The dubious comment

2011 balance

2011-12-13T15:30:00.000Z

I thought it was time to recap on what went on over the year 2011 in terms of films and other -video or otherwise- exciting projects. Yes, there's a few days left to the end of the year, but I intend not to do much until Christmas, to be honest.

In January and February, I pretty much worked on Brothers day, my first feature film as a director, 24 for 7. Getting the cast, securing the locations, re-working the script, preparing the shots. Constantly buzzing production office. I slept once too. Great times.

In March, while I was still filming Brothers day, I did the first and last videoblog of the project, for the only reason that I was waiting for the actors and had nothing better to do. I did some VFX work for an American promo with a great pitch. And a time traveller.

In May, I went to the Cannes film festival. Walked around a lot, went to a few parties, watched a few films and saw Hugh Jackman in sunglasses. Got a new phone unsuitable for dirty fingers.

In June, I did a few more shots of Brothers day and I saw myself in the trailer for Captain America, featuring my first ever blockbuster extra role.

In July, I finally and officially wrapped Brothers day, to the surprise of everyone, especially me. Captain america was released. Enjoyed it and I THINK I MAY HAVE SEEN myself. My mother claimed to have seen me more times than I was ever there. Google released Google+ and I got absurdly excited about it. I'm feeling better now.

In August, I watched Rise of the planet of the apes. Got excited again. Longest title and best film I have seen this year in the cinema to date.

In September, I loved my new phone. And immediately started to hate it after that. Filmed some incredible bluescreen.

In October, I filmed in a warehouse and nearly got run over by a forklift, which was mildly entertaining. Filmed some stuff in the woods too.

In November, I forgot I had shown my short film Reaction to practically no one and shared it with the world. Calachurras reached its most exciting issue so far and we tried to explain a few things with a cute annex. As a reward, we finally got a fan we don't know personally. Win.

In December, decorated dozens of Christmas trees in a fake NYC and was involved in a attempt to burn down a hotel. Never toast bread if you are not completely awake.

More stuff this year ends with:

Newfound Planet, our very own production company, is now born and the next feature film project is on the making, a very exciting Sci-fi. Which is like a Science fiction film, but with less letters. Possible the most amazing news this year.

Calachurras has reached the middle of its story, and still most people haven't got a clue what we mean.

After months of on and off work. The Brothers day trailer is nearly ready to go out. This obviously mean it will be the greatest trailer of all times. Either that or simply the most slowly done one.

Look forward to 2012.

Reaction

2011-11-23T19:09:00.001Z

After months working on it, I am struggling to stay focus on the script of my next feature film at the moment. Which is why I thought it would be a great moment to share the link to my last science fiction short film, REACTION. That's right. Hope you enjoy it!

For those speaking Spanish, there is also version with Spanish subtitles. For those speaking other languages, well, good for you. And your CV. Probably. If you do understand English but still enjoy subtitles, click on this one.

Actually -if not anything else- the short it is a good, representative example of what I attempt to achieve in terms of genre and style with the next film. So not completely unrelated.

Writing is procrastinating.

Calachurras - The little weird webcomic

2011-11-12T11:06:00.000Z

CALACHURRAS is the story -a bit satiric and a bit fantastic- of a few peculiar three-arm beings, a beach and the most strange battle. We launched it about a year ago and it already has got 10 issues, published monthly. We publish it in both Spanish and English too, so that we can piss off as many people as possible.

For those of you who are following it, thank you and hope you are enjoying it. It's our special little weird baby for my brother and me (the Eskimo Effect combo), and we are excited to be able to share this very personal and sometime a bit twisted story with you all.

For those who are NOT yet following (oh, no!!), we have put together a quick guide to make it easier to start reading now. You can stare at it in disbelief right HERE!

May the creator be with you.

The latest joys of technology

2011-09-21T10:10:00.001+01:00

Last month I scheduled a text that I needed sent earlier than I was gonna wake up. I uploaded a comic book onto "the cloud" so that I could read it on my mobile on the bus. Sent an online album with pictures of the summer to the family (pics that I had been automatically uploaded from my phone minutes after I took them). And I created a series of formulas on a spreadsheet that now allow my brother and me to manage our work on Calachurras more efficiently. Also, as usual, my texts were regularly backed up onto the internet automatically.

Almost as amazingly, I was able to find the below drawing -picturing a donkey showing surprise quite convincingly- in nearly no time.

Oh, and through an interesting phone app, I can now know where the ISS is at any time. Probably not as useful as to know where that damn satellite is going to fall, but still good to me :)

It's exciting to be living this age of technology.

Rise of the planet of the apes

2011-08-24T13:37:00.006+01:00

Effects + Heart = Movie goodness. Yes, please.

It's exciting to see the fruits of the latest technology applied to movies. In this case, Avatar's big push in motion capture technology, with which the actors can capture body and face performance, allows the "Planet of the Apes" sequel to exist.

The danger is to learn to use this new technology integrated in the storytelling process. Looking at the trailer, it looked a bit like the tragic "I, robot", with Apes replacing the hordes of robots. Except for a couple of images, which encouraged me to go see it, and eventually enjoy it enormously.

The greatest archievement is to me that you root for the main character, a bloody monkey, to the point that you side with him against humans (the little bastards). Apes are in the movie more human than humans, just as in other good stories has happened with robots (Wall-e, Johnny 5), monsters (Hulk, King kong) or aliens (E.T. or this guy). Easy. By doing this rather than trying to trick the audience, the achieve effects that enhance the story instead of replacing it (films like "Hellboy 2", "Clash of the Titans"* or the "Transformers" eternal sequels spring to mind now), and that's why, I believe, certain sequences, which would have otherwise been just a way how showing off much money the movie had, work so well and so honestly. I personally loved the helicopter moment, you'll now when you see it :)

Click HERE if you want to see a special-effects-featurette.

Don't click on it if you don't, that would be silly.

Sure the writers took to some licenses in the story, but the final result is good enough as to want to ignore those bits. Only the feeling that the story wasn't going as far as it could have stopped me from loudly cheering at the end. It seems it was thought up as a trilogy. Well, ok they earned that. As long as we don't go back to battles of giant robots destroying cities for cosmical reasons.

Bring it on.

* Niceties aside, "Clash of the Titans" is still the worst movie in modern times in my book. Its sequel, now on the making, means a step back in human evolution and will probably end up destroying the world at least twice.

Google+: First impressions

2011-07-26T10:17:00.002+01:00

So after a few days, here's my perception of Google+.

Great stuff that's already here:

- Circles!: G+'s way of classifying your contacts. Makes a lot of sense, it's a pleasure to use. Means that you only share updates, easily, with the people you want. And it's pretty! :)

- "Hangouts": Basically, a videoconference service for up to 10 people! I like that the image changes automatically to show whoever person is talking at a particular time too. Can't wait to use it for face-to-face, yet remote filmaking meetings, or just family ones.

- Instant upload: The pictures of your phone get uploaded to a private album onto your Google+ that is instantly viewable and shareable. How many of us never download the pics to our computer? Never again!

Other stuff I still want! :)

- Circles within circles: A hierarchical structure would be very good to effectively organise your folks (you can vote for the inclusion of this feature here in Google moderator, I just did myself :)

- Integration with other Google services: Like scheduling an event that will go straight into your Gcalendar or being able to use your Gmail groups of contacts as Circles. Not even need to vote for this, it's obvious that it will be rolled out as soon as it's ready. But it can't happen overnight!

- Permission to be tagged: Always! Either giving permission over pics/albums, or to a list of people/circles. This type of thing is where Google can easily be ahead of Facebook.
- Way of limiting the amount of posts per person on a particular feed: Some people share too much, and /or too often, and they tend to take over the feed for the circles they are in (unless they have their own circle, but this defies the concept of circles itself). I rather see older posts of several people than today's 450 posts from the same person!

