Filming in el Puerto-our two young lovers

Last Friday, we filmed a scene in el Puerto with our two young lovers, namely, Luis's son and the son's finacee.

And just so you'll know where all this is located:  El Puerto is what people in this area call the small city of Puerto de Santa Maria.  It's located a little north of Cadiz, and Cadiz is a port city in the south of Spain on the Atlantic Ocean.

Our two actors (Rosario Heredia & José Castro) with part of the crew.

El Puerto is also a port, mostly for small fishing craft and some pleasure boats.  It's located at the mouth of a river that empties into the Bay of Cadiz--a big, big bay like the San Francisco Bay.

Our young lovers mostly talk about the upcoming wedding.  The fiancee, Ana, has stars in her eyes.  She is imagining a gigantic wedding in a church filled with flowers, a huge wedding cake, a slick band, lots of great food, the works.

We're working hard.  The actors are the ones sitting down.

Luis' son Juan, however, knows that his family can't afford anything of the kind.  The two families will share the cost of the wedding, but since Luis, Juan's dad, has been out of work for many months, there is not much money lying around.  Each time Ana comes up with a new fancy thing she thinks they'll have, Juan brings here back to reality...for example, the wedding cake will be made by his aunt (who works in a bakery but hasn't yet learned how to do anything really fancy).

Then, the kicker:  it seems that Ana's father views the ability of Juan's family to pay their share as a test of how well his daughter can expect to be supported.  Poor Luis,  How is he going to be able to afford all this?

Our star of the day, Rosario, playing the finacee and yours truly with an aching back.

The scene, by the way, took five hours to shoot.  At the end, we had a good meal, and then went and shot another scene (this one, in Jerez).

OUR NEXT POST will be more about the economic situation in Spain.  I might not get to it until after Berlin (meaning expect it around May 9 or 10).  I´ll also talk a bit about the economic situation in Berlin.

The new election, the general strike, and more bad economic news - Part one

Let´s start with the economy.

As I´m sure everyone is aware, Spain`s economy is not doing well. Unemployed is very high (some sources claim over 30%) and is due to rise if, as seems likely, the new budget proposed by the current national government goes into effect. Taxes are very high, and are expected to rise. Prices for essential such as gas and electricity are releasable but will soon increase.

The current national government was put into power some six months ago primarily with a mandate to increase employment, and ease the final strain on the middle class and people of more modest means. So far, it has been unable to do so.

It is estimated that 95% of Spain's economy is made up small businesses, their employees, and the self-employed. Although this percentage is almost certainly too high, it is undeniable that small businesses make up a substantial portion of the economy.  It costs each self-employed person in minimum of 270€ (about $320) each month just to maintain him/herself on the rolls of the self-employed. This is separate from and in addition to income taxes.

For self-employed person who earns 5,000€ a month, this is not such a big problem. but the self-employed person who earns 1,000€ to 1,500€ a month (and many earn considerably less) only has expendable income of 730€ - 1,200€ a month. This is a equivalent to $1,000 - $1,600.

If our imaginary person is paying rent or mortgage of 300€-600€ a month (reasonable figures for a 3-bedrooms flat), and utilities including in telephone round 100€ a month (again, a very reasonable figure), this person has a very little left over for food and clothes. Forget about anything so ridiculous as entertainment.

Now, imagine that person is responsible for supporting a family.

This explains why so many people scraping by working as carpenters, graphic designers, house painters, small shop owner with no employees, and the like, fail to register with the government as "sell-employed". They can´t afford to.

The government, of course, considers their failure to register to be fraud. And an important aim of the newly-introduced national budget is to get rid of that for and get all this people to pay their 270€ a month.

It is very possible that if the government is successful, in the long run (in perhaps also in the short run), this will not help the economy. It will certainly be devastating to a significant proportion at the population.

TO BE CONTINUED....

A NEXT BLOG will be about filming in El Puerto

Some thanks are due here: Mateo Solea & Bar Gitaneria

We had a important scene that we needed to film, where Luis meet with his former boss, Javier.  We were fortunate enough to have the owner of the Bar Gitanería offer to lend as his bar. He also ended up playing the roll of the bartender.

This wonderful person was and is Mateo Solea.

