And more post-production: Sound sweetening and adding sound

FYI:  If you´re interested in the situation about which Domino is based, you should check out my blog on PalominoPro.blogspot.com, in which I spill the beans about the recent, shocking (shocking to me) garbage strike in Jerez.  You can also go to this LINK to read a summary of the situation.

photo of garbage spilling out from a news story

Now, back to Domino:  Caught in the Crisis:

We have very little left to go on Domino before it´s officially presentable, and I´m able to start submitting it to festivals.

Most of that work is sound work.  On the one hand, in the private screening I held in California a few weeks back, it was clear that I needed to add a few more words of dialogue to make it clear that our hero, Luis, is a very sympathetic character.  That has been done even though we didn´t shoot any more film, and the actor is in one country while I, the director and editor, am in another one.

Ah, the magic of film.

The rest of the sound work is tedious and technical.  It´s a question of making the sound come out of the left speaker if the character is on the left hand side of the screen, and on the right if s/he is on the right, etc. PLUS perfecting the sound levels, making telephone conversations sound like they are coming over a telephone wire, etc., etc., etc.

A very nice sound person, Jeff Kimmich, is working on all this for me.  He expects to be done in a week or so.  I´ve never used him before but am hopeful that he will do a great job.

Assuming he does a brilliant job and it´s done in the time frame he expects, the last thing will be to ask an image correction person to make a change in one 6 second segment, in which (SIGH) a microphone is visible on screen.  I have a person who I think can do the job, and so, well,

...WE ARE MOVING FORWARD.

When all the work is done and I´m ready to submit to festivals, I´m going to stop posting here and instead, ask people to check out the main Palomino Productions blog, where I´ll consolidate all my posts about all my projects.

OUR NEXT POST will be to confirm that the final, technical work on Domino is completed.

Getting the post-production done: jumping through hoops

Domino:  Caught in the Crisis is shot and the rough cut editing is done.  So why isn´t it out yet?

Well, it needs something referred to as more "post-production."  This consists mostly of "sound sweetening" and "image correction."  Both of those cost a lot of money, and right now, well, I don´t have that money.  That´s kind of par for the course when you´re an independent filmmaker, especially since funding for independent film has gotten really, really hard to come by.

At one point, we thought a television station in Spain was going to do the work for us, but that didn´t pan out.  SIGH.

So here I am with a work I poured my heart and soul into, a work which a number of other people ALSO poured their hearts and souls into, and it´s sitting in my computer.

This is the setting where all the errors occurred.  We just didn´t have enough space to work in.

Not to worry.  Ok, so "image correction" costs a lot of money.  A whole lot of money.  It partly consists of making things disappear...like the microphone you can see in that scene in which we were filming in a small room, and with the crew and actors it was really crowded, and the crew member in charge of being sure the microphones were not visible to the camera did not do a proper job.

So there you have it:  a microphone sitting right there, next to the actors.  Clearly visible.  And this isn´t the only little problem.  All in all, there are four places where little accidents like this occurred, all of them in the same very small set.

Since I don´t have the money to pay someone to fix the problems, I have signed up for a class in which we are being taught a program (AfterEffects) which will take care of most of them, especially when used in conjunction with PhotoShop.  And the place where I´m taking the class has AfterEffects on its computers.  Since I´m a member, I´ll be able to use it free of change after the class is over.

This means I´ll have a lot of work to do plus the new program to learn, but I will be able to take care of the "image correction."

And what is this wonderful place, offering this great class and letting members (for a very modest annual fee) use their equipment?  Berkeley Community Media (BCM).  Good people.  Great people, in fact.  You have to live in Berkeley or have a business in Berkeley in order to be a member, but anyone who fits that criteria can join.

OUR NEXT POST will be a few more details about finishing up Domino.

Flamenco & flamenco fusion for background music

Background music adds a great deal to a film.  It connects scenes, it strengthens the emotion of scenes (or sometimes, actually tells the audience what emotion they should be feeling), it helps keep the audience from losing interest in slow sequences, and it simply adds another layer of beauty and art.

In Domino:  Caught in the Crisis, we used two kinds of background music:  instrumental, and voice supported by instrumental.  And as you will see, we kept the musical part all in the family, relying on a very, very musical family.

The voice supported by instrumental music is flamenco, sung by Antonio de la Malena (who is also Luis, the lead character, although we don't see Luis singing).  Malena has a beautiful voice, and a strong and pure flamenco sense of interpretation.  He wrote the lyrics for some of what he sings, and in other parts, he interprets traditional verses.  The verses, whether his own or traditional, are directly related to the action we are seeing, something that Spanish speakers will be aware of and appreciate.

Antonio de la Malena (photo:  Miguel Angel Gonzales)

We chose him because our director (yours truly) admires his voice and interpretation.  In addition, he has three solo CDs to his name, in addition to being one of several singers on many CDs that are collections of flamenco singing.  (His most recent solo CD came out in Spain this past summer.)

In Domino, we hear his original lyrics in the final scenes, where he sings about the Indignados (Movimiento 15-M--similar to our Occupy Wall Street) and about recent problems in Spain. 