And the experience continues :)

Google+: The opportunity

2011-07-20T09:03:00.000+01:00

Google+, for those who haven't had the chance to give it a try yet, is Google's alternative to Facebook.

Yes, it does look like Facebook, which on the internet seems to have become ammunition to criticize G+.

Personally, doesn't bother me. People are familiar with that visual way of receiving and creating information. Also, the changes that social media needs are fundamentally conceptual, not visual. And most importantly, it's Google, so as with everything else they create, there will soon be a way of personalize it to your liking.

And that's the key to what Google+ means. Its power is not in what it is now, but in what it can become.

Part of the privacy issue on social networks, only us ourselves can solve it. Whether we like it or not, communications happen increasingly online, and we are still trying to keep up with the system! To build a new platform to do that on, I for one think there's no one better than Google.

Unlike Facebook creators, Google listens to users. They actually have an ongoing list of pending changes on their official feedback platform Google moderator. Where, incidentally, you too can go and draw attention to something that you think is not working particularly well on any Google product. Here is the one for Google+.

Also unlike Facebook, Google cares about privacy. And already has in place some basic tools towards this end that I'm sure won't be the only ones.

So live it, contribute to the moderator. Let's create the social experience as WE want it. As it should have always been, with control over what we do.

Brothers day - Wrap!

2011-07-14T12:35:00.000+01:00

So... filming is over for Brothers day!!!

All pick ups have been finished over the last couple of weeks and we even had some pictures taken this week for the promotional campaign. We'll be rolling the promo pics soon, followed by the trailer that is being edited as we write/read this :)

But for now, here are some pictures of these last days in varying quality. Click on them for a slightly-larger-yet-not-too-large version. Hope you enjoy them!

For the die-hard fans that may already be out there, by the way :) here is the Facebook page, that will be issuing the official updates.

Brothers day - Action shots

2011-06-29T20:51:00.000+01:00

So as part of what's left to film of Brothers day, I've been out today with a reduced team visiting the locations for a very exciting action sequence. Here's some pics of the day.

On a completely different note, Google started fighting Facebook face-to-face today. It's a difficult battle, this one, but necessary. Go Google!

What's been happening

2011-06-11T17:03:00.002+01:00

So I thought I'd take the time to give a bit of an update on what I've been doing in the last few months (that feel like years!!).

End of last year, I was lucky enough to have a job as an extra (background artist :) in the Captain America movie (!!!!!!). If you want to try and see me :P (I'm one of the blurry dockers in the background) I'm in the official trailer, min 1:36 :) Although it may sound very unimpressive to some, for me it was an incredible experience that felt much too-short, and it leaves me out of breath simply to talk about it. Only Google :) can be more exciting than working in a Hollywood movie + seeing one of the characters I've been reading comics about all my life (Captain America in this case) in the flesh + getting paid for it. Incredible.

Then somehow I ended up directing my first feature film, a drama set in Manchester titled BROTHERS DAY. I'd like to blame my insistence in getting in as much trouble as possible for it, but maybe it was just sheer luck. In any case, it was a lot of fun and hard work. Luckily a strong cast and crew came together in the end and we managed to both pull it off and live through the experience! I did have to put other projects on hold, but it was all worth it. I especially enjoyed working on a feature script which wasn't my own, and working with 2 fantastic writers to make the necessary changes to the story to be able to film it with the given constraints. I just finished filming it, still need to edit it all together and such, but the footage is all in the can (well, all but a couple of days). Sadly, there is very little I can show -well, other than pictures of the shoots-, but I'm working on a trailer and I can't wait to show everybody once it's finished! :)

As if it wasn't enough, I got involved in a movie-to-be called TRAVELER ZERO, a time-travel story... based on real events! :) I only got to do some visual effects and grading for it, but it was particularly thrilling to me because the project is America-based. It's currently been pitched in L.A. to producers with important-sounding names :) and hopefully the whole movie will get to be filmed. You can see the full short film promo below.

At the comic-book side of things, my brother and I have recently re-launched the webseries CALACHURRAS. We are excited to get back to work on this after a bit of a break to give the whole thing all the color that rightfully deserved, and can't wait for you people to read the whole story and tell us what you think.

Last but hardly least, I also went to CANNES this year, for the first time. Cannes is not only a film festival, but a way of seeing the film industry from a more practical angle, and an opportunity to meet a lot of like-minded people and move projects forward. It was a fantastic and necessary experience that I recommend to all my filmmaking friends. It is both fun and a lot of work, and absolutely worth it.

And this is all for now in what's been the most exciting months of my life. A lot of exciting things seems to be happening in the near future too, but I shall talk about them in some other post.

Thanks for reading!

Brothers day - Sort of videoblogging

2011-03-29T23:39:00.004+01:00

True, I haven't posted anything in this blog for quite a long time. Busy busy with the Brothers day film, of which I'll tell more in the near future. In the mean time, here is some behind the scenes. No one should ever let my hands on a camera.

Cats in the water. Only, with no cat.

2010-12-01T10:00:00.001Z

Apart from being more dynamic than the average episode, this month's issue of Calachurras contains one of my favourite moments of the series. It's what scriptwriting "guru" Blake Snyder (one of the most important people in my life :-o even though I never actually met him) calls a "Save the cat" moment. Hope you like it too!

Also, it's been 6 months now since we started! And hey, it will soon be Xmas, so a lot to celebrate! :)

The storytelling masters

2010-11-28T10:08:00.007Z

Finally! Pixar's is going for "Best Picture" at the next edition of the oscars with "Toy Story 3". Not "Best Animated Picture", which they should already get by default, but the big "Best Picture" award.

And in my always humble although occasionally loud and overexcited opinion, if Pixar wants the Oscar they should be able to just have it. Not only is TS3 the best movie of this year (and one of the best movies of all time), when it comes to making movies, there really is no one else better than Pixar.

The audience has spoken, TS3 is the biggest box office hit of the last months. But of course, this can't be the only reason. It is a long time ago now that Pixar has gone beyond the boundaries of animated movies to find themselves a place between those who can tell stories better than the rest. Better, in fact, than anyone else. Pixar's professional policy to create only the best stories and to care for the audience is worth this award and more. It is not very often that one sees grown-ups laughing out loud, jumping at the edge of their seats and then crying their eyes out in the same movie. That's the emotional journey that we should always get with our ticket, and that sadly we don't. Why? Pixar are those guys who haven't forgotten what a good story well told should be like.

Oh. And trying and compare it with "Inception" is just obscene. There, I said it.

Calachurras character cards

2010-11-23T10:26:00.005Z

For those of you that are following Calachurras, here is the first instalment of the characters cards that will make it all clear! Maybe.

What is CALACHURRAS?

2010-11-08T08:53:00.002Z

Still making a lot of people guessing, doubting where it's going and just plain making them angry, the uncommon story of Calachurras keeps going and reaches its 5th episode this month (fact of which my bro and me, the Eskimo Effect combo, are chuffed about).

If you have never seen Noses and Ears fight, if you don't know who Mr Progress and Mr Maker are, or have never seen a brave 3-arm creature face a dangerous churra... well, you've never read Calachurras.

Sort it out here! Or not.

My hardly interesting thoughts on the latest Tron poster

2010-10-25T09:27:00.003+01:00

Just saw that yet another Tron "2" poster is out. I thought it might be "interesting" to write my thoughts on it. It obviously wasn't. But here they are anyway.

"There's that hot girl again, sure worth watching 2 hours of film..."

"And that other guy, no idea who he is..."

"Where's that Bridges bloke? Wasn't he gonna be in this as well?"