Mateo Solea behind the bar

We asked Mateo Soler to tell us a little bit about his bar, and his life. He explained that he opened Bar Gitanería three years ago. I can tell you from personal observation that it is popular. It's located close to the Iglesia Santiago in the Barrio Santiago in |Jerez.

Inside the bar, as in many bars in Jerez, there are lots and lots of photos on the walls. Most are of flamencos, but there are also some matadors.

Note all the great photos on the wall

This brings up the topic of flamenco. Mateo Solea is also a cantaor, a flamenco singer. He sings in flamenco peñas (flamenco clubs), in local events, and on stage with some of the most important flamenco companies in Jerez.

He is also the brother.in-law of our star, Antonio de la Malena.

Here we are, filming.

We want to express a sincere thanks to Mateo Solea. It was very nice of him to lend us his bar and he did a great job acting as the bartender.

A NEXT POST will be about the current economic situation in Spain (this time, for real).

New developements

I'm a little behind of this blog, because I hurt my back again. SORRY.

About a week ago I invited some people over to watch Domino, the Movie in its current form. Four actors showed up, two who play roles in Domino, and two who do not- a perfect group. And they liked it!

Of course they had some constructive comments to make. That's why I invited them -to get constructive comments.

We MIGHT film here.

Now we move to next stage. Domino, in its current form is a nice rounded . It lasts 44 minutes  and 2 seconds. BUT  TV Station in the US require 56 minutes and 40 seconds.

So I decided on two versions, one the way it is now, and one for TV.

SO we'll be filming some more scenes!  In one, we'll see the son Juan with his fiancé Ana.  They are in El Puerto (Puerto de Santa Maria) walking beside the river which empties into the Bay of Cadiz.  It's very pretty there, and they´re walking hand and hand and talking about the wedding. Yes, this is related to Luis' s financial problems.

But we WILL film here.

In another scene, we´ll see the banker Miguel talking about his and his bank´s recent financial ups and downs. This will explain his emotional reaction to Luis' request.

The man at the right (Nicolas Montoya) is the banker Miguel.

And there will be a couple at other really tiny scenes. We think you' ll like it.

OUR NEXT POST will be to thank the Bar Gitaneria.

Will be our thanks to the Bar Gitaneria.

Scoping out Puerto de Santa Maria (el Puerto)

Last Thursday, I spent four hours walking around Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz (more commonly known around here as "el Puerto"), scoping out one of the scenes we'll film in order to make Domino long enough for PBS.  It was a lovely day, I enjoy boats and water, and I had a great time.

Plus I came away with many ideas...enough ideas so that the following day, I wrote a rough draft of the scene to add to my movie script.

These two trees are one of the locations where I want us to shoot.

The scene will have two actors.  One will be Juan, the son of our hero, Luis.  The other will be Ana, Juan's girlfriend and fiancée.  Ana lives in el Puerto, which is why we will be filming there.  The fact that el Puerto is very lovely is another reason we´ll be filming there.

The scene will consist of a conversation the two have as they are walking along near the river.  The river opens up into the Bay of Cádiz just a short ways beyond el Puerto, and el Puerto is a port for fishing boats.

In the conversation, we´ll learn a lot about Ana´s character, and the situation the two find themselves in, especially with respect to Juan´s family and the effect their wedding is likely to have on the family´s financial situation.

As I was wandering around, I happened to wander into the local yacht club.  No one noticed that a non-member had walked in, and I didn´t realize until I was well inside that maybe this was a private club.  That has given me another idea, which I´ll think about over the weekend, and if I still like it on Monday, I´ll call the club´s manager and ask for permission to shoot there as well as in the other, public locations.

Yacht club with private sailboats in the background.

Our biggest problem now with  this scene is finding the right Ana.  We have a Juan, although there is some consideration of using someone else.  Antonio de la Malena, my right-hand man in this production, is in Italy but he´ll be back in a couple of weeks.

Small fishing boat for sale--the economy affects fishermen, too.

That leaves one other actual problem to solve:  the wind.  I´m hoping my alternate sound person (who has lots of experience and good microphones) is up to it.

We shall see.

OUR NEXT POST will be more about the new scenes.