The instrumental background music is in some cases traditional flamenco, and in others, flamenco fusion composed by Malena Hijo.  Malena Hijo is a very fine, young guitarist who is the eldest son of Antonio de la Malena.

Malena Hijo

Whether for purely musical numbers or as accompaniment to Antonio de la Malena's singing, all of the guitar in Domino is performed by Malena Hijo.  All of the singing is Antonio de la Malena, although in one of the instrumental pieces, there is also a voice that works as an instrument, going "le, le, le, le...."  That voice is Antonio de la Malena's second son, Diego de Malena.

Some of the music also includes percussion instruments, played by Alejandro de Mateo (nephew of Antonio de la Malena), electric base played by Malena Hijo, and palmas (hand clapping) performed by Luis de la Tota, Ali de la Tota, and Diego de Malena.

All in all, the music is great.  It does just what it is supposed to do, beautifully complementing the visuals and the narrative line.

OUR NEXT POST will be about getting that post-production work done.

Where is Spain headed? part 2 of 2

Even city governments have had the national taxing agency (Hacienda) remove money from their bank account.  In one incident this past summer, a large government agency (the government of the Junta de Andalucía) sent a large payment to the city of Jerez so that the city could pay city workers to whom it owed several months´ back pay.  Before the city could use the money, Hacienda found it and removed it -- and used it to pay off some of the taxes that the city owed the central government.
One response to the continuing crisis has been increasingly large demonstrations, such as one last week in which between 5,000 (say the police) and 60,000 (say the unions who organized it) took to the streets to protest job cuts, wage freezes, tax rises and the like.  In addition to Madrid, there were significant demonstrations in 50 other cities in Spain.  There may also be another general strike on November 14.

"No more unemployment."

Here are links to a couple of those stories:  LINK #1 and LINK #2.

There´s a lot of dis-function in Spain.  Lots of looking at the relatively few big guys and ignoring the needs of the many small guys.  (Kind of like here in the United States....)

So when push comes to shove, why should you be interested in a middle-aged family man in Spain, like our hero in Domino, who has financial problems?

Well, he´s an awful lot like your next-door neighbor, or your cousin, or that kid who graduated from college with lots of student loan debt who can´t get a job no matter how hard s/he tries.

NOTE:  you might also be interested in the documentary film that recently aired over PBS, As Goes Janesville, about the devastating effects of the financial crisis there, and how it is connected to us all.

OUR NEXT POST will be about the background music created for us by young composer-guitarist Malena Hijo.

Where is Spain headed? part 1 of 2

It surprises me to find that many more people seem to be reading my blogs about the actors in Domino than the ones I write about what´s going on in Spain.  It would seem to me important to think about Spain, because in many respects, it´s a linchpin of an economic bloc that includes the United States.  If Spain goes, well, watch out!

In addition, Spain´s protest movement, the Indignados (or Movimiento 15-M) was certainly one of the models for Occupy Wall Street.  After all, the Occupy movement started about a year after the much more peaceful Indignados first appeared on the scene.

(Incidentally, there´s a movement in Canada called the Adbusters that started in 1989, well before the Indignados.  THEY claim to be the model for all of these protest movements.)

A LINK about some of the recent demonstrations in Spain organized by the Indignados.

So on that note, what´s going on in Spain?

Well, for one thing, taxes have gone up, unemployment has gone up, and people continue to be paid late or only partially or not at all (especially government workers and outside contractors for government).  A law has also been passed making it illegal to use social media to organize public demonstrations that result in problems for the authorities -- and don't most public demonstrations end in problems for the authorities, even though the organizers had not intended it?  The law has not yet been enforced very often, but it´s kind of a monster sitting in a cave, waiting for an opportunity to come out and wreak havoc.

On the other hand, one of my friends in Spain report that on some days, such as festival days, it looks as if everything were normal.  The streets are full of people, the cafe-bars have plenty of customers, people seem happy and carefree.

Another blog LINK about recent demonstrations in Spain -- some pretty powerful photos in this one.

On non-festival days, however, the streets are empty, the cafes-bars have few customers, the small shops are closing (and small shops make up a very important part of Spain´s economy), manufacturing has almost disappeared (except for parts of the auto industry), and construction work is hard to come by (another thing  that also used to be a major part of Spain´s economy).

In addition, the national tax collecting agency (Hacienda) has taken to sending investigators to inquire into people´s bank accounts, especially in the past several months.  If you owe money to the taxing agency but also owe money for your mortgage, etc., watch out.  The money you earn that you put into your bank account to pay your mortgage might be found by the taxing agency which will simply pounce on it...and there goes your mortgage payment.

An interesting fact about mortgage payments in Spain:  if  you can´t pay your mortgage, and lose your home, not only are you homeless but you still owe that mortgage to the bank.  Let´s just say that in Spain, you can´t win for losing.

OUR NEXT BLOG will finish up this topic.

