A cool video with some of our actors

There is a cool, bilingual trailer (Spanish and English) featuring Luis de la Tota and Ali de la Tota, two of the performers-actors in DOMINO. These two are percussionists in parts of our background music. In addition, Luis de la Tota plays Josema, the best friend of our lead character, Luis. Ali de la Tota plays Pepe the bartender in the opening scene. Here is the link to the trailer: LINK

Antonio de la Malena´s double CD is out: flamenco por derecho

Palomino Productions has had the privilege of producing a double CD of the flamenco cante (singing) of Antonio de la Malena.  I say "privilege" because he is a very fine singer, and the double CD is excellent.  It includes a full two hours of singing, with 16 tracks, 8 per CD.

(Antonio, as you will surely remember, is the star of Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.)

Cover of the double CD:  Antonio with his father.

It will be formally presented to the world in the famous annual flamenco festival in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013...just a few weeks from now.

The presentation, as organized by Antonio, will be really fine.  In the fin de fiesta of the double CD, lots of family and friends joined him and they will all be in the discs' presentation.  From what I understand, there will be 14 people in all.

Of course, Antonio himself will sing.  I asked him what he was planning to sing, and he answered "Whatever I feel like at the time."

In addition, at least some and perhaps all of the others will sing at the very beginning, and in the fin de fiesta, so it´s going to be really lively.

Antonio de la Malena singing.

And Maria del Mar Moreno, the dancer with whom Antonio has collaborated most closely these past few years, will dance one number accompanied, of course, by Antonio.

The guitarists will be Malena Hijo and Santiago Moreno.  Other well-known performers who will participate include Luis de la Tota and el Bob.

If you are planning to attend the festival, you'll certainly not want to miss this performance.  It'll be in Sala la Compañía.  I believe it starts at 8pm but am not absolutely positive, so check the festival program.  Here´s a LINK to Flamencomania´s announcement of the event.

In the meantime, to enjoy a sample of Antonio de la Malena´s singing, go here:  www.AntonioMalenaCD-ENG.com.

OUR NEXT POST will be about why Domino is relevant to people in the US.

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.

The actors, part 4B-supporting actor Luis de la Tota

I was planning to interview Luis de la Tota, who plays Josema, the close friend of our hero, Luis, in Domino.  However, the last time I was in Jerez, he was on his way to spend several months in the United States and I didn't have a chance to do the interview.

I'll try to catch up with him in Jerez when I return at the end of January.

Luis (front) and Ali de la Tota.

In the meantime, this is a really cool video of him and his brother Ali.  (Ali de la Tota is also in Domino, but plays a relatively small role.)  I spent hours and hours over several days finding this link.  I'd seen it once months ago, and then lost track of it.  It takes a few minutes to load, but it's really worth watching.

LINK

As you can see, he's very relaxed in front of a camera (important for an actor).  This also gives a great demonstration of his character and for those that are interested, shows off an important part of flamenco.  The flamenco part, well, it's not related to Domino, but it's fun to watch, anyway.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about thanks to Tras el Trapo theater company.

A screening of Domino: Caught in the Crisis

A San Francisco Bay Area non-profit called Media Art Works (MAW) has asked to screen part of the rough cut of Domino as part of the monthly series of their film club, the East Bay Media Makers´ Screening Club (EBMMSC).  The screenings are free and open to the public, and take place on the 4th Thursday of the month in the Arlington Cafe, in the East Bay community of Kensington.

Some of the actors.  (Their names are listed below.)

The actors in the above photo are (left to right), Florentino Molina Garcia, José Luis Martinez, Luis de la Tota, Ali de la Tota, Antonio de la Malena, Diego de Malena, and Santiago Moreno. 

The Domino screening is set for Thursday, January 26.  We´ll put up another notice about this closer to the time of the event.  If you live in the Bay Area, we hope you´ll be able to attend.

NOTE:  Here's the logo of Media Art Works (MAW), the organization that's invited us to screen.  Olé Media Art Works:

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about how Luis' predicament relates to Occupy Wall Street and the Movimiento 15-M.

Shooting for sound

In mid-July, we recorded some of the background music for "Domino," the short independent film I´m working on in Jerez de la Frontera.  We have several scenes in bars, which is an ideal place to introduce background music...and the bar scenes are for the most part followed by street scenes, an ideal place to continue the background music.

Since some of you have never been inside a recording studio, it occurred to me that you might be interested in what it's like to do a recording.

--NOTE:  "Domino´s" YouTube trailers are on LINK

What we recorded was based on the voice of our lead actor, Antonio de la Malena, who is also a well-known flamenco cantaor (singer).  We recorded two numbers, one a purely flamenco one (a tarantos, for readers who are knowledgeable in flamenco) and the other a somewhat modernized number (granainos por buleria).

Antonio de la Malena and Luis de la Tota in front of the sound studio.

The first, the tarantos, went very rapidly.  There was only the singer and the guitarist, a father-son team who have worked together for years.  (The father is, of course, Antonio de la Malena.  The son is Malena Hijo.  Both tour internationally.)  First, the two of them ran through the number in order to warm up.  The sound tech recorded it, I'm happy to say, since the first part was great.  The second half was fine but there was a change that didn't go well...but this was ok, since they were just warming up.

Next, they went through it "for real," and it came out beautifully.  End of recording.

The second number, the granaina por bulerias (ending in a minera as a macho), included not only voice and guitar, but also percussion--palmas (rhythmic hand clapping), cajón (that wooden box you used to only see used in Latin American music, but is now used world wide) and something called a tinaja (a ceramic jug turned into a musical instrument by adding sound holes and the like).

Inside the sound studio.  My camera doesn´t give good flash photos.  Oh, well.

 I´ll mentioned here that the palmeros were Luis de la Tota, Ali de la Tota, and Alex de Moneo.  The cajonista and tinajista was Alex de Moneo.  The first two (the de la Totas) are very well known.  Alex is a young fellow, more at the beginning of his career.

Well.  I´ve very little experience in recording sessions and had no idea why they usually take so long.  Now I know.  The voice and guitar were recorded together, and the singer was done.  But then the percussionists--in groups, first the palmeros, then the cajón, then the tinaja--were given ear phones and told to do their part.  The palmas turned out to be particularly tricky and had to be repeated many, many times.  It was a question of getting three people to clap out the rhythm at EXACTLY the same moment in a musical number with a pretty complex rhythm, being sung freely.

After a little over four hours, we had our six minutes of music recorded, put onto a CD, and handed over to me.  I found the experience very interesting.  Being musically inclined, I also enjoyed listening and watching and yes, getting things just right is NOT easy.

Ali de la Tota, with Luis´ girlfriend in the foreground and Antonio de la Malena in the background.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about Spanish Gypsies (Gitanos).