Shooting in Peña Chacón

Let's face it--some scenes are harder to shoot than others.

My near-Waterloo came with the scenes we shot in Peña Chacón.  First of all, let me explain:  Peña Chacón  as well as all flamenco peñas is a flamenco club.  They present flamenco shows once a week for a chosen month.  The various peñas alternate months, so that most of the year, every Friday there's a flamenco show SOMEWHERE.  They also present a flamenco show during the big, annual, world famous flamenco festival of Jerez de la Frontera.

The bar area with actors--main center of interest for these scenes.

Peña Chacón is a cool location.  It's big, has photos of famous flamenco performers all over the walls, and has a bar in a corner, as well as a stage and other things you might need if you were going to present a flamenco show.

By the way, the flamenco shows in the peñas are all free.

The guy who manages the peña is a friend of our lead actor, Antonio de la Malena.  He's also a nice guy.  And he's a well-know palmero (flamenco percussionist--he does the hand clapping rhythms).  His name is Ali de la Tota, and he got the peña's president to agree to let us film there free of charge.

Ali de la Tota.  Nice guy.

The scenes we were to film were the opening scenes.  Because they're the first thing the audience will see, it's really important that they look good.

I, of course, had written the scenes to have a combined total of about 10 actors, with two "centers of interest."  This is complicated.  I have never done anything nearly as complicated before in my life.  You might think that the music and dance documentaries I´ve done, which in some cases involve more people in front of the camera, would be more difficult but in the documentaries, the musicians all stayed in one place, and the dancers, well, they all danced in the area we specified.

AND for the documentaries, we had three cameras.  That meant if one camera angle didn't look good, we had two others to choose from.

The table with domino players--our secondary area of interest.

With the scenes in Peña Chacon, for the most part we only had ONE camera, although by the time we were shooting for the third time, I decided to have us bring in a second camera for parts of the actual game of dominoes.

Adding to the complications, the lighting in the bar area is very poor.  The bar area was where our more important actors had their scenes, and it is dark and very cramped.  It was hard to get the camera in the right place and it was hard to get the lighting correct.

The result was that we had to shoot those scenes THREE TIMES.  Man, was it ever complicated.  Man, did I ever make mistakes.  Man, did I ever learn a lot.

I am now satisfied with what we have.  Sure, it could be better.  If we shot it a fourth time, it might look even nicer...but enough is enough.  It's decent.  It gets its message across.  It looks fine, and in some places, it looks really good.

Just so you'll know.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about some thanks are due to Bar Gitaneria.  (We´ll thank Peña Chacón later, when I have the photos I want.)

Some thanks are due here--part 1

We filmed in some great locations, due to the kindness of their owners and others.  This is a good place to thank some of them.

Three of the places where we filmed were Peña Chacón, Bar Gitanería and Bar el Porrón, all in Jerez de la Frontera.  Peña Chacón is one of the flamenco peñas--flamenco clubs--in the city.  It´s located near the center of the historic district.  The flamenco peñas do a great deal to help maintain flamenco and especially the cante, organizing performances throughout the year that are free and open to the public-

The Peña is names after a cantaor of the last century, Antonio Chacón.

Bar Gitanería is located in the formerly almost exclusively gitano (Gypsy) district of Santiago.  Santiago is still predominately gitano, and as for Bar Gitanería, not only is Mateo Solea, its owner, a gitano, but by its name, as you may have guessed, it celebrates and especially welcomes gitanos.

Mateo Solea in his bar.  Did I mention that he also sings?

Bar el Porrón is located in the heart of the other historically gitano district of San Miguel, also called la Plazuela.  This district, like Santiago, is still predominantly gitano.  Its owner Luis el Porronista is NOT gitano but his wife is (so there).

Ceiling of Bar el Porron--herbs, a large gourd, garlic...

All three of these have great decorations, each expressing the character of the owners or, in the case of the peña, of the members of that club.  All three were most generous with their space and we really appreciate them.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about actor Nicolas Montoya.