Supporting actor Salvador Valle

Salvador Valle plays the neighbor of the hero, Luis, in Domino:  Caught in the Crisis;  the neighbor who gives Luis an odd-job to do and then, knowing Luis is in such a hard spot that he can't well complain,  underpays him.  Both guys -- Salvador Valle and Antonio de la Malena (playing Luis) -- kind of hammed it up in these scenes and there are sections which are really comic relief.  It was fun watching them do it and it's fun watching those scenes now.

In Domino, he first stops his car to offer our hero a small job.

 Valle began his acting career in high school, playing roles in Christmas productions, in pantomimes and in short pieces by Lope de Vega, Calderon, and other famous Spanish playwrights. 

Later, as an adult, he joined the well-known theater company, La Zaranda.  In his nine-year stint with the company, he acted roles, helped with stage sets and was property manager in charge of all of those small items you see on a theater stage that make the action seem realistic. 

Salvador Valle, script in hand, ready to work.

He later worked in the Basque country for a theater company called "bekereke," then returned to southern Spain and joined the company Teatro del Arte de Andalucía, and also worked with the flamenco group Gitanos de Jerez (led by the famous flamenco guitarist and producer, Manuel Morao).  His work with Gitanos de Jerez included acting, and also helping create the sets for Morao´s production of Tierra Cantaora.

He has appeared in more than 10 movies, including La Lola se va a los puertos, Batton rouge, and Miel de Naranjas.  He was lead actor in two episodes of the television series, Viaje a España (A Trip to Spain) which  has been broadcast in over 50 countries.  He has also appeared in various video shorts, and in television commercials.

Acting in la Niebla.

In the recent past, he has worked with the theater company Tras el Trapo of Jerez de la Frontera, playing a role in the theater adaptation of the poem, La Niebla (by the Jerezano, José Mateo Rosales), and also acting in several plays intended for a youth audience.

Currently, he uses his acting talents to be master of ceremonies for various events, and to officiate at weddings.  And in addition, he is a professional dancer of Argentine tango as well as the Pasodoble.

OUR NEXT POST will be about...where is Spain headed?

Supporting actor Nicolás Montoya

We wrote a blog several months earlier about Nicolás Montoya and his acting.  We´ll use this blog to bring us up to date on his career.  Like Javier Padilla, in addition to his role as the banker Miguel in Domino Montoya has been very active in his career as an actor in theater and television, and in addition, is studying scriptwriting at the film school in the University of Sevilla.

Nicolás Montoya with our cameraman in a scene from Domino.

As an actor, he has played the role of Pajarete in Tirso Calero´s popular series Bandolera, a production filmed in Madrid and aired over Antena 3, a private television station that broadcasts nationally to the entire country of Spain.

In addition, he has appeared in several movies, including two that are soon to be released.  One, called Libertador  (The Liberator), is directed by Alberto Arvelo of Venezuela.  It´s about Simon Bolivar, the revolutionary from Venezuela who liberated most of South America from Spanish rule.  The movie stars Edgar Ramírez and Maria Valverde.  It boasts a very international cast:  Ramirez is from Venezuela, Valverde from Spain, and in addition, Danny Houston (USA) Iwan Rheon (Great Britain) and Juana Acosta (Colombia) play leading roles. 

Montoya in a theater production.

In the scene shot in Jerez, there is a pitched battle between Bolivar´s forces and the Spanish army.  Bolivar wins.

Rain at mid-day stopped the filming but not before they apparently had shot enough footage.  I guess the moral here is that nature is more powerful than armies, but armies (and filmmakers) can be flexible enough so that in the long run, it might not matter.

The other movie in which Montoya recently acted is called El barco (The Boat).  In this one, he played the part of a medical doctor, a very appropriate role since in fact, apart from his acting, he actually IS a medical doctor.  This movie is directed by Juan de Artigas.  I´m sorry to say that I don´t know anything more about it.

Montoya as a Roman legionnaire in front of the Roman theater.

In addition to these two movies, Montoya has acted in live theater, playing the role of Don Ventura in a play created by the theater company Hesperides and presented by the Cultural Division of the City of Jerez to celebrate that city´s history.  His other recent theater role was as the Roman Legionnaire Marco.  This was another production created by the theater company Hesperides.  It was presented in the old Roman theater near Bolonia called Baelo Claudia, in which you will remember Esteban Viaña played the part of duumvir.

Montoya--a busy man, indeed.

OUR NEXT POST will be about supporting actor Salvador Valle, and the following one will be about where is Spain headed?

Supporting actor Javier Padilla

Actor and playwright Javier Padilla, co-founder and co-director of the theater company Tras el Trapo in Jerez de la Frontera, plays two roles in Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  He plays the friend Manolo, who owns a shop where our hero, Luis, goes to look for a job.  He also plays the drunk in one of the final scenes.

To be sure the audience won´t recognize him in his two contrasting roles, in addition to very different costuming, in one scene he has a bushy beard and in the other, he does not.  A real beard.  We shot the drunk scene first, then he shaved off the beard (not just for us, but it still served our purposes well), and afterwards, we shot the other scene with him as Manolo.