"Oh, I remember those flying things from the first one. Cool".

"Oh, look. In fucking 3D again. As if it mattered".

"Yeah, she definitely is hot. Good choice".

"The script must be BRILLIANT too. Probably".

The Sleeper Effect - First trailer

2010-10-18T22:31:00.005+01:00

I find the trailer below very exciting for several reasons:

- It's a serious sci-fi project, executed by very passionate people.

- Doesn't tell you the whole story (as it's happening more and more frequently with trailers these days).

- I'm involved production and graphics wise.

- The best stuff is not even there!

- It has absolutely nothing to do with Harry Potter.

Hope you find it exciting too. And if you do, what the hell, here's some more stuff.

Love.

Go Google! - Contact importing now

2010-09-21T10:00:00.002+01:00

You should already have a Gmail (Google) account.

Really. It is the best thing you can do if you don't have your own domain and want to look professional. Also, Google accounts are easier to manage. hotmail, yahoo, etc.. they can all be a bit of a nightmare to spam-filter or sometimes even to find your Inbox! Plus they look kind of dodgy from a professional-ish point of view.

Also, you look cooler when giving out a gmail address. AND sexier.

Yes, you guessed it:

they ALL use gmail.

And since they have now made made available a feature by which you can import your contacts from your previous account (and most providers are supported) you can now change email address in 4 easy steps:

- Create yourself a gmail account
- Import your contacts from your old terrible soon-to-be-forgotten account
- Email all your contacts to let them know about it
- Be happier! :)

Voilá. Your old msn/yahoo/whatever is now an empty useless shell.

I know what you are going to say. People may still email you at your old account. When you move houses, you can always take steps to receive correspondence from the old address, but at the end of the day people may not listen and keep visiting at your old place. Which is just silly.

No, they won't be visiting you.

Or emailing you, for that matter.

Of course, if feeling nostalgic you can still visit your old account now and then. That way you can also tell any confused/slow friends AGAIN you already changed your email address. Obviously, if they keep persisting on emailing you there, you'll just have to stop being friends with them.

Love Google.

The Sleeper Effect

2010-09-13T08:30:00.003+01:00

TSE is a sci-fi web series based on a daring concept with its own visual style. It takes place in Manchester in a worryingly close future.

It is not often one gets to get involved in a project that one genuinely loves and that exudes so much passion. Hope that shows in the 4 teasers below (corresponding to the 4 main characters) and hope you love it too.

We will be done filming the pilot in about 1 month time. Then off to editing it together put it out there and look for funding for completing the series. You can follow the progress on the Facebook page, including regular video blogs full of energy and enthusiasm :) There isn't a website yet, but there will be soon.

Beth

Ryhs

Glenn

Mac

Never write on napkins

2010-08-28T09:00:00.013+01:00

I realise with horror that I haven't posted any nonsensical posts in nearly 2 weeks. So just a quick one to try and save my soul from the particular circle of hell where all those bloggers who don't write on their blogs for so long rotten in -surely-.

Right now I have several piles of paper of all sorts on my desk. Paper with little notes on it, that is. Torn notepads pages, half-torn notepads pages, post-it notes (in several colours). Supposedly full of powerful ideas for the different comics and films I have in progress, silently looking at me with the promise of something genius. Or at least bearable.

Like the dodgy-looking man in the even dodgier-looking picture.

In fact most of it is just gibberish, or senseless scribbling. Or both. I could probably set the whole pile on fire and I'd never miss it. Oddly, I think I'd probably get some delight out of it too. However, my mind tells me there probably is something of value there. Or something I somehow, at some past point in time, I thought to be valuable. "Why would I spend time on them otherwise?", I reason misleadingly.

The moral would be: set your notes on fire regularly rather than let them taking over most of your space. OR not. Up to you, really. And try and copy those notes into your computer more often. Obvious? Well, next post may make some sense then.

Expectations versus Experience

2010-08-15T09:00:00.006+01:00

In the words of William Goldman, "nobody knows anything". It's interesting how sometimes you go watch a film expecting brilliance and finding disappointment, or the other way around. You never know. The fact that it may happen at all levels -and with any budget- is to me kind of refreshing, and I just wanted to give a quick example with 3 of the latest films I've seen.

Inception: A film I couldn't wait to see and that most people seem to love for reasons that escape my comprehension. A superb idea brought down by the unnecessarily numerous rules imposed by the writing and the endless explanatory movie-stopping sequences. Dreams where possibility is purely a reflection of physical forces and not human, limitless imagination. A spectacular visual effect-packed feast wasted in a merely passable experience. An experience, however, instantly turned into religious dogma by the touch of Saint Christopher Nolan, the man who made the first realistic superhero movie (apparently, the ones before don't seem to count) and became a god in the process. In short, you expect 9, get just a 5... Oh well.

The A-Team: A film I wasn't so excited about but I HAD to see (it's the A-Team, yey!). You can tell has been done for the fans, crafted with love and respect for the original characters and the TV series. Not perfect at all, but thoroughly enjoyable. See? Expect 4, get at least 8! Lovely.

And of course there's Pixar. As usual, beyond any labels or classifications. You expect 10, you usually get 12. Damn it, Toy Story 3 is a film so brilliant that makes you both laugh out loud and cry your eyes out in less than 2 hours. A story that you experience intensely, caring about the characters and living it all with them. That's what cinema should be all the time! All that despite being a 3rd part. A 3rd! Seriously, who else can make not a great 3rd part, but even an acceptable one?

You can't beat Pixar. That's the moral here, I guess. Or maybe not.

New comic CALACHURRAS!

2010-07-06T08:12:00.005+01:00

So here it is finally: our new webcomic CALACHURRAS.

If you think the title is somewhat strange, wait until you see the comic. Calachurras tells the story of a very unusual type of battle, written by yours truly and drawn by my brother, the other Eskimo Effect half.

"Noses and Ears are at war. Will our heroes be able to master the complex folklore of Calachurras before they all end up dead? Or worst still, swept into the darkness by the big wave the profecy talks about?".

Please support this ambitious-ish comic production by SUBSCRIBING to the updates right here or/and/for/by leaving your extremely valued comments on the blog or the Facebook page. Do it soon though, before the Ears are upon us!

Deadtime full trailer

2010-06-08T09:49:00.006+01:00

Again, I am delighted to bring some news on Deadtime, the slasher horror feature film I worked in last year as a Production Manager. Along with a bunch of wonderful -if a little crazy- people.

The complete TRAILER -nearly four minutes of footage packed with love, kindness and feel-good music*- was released last Sunday. And there has been much rejoicing since among the people involved in it. Which of course doesn't mean much, since we can't help being kind of biased.

But then something else happened: people with no involvement in the project whatsoever started saying that it did look good, and actually texted/called/sent carrier pigeons to say so. In short, I couldn't be happier about it and really do hope YOU like it too and feel somehow compelled to go watch it when it hits the theatres! (next year, in principle).

Website here. And an up-to-date full picture of what is happening with it in its Facebook home.

* Very little love in it, actually, but loads of heads "rock'n' roll"-ing, which in a way is much better! (don't let your children see it until they can grow a moustache though, or they may hate you for the rest of your life).

"The bigger monster" ending

2010-05-31T09:56:00.008+01:00

As a life comic reader, I'm now living the dream, watching the endless series of comic book adaptations and looking forward to some more. Still, there's one thing I think could definitely be better: the endings! Hollywood-size endings are one thing, the careless elimination of all emotion attached to the film at that point is another completely different!

Hulk 1, Hulk 2, Iron man 1, Iron man 2, Spiderman 3. they all have painfully done the same: after generally taking the plot in a good direction, things start getting interesting and such... and then all you get in the end is... well... a big monster! Or rather, a BIGGER monster, courtesy of yet another meaningless visual effects feast.

