Save Saving Sally

I was in high school when I first met Avid Liongoren. Puberty was at its peak and I turned to writing, music, and art to cope with the fact that I was not making many new friends as a transfer student. The Internet was a big help with my identity crisis and there I bonded with an artist whom I previously only knew as the son of my grandmother’s friend. I instantly turned into a fan of his art and we became friends, chatting constantly over Yahoo! Messenger.

One day he asked if I could read a script he and his friend Charlene Sawit had been working on for quite some time and I happily obliged. About a year later, his film Saving Sally was in production and he asked me to do a cameo as the protagonist Marty’s girlfriend. We shot the scene and I couldn’t wait for the movie to finally come out! It originally starred Enzo Marcos and Anna Larrucea.

That same day, we shot the music video for Rivermaya’s Atat (it was never released) and Sunday Driving.

Here’s a photo Avid sent me of my cameo in the first version of the film

Avid also directed a music video for Sandwich (one of my favorite bands even back then) called Return To Center. I absolutely love this song!

That was 9 years ago. Big things happened to the production. Some French guys (oh just the same people who helped produce The Artist, The Wrestler, and Pan’s Labyrinth) helped fund the whole thing but they wanted to add more scenes and tweak the story a bit so everything that the crew did was scrapped and they had to start from scratch.

Anna was not available to reshoot everything again so production had to look for a new Sally. Rhian Ramos landed the role! Enzo (who is now a father, congratulations, OMG ganun na katagal ginagawa ang Saving Sally!!) was retained as Marty.

I was called to do the same cameo as Marty’s girlfriend. This time, Enzo’s brother Eo also does a cameo. Here’s a picture of us together with director Avid.

Here’s our very short scene. That’s Avid on the left with his doggy! March-July 2011 process

November 2011

May to August 2012

September 2012

A lot of people are getting antsy waiting for the film but here’s an explanation I will lift off the Saving Sally Facebook page:

Sigh… I hope you folks understand, animation takes a looooong time. Every Disney & Pixar movie takes about 5 years to make & they have castles full of money, & we (Saving Sally) have a flower pot with artsy worms : )

I’m very proud of you and your team, Avid!! We will all be looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Here is the latest trailer of Saving Sally

Avid talks about the film and how to finish it within 2013

If you would like to help Save Sally, click here!! If you do not have money to donate or you are simply a cheapskate, sharing the link will suffice!

Read Saving Sally writer Charlene Sawit’s thoughts on how the movie came to be!

www.savingsally.com