Javier Padilla as the friend, Manolo, in his shop.  Oops! caught him with his mouth open!

We have written about Javier in earlier blogs but wanted to use this space to "catch up" with what he´s been doing lately.

Well, he´s been doing quite a lot.

This past summer, Tras el Trapo presented the opening of his semi-surrealistic, satirical work, Pepa or Josefa:  when Fernando VII wore an overcoat (¿Pepa o Josefa?...cuando Fernando VII usaba paletó). It has played in numerous venues ever since.

Playbill from Pepa o Josefa.

The play deals with a chaotic period in Spain´s history, the XIX century when the country experienced war, revolution, invasion, frequent changes of government, and warring world views characterized by a tug-of-war between monarchists and Renaissance liberalism.  This is the period in which Napoleon conquered Spain but was later thrown out, in which the Inquisition was first disavowed then reinstated, in which kings fled the country or ruled as puppets or were restored to autocratic power....

Pepa and Josefa are two contrasting female characters, one an aristocrat loyal to the Spanish king and the other, her pragmatic servant.   The entire play is carried by only these two characters, played respectively by María Duarte and Ana Oliva.  Javier Padilla, in addition to being the author, also directed it.

Then, even more recently, he along with other members of the theater company have been presenting something they call the Jaramago´s Blues Band to audiences in several towns and cities in Andalucia, in southern Spain.  This is a light, comic work that makes use of Padilla´s talents as both an actor and musician.

Jaramago Blues Band.

The mini-tour was funded by the European Union as part of its program to revitalize local commerce and local business districts by bringing in activities that would lure local citizens out to enjoy themselves ... and spend money.  There were several additional performing companies that were part of these tours, and entrance to all was free.

All this sounds wonderful, but I need to add a short note here, and that is, that I have learned from many people in the performing arts that it is really important that tours and performances such as these be properly publicized and properly scheduled.  No publicity means no audience.   I mention this because especially in the case of tours organized by government entities, inadequate publicity is often a problem.  Then it look like the public doesn't support the arts (so we can cut THAT out of the budget, right?) when really, it's a question of the organizers not having done their jobs. 

On stage, on tour.

But getting back to Javier Padilla:  he long and the short of it is that, as an actor as well as playwright and musician, he has been a very busy man.

And the best part of it is...that he´s even getting paid (as opposed to some tours in which the actors are  promised a fee by a government organ but then the money isn´t forthcoming).

Relaxing before the show (l to r):  Ismael Colón, María Duarte and Javier Padilla.

OUR NEXT POST will be about supporting actor Nicolás Montoya.

Supporting actor Esteban Viaña

Esteban Viaña plays Javier, the former boss in the shop where Luis worked.  Luis lost his job because Javier, a somewhat older man, decided it was time to retire and he closed the shop.  This was right before the economic crisis;  Javier explains to Luis he had no idea there was going to be a crisis.  He closed his shop at just the right time out of pure luck.

The scenes with Esteban are an important part of the story of Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  They not only explain why Luis is out of work, but they show how people who are favored by fate -- close their shop just in time, have the money to run a shop to begin with, etcetera, can be insensitive to those around them who do NOT have such good fortune.

Esteban Viaña as the former boss, Javier.

 
Viaña lives in Jerez de la Frontera, and began his acting career at a young age, when he was in grammar school and there was an activity called "Oration and Recitation."  He loved it, and has been hooked on acting ever since.  He has acted in dramas, religious plays, and many other sorts of productions but his favorites have always been plays directed towards children, for which he usually takes a comic role.

Esteban Viaña, yours truly and Antonio de la Malena...checking out the script.

The highlights of his acting career to date include the husband of the lead character in a play by Federico Garcia Lorca called The Prodigious Shoemaker (La zapatera prodigiousa) which was first produced in various smaller venues but later, brought to the main theater in Jerez de la Frontera (a theater with several thousand seats).

He also had a supporting role in a play by the famous Spanish playwright, Alfonso Pasos and more recently, was featured in a production of On this Island, There Are No Cats (En esta isla no hay gatos) presented by the theater company Tras el Trapo.  Tras el Trapo, you may remember, is a theater company co-owned and operated by Javier Padilla, which provided Domino with a number of actors.

Esteban Viaña as Publius Cornelius.

And just this past month, Viaña joined Domino actor Nicolas Montoya in a special production in the old Roman theater at Baelo Claudia (near Bolonia, on the Atlantic coast).  The play was an original work, written to bring to life the history of the ancient city.  Titled The Nights of Isis (Las noches de Isis), he played the role of Publius Cornelius, one of the two Roman governors of the region at the time that the city was an important Roman port and manufacturing center for the luxury article garum (made out of salted, dried fish).

The old Roman theater at Baelo Claudia (with the seats covered up--don´t know why).

And just to be sure he doesn´t get bored, currently, in addition to acting, Viaña has taken up a couple of musical instruments:  the saxophone and the accordion.

OUR NEXT POST will be about supporting actor Javier Padilla.