A representative example of "The bigger

(and in this case much uglier) monster" film practice.

"So what do we have? Iron man? Hell, let's use a larger-framed armoured guy for the final battle then". "What about the character we have been developing until now?" "Forget it, waste of time".

"Hulk, huh? No problem, we'll just use a slightly more ferocious/dangerous-looking monster for this one. Easy".

"Spiderman?" "What can we do with this interesting Sandman character? Should we add another beat here and there for his relationship with her daughter...?" "Rubbish, let's just have him grow BIG! and "big-punch" Spiderman in the face. That should get people involved in the story".

(Sigh)

Not only comic-based movies do it though. Clash of the Titans presents a delightful example of it, among other things. It doesn't make it right though.

(Deep, bigger sigh)

Deadtime teaser trailer

2010-05-24T09:36:00.007+01:00

Just a quick entry about DEADTIME, the horror feature film I was involved in last December.

We have a TEASER TRAILER out now and are all very excited about its horror-packed 80 seconds :) If you like slasher horror films, don't miss this one. If it's not your cup of tea... well, would be nice of you to still watch it, really...

You can join the Facebook group too for regular updates. Come on, you know you want to :)

Heads will rock'n' roll!

Webcomics!

2010-05-17T11:41:00.003+01:00

In Eskimo Effect, we keep on going with our crazy, nonsensical production of pretty webcomics. Cristobal-98's latest episode is out (one one more until the end). And Calachurras is coming!

If you enjoy comic-books, or simply the occasional original story (OR you've been wandering around the internet for hours without really doing anything), come visit us! Anyway, that's the message today. Drop by, say hi!

Now you can also subscribe to the updates by email and even join the facebook page/group/thing, so couldn't be easier, really...

Love.

The Entity!! - Teaser trailer (-ish)

2010-05-15T11:29:00.009+01:00

Well, the long-awaited video is finally up on the site, as you may now. Or not, if you haven't seen it yet. Which you should, really.

When confonted with the shocking, horrid images, remember that there's still hope for humankind. The Entity!! is on its way, and will make everything okay.

I can't believe you still haven't watched it.

Love.

Busy times!

2010-04-26T10:00:00.004+01:00

Together with a bunch of crazy, wonderful people from Manchester, last week I survived a film making marathon, called Kabaret.

I made two short films in these intense 10 days. One of them will go up next week as a trailer (ish) of The Entity!! (what!? Really!!??? Yes, finally! ) There's a lot more happening with The Entity!! but it is all too exciting for this post :)

The other "kabaret" short film, I'll still be doing a little tweaking with the help of some of the wonderful people I met there. I'm especially excited about this one.

On the comic front, Calachurras is already in production and will go up in a couple of months on the Eskimo Effect site (what!? You don't know it, shame on you, go visit immediately!), right after the last episode of the current webcomic, Cristobal-98.

Calachurras is the most complex comic-book project my brother and me have worked so far. It's also weird, fun (if we've done our job right) and -we think- definitely different! I'm very happy with the results. Also, I must say it's a great opportunity for satisfying my natural inclination towards making up strange-sounding names (and a translation nightmare, but that's a different story!). Hope you are looking forward to seeing it. We certainly can't wait to start. For now, here's the first sneak peek.

Thanks for reading!

Clash of the Titans. Oh yes.

2010-04-07T23:02:00.011+01:00

"Release the kraken!"

Awesome, hope you have seen it too. Although it wouldn't be fair to judge and epic film on just a fantastic onscreen moment, the whole thing is actually really funny and pointless for 106 painful yet delightful minutes.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting anything original, but apart from the lack of script, the obvious mix between pirates + mummy + starwars + transformers + lordoftherings + godknowswhatelse simply blew me away, too obvious not to notice. But wait. The ending WAS original. Andromeda and Perseus don't end up together. They just can't, since they don't bloody know each other. They've been busy doing... like... other stuff. What a load of... whatever this film tries to be.

Of course he's not singing opera. He is... releasing the kraken!

Now that I think about it, if you had NOT seen the film and think it can somehow be spoiled (ha!), you really shouldn't have read the above comments.

Incidentally, the original 1981 trailer IS awesome too, especially the motion graphics. Enjoy it here.

"Clash. Of the Titans"

Eskimo Effect is here!

2010-02-02T22:02:00.011Z

For several thousand years now, my brother and myself have been meaning to get our web ready.

Excuses such as "Forget it, the current technology is not advanced enough" or "NO, that is not the perfect blue either!" would come one after the other endlessly until one day, for no apparent reason, there it was. Bizarre.

You can see the result here. Or HERE, if you hate lower case.

If you like it, rejoice silently/scream it to the world. Check out the films and the comics, play with the little eskimo (not in a bad way). If bored, visit every now and then too, we will be publishing new online comics every month, except those months in which we don't. Needless to say, it is also your chance to learn about eskimos: those fantastic, not quite human, nearly legendary creatures.

If you do not like it, don't panic. Just move on to something else that makes you happy.

...

Weirdo.

Lately

2009-11-17T00:35:00.009Z

These days, I feel like I'm closer to find my long-sought place in the universe.

...

That's it. That's the best line I have. The rest of the entry is pretty much padding.

Either that or I'm getting seriously affected by my lack of sleep. Seriously, it's all too exciting these days.

Months ago I decided I wanted to get in as much production trouble as I could possibly find, after quite a while off it. This irrational, inexplicable initiative has somehow taken me to be working hard on a couple of two independent feature films now. One of them, we start shooting in just a few days for about 2 weeks So you if you have been wondering what the $·%"& is going on with The Entity!! , you can blame Deadtime (in a nice way though, don't be mean) for generating so much work.

Needless to say, this leaves me very little time to keep up with all the necessary research needed for the feature film script I feel like I've been working on forever now. And of course for...

The Entity!! (yes, again!). Despite everything, I managed to apply for some funding recently. If the project got through the selection process, it would be a great opportunity to get the short film made earlier than I thought next year. If not...well, tough.

Also, I want to thank everybody for bringing more and more people to the Facebook group and spread the word (I'm glad that someone is doing something about the project, shame on me). Especially considering how increasingly hard it is to find your way around in Facebook these days. In any case, the community of fans of The Entity!! keeps growing (307 members now!), which in turn brings hope for the future of humankind. All the names of those who have invited other people or thrown some help at the project are being added to the "Collaborate" section of the website, and of course will be given a credit in the end roll of the film. They will also be loved immensely everywhere they go, for their hearts are pure.

So all good, apart from my lack of sleep, which makes me "go funny" and is meant to get even worse over the next few days.

Oh, and I'm thinking of kidnapping a celebrity. But that's not sure yet, will keep you posted.

Finally! Google's opt-out is here

2009-08-30T09:15:00.006+01:00

I know some of you, not-yet-converted people, have your reservations about Google's technological improvements and its scary attempts to turn privacy into a blurry memory.

Well, here's the proof that Google can make YOU happy too. They truly think of everything:

Love Google.

Not again

2009-08-23T22:00:00.004+01:00

Every now and then, I hear that statement again:

"Animation is for children"

And there I go, trying to explain again that animation is just a way of generating visuals rather than a genre in itself, or a ticket to a specific kind of audience. I'm usually too busy finding the statement unbelievable and going mental with it, though, as to be able to convey the idea convincingly. Or even intelligibly. So I thought I should just give a couple of examples here. If you have that look of "doh" in your face right now (meaning this too is a fundamental truth to you!), you don't need to keep reading. Go and see an animated film or something.

