The film follows the story of a young Vietnamese woman who weds an American man with the expectation that he will send money to her family in rural Vietnam. His intentions for her, however, are quite different and she becomes his captive. Bigfoot employs over 50 Filipinos on its production team and Watt’s role is to find the right house, hotel or scenic backdrop for each scene outside of the studios.
As a location scout, Watt’s job is to identify sites that fit the scenes described in the script or storyboard of a film. She then deals with the owners of the sites and requests permission to take photos. Afterwards, she shows these photos to the director and consults with him on which locations to use for filming.
“The first part of Tears From Afar is set in Vietnam, so now I’m looking for fields, lonely roads, boarding houses, bars, roads, construction sites that look like those in Vietnam. It’s easy for me since I’m from here and I know the areas around here very well,” says Watt.
Watts shares what she likes most about this project: “I appreciate more of Cebu, visiting bars, taking motorcycle rides through the mountains. I also love working with the other team members, they’re fun, happy people.”
On other projects she is often the production manager. “Sometimes I’m the only girl on the set. I help carry sandbags and other heavy stuff. They call me ‘grip girl’ as an inside joke,” she says.
When asked if she had plans to work abroad, Watt replies, “I’m happy in Cebu. Filmmaking is just starting in Cebu, and I’m happy to be a part of some of the first production crews here. Plus, Bigfoot is the center of filmmaking here in the Visayas. All in all, I feel that I’m getting more experience at higher levels than if I were in Manila, and faster too.
“I have the opportunity to really explore filmmaking, the life of a filmmaker… it’s fun. I want to be a director or producer in the future, and every project is a learning step.”
Watt graduated from the University of San Jose - Recoletos with a degree in Communications. After her studies, she taught secondary school, but soon realized that her passion was in filmmaking. Aside from Tears From Afar, she has worked on three other international releases that were shot in the Philippines – as production assistant on Deep Gold, another Bigfoot project now in post-production, and as 2nd Artistic Director on the upcoming Hollywood films Disarmed and Project Fear. (PR)