Interview with our star, part 2

This is part two of our interview with Antonio de la Malena, star of Domino:

Eve A. Ma (EM):  What scene did you like best, from the point of view of your interpretation? 

Antonio de la Malena (Malena):  There´s one scene with which I particularly identify.  It´s the scene in which I´m tearing up the lottery ticket, and the image of my face at that moment is like a mirror of my own life. 

EM:  What did you like best about the direction?  What least? 

Malena:  What I liked best is the director´s discipline.  I really liked that.  What I liked least is that I feel she needs more assistance, more assistance to be able to properly realize all of her creative projects.   It made me unhappy seeing she lacked that.  

Malena with actor Esteban Viaña and crew.

EM:  In thinking about the film itself, what part did you like best?  Do you think it fairly reflects the current situation in Spain?  

Malena:  In general, I liked everything about the film.  There aren´t things that I like best, and others that I like less well--because it was all done with the heart, and the soul, and with real sympathy for what is happening right now in Spain. 

EM:  What scene did you like best, from the point of view of your interpretation? 

Malena:  There´s one scene with which I particularly identify.  It´s the scene in which I´m tearing up the lottery ticket, and the image of my face at that moment is like a mirror of my own life. 

Malena with actors Jose Luis Martinez and Santiago Moreno.

EM:  What did you like best about the direction?  What least? 

Malena:  What I liked best is the director´s discipline.  I really liked that.  What I liked least is that I feel she needs more assistance, more assistance to be able to properly realize all of her creative projects.   It made me unhappy seeing she lacked that.  

EM:  In thinking about the film itself, what part did you like best?  Do you think it fairly reflects the current situation in Spain?  

Malena:  In general, I liked everything about the film.  There aren´t things that I like best, and others that I like less well--because it was all done with the heart, and the soul, and with real sympathy for what is happening right now in Spain. 

De la Malena with crew, director, actor Nicolas Montoya and others.

EM:  I understand that you had to shave off your beard several times because the director decided to add more scenes and to re-shoot others.  Now that you are free to grow your beard, have you done so?

Malena:  Well, yes, but it didn´t bother me to keep cutting my hair and shaving off my beard because the scenes were good ones and besides, I figured I was going to be earning more money.  

OUR NEXT POST will be about one of the supporting actors, Esteban Viaña.

Interview with our star Antonio de la Malena, part 1

Now that we´ve finished shooting Domino, I decided to interview our lead actor, Antonio de la Malena, to see what he thought about the whole process and the movie itself.  I´d planned to put it all here but since it´s a bit too long, I´ll break it up into two posts.  Here´s the first half -- unedited, but translated from Spanish.

Eve Ma (EM);   Now that the filming is done, what did you like most about playing your part?  And what least? 

Antonio de la Malena (de la Malena):  What I liked most is that I´m trying to adjust myself to the task of being an actor and I think that with the help of the director, I am able to do it and will be able to do it again, should the opportunity arise.  It´s very difficult, it´s not easy, but I try to put myself into the mind-set of the protagonist so that in my interpretation, my emotions are real, and appropriate. 

De la Malena in the scene in the pawn shop.

EM:  Since this was the first time you acted in front of a camera, how does it differ from your normal role of performing on stage? 

de la Malena:   Usually, when I´m performing on stage,there aren´t cameras that are filming you first in a close-up and then in a long shot.  There aren´t any cameras close up, in front of your face, and you don´t have to repeat everything so many times.

EM:  Did you feel well prepared to act before you started out?  Do you feel well prepared now, if you´re asked to do it again? 

de la Malena:   The truth is that you´re never really prepared.  It´s a kind of work that makes you feel embarrassed and is nerve-wracking when there are a lot of people around and you need to play the part of someone else, but the more you do it, the less stage-fright you get.  It´s one of those things that you have to get used to, little by little.  

De la Malena in the scene where he talks on the phone to his wife.

EM:   Did you feel any personal affinity with the character you played in Domino?  Why, or why not? 

de la Malena:  Yes, I put myself in the position of my character and there were moments in which it seemed so natural that I thought the character was actually my real self.

EM:  How did you feel, working with the other actors?

de la Malena:  It was a very nice experience, and I saw that everyone was learning from it. 

OUR NEXT POST with be the second half of this interview.

The actors

We used a wide variety of actors in Domino, from professionals who are appearing on prime-time TV to a ten year old girl with no experience acting and, to the best of my knowledge, no desire to become an actress.  Each one of them worked hard, each one presented different challenges for me, the director, and each one really did a good job.  Some, in fact, did an excellent job.

It was a great pleasure to work with Antonio de la Malena, our star.  He learned his roles, he took the time to "put himself into the character," and he never complained when I said, "Ok, that take was really good, now let´s do it again, just in case."

Antnio de la Malena, playing Luis, takes a break during the shooting.

I found it truly interesting that he put himself into his role...taking a few moments before each scene and usually before each take, to be in the correct emotional place.  The reason I found it so interesting is that he´d never acted before and certainly had never heard of Method Acting, or Stanislavsky.  On the other hand, flamenco singing (and he is a flamenco singer, a cantaor) requires exactly the same kind of emotional commitment, which is why I chose him to be the lead, in the first place.