Hanna Montana -to use quite outrageous an example- clearly isn't an animated film, but despite being live-action we can hardly say it's for adults and children alike. The animated film The Incredibles, however, a film that I personally consider one of the best ever made, is NOT for children only. It is appealing to children, of course, but they won't be able to grasp the subtleties of a married couple arguing, or understand how frustration and nonrecognition may lead to become a very specific kind of person. They will probably just see a bad guy there.

It's simple: you can shoot actors with a camera, or take pictures, or render frames of computer-generated characters. Or use any other method, existing or to come. It doesn't really mind, because they all need an script as badly. And it is this script (the storyline, the dialogue between the characters, the characters themselves, the tone!) that will determine how "adult" the film will eventually be.

I finish with what I think is a relevant video. The moments in one of the episodes of the wonderful excuse-me-not-only-for-children Justice League TV series in which Superman's colleagues react to his sudden death and one of his closest friends gives a speech during the funeral. It's as good and emotive as that of live action films such as the famous Four weddings and a funeral one. And just in case it counts, it may give you "adult" goosebumps too.

And then of course there is Harry bloody Potter. But I rather not go there right now. Maybe some other time.

Blake Snyder's "finale"

2009-08-05T17:19:00.013+01:00

"I love writers" - Blake Snyder

Blake Snyder, enthusiastic screen writing guru, loving teacher and practical structure genius, died yesterday.

His seminars and his most popular book "Save the Cat" (and the only one I've read, by the way) are said to have inspired and enlightened both budding writers and established professionals. Personally, I learnt a great deal from his approach and found his words extremely useful: an excellent starting point and a light to follow when lost in the dark corridors of your own writing.

Snyder had a blind faith in writers, and an unnatural respect for an audience that, as we all should know, expects to enjoy the film they go to see. He wasn't as popular as Michael Jackson, however, so media coverage have been somewhat moderate. And so I felt I needed to do my bit by posting something here and updating wikipedia (and sobbing a little when no one was looking...). After all, he was in fact "a lot of people's Michael Jackson", and his work means a lot to quite a few of us.

I feel the best way of explaining who he was is to leave a few relevant lines directly extracted from the messages on his blog after his passing.

"We'll never know how many bad movies he saved us from"

"I am starting production this month on my feature film that wouldn’t be happening if not for Blake’s book"

"This is very sad. Blake was one of the good guys. Shared his knowledge with everyone and anyone. He’d actually email you back if you had a question"

"Blake was a great writing teacher and the first person who really got me to understand structure, but more importantly he was a really nice man and seemed genuinely interested in his students"

"Blake, you saved more than just a cat my friend. I will truly miss you"

"This reminds me that there is no tomorrow. Only today. Make the most of it"

Which takes me to the end of this post. Whatever and however small it may be, let our work on stories be the best ongoing tribute to his life we could possibly offer.

Damn, Blake, I miss you too, and I never even met you.

Bienvenido al Futuro III: Un Sistema Operativo para el futuro

2009-07-29T08:24:00.002+01:00

En esta ocasión voy a dejar de hablar sobre The Entity!! por un momento (pero sólo un momento) para colgar una rápida entrada sobre lo que bien puede haber sido el más importante acontecimiento relacionado con la tecnología de hace unas semanas.

Google ha anunciado que está desarrollando un sistema operativo llamado Chrome OS. Tenia que ocurrir (de hecho, el primer sistema operativo creado por Google ya está funcionando en algunos teléfonos móviles), pero es genial VER cómo ocurre.

Existen bastantes razones por las que este Chrome OS deberia ser una muy buena noticia. Es o debería ser:

Un sistema que pone en peligro a Microsoft. La competencia en el mercado es buena. Microsoft y sus productos controlan el mercado porque no hay otra opción. Otros sistemas aún no son lo suficientemente fáciles de usar, baratos o populares, y gran parte de los compradores no los consideran. El logotipo de Google, sin embargo, puede que sea el más fácil de reconocer del mundo. La popularidad de Google les permite competir con la cuota de mercado de Microsoft.

Un sistema de bajo costo: La mayoría de productos de Google son simplemente gratis. Otros no lo son, pero incluso estos están disponibles a precios asequibles. Sólo podemos esperar algo similar de su sistema operativo.

Un sistema fácil de usar: Una de las principales características de los productos de Google es que son simples de usar. Incluso si uno todavía no sabe cómo usar las funciones complejas, casi cualquiera está listo para utilizar el producto en un par de minutos. Y sin ningún problema.

Un sistema para el "ahora": Windows ha sido esencialmente el mismo sistema operativo a lo largo durante toda su historia. Algunas cosas cambian, se añaden otras nuevas, innecesarias características y funcionalidades para poder vender nuevas versiones, pero no hay cambios importantes. Microsoft es una empresa vieja, y por extensión reacia al cambio y la adaptación. Google practicamente nació con Internet. Tratan de diseñar el sistema del futuro. Una plataforma eficiente sin elementos innecesarios acumulados, diseñada para operar "en la nube" ("cloud computing" software y archivos en la red, en lugar de en el disco duro).

Un sistema que funciona: Me sorprenderia mucho si aquellos que crearon orden a partir del caos en Internet no hicieran un buen trabajo en su nueva empresa. Cuando uno utiliza las hojas de cálculo de Google, no necesita guardar los cambios. E incluso si el equipo que estamos trabajando estalla, nuestros archivos seguirán estando seguros. Y esto no es una fantasía. Ya existe, ya está ahí, como testimonio de sus metodos. ¿Cuántas veces hemos perdido nuestro trabajo en Windows?

Google quiere hacerlo bien. No muy a menudo nos encontramos con una empresa que no tiene necesidad de hacer nada para ganar dinero. Desde los tiempos en los que realmente lo pasaban mal para hacerse un nombre hasta una actualidad en la que no hay una acción más valiosa que las de Google, su motivación ha sido siempre el progreso. La mayoría de las empresas se preocupan por los beneficios de final del año. Pero Google simplemente se preocupara de crear un gran sistema operativo.

Yo no puedo esperar. Y tu? :-)

Bienvenido al futuro I: El viaje virtual

2009-07-23T10:00:00.001+01:00

Como hace ya que no lo hago, he pensado en postear algo que me haga sonar inteligente, para así justificar al menos porque llevo aun estas gafas mías tan feisimas. Ademas ya hace que colgué este mismo post en inglés y tampoco cuesta tanto trabajo traducirlo al espanol, caramba.

Empresas como Google nos empujan hacia el futuro, causando o propiciando cambios que podrían no haber ocurrido de otro modo y cambiando nuestras vidas al mismo tiempo. A veces se trata de un cambio menor. Y a veces es tan importante que a penas podemos empezar a imaginar las consecuencias. Cuando meses atrás use Google Street View para mostrar a una compañera de trabajo las oficinas de nuestra empresa en los EE.UU., su reacción fue "Guau, esto da un poco de miedo". Supongo que sí que da miedo, pero ¿no es tambien genial el hecho de poder "caminar " por cualquier lugar del mundo sin dejar nuestra casa u oficina? (y el hecho de que esto era impensable hace 1 año).

Cobertura actual de Google street view

Y esto es solo el principio de la aventura. A medida que el viaje virtual siga evolucionando y más características sean incorporadas a la experiencia, ¿nos encontraremos algun dia en la situación de tener que decidir si realmente vale la pena viajar a físicamente?

Simplemente imaginemos lo que podría ser el siguiente paso, combinando Street View (o Google Earth, en su "versión" en 3D) con el concepto de mundos virtuales (como Second life), donde también tenemos un avatar virtual 3D que es nuestra representacion en el entorno virtual. Ahora quedemos en París. Hoy mismo, ¿por qué esperar? Podemos charlar un rato antes de contemplar la Torre Eiffel a todas las horas del dia (por la mañana, el atardecer, iluminada de noche) en cuestión de segundos. Y ya que no estamos sujetos a limitaciones físicas, podemos salir volando (si, volando, como en un video-juego) o teleportarnos al Gran Cañón y pasar allí la noche.

