 1 (01-13-2012) – Epic Welcome from Team Airport

What a great opportunity for Filipino fans to see more of David before he leaves for his mission.

PRE-ARRIVAL

A few days before David’s arrival, TV5 contacted Archuleta Philippines for an interview with some fans to be featured on their website. It was a last minute thing so not many were available. The interview was at TV5′s office at Global City so only @Nareejo and I made it. The interview was focused on how we became fans, what we liked about David, what we thought about David’s new stint  with TV5 and our message for him.

AIRPORT ARRIVAL

For weeks, Archuleta Philippines spent hours and hours of planning via YM, text, email, phonecalls to get fans organized to meet David when he arrived at the airport. @Jackryan4DA,@ascphil, @Nareejo,@Kricket_234 and myself were among those painstakingly planning how to get it all together. @Ferjiperj came up with designs and had new banners printed for this special event (we all saw how great those banners were!).

For days, Kricket and I were swamped with twitter and text messages of fans eager to join Team Airport to welcome David and Kari.

The night before his arrival, some of us stayed overnight at my place since I live close to the meeting place – Wendy’s along Boni Edsa. We chose that location not because it’s near my place (LOL) but because it’s in the center for majority of us.

With @ferjiperj @carlacharisse @KarissaCortez and @jackryan4DA (behind the cam)

We slept at around 1:00 AM. We were up by 2:00 AM to get ready (only 1 hour of sleep!). We met the rest of Team Airport at Wendy’s at around 4:15 AM. There was 70+ of us and 5 vans were waiting to get us to the airport. (One funny thing while we were on our way to the airport, a guy from a show in TV5 texted me asking if we were already at the airport and if I could let him know if David has arrived since he and his group are still in transit quite far from the airport.)

The group lined up carrying our welcome banners for David. Within minutes, camera men and reporters of TV5 took pictures and videos of the group. They even interviewed some fans.

Team Airport rocks!

Along with @JackRyan4DA, @Nareejo, @Ferjiperj, @Carlacharisse, @NetteKulet_AP and Arlene (AP’s VIP pass winner), we went inside the VIP lounge to get ready to document David’s arrival. There we met Jasmine Curtis-Smith and Eula Caballero, David’s co-starts in the TV5 mini-series.

With Jasmine and Eula

By 5:30 AM, we got to our designated positions inside the airport. My assignment, to do the livestream. Watch recorded video here  - Airport Arrival livestream

We immediately saw David when he came down the stairs. The mood at the airport suddenly changed. Even people who didn’t know who David was took pictures of him. I talked a bit with David as we walk out of the main building. I told him the fans were waiting outside to welcome him. He was surprised at the number of people there to see him at 6:00 in the morning.

As David stepped out of the building, you could hear the fans chanting “DAVID! DAVID!”. It was so awesome! Then he was met by Jasmine and Eula who both gave him orchid garlands. Then the group went to the VIP lounge. David saw @Nareejo as soon as he entered the VIP lounge. He gave her a sweet hug A mini presscon ensued where David candidly answered some questions. Eula and Jasmine also joined him for a few questions and for pictures.

Nice pic from TV5/FollowArchuleta.ph

DAVID ARCHULETA in Manila 2012 – Day 12 (1-24-2012)

What am I doing in Makati Cinema Square?

3 missed calls and 10 text messages. What’s happening? Haven’t had the chance to read the messages yet when my phone rang again. Okay, so kelangan ko na raw umalis and go to Makati Cinema Square (MCS). I didn’t even had to ask why. Getting a call from @nareejo only meant one thing or one person LOL - David Archuleta.

Within minutes, I was already in MCS. @nareejo and I met at Dunkin Donuts. I knew we were in the right location when I saw the guy from the table next to us - it was Mon Confiado, one of the guys in the twitpic sent by Direk Mac the night before (and apparently the guy playing Josh Bradley’s driver).

After dinner, we went to the 3rd floor where they were busy setting up for the next set. There we saw some familiar faces from the night before.  They let us stand in front with a nice view of where David will come out.

Hallway scene

We got to see 2 scenes:

(1) David talking to Mon, who looks like a chauffeur in his uniform. They were talking and at one point they laughed… unfortunately, we couldn’t hear them even if they were right in front of us.

(2) David…err… Josh  being mobbed by fans. It was funny coz the fans all had big posters of David with Josh Bradley written on them. So weird LOL. And then, as the fans ran toward him, Josh tried to find a way to get away from them. There we saw David’s ninja moves. All of a sudden he was already running towards the next room, right next to the area where we were sitting a few minutes ago (we shouldn’t have moved!). There was one take where David almost ran into me LOL. Yeah, he was quick to run away. It was fun watching David act… the changes in his facial expression, his body language. David definitely could act!

Some of the things we liked about tonight was how nice the TV5 people were to us/fans. When they saw me and @nareejo standing and watching, they brought us monobloc chairs to sit on. When they went on dinner break, someone came out with 2 plates of beef steak. They even fed us!

Bistek from TV5 peeps

We brought Dunkin Donut munckins for David and Jasmine. But then since we wouldn’t be able to stay long to actually give the munchkins to them, we had the TV5 peeps give them instead.

