One scene re-shot, then WRAP!

I decided that one earlier scene was a little thin, so we re-shot it. Same actors, same location, with changes in the dialogue and the action. There are a few photos below from the re-shoot. And that was the last of the shooting for "Domino." The editing has also been completed, meaning that we are, as of November 2013, at rough cut stage. The technicians need to go over the sound and the image to correct errors, and then it will be done. I think by the end of 2013, we'll officially have a completed film.

Above is Luis (played by Antonio de la Malena) earning some extra cash by moving furniture for a neighbor. Guess who the furniture belonged to - the widow. But Luis doesn't know.

Here is Luis asking the neighbor what he needs to do next.

Finally, in the very last scene we shot (but not the final scene of the movie), here is the hard-working crew working hard.

More photos - more scenes

In out last news post, we said we had finished shooting. WRONG! Turns out that not only was the film about 3 minutes too short to qualify for some important stuff, but also, there was one point that needed to be made a little clearer. So we shot a bit more, in fall of 2012. Here are two photos from the scene making that point.

Above is an actress (Encarnacion Margado, playing the widow) getting into costume, her husband (real husband) looking on.

And above, you see the widow with her friend (played by Maria Duarte)on the street. The widow has just been evicted from her home of 50 years. Note that this is happening for real in Spain...and in the U.S.!

Two photos from the last scene we shot

Now that we´ve finished shooting, we thought you might enjoy seeing photos for the last scene we shot, which I think of as Luis and the furniture. It's where a neighbor (played by Salvador Valle) asks our hero (played by Antonio de la Malena) to do an odd-job for him. The odd-job is moving furniture. Here, we're shooting on the street where the neighbor passes our hero in his car, and stops to offer him the job.
This photo shows one of the actors (Salvador Valle, on the far left) with two crew members (Antonio Moreno Jimenez, the sound tech and his sister, Saira Moreno Jimenez, who held the boom for him in the absence of our usual boom person).

And this photo shows two actors -- Salvador Valle again in the far background, plus Antonio de la Malena in the center -- and two crew members (Antonio Moreno Jimenez again, and Maria Duarte, our continuity person).

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.

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.

Double and triple duty--producer-director, etc., Eve A. Ma

Yes, we do have a crew.

For most scenes, we have a camera person, a sound tech, a boom operator-best boy, a continuity-script person, a floor manager, and a director plus assistant to the director who is also our lead actor. 

You'll note there's some doubling up here.  Sometimes,  some of these people have to double up even more, for example, to cover lighting.   And SOMETIMES, if the place where we'll shoot is very restricted, or we're dealing with children, or if it's a very, very simple scene, there will be a lot more doubling up.

We have a director and crew of 2 for the want-ads scenes.  Here the crew is, relaxing with the lead actor,

Sometimes, in fact, I personally have had to be script writer, producer-director, camera operator, lighting tech, sound tech, and always, basic editor.  No, it's NOT easy.

In fact, it gets very complicated.  When we were shooting in Peña Chacón for the second time, for example, I was producer-director, camera operator, continuity person and lighting tech.  This resulted in some errors, because the director was too involved in camera angles and directing to notice that two actors missed their lines.  One of the missed lines was very important.

In addition, I was so focused on the image in the camera that I centered the mini-spotlight perfectly on the actor I wanted to light while I was setting up, but the minute I turned the camera to ¨"record," my hand relaxed and the mini-spotlight wandered to the left.

SIGH.

Three crew members out of 6 for that day, plus the director.

We had to re-shoot parts of those scenes, hence, part of the reason for the third time at Peña Chacón.  (The reason for the second shoot was my camera person did NOT understand what I wanted and, being in the land of the macho male, even though he´s a great guy, he kept thinking he knew better what I wanted than I did.  Plus we had some lighting problems.)

As for the newspaper scenes and such, what the hey, I just grabbed a camera, tripod, shoulder mount, digital recorder, mini-tripod for the digital recorder, microphone...

...and I shot it all by myself, with only the lead actor/assistant to the producer-director with me.

I won´t say which one started crying.  And we also had a teenaged boy.

PHOTO

And when trying to shoot the kids in a small space, well, I won't go there except to say that kids are kids, although they all really did their best, even the little girl that burst into tears at one point and said she could not go on.  But she did, but it all turned out ok.  And that's what it's all about, right?

Shooting in southern Spain-part 2

Shooting a film/video in Spain has its peculiarities but it's certainly not an impossible location.  And there is LOTS of local color. 

One requirement of film making is finding a good location in which to shoot.  This can be a challenge no matter where you are, especially for the independent filmmaker with a limited budget.  That's one of the reasons why the big boys, at least in the old days, would build sets.  You don't have to worry about light coming in in the wrong place or, even worse, not having enough light (and so having to rent expensive equipment, find enough electricity to power all that equipment, and so forth).