Por supuesto que no es tan sencillo como suena. Se ha intentado hacer esto posible, pero aun no se ha conseguido hacerlo realidad. Los gráficos aún no son tan realistas. Nuestras pantallas siguen siendo en 2D. Los ordenadores aún no son lo suficientemente rápidos, y es molesto esperar a que Google Earth cargue todas las texturas y los edificios de Manhattan. Pero esto es AHORA. Los ordenadores evolucionan rápidamente.

Además, podemos ver y oir, pero no podemos tocar. A los que vivimos lejos de nuestros seres queridos nos encantan las aplicaciones como skype. Nos encanta hablar con la familia o los amigos sin barreras, o incluso mantener una conversación cara a cara. Pero claro, no es lo mismo que estar allí. a lo mejor ese dia necesitas un abrazo, y todos los avances tecnológicos no serán capaces de ayudarte. Pero -hablando de nuevo de cosas que dan miedo- no veo por qué esto no va a evolucionar tambien. Los guantes que lleva Tom Cruise en Minority report ya estan en el mercado, y los dispositivos de interaccion con la realidad virtual ya tienen bastantes años.

Vale, estos NO son los guantes que yo decia, pero ?a que molan igual? :-)

Llegara el dia, o eso creo yo, en que seamos capaces de dar un beso a alguien desde el otro lado del mundo. O simplemente darnos la mano y sentir la mano de esa otra persona. Ese día, las distancias habran desaparecido por completo, y todo habra cambiado.

Ademas, soy uno de esos soñadores ingenuos que creyeron que a estas alturas ya habria DeLoreans voladores después de ver Regreso al Futuro II. Es agradable mirar hacia el siempre misterioso manana con esperanzas fundamentadas de poder llegar a ese punto. Es emocionante estar viviendo esta época de cambio tecnológico.

Bienvenido al futuro.

Welcome to Future III: An OS for the future

2009-07-15T22:23:00.003+01:00

I though I'd shut up for a minute about The Entity!! and post a quick entry on what might have been the most significant technology-related event last week.

Google announced that they are developing an operating system called Chrome OS. It was bound to happen (in fact the first OS created by Google is already running on some mobile phones), but it is great to actually SEE it happen.

There are quite a few reasons why this Chrome OS should be very good news:

A system that endangers Microsoft. Market competition is good. Microsoft and its products control the market because there's no other choice. Other systems are not yet as user-friendly, cheap or popular, and so are not considered but a great many of the buyers. Google's logo, however, may be the most recogniseable ever. Google's popularity allows them to compete for Microsoft 's market share.

An inexpensive system: Most of Google products are simply free. Others are not, but even these are available at affordable prices. We can only expect a good deal on their OS too.

A system easier to use: One of the main characteristics of Google's products is that they are simple to use. Even if you don't yet know how to work out complex functionalities, you will find yourself using the product in a couple of minutes. And with no problems.

A system for the current times: Windows has essentially been the same OS all along. A few things change, new pretty unnecessary features are added for the sake of additional versions to sell, but nothing major changes. Microsoft is old, and by extension reluctant to change and adaptation. Google was nearly born with the Internet. They are designing the system of the future. An efficient platform with no accumulated clutter, designed for cloud computing (files and software on the web, rather than in your hard drive).

A system that works: I'd be very surprised if the guys who created order out of chaos on the Internet did a poor job on their new endeavour. When you use Google spreadsheets, you don't need to save changes. And even if the computer we are working on blows up, our file will still be safe. And this is no fantasy. It's already there, testimony of their ways. How many times have we lost our work in Windows?

Google wants to do it well. Not very often do we find a company who doesn't need to do anything to make money. From the times in which they really struggled to move ahead to the current times when no share is more valuable than Google's, their drive has always been progress. Most companies worry about the profit at the end of the year. Google will just be making a great operating system.

I can't wait! You? :-)

THE ENTITY!! is coming (and needs YOU :-)

2009-06-21T14:22:00.007+01:00

A half-absurd comedy for both the proud geek and the average human being, The Entity!! is the first film daring to face the long-avoided controversial issue that secretly worries us all: will humankind be, one day, enslaved and ruled by transgenic mutant vegetables?

The Entity!!, the short film I'm working on at the moment, has it all. Action and drama, humans and vegetables, comedy and showy, unnecessary visual effects. And of course a clearly evil onion, key figure in this ongoing conspiracy. All except one little thing: its eager, large audience.

Here is where YOU can help! (sure, if you want)

Who, ME??
Yes, YOU!

I want to help, but what could I possibly do? WHAT !?
Good question!

Option 1, Moral support: Wish that it's a success. Your positive thinking, unlimited supply of hope and various daily prayers will surely help a great deal. If feeling extreme, leave your everyday life, lock yourself up in a faraway monastery and initiate a new existence of meditation and meager meals.

Option 2, Word of mouth: You know how much of a technology geek I am: the Internet IS brilliant, but combined with YOUR support and help is even more powerful. So if you like the idea, PLEASE JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP (costs nothing, but it'll help a lot! :-) and/or a fan of the Facebook page. Tell someone. Tell everyone! Your family, friends, neighbours... Your dog! Put up copies of the poster at your workplace. Name your firstborn "The Entity!!". Slip the name of the film into random conversations until it gets more famous than "Indiana Jones 5" (yep, they are making it).

Option 3, Help with your valuable skills: Can you spare some time? Want to make a movie? Are you into graphic design and a million ideas came up just as you saw the (in your opinion terrible-looking) Internet poster? Do you do 3D? Or 4D? Does your sister has a friend whose father-in law knows someone who heard of someone who has a magazine? Are you an actor? Are you Steven Spielberg? Do you love Facebook, twitter or myspace and would like to do something more creative with it? Do you speak Klingon, Elvish or even some actual language other than English and would love to translate for a film project? All help is welcome, and of course will be credited accordingly once the film is finished.

This is all for now. For the moment, the project is avalable to follow through its Facebook group and an IndieGogo page. Website is also on the making. True, there isn't much information for now. But hey, I was writing this outrageously long post. Give me a break.

Now go, carry on with your life. But remember the importance of what you learnt here today. Humankind might simply perish if you overlook this survival possibility. Yes, you may decide to turn your back on it, and even NOT to watch The Entity!! but you would be foolishly making it easier for THEM to conquer the world.

Thanks in advance for your support! ;-)

Bienvenido al futuro II: La experiencia sin controles

2009-06-06T15:07:00.005+01:00

O "Microsoft aún no está muerto del todo" :-)

Siempre es emocionante encontrarse con nuevos proyectos dispuestos a catapultarnos hacia el futuro. Como ya he dicho antes nuestra manera de interactuar con la tecnología está evolucionando rápidamente, y me acabo de encontrar con un ejemplo que ilustra esto perfectamente.

Microsoft está desarrollando un sistema de juego sin controles para su Xbox. La una vez revolucionaria Wii es ya cosa del pasado.

Sólo estoy en desacuerdo con el comentario al final, y con lo que Steven Spielberg (del que por otra parte me gusta casi todo lo que hace) implica. Esto no es sólo "un punto clave en la inductria del entretenimiento", creo que difícilmente se puede comparar con lo que el Cinemascope o el sitema Imax significó para el cine, y que ciertamente no se limita a experiencias de juego. Ya sea mediante la aplicación a tareas de nuestra vida diaria o los mundos virtuales, el sistema tiene potencial para cambiar la interacción entre máquinas y seres humanos completamente.