And they got them! At least it was confirmed by Jasmine

Jasmine got the munchkins

We were so tired from the night before that we decided not to wait anymore. They told us they were going to shoot 2 more scenes and one of them will be at the basement. But that meant at least an hour of setup. So, yeah, no waiting this time. (Looking back, we should have waited. They did the bunny suit scene at the basement!)

P.S. Before the hallway scene, David was inside the studio where I think they shot the scene shown yesterday with him, Ana and Alwyn trying to pick the winner for the date contest.

P.P.S.

Before we went to the set, Jasmine thanked us for the gift we gave her in SM Fairview

Anya's Gift

(In italics were comments added today after watching Ep 7 of Nandito Ako)

 

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DAVID ARCHULETA in Manila 2012 – Day 11 (1-23-2012)

January 23, Chinese New Year. It was a special non-working holiday in Manila. We took advantage of the day to try to visit David at the set. The problem was we did not know where the location was. As early as 6:00 AM, I started looking for clues on Twitter. I wasn’t disappointed.

1st clue – Scenes w/ Gelli means Marikina

2nd clue – An address

3rd Clue – Dragon Dance – see the background?

4th Clue – Looking for Chinese food in Libis

Using the ever reliable Google maps, we found our way to Dela Pena. The challenge now is finding the right street. We just knew that it was near Riverbanks. After several wrong turns, we took one last chance in a narrow street leading to what we thought was a dead end. We even had to fold one of the side mirrors for fear that we might hit one of the cars parked in the very narrow street. When we got to an intersection, we decided to ask some of the guys sitting by the road where to turn to go back to the main road. Little did we know that they will give us the last clue we needed. They told us to turn left since we might not be able to pass through if we went straight. Before we could ask why, the guy went on to tell us that the road was possibly blocked because of a shooting that was ongoing. We got excited. ‘Who were the actors involved?’ , we asked. They answered, ‘Jasmine Curtis’. TUMPAK! THANK YOU! Who would have thought that narrow, almost-impossible-to-pass-through road will lead us to our destination!

Blue dot marks the location that we chanced upon by luck

We went straight and expected to be blocked off, but nah, the security guy that was by the road even helped us park. We walked to the set holding bags of Chinese food, Spanish bread and Krispy Kreme for the cast and crew. No one stopped us as we approach the house where they were filming. Instead we were told to sit on the bench in front of the house while we wait for David because he was still on dinner break.

We did not sit on the bench, though. We decided to stand across the house and just observe everything that was going on. The crew, upon noticing how we’ve been standing there for over an hour, offered us monobloc chairs so we’re comfortable while we were watching! Wow, such good treatment to fans!

View from where we stood the entire time

We gave some of the food to Direk Mac. We then decided to just have the food brought by the TV5 people to David’s tent so he could eat what we brought since they were already having dinner.

After a few minutes, Ana Feleo tweeted

Chinese food for dinner!

Shortly after that, David came to the set wearing purple long sleeves and gray trousers. He stood there for several minutes talking to a few people including Jasmine’s mom. Then, he left the set. While he was away, we got to watch scenes of Anya, mom and brother (Let’s Volt in, slap scene between mom and Anya). We could also see some of it on the monitor that Direk was watching. That’s when I realized how difficult the job was both for the actors and the director to get the scenes right. For one single scene, they had to do several takes from different points of view. By the time Gelli, Jasmine and little boy they were done with their scenes, it was already 3 hours since we arrived.

We were hopeful that David would be back (our clue, the MIB guys were still there). Our only goal by then was to see/hear David act. That was answered shortly. David came back in gray shirt and black jeans. Jasmine came back wearing brown blouse and shorts. And aren’t we lucky? We got to see Gelli, David and Jasmine rehearse their scene right in front of us! Gelli shouted “Magananakaw!” and then David answered “I’m not a thief!” Then Gelli said, “Are you Josh Bradley? You are Josh Bradley! Did I scare you? Are you okay?” (not the actual words, but something along those lines) And David answered “I’m alright”. Then off they went inside the house for another round of rehearsals. Then, a very familiar voice filled the house – someone was singing loudly. LOL! It was David! I couldn’t remember what the song was but I remember Direk singing along with him when he came out of the house

During the take, we could hear Gelli and David shouting. We tried to watch the scene from the monitor outside. After the scene, Direk Mac turned to us and asked, “Nakita nyo?” Haha, Direk, you should have asked us to watch beside you! But nah, we could only see portions of it, mostly of David’s face which we could easily recognize from afar. After the take, the cast came out and watched a replay of the scene. They talked a bit about it and then we could hear everyone telling David to get some rest.

On his way to his van, he waved at us, said hi , asked if we had fun and if we enjoyed watching. Gosh, we got so tongue-tied that we just said we did and hoped he gets some good rest. He actually looked as if wanted to talk some more but there were security guards around him. We did not even attempt to approach him, we just sat there and talked to him timidly. Ha ha, cowards! But that’s okay, it was already late. He was tired. At least we knew he got to eat the food we brought , we saw/hear him act and we got to talk to him for a few minutes

Pic the cast took in front of us