Other actors I want to point out are Nicolas Montoya and Javier Padilla.  Both appeared in several scenes, both were very professional and very prepared, and both also helped me in other ways.  Nicolas Montoya (who is in the popular television program Bandoleras) found me an actor when I needed one, and also found the location for the bank scenes.

Nicolas Montoya plays Miguel the banker.

  Javier Padilla played two roles, one a small one but needing someone with good body control.  (He has a beard in that scene, a no beard in the other, so he looks like two different people.)  Javier also found at least three other actors for me.  Every time I called and said "I need someone of a certain age and capable of a certain type of role," he would find me that person...or rather, he´d give me several people for me to choose from.

This brings me back to our lead character.  Antonio de la Malena is, along with Javier Padilla, responsible for helping me with the casting.  He found more actors for me than I can count.  I haven´t been in Jerez long enough to "know everyone," and without him, and Javier Padilla (plus Nicolas Montoya), well, I don´t know if I´d have been able to produce Domino.

Other actors include Salvador Valle, Esteban Viaña, José María Martinez, Rosario Heredia and Luis de la Tota.  I enjoyed working with all of them.

Salvador Valle plays Salvador the neighbor, who offers Luis a few hours´ work.

 The last one I especially want to point out, however, is that 10 year old girl, Marta.  She is a bit shy, and certainly not used to memorizing lines, putting herself in character, or anything of the sort.  She was very willing, however, and like all the rest, she never complained (except once, and that was not a complaint but in the first shoot, she got exhausted and started crying.  We called it a day, and thought of ways to keep her from getting so worn out in future scenes.)

Marta, seen here with Antonio de la Malena, plays the daughter of Luis.

Domino is the first real narrative I´ve ever directed.  It has been a real learning experience.  One of the most pleasurable memories I´ll carry with me from it is these actors....  Thanks to you all.

OUR NEXT POST will be an interview with our lead actor, Antonio de la Malena.

Which is working best, California or Spain?

Well, I got back from Spain about three days ago.   The weather is gorgeous here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  A bit hot yesterday afternoon, but still, gorgeous.  The bay is beautiful.  The birds are singing.  The sun is shining.  All is right in the world, at least on this side of the Atlantic, right?

Marin headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge

Well….

Housing prices are going up again in the Bay Area.  Many people think this is good news.  “Many people” does not include those who’ve lost their homes, or people of modest incomes.  But we’ll let that one pass, and pretend it’s a good thing for everyone.

Some of California’s major cities have gone bankrupt.

What?  Bankrupt?

The lagoon near the Berkeley Marina.

 My own city, El Cerrito, is suing the State of California.  Why?  Because the State of California is demanding a huge chunk of money from it, money that came from the city’s redevelopment agency…and the State of California eliminated all city redevelopment agencies last year, and then said the cities could use the money remaining in the redevelopment accounts for other purposes, and the City of El Cerrito allocated these monies for other projects, and the State of California says that no, they’ve allocated too much and so need to return millions to the State of California, and, and, and…..

I have no view on the legal issues involved, since I don’t really KNOW the legal issues involved.

Why is the State of California requiring money from the cities?  (And this is absolutely not the first instance.)  Because the State of California is in dire financial straits.

So here I get back from Spain, which “everyone” considers to be a basket case, and I find…

…things in California aren’t going so well, either.

But it’s a beautiful day, and the bay looks gorgeous.

View of the bay from the hills.

 

I think I’ll go out for a walk.

OUR NEXT POST will be about the actors in Domino. 

No, I don't hate banks PLUS Music in film

I feel the need to explain that, in spite of my fumings and fulminations, I do NOT hate all banks and bankers.  I am acquainted with banks and bankers who are careful with the money other people have entrusted to them, and work hard to take good care of it.  That, in my view, is what banks and bankers are supposed to do, and it´s a useful thing.

But if you pour honey onto the sidewalk, you will soon find you have ants and flies where there had been no ants and no flies.  If you deregulate banks, you will attract loan sharks, along with people whose primary concern is personal profit, and people who believe the banks need to serve the investors rather than the customers and depositors.  These people managed to take over some of our largest financial institutions and are, in my opinion, the prime cause of the financial crisis.

And no, I do NOT like them.

NOW, on to music in film.

I guess everyone has experienced the music in movies where a sweet sound swells just as the handsome hero and beautiful heroine kiss passionately.  That, obviously, is one of the prime uses of music in film.  The music tells us we need to feel mushy, that we are viewing true love, and this is a great and glorious thing.

But there are other uses of music in film.

If you think about it, you realize that music in film came partly out of the silent film era, where music helped let the audience know what was going on and what emotions the audience was supposed to be feeling.

Now, with dialogue, you don´t need music to tell you so much.  In fact, it´s just as easy to get too much music in a film as too little.

