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?