Siempre feliz de estar viviendo esta época :-)

En cualquier caso, ved el vídeo (aunque esté en inglés). En serio. Sólo ver al friki con las gafas de sol ya hace que valga la pena.

Welcome to Future II: Controller-free experience!

2009-06-06T14:35:00.009+01:00

Or "Microsoft is not dead quite yet" :-)

It's always exciting to come across new projects willing to catapult us toward our future. As I mentioned before, our ways of interacting with technology are evolving rapidly, and I just came across an example that illustrates this perfectly.

Microsoft is developing a controller-less gaming system for their Xbox. The once revolutionary Wii is a thing of the past.

I do disagree with the comment at the end, and what Steven Spielberg (as much as I love nearly everything he does) implies. This is not only "a landmark in computer entertainment", I think this can be be hardly compared to what Cinemascope or Imax means for films, and that certainly doesn't limit itself to gaming experiences. Either by applying it to our everyday tasks or to virtual worlds, the system has potential to change machine-human interaction completely!

Always happy to be living this era :-)

In any case, watch the video. Really. The geek with the sunglasses alone makes it worth it.

Welcome to the Future I: Virtual travelling

2009-05-25T00:47:00.014+01:00

Because it's being a while now, I thought I'd post something clever-sounding today, so that I can justify why I'm still wearing those horrible glasses of mine.

Companies like Google push us through the future, causing or facilitating changes that could not have happened otherwise and changing our lives at the same time. The change is sometimes minor. And sometimes we cannot even begin to imagine the implications. When months ago I used Google Street View to show a colleague our company's offices in the USA, her reaction was "Wow, this is scary". It is scary, I guess, but isn't it also beautiful the fact that we can walk around the world from our office/home? (and that this was unthinkable 1 year ago?).

Current coverage of Google street view

And this is hardly the limit of the adventure. As virtual travelling keeps evolving, and more features are incorporated to the experience, may we one day see a situation in which we have to decide whether it's really worth it to physically travel?

Let's just imagine for a second and go one step further. Combine Street view (or Google Earth, for the 3D version) with the concept of virtual worlds (like Second life), where we also have a virtual 3D avatar who "plays us" in the virtual environment. Now, let's meet in Paris. Today, why wait? Let's have a nice chat there before contemplating the Eiffel tower in all the possible lights (morning, dusk, illuminated in the dark) in a matter of seconds. And since we are not subject to physical limitations, let's fly (yep, fly, just like we would in a video game) or teleport to the Grand Canyon and spend the evening there.

Of course it's not that simple. Attempts have been made at making this possible, but no clear success as emerged of them. Graphics are not yet that realistic. Screens are still 2D. Computers are not yet as fast, and it is annoying to wait for Google Earth to load all the buildings and textures in Manhattan. This is NOW though. Computers evolve quickly.

Also, we see and hear, but we cannot touch. We all who live away from our loved ones love applications like skype. We love talking to our family or friends without barriers, or even have a conversation face to face. But it's not quite as good as being there, right? You may just need a hug that day, and all the available technology won't be able to help you. But talking about scary, I don't see why that too won't evolve. Tom Cruise's Minority report dream gloves for computer interaction have already been made. And virtual reality interaction devices are by now an old friend.

Ok, these are not the gloves I was talking about, but isn't it as cool? :-)

I believe one day, we will actually be able to kiss someone from the other side of the world. Or simply shake hands and actually feel it. That day distances will have disappeared, and everything will have changed .

Also, I'm one of those naive dreamers who really believed we'd have flying DeLoreans by now after watching Back to the Future II. It feels very good to be able to look towards the ever-mysterious tomorrow with documented hopes that we might get there after all. It's exciting to be living this age of technological change.

Welcome to the future.

The joys of feedback

2009-05-15T00:48:00.013+01:00

Interestingly, sometimes people see films in a radically different way. Just yesterday, I got a completely different perception of Dan Brown's latest film adaptation to those of the two friends I watched it with (fact which incidentally led to quite an enjoyable debate).

It's not surprising that the feedback I'm receiving from the people that are kindly reading the shortfilm I'm working on (thanks for that!) is so varied too:

- "I don't know what you want to say".

- "The characters' motivations are weak".

- "What script? Mnn, probably went to my spam folder" (where it belongs, he seemed to say, silently).

- "Have you ever heard about script conventions?".

- "Have you ever heard about grammar?".

Not all have been as positive, though:

- "You should be in a mental hospital".

In short, a very useful eyes-opening feedback that I will be using to get to a third-draft (and hopefully last) stage.

In the mean time, I keep struggling to finalise the DVD of "It did happen" ("Eso que pasó"), which seems to be encountering all the possible difficulties in the history of having difficulties when making DVDs.

If you don't believe DVDs are evil, ask this man.
He just spent several hours wrestling violently
with the DVD of the picture, before immobilising it
with the popular Vulcan finger pinch.

I have also been busy with drafting the storyline for the online comic book I mentioned here. In principle, the whole thing will have no dialogues, which is quite challenging. As I understand that this affects every single scene and try to find my way around explaining things in a different way, my heart -unreasonable as ever- hopes the results will eventually be good!

Thanks for reading.

Writing is rewriting

2009-05-04T13:48:00.007+01:00

"The first draft is always shit" - Ernest Hemingway

Out of the three shortfilm scripts I had started, I decided on the one that I'm most comfortable with and seemed to provoke a better reaction in the people I told about it. By far the weirdest too. A half-absurd (and only half!) comedy with sci-fiction overtones told for both the geek and the average human being.

At this point, two aspects potentially differentiate "The Entity!!" from the average short film: the undeniable attractive of the exclamation marks in its working title (which at the same time would avoid undesirables copyright issues down the line with a similarly-titled old film) and the fact of portraying the most surprising life form in modern film history. Or maybe not.

I hadn't written a short film script in years. At least, not with the idea of actually finishing it. Taking notes and throwing words and characters onto a paper sheet (or the ever-practical cofffe shop napkins) is one thing; writing drafts, fixing what doesn't work and slowly, painfully progress through weak dialogue and blurry characters, another completely different. Writing is rewriting, they say.

In my attempt for understanding what the hell I was trying to do when I wrote the previous version of the script, and clevery moving away from the computer screen I'm spending so many hours with in any case, I decided to put my lovely wall to good use.

Since I wrote "La Sopa" ("The Soup") and "Eso que paso" ("It did happen"), through writing unfinished scripts, short stories and the occasional comic-book, I've become a freak of structure. Laying out your story bit by bit is a great way of seeing where the plot gets boring, or where the hell your characters are going (they'd better go somewhere). It also helps a lot when seeing the need of merging scenes (once you realise in horror that they both should have actually been the same scene in the first place!) or, when necessary, weeding scenes out in bitter tears.

In short, the second draft is now ready, no one got killed in the process so far and I'm enjoying tremendously. And while I leave it aside for a while I'll be starting doing some calcs for the budget.

Soon, from any sort of funding I can qualify for to the less glamorous-still-effective begging down your local grocery store, chances are that I will be trying anything and everything.

Thanks for reading.

Blogger loves Facebook

2009-04-25T21:41:00.005+01:00

There's an easy way of automatically creating Facebook notes with each entry of our blog. It took me a while to figure it out myself. Now that I know how to do it though, I can't help but wanting to scream it to the world.

On Facebook, go to Notes (Click on Applications, bottom left of the screen, then find Notes among all the rubbish that we add there). Good luck, this is the most complicated step!. Now find a Section named Notes Settings (right of the screen) and click on Edit Import Settings.

If you can't get this done, don't call this guy.
He'd probably just make things worse.