I have been trying hard to pay attention to how music is used in the movies I watch, and learn as much as possible from watching and listening to how others do it.  In Phyllida Lloyd´s The Iron Lady, for example, music is used to tell us the movie is about to shift in time and even more often, to tell us that our Margaret Thatcher (played by Meryl Streep) is about to wander off into her past, or see her now-deceased husband as still living.

On the other hand, The Piano, a film by Jane Campton, uses music as the voice of our heroine.  It was fascinating to learn that the actress who played the lead role (Holly Hunter), actually learned how to play the piano as part of the preparation for playing her part.  We are not seeing her body swaying in front of a piano while someone else´s hands are running over the keys.  She is making her own music.

Dr. Zhivago, a very different kind of movie directed by David Lean (starring Omar Shariff), uses music in the more conventional way, to let the audience know that we are seeing true love, or that something very profound is about to take place.

I won´t continue on, but you might find it interesting, the next time you watch a movie, to see how music is used.

OUR NEXT POST will be about returning to California--which is working best, Spain or California?

Antonio de la Malena´s double disc of flamenco cante

The star of Domino is, by original profession, a flamenco cantaor/singer.  He has been singing professionally since he was nine years old, in public and private events in Jerez de la Frontera and making his television debut in Niños Cantaores (part of Rito y Geografía del Cante).  Yes, he was only 9 years old.

And although he has several CDs to his name (flamenco semi-fusion), plus is on lots of flamenco CDs which include several singers, he has never had a true flamenco CD of his own.

Well, we decided to change that.  We decided to change that because he is a very, very fine singer.  In addition, many people only know of his talents as a singer who provides the cante for dancers, and aren´t aware of the fact that he´s a great soloist as well.

The CD cover:  Antonio de la Malena with his father, el Morao.

When we started recording several months ago, the idea was to produce a CD with 10 cantes (flamenco songs).  The word on the street is that anything less than 10 tracks is not taken seriously.  But when Antonio sings, he keeps on singing.  The result is that some tracks were more than 10 minutes long, and the bottom line is that there was no way to put 10 tracks onto one CD.  You simply couldn´t fit them all in.

As a result, we recorded some more and are coming out with a double CD--two CDs in one package.  There are a total of 16 cantes in this package, 8 on each CD.  The title of the album is Para ti mi cante, que es mi libertad.  (I give my song to you, my song which is my freedom.)

The album is currently being manufactured, and when that process plus some legal details have been taken care of, we´ll have the album in our hands.  We´re talking about one week or so.  We´re hoping to release it at an event in southern France on June 30.  We don´t know if we can make this deadline or not, but we´re trying.

One way or another, if you live in Europe, once it is actually available, you will be able to purchase it on-line at the web site http://AntoniodelaMalenaCD.com.

Antonio de la Malena--photo:  Martin Guerrero y Casa Patas

  We´ll release it in the U.S. later, when we have solved a couple of other legal problems plus acquired enough money to pay for production in the U.S..

For flamenco buffs, the album starts with a trilla plus estribillo, the estribillo being something that Antonio wrote (both the music and the lyrics).  Other tracks include 3 seguiriyas, a soleá, a soleá por bulerías, a bulerías a golpe, a regular bulerías, a fin de fiesta, an alegrías, etc., etc..  Very compete.

Guitarists are Manuel Parilla, Domingo Rubichi, Malena Hijo and Santiago Moreno.

Antonio´s brother Manuel de Malena joins Antonio in the tarantos, with each of them singing a section.  And in the fin de fiesta plus the estribillos, other singers join in, such as David Carpio, el Nono del Periquin, etc.

I promise you, if you like flamenco, you´ll love this.  If you don´t know anything about flamenco, you still might well like it.  Antonio has a great voice, great pitch, and puts lots of emotion into his singing.

The official producer of the album is Palomino Productions.  Co-producers are Jerez Puro and el Rincón Andaluz.  We also have a partially completed, very simple web site for the album at http://AntoniodelaMalenaCDs,blogspot.com.

OUR NEXT POST will be about adding Domino´s last scenes, and the background music--end of a long road.

Shooting the final scenes

I had intended this to be a post about the background music, but the young composer just became a father and his mind is elsewhere.  Before the baby was born, he had nearly completed the music, so I'll give him a couple of weeks, then ask him to give it to me.

In the meantime, to bring Domino up to the length required by major U.S. television channels (PBS and such), I wrote two more scenes, one of which we have shot and I'm in the middle of editing.  Film-making being what it is, we shot that scene twice.  The first time, one of the technicians made an error serious enough that we had to throw the whole thing out.  But the second time, it turned out alright.

Luis (Antonio de la Malena) with Marta (played by Marta).

This is a scene in which we see Luis the father in his home with two of his kids:  the youngest and the oldest.  We learn that everyone in the family is thinking about the upcoming wedding.  We learn that the eldest son is trying to get work but he can't, either.  And we learn that Luis has nice kids--kids he would certainly want to protect.

As we know, however, he may not be able to protect them.  And that is the crux of our story.

Marta, her dad, and two crew members.

