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.