In addition, if you're working on a set, you don't have to worry about the guys down the street starting their construction project on the day you were to shoot your most important scene.  You don't have to worry about pedestrians walking through the set or, more often, a car driving by at the wrong moment.

For part of this scene, we simply stopped traffic.

Now, a lot of people would say if you're shooting a street scene, a car driving by is natural and why not include it?  Well, you may want to have a car drive by but if it isn't carefully planned, it's a nightmare when it comes to editing and you just might have to reshoot an entire scene because of the wrong car passing at the wrong time.  Trust me on this one.

In Spain, finding a good location isn't really any harder or easier than in any other places I've been.  But one peculiarity of Spain is that it's much more normal to "borrow" a location, meaning that someone will suggest a place where his/her friend works, or which his/her friend owns, and you can shoot there for free, within limitations but taking into account your own necessities.

In the case of Domino, we haven't had to pay for any location at all, not even the "bank."  I like that.

The offices upstairs are where we filmed the bank scenes.

In the United States, this kind of helping hand is normal for a documentary, but much less common in the case of a dramatic narrative.  I guess people assume if you can pay for actors and a crew, you can pay for a location.  They don't realize you've already gone broke paying for the actors and crew.

And on the subject of costs and favors, in Spain I've even had the nearby lamp shop lend me light bulbs and lamp shades.  Plus within limits, some actors and crew are willing to let you pay them later, "when you start making a profit" (ha, ha, ha).  This is also the case in the U.S., especially if the people happen to be your friends;  or the friends of your lead actor, for example. 

El Baratillo is the lamp shop that lent us light bulbs and lamp shades.

With the current economic situation in Spain, however, where over 8,000 families in Jerez have been evicted from their homes for inability to pay their mortgage;  where the unemployment rate for people 30 and under is supposed to be more than 50%, and so forth--I really don't like to ask this of people.

But I have been willing to let people work for me for less that we'd anticipated.  I've got my limits, too.

The last thing I want to mention about working in Spain is the problem of noise.  You have that problem everywhere, and it is a sticky one, but in Spain with all the stone and with the narrow streets, you get an awful lot of echo that you don't in a place like the United States.

In general, working in Spain has its peculiarities but it's certainly not an impossible location.  And there is LOTS of local color.

Shooting in southern Spain-part 1

Working as an independent filmmaker and shooting a film or video in Spain is not exactly like shooting in the United States.  In the United States, punctuality is considered almost sacred (unless you are a very big star, and even if you are, you STILL have to show up pretty close to shooting time).   And both cast and crew have to STAY on the set until the production day is over.

Plus there is a lot more attention paid to sticking to the script.

Following the clock is not always a priority in Spain.

In Spain, well, time concepts are different.  First of all, in southern Spain (Andalucia), asking someone to show up before 10am is not looked on with favor.  And if you plan to shoot all day, you'd better have lunch brought in or you may lose your actors and crew to "just one more beer."

We generally start our shooting day at 9am.  This sometimes means LOTS of cell phone calls at 9:10am to find out where your missing people are.  But after a while, they do start to get the picture.

Even more disturbing to a director, if an actor or crew member finds that something really important has come up, s/he just might leave before shooting is over, perhaps telling the director the night before or perhaps simply leaving.

An actor and two crew members.

  I have had to tell certain people that in my next production, I will not use X since on one occasion, X walked off the set without a word to me and in addition, X is routinely 15 minutes late for the start of the shooting day.  I don't even want to continue using X for the Domino production, but we're nearly through, other crew members are closely related to X, and X's role isn't all that important so I've been able to eliminate X's role in certain scenes.

Now, improvisation:  in Spain, or at least in Jerez (where that very improvisational art form, flamenco, has so much influence), improvisation is highly respected.  It's considered an element of good art.  Sticking with the script, well, "won't it be fresher and more natural if I just put it in my own words?"

The answer to that one as far as I'm concerned is that improvisation makes the job of the editor much more difficult.  In addition, if you improvise, you run the risk of losing essential ideas that are in the script.  And finally, I wrote the doggone script and I'm proud of it.

At work.  Our fearless director is to the right.

Plus sometimes people call for improvisation because they didn't get around to memorizing their lines.  I remember one occasion when a person who is a professional actor had spent so little time with his lines that we had to do 24 takes of one fairly small scene.  No fun.

But after all is said and done, I DO like some improvisation.  Yes, it CAN make things fresher and I am not the only one who has good ideas.  So I try to listen to suggestions, and to allow improvisation and even build in some places where flexibility will rule.

And I am in the happy position of being surrounded by lots of very, very talented people.  Makes the shooting fun, in spite of occasional frustrations.
 
OUR NEXT BLOG will be about a few more peculiarities of shooting in Spain.