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.

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.

Where is Spain headed? part 2 of 2

Even city governments have had the national taxing agency (Hacienda) remove money from their bank account.  In one incident this past summer, a large government agency (the government of the Junta de Andalucía) sent a large payment to the city of Jerez so that the city could pay city workers to whom it owed several months´ back pay.  Before the city could use the money, Hacienda found it and removed it -- and used it to pay off some of the taxes that the city owed the central government.
One response to the continuing crisis has been increasingly large demonstrations, such as one last week in which between 5,000 (say the police) and 60,000 (say the unions who organized it) took to the streets to protest job cuts, wage freezes, tax rises and the like.  In addition to Madrid, there were significant demonstrations in 50 other cities in Spain.  There may also be another general strike on November 14.

"No more unemployment."

Here are links to a couple of those stories:  LINK #1 and LINK #2.

There´s a lot of dis-function in Spain.  Lots of looking at the relatively few big guys and ignoring the needs of the many small guys.  (Kind of like here in the United States....)

So when push comes to shove, why should you be interested in a middle-aged family man in Spain, like our hero in Domino, who has financial problems?

Well, he´s an awful lot like your next-door neighbor, or your cousin, or that kid who graduated from college with lots of student loan debt who can´t get a job no matter how hard s/he tries.

NOTE:  you might also be interested in the documentary film that recently aired over PBS, As Goes Janesville, about the devastating effects of the financial crisis there, and how it is connected to us all.

OUR NEXT POST will be about the background music created for us by young composer-guitarist Malena Hijo.

Where is Spain headed? part 1 of 2

It surprises me to find that many more people seem to be reading my blogs about the actors in Domino than the ones I write about what´s going on in Spain.  It would seem to me important to think about Spain, because in many respects, it´s a linchpin of an economic bloc that includes the United States.  If Spain goes, well, watch out!

In addition, Spain´s protest movement, the Indignados (or Movimiento 15-M) was certainly one of the models for Occupy Wall Street.  After all, the Occupy movement started about a year after the much more peaceful Indignados first appeared on the scene.

(Incidentally, there´s a movement in Canada called the Adbusters that started in 1989, well before the Indignados.  THEY claim to be the model for all of these protest movements.)

A LINK about some of the recent demonstrations in Spain organized by the Indignados.

So on that note, what´s going on in Spain?

Well, for one thing, taxes have gone up, unemployment has gone up, and people continue to be paid late or only partially or not at all (especially government workers and outside contractors for government).  A law has also been passed making it illegal to use social media to organize public demonstrations that result in problems for the authorities -- and don't most public demonstrations end in problems for the authorities, even though the organizers had not intended it?  The law has not yet been enforced very often, but it´s kind of a monster sitting in a cave, waiting for an opportunity to come out and wreak havoc.

On the other hand, one of my friends in Spain report that on some days, such as festival days, it looks as if everything were normal.  The streets are full of people, the cafe-bars have plenty of customers, people seem happy and carefree.

Another blog LINK about recent demonstrations in Spain -- some pretty powerful photos in this one.

On non-festival days, however, the streets are empty, the cafes-bars have few customers, the small shops are closing (and small shops make up a very important part of Spain´s economy), manufacturing has almost disappeared (except for parts of the auto industry), and construction work is hard to come by (another thing  that also used to be a major part of Spain´s economy).

In addition, the national tax collecting agency (Hacienda) has taken to sending investigators to inquire into people´s bank accounts, especially in the past several months.  If you owe money to the taxing agency but also owe money for your mortgage, etc., watch out.  The money you earn that you put into your bank account to pay your mortgage might be found by the taxing agency which will simply pounce on it...and there goes your mortgage payment.

An interesting fact about mortgage payments in Spain:  if  you can´t pay your mortgage, and lose your home, not only are you homeless but you still owe that mortgage to the bank.  Let´s just say that in Spain, you can´t win for losing.

OUR NEXT BLOG will finish up this topic.

Supporting actor Salvador Valle

Salvador Valle plays the neighbor of the hero, Luis, in Domino:  Caught in the Crisis;  the neighbor who gives Luis an odd-job to do and then, knowing Luis is in such a hard spot that he can't well complain,  underpays him.  Both guys -- Salvador Valle and Antonio de la Malena (playing Luis) -- kind of hammed it up in these scenes and there are sections which are really comic relief.  It was fun watching them do it and it's fun watching those scenes now.

