Crew forgets SD card before ‘Tayo sa Wakas’ sunrise shoot

How Direk Cathy Garcia-Sampana’s production team turned a near-disaster into a “heavenly” mountain scene.

Imagine hauling heavy camera gear up a freezing, steep mountain at 3 AM, battling asthma, and perfectly timing a breathtaking sunrise—only to realize nobody brought the memory card!

In a hilarious and incredibly stressful behind-the-scenes revelation, “Tayo sa Wakas” director Cathy Garcia-Sampana and screenwriter Vanessa R. Valdez shared the heart-stopping moment her crew experienced while filming at Mount Polis, Cordillera in an exclusive interview with radar Entertainment last May 23.

After a grueling, hour-long trek to capture a “heaven-like” sea of clouds, the team was finally in position. The sky was turning blue, the actors were ready, and Direk Cathy called to roll.

The cameraman’s response? “Wala pong ano… SD card.”

In a plot twist, all the SD cards were accidentally left at the base of the mountain. “Napakabilis ‘yan! Wala… actually hindi ako nagalit. I was speechless,” Direk Cathy recalled. Calling it a “mortal sin,” the director watched in horror as crew members frantically scrambled up and down the steep trail to meet halfway and retrieve the files.

With the sun rapidly rising and waiting for no one, the crew panicked and launched a drone to salvage the moment. The hilariously chaotic result? The exhausted production team — who had just barely survived the brutal climb — was suddenly forced to scramble and hide in the mountain bushes so they wouldn’t be caught in the wide aerial shot.

Fortunately, the agonizing effort and frantic hiding paid off, and they successfully captured the cinematic masterpiece. But as Direk Cathy jokingly admitted, if they had missed that sunrise because of a forgotten memory card, “Makakapatay talaga ako!”