Antonio de la Malena's upcoming CD

You might well be interested in learning that our star, Antonio de la Malena, is about to come out with a CD of flamenco cante (singing).  It's title will be Para ti mi cante, que es mi libertad (My song is for you, my song is my freedom.)  Palomino Productions is producing it jointly with a Spanish company, Jerez Puro, a flamenco performance company that tours all over the world and that also has dance academies all over the world.

Antonio de la Malena, a singer known the world over.  He has toured throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.  He has sung in Egypt.  He has been to almost every place where flamenco is loved.  This will be his first, purely flamenco CD.  He has two other CDs to his name, but they are not flamenco cante.

Antonio de la Malena.  (photo:  Martin Guerrero and Casa Patas)

We recorded this back in October, before I left for California, and planned to have it out in February.

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men.

Turns out Antonio sang a bit too much.  First of all, he recorded another 5 cantes while I was in California.  Next, when he starts singing, he sings, and sings, and sings...and some of the cantes are over 10 minutes long.

Since it's important (says everyone who "knows") that a CD have 10 tracks on it, well, multiply 10 by 10 and you get a lot more minutes than any standard CD is going to hold.

el Bob (palmero), Antonio de la Malena, Manuel Parilla (guitarist), etc.

So we trimmed and trimmed, and cut and cut, and even with only 9 tracks it was STILL too long.  Plus some of what we cut was very dear to Antonio's heart, leaving him feeling like the prospective CD would not be what he wanted.

Solution?  Well, at the present time, we've just about decided to put two CDs into one package.  This has led Antonio to decide that he needs to record some more.  I have told him he MUST NOT go over the now 2-CD limit this time.

Bottom line, since he leaves town tomorrow for France and then Italy, is that we THINK we'll get this finished by the end of spring.  One way or another, I promise it's going to be good.  So hold onto your hats.

Bulerias fin de fiesta.  Right, standing=Antonio de la Malena

The final number on the set of two CDs will be the traditional "fin de fiesta" (ending party) bulerias.  For this, Antonio invited not only his older brother, the cantaor Manuel de Malena, and another six or seven people to join in.  They each take turns singing, with Antonio singing first and also ending the session.  There is no guitar accompaniment.  It's performed as if they were, indeed, all at a party together and simply enjoying themselves.

And again, you'll find it at www.AntonioMalenaCD-ENG.com, or if you're in Europe, at www.AntonioMalenaCD.com.

OUR NEXT POST will be about scoping out "el Puerto" (Puerto de Santa Maria).

Some thanks are due here-part 3-the pawn/jewelry shop

This is to express out thanks to Joyeria Juncal, where we filmed the scene in which Luis pawns a ring. 

Joyeria Juncal, located in the Madre de Dios area of Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, is both a jewelry shop and a pawn shop.  That is to say, they sell fine jewelry and watches, but they also purchase gold.  The owner of the shop, Francisco Juncal, kindly allowed us to film there free of charge, and his father (the elder Francisco Juncal, who is the shop's founder) played the part of... the shop owner.

Being that he knew exactly what he was doing, he had all the correct materials for evaluating the gold in the ring, and giving a price for it.

Francisco (Paco) Juncal, father...with our hero.

 Before shooting this scene, I didn't know anything about how gold is evaluated.  I now know that to assess it for the base of 18 carats, you use a pretty bottle with some bluish-greenish colored liquid.  You also scrape the gold on something that I presume is especially hard sand paper.  At least, that's what it seemed to be.

After scraping it, you apply the liquid.  If the tiny pieces of metal that you scrapped off stay there and don't float away, you have what is a minimum of 18 carats of gold.  (Unless I got it backwards, and you WANT them to float away in order to be sure it's gold.  I think I'm not quite ready to work in a pawn shop.)

Yours truly and Antonio Moreno Jimenez, our sound tech.  Yes, WE WERE THERE.

 Francisco Juncal the elder, who played the pawn shop owner, also wore a nice, bright orange sweater which worked well with our hero, Luis', dark jacket.  Our hero, Luis, has a tendency to wear dark jackets.  That's because Antonio de la Malena, the actor, evidently has a wardrobe full of dark jackets.  Brightly colored neck scarves but dark, dark jackets.

And our hero, Luis (Antonio de la Malena).

 OUR NEXT POST will really, really be about hair (I think).