In Domino, he first stops his car to offer our hero a small job.

 Valle began his acting career in high school, playing roles in Christmas productions, in pantomimes and in short pieces by Lope de Vega, Calderon, and other famous Spanish playwrights. 

Later, as an adult, he joined the well-known theater company, La Zaranda.  In his nine-year stint with the company, he acted roles, helped with stage sets and was property manager in charge of all of those small items you see on a theater stage that make the action seem realistic. 

Salvador Valle, script in hand, ready to work.

He later worked in the Basque country for a theater company called "bekereke," then returned to southern Spain and joined the company Teatro del Arte de Andalucía, and also worked with the flamenco group Gitanos de Jerez (led by the famous flamenco guitarist and producer, Manuel Morao).  His work with Gitanos de Jerez included acting, and also helping create the sets for Morao´s production of Tierra Cantaora.

He has appeared in more than 10 movies, including La Lola se va a los puertos, Batton rouge, and Miel de Naranjas.  He was lead actor in two episodes of the television series, Viaje a España (A Trip to Spain) which  has been broadcast in over 50 countries.  He has also appeared in various video shorts, and in television commercials.

Acting in la Niebla.

In the recent past, he has worked with the theater company Tras el Trapo of Jerez de la Frontera, playing a role in the theater adaptation of the poem, La Niebla (by the Jerezano, José Mateo Rosales), and also acting in several plays intended for a youth audience.

Currently, he uses his acting talents to be master of ceremonies for various events, and to officiate at weddings.  And in addition, he is a professional dancer of Argentine tango as well as the Pasodoble.

OUR NEXT POST will be about...where is Spain headed?

Supporting actor Nicolás Montoya

We wrote a blog several months earlier about Nicolás Montoya and his acting.  We´ll use this blog to bring us up to date on his career.  Like Javier Padilla, in addition to his role as the banker Miguel in Domino Montoya has been very active in his career as an actor in theater and television, and in addition, is studying scriptwriting at the film school in the University of Sevilla.

Nicolás Montoya with our cameraman in a scene from Domino.

As an actor, he has played the role of Pajarete in Tirso Calero´s popular series Bandolera, a production filmed in Madrid and aired over Antena 3, a private television station that broadcasts nationally to the entire country of Spain.

In addition, he has appeared in several movies, including two that are soon to be released.  One, called Libertador  (The Liberator), is directed by Alberto Arvelo of Venezuela.  It´s about Simon Bolivar, the revolutionary from Venezuela who liberated most of South America from Spanish rule.  The movie stars Edgar Ramírez and Maria Valverde.  It boasts a very international cast:  Ramirez is from Venezuela, Valverde from Spain, and in addition, Danny Houston (USA) Iwan Rheon (Great Britain) and Juana Acosta (Colombia) play leading roles. 

Montoya in a theater production.

In the scene shot in Jerez, there is a pitched battle between Bolivar´s forces and the Spanish army.  Bolivar wins.

Rain at mid-day stopped the filming but not before they apparently had shot enough footage.  I guess the moral here is that nature is more powerful than armies, but armies (and filmmakers) can be flexible enough so that in the long run, it might not matter.

The other movie in which Montoya recently acted is called El barco (The Boat).  In this one, he played the part of a medical doctor, a very appropriate role since in fact, apart from his acting, he actually IS a medical doctor.  This movie is directed by Juan de Artigas.  I´m sorry to say that I don´t know anything more about it.

Montoya as a Roman legionnaire in front of the Roman theater.

In addition to these two movies, Montoya has acted in live theater, playing the role of Don Ventura in a play created by the theater company Hesperides and presented by the Cultural Division of the City of Jerez to celebrate that city´s history.  His other recent theater role was as the Roman Legionnaire Marco.  This was another production created by the theater company Hesperides.  It was presented in the old Roman theater near Bolonia called Baelo Claudia, in which you will remember Esteban Viaña played the part of duumvir.

Montoya--a busy man, indeed.

OUR NEXT POST will be about supporting actor Salvador Valle, and the following one will be about where is Spain headed?