The final scene, which we had hoped to film this weekend but could not because our star had to go off to Milan (Italy) to sing, is one in which we will see how some people are perfectly willing to take advantage of those in trouble.  We will also see something that I find shocking:  in Spain, when you lose your home because you can't pay your mortgage (something that is happening more and more these days), not only do you become homeless but in addition, you still are legally required to repay that loan.

This means that the banks make out like bandits.  They get your home and, if you ever find work again, they get your money.  Your wages are garnished.

Ah, our wonderful director, yours truly (Eve A. Ma).

And there you have it for today.

THE NEXT POST will be about the completed and soon-to-be-released double CD of flamenco cante (singing) of Antonio de la Malena.

The banker as speculator and villain

In addition to using Domino to put a human face onto the economic crisis, I´m using it to express my own personal ideas about some of the causes of the crisis and some of the economic problems I observe in Spain.  This has led me to create various scenes with bankers.

In brief, I think a lot of the cause of the crisis is economic speculation, especially by banks and others involved in financing real estate.  I also think the leaders of this speculation, and those who bear a lot of the responsibility for the crisis, are banks and other financial institutions in the United States.

Of course I know that this is not a terribly original idea, but ...

Ok, so how have I used Domino to illustrate some of this?

Well, there´s the scene we recently shot that I call "the banker Miguel in the bar."

Here we all are together.  The two "bankers" are wearing suits.

In this scene, we find banker Miguel (the banker that our hero goes to when he asks for a loan) in a café/bar, drinking a cup of coffee.  In comes an acquaintance, the banker Rodolfo.  (I have fun choosing names for all these people.)  Rodolfo works for a rival bank.  He points out to Miguel that Miguel´s bank is in all the newspapers today because their major project, a huge complex they were financing in the "southern sector," has collapsed.

And it seems that Rodolfo and his buddies had expected it to fail all along.  It was (says Rodolfo) massively over-capitalized, it was relying on a shady construction company, etc., etc..

I´m not going to tell you any more.  You´ll just have to watch Domino when it comes out.

Here is Nicolás Montoya (our "banker Miguel") playing a Roman sergeant.

But I will say that this scene ALSO helps explain why banker Miguel loses his temper in the bank in the subsequent scene when our hero, Luis, comes in to ask how his loan process is coming along.

Poor Luis.

And a note:  banker Miguel is played by Nicolás Montoya (who also has a role in the current popular television series, Bandoleras) while banker Rodolfo is played by Manuel Oteo Barranio.  The scene takes place in Peña Recreativa "el Toke" and thank you to José Carlos Ruiz Suarez for lending it to us as well as playing the part of the bartender.

Since we mention him here, I´ll also remind everyone that Luis is played by Antonio de la Malena.

OUR NEXT POST will be about shooting the final scenes.

Thanks to Flamenco Peña Chacón

We owe a big thank you to flamenco Peña Chacón.  We filmed there five times, three of those times for several hours.  The peña has been very nice to us, and we are very appreciative.  A lot of the great reception the peña gave us is due to Ali de la Tota, a palmero (flamenco percussionist) who is in charge of day-to-day operations.

Thanks, Ali.

Ali de la Tota.  He also plays a part in the film.

 In addition, we wouldn´t have been able to use the peña without the agreement of its president, Julian Azcutia.  Thanks to him, as well.

A flamenco peña is a flamenco club.  Peña Chacón is named after the flamenco cantaor (now deceased), Don Antonio Chacón.  There are about a dozen flamenco peñas in Jerez de la Frontera, including six or so in or near the city center.  Peña Chacón is one of those in the center, in the historic district.

The flamenco  peñas, as you might guess, are composed of people interested in preserving flamenco, and enjoying flamenco.  Normally, each peña selects a month, or a period of 4 weeks, in which to present flamenco performances.  These are free and open to the public.

Peña Chacón has a great collection on its walls of photos of flamencos.

Peña Chacón´s main period is May-June, and although it focuses on the cante (flamenco singing), it also presents some dance performances.   This year, however, due to the economic crisis, it was unable to present any performances.  The peña has only about 50 members, and there simply wasn´t enough money to pay for performers.

In the past, in addition to the May-June series, the peña used to present young artists it thought had promise.  These performances were scheduled for February, but again, the peña has been unable to hold these events for the past several years.

This is the stage, with a photo of Don Antonio Chacón on the wall.

It does, however, still present zambomba (flamenco Christmas celebrations, with people singing Christmas songs to a bulerias rhythm, and occasionally, dancing as well).  Hopefully, when the crisis ends, it will again be able to present its other performances.

I asked Ali de la Tota what characterizes the peña, and he said the respect that the members give to the cante (flamenco singing). They listen well.

Here we are, shooting a scene.

Three footnotes:  the peña is named after cantaor (flamenco singer) Don Antonio Chacon.  It has been in its present location (near calle Francos and the Fundación of flamenco) for about 20 years.  Formerly, it was in a building in calle Carmen.  And Ali has been working there for the past 15 years.

OUR NEXT POST will be about the banker as speculator and villain..