They were low-cost thrills

WHEN planning their next project, most independent filmmakers strapped for financing and resources don’t think “international thriller.”

Yet hidden among the summer’s mega-budget entries is a technology-laced, cross-cultural nail-biter made for a minute fraction of what it cost to shoot “M:i:III” or “The Da Vinci Code.” Made by Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana, “Cavite” is a muscular, energetic and thought-provoking film that also serves as a testament to the ways in which creativity can still trump cash -- or at least give it a run for its money.

A young man (played by Gamazon) returns to the Philippines from San Diego for his father’s funeral. Upon arrival, he’s caught off guard to find a cellphone that he does not recognize ringing in his bag, along with a picture of his mother and sister. A voice on the other end tells him they have been kidnapped -- and that he is to do exactly as he is told. So begins an odyssey that is like a traveler’s worst nightmare as he becomes an unwilling pawn in someone else’s fiendish game. He is made to trudge through slums, take in a cockfight and pushed to sample some ultra-exotic local delicacies, forced to confront harrowing aspects of his native culture head-on. By the time it’s over, his own beliefs and values will be shaken to the core.

Gamazon and Dela Llana, both 32, were born in the Philippines, but they met in high school in San Diego. (Dela Llana still lives in San Diego; Gamazon now lives in Los Angeles.) “Cavite,” which opened Friday in Los Angeles, is the fourth film they have made together, and its inspiration came in part from late-night phone calls timed to save on cellphone minutes. Dela Llana explained: “During one of those conversations we posed this question to each other, ‘What would happen if a kidnapper asked me to come save you?’ And both of us immediately were like, ‘That’s a movie.’ And it was something we could really shoot with just two people.”

Another lightning bolt was the idea to set most of the film in the Philippines. Dela Llana has been back numerous times over the years, but Gamazon had not been there since he was 9.

“It just seemed like all the places we thought to set this -- Los Angeles, San Diego, Mexico -- we’d seen that stuff before,” Dela Llana recalled. “Then it was like, ‘What about the Philippines?’ ”

The duo set about researching and writing the script. The lead role was originally written for a woman, but casting the role proved harder than expected. “Nobody wanted to go to the Philippines with two strangers,” said Gamazon. “Especially for no pay.” One month before shooting and still without a lead actress, the pair quickly rewrote the part and Gamazon stepped in to play the lead. His obvious discomfort in front of the camera as well as his own genuine culture shock on arrival in the Philippines gives his performance an extra charge of verisimilitude.

Their plane tickets were perhaps one of the film’s major expenses. They also bought two digital video cameras, which they sold on EBay after the shoot to raise post-production funds. In the Philippines they stayed with relatives. They estimate the total cost of the film was a little less than $7,000.

They spent 14 days in the Philippines in October 2003, spending the first two days scouting locations and the next 10 days shooting. Dela Llana operated the camera, while Gamazon recorded sound in a pouch under his shirt by attaching a microphone to the cellphone headset he wears through most of the film. After perfect weather while filming, it began to pour down rain the day after they were done.

The two-man shooting style afforded them luxuries they might not otherwise have had. The first shots of the production were taken surreptitiously in LAX just before their flight, and in the Philippines they were often mistaken for a television news crew reporting on shantytown slums.

The film had its premiere at the 2005 Rotterdam International Film Festival in the Netherlands and has since gone on to play numerous other festivals, including South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, New Directors/New Films in New York and the Los Angeles Film Festival, and its creators picked up a prestigious Someone to Watch Award at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards. Variety critic Robert Koehler wrote: “For a guerrilla-style, no-budget Yank indie to even tackle issues of jihad terror and naive Western thinking is noteworthy in itself, but Gamazon and Dela Llana inflame the issues with a gutsy, athletic filmmaking package that shows what can be done with a minimum of tools.”

The way in which the filmmakers deftly inject their own feelings of guilt and conflict over their relationship to their Filipino heritage also helps to raise Gamazon and Dela Llana’s film from being a low-budget thriller into something more meaningful, packed with emotion as well as action.

“The lead character speaks in English,” Gamazon noted, “and the caller speaks in Tagalog. And that’s basically how we talk to our parents.”

“It’s very autobiographical in a way,” said Dela Llana. “It’s what we knew. A lot of it is about ourselves.”