Now you'll see a big blank space after Web URL. It's sad to see it like this, so go paste your blog's feed in there (the minimum expression of your posts, without format or anything). If you use blogger, your feed line is:

http://ENTERTHENAMEOFYOURBLOGHERE.blogspot.com/
feeds/posts/default

Just be lazy, copy the lines above, change the capitals to your blog's title and paste it in the Facebook box. If you use any other blog system, all you have to do is find the feed line (it will depend on your blog system) and paste it here.

Now tick the box and merrily click on Start Importing. (NOTE: If you are nicking somebody else's blog, you don't need to tick the box. Instead, go and bang your head against the nearest wall until you come up with something to write about yourself).

And that's it. Facebook will now import your blog (unless you messed up :-S). Next time you add an entry to your blog, it will cleverly transfer it to Facebook as a note too. It may take a few hours sometimes.

The method is not brilliant in the sense that it doesn't really drives traffic to your blog. Well, unless people click on the "View Original Post" link. But who does, huh? Anyway, you don't HAVE to do it, but I personally think it's a way to make blog-reading easier for those who spend time in Facebook and maybe don't find the time to chase up blog posts (more on doing this more easily soon though, having options is always good :-)

Happy blogging.

Current projects

2009-04-19T19:19:00.010+01:00

Although still outrageous, I do find that having quite a few projects going on at the moment makes up for my lack of posts for the last 3 weeks. Some of you already know about them, since these days I seem to indefatigably tell every living soul about them, hungry for feedback. Well, it's either that OR more general talk about films and (Saint) Google as usual. Thanks everyone for enduring it, and for the good ideas.

Coming back to the projects, for those still in the dark and wanting to know, here is a quick list:

A DVD of Eso que pasó ("It did happen"): My latest shortfilm (filmed in 2004, right after the dinosaurs where wiped out from the face of the Earth). Finally subtitled in English, it also includes a "Making of" feature and even some never-ever-seen before secret material. It's pretty much ready by now. After some finishing touches I will only need to alleviate (or somehow mask) my current lack of knowledge on platforms such as ebay and amazon. As soon as I can solve this thorny issue, I will make it available for everyone who can't wait to have it. My mom assures me she'll get two copies, for instance (don't let me down, mom!).

3 shortfilm scripts: That is NOT to say that, after 5 long years of non-producing I've embarked myself in a triple project. Rather, I've been writing in an uncontrolled manner and now find myself with all this material that, I think, I'd really should do something with. I'll pick one to start with and off we go. More on this soon.

A film script: Selling a script for a feature film is an idea that I have been recently entertaining (as opposed to producing it myself, which certainly isn't happening any time soon). Sadly, I literally have dozens of half-finished scripts (and of course mountains of notes). So actually finishing one looks like the logical next step now, process that I'm enjoying enormously, necessary pain aside. It's a sci-fiction story, more on this soon too.

A website: After making a few in the past, none of them for me, it's about bloody time I had mine. The kind of thing you never get around too, isn't it? Well, it's happening now. I'm putting it together with my brother, it will cover both individual and common projects and it will be pretty pretty pretty.

An online comic-book: Inspired by the sketch below, will be drawn by (again) my brother. After we get over the initial research-and-preparations stage, we'll start producing pages (or its online equivalent) on a regular basis. I'll keep you posted.

Well, there are some more projects on, but nothing in the realistic pipeline for the next few months. If you are even a little bit excited about any of this, I am already delighted. If not, well... (not even a little??) you obviously have no heart...

Tragic.

In any case, I'm terribly ashamed by the length of this post.

Peculiar x 2

2009-03-15T10:35:00.002Z

A few weeks ago I had the extremely unoriginal occurrence of taking the bus on a Sunday morning. Why I write about this today (and not bloody then) can only be attributed to my failing memory and the fact that the napkin where I took some original notes on this was playfully hiding from me under a growing pile of paper, most of it useless, that sits on my desk. I usually spend the bus ride reading, except when there's entertaining people-watching to do. That morning, a couple of original occurrences awaited me, in the form of two curious men.

The first one got on the bus two stops after I did. Despite his obvious intention to disguise himself as a younger man with the cunning use of a "Primark" coat, I reckon he must have been over 40. His cheeks were of a very intense red, for some reason. I like to think that the merry tones weren't caused by ruthless drinking that early in the morning. Although come to think of it, it might have. He had this whole Don Quixote look (literally, goatee and crazy eyes). He started angrily preaching, directly to the driver, about how outrageous it was that it was Sunday, 11-ish (as if this was paramount data for his speech, uncalled for anyway) and that a "female" was driving the bus. There's no moral or social message here, I just find it so hard to believe that people like this man are still around, wandering the world and hopping on buses.

Seriously: if THIS had happened that morning,
do you think I wouldn't be telling you about it instead?
Look at the smiling woman, she is hilarious.

The second strange man got off the bus (okay, I probably missed him getting on, give me a break) when the driver pulled off to take a phone call. This one was a bit older, and his cheeks clearly weren't as red. If you are in a hurry, this may not go down well, that I understand. Although, if that's the choice, I personally prefer them to stop: sure, stop and take your call, by all means, rather driven around by someone with two hands available, thanks very much. But this man in particular seemed to suddenly burst into pure anger for just a few seconds, he then got up from his seat and off the bus (the driver had no choice but opening the doors before he'd destroy them by using his pure instant-developed rage). Then he just stayed there, giving his back to the bus, silently making his point. His wrath had turned into calmed dissatisfaction by then. I may have seen a touch of regret in his eyes when we set off again, maybe in response to the chilly whether he had come to forget about, enveloped by the comfort of the bus. Or simply to the prospect of the long wait for the next vehicle. Luckily, there was some construction work in the pavement, right where he had got off. And he soon seemed to find in closely, thoughtfully examining it the new purpose of his life.

Now you might think this is not curious at all. Maybe it wasn't that interesting and I was just looking for excuses to keep my book in my bag. In all fairness, it's quite a thick book.

Creating or trying to: Love, hate and commitment

2009-03-07T22:01:00.009Z

If you struggle to become a writer or to produce any other form of minimally creative or art-like piece of work too, you have probably figured it out already: it's VERY important to learn to control the process itself before it controls you (whatever this means). Creating is a funny thing. At least it is for me, and I find it very interesting how it all comes to be... and sometimes even comes together.

It usually happens this way:

You have an idea. You love it. It is unlike anything else you've heard, seen or experienced before. You feel sky high. Yeah, it's the one, THE idea, no doubt. The one you'll finally get some serious credit for. Probably some money too. Big money. That idea you want to tell all your friends about so they can look at you in awe and tell you how incredibly creative you are. And it was so sudden, as well, you probably took quick, condensed, powerful notes on some Starbucks paper napkin. Or on toilet paper, or stolen post-it notes (anything is valid, remember you had THE idea). Hardly a few intelligible words anyway. Damn, that's just scribbling, isn't it? Will you even be able to even understand your own cryptic writing when you take on the task -and surely you can do this blindfolded- of making this idea a palpable reality? Well, never mind, you are still amazed at yourself for having such a great occurrence, the sun shines brighter than ever, and you want to dream on.

Next day. The same idea that you loved to bits just hours ago, now you absolutely hate it. Moreover, you hate yourself for even liking the idea once and thinking that you could create something worth being seen/read/whatever. How could you not realise that the idea was rubbish, or a simply impossible project? Or maybe both. Were you drunk? Maybe you were so drunk that you can't remember being drunk? Were you an idiot? Are you still??

Two things are true about this creature: it's just too weird
and it has nothing to do with the content of this article whatsoever.

You then probably decide to leave it aside for a while. Then one day you come up with something to make the story work again. Obviously, it's a great "something", the "something" that will finish with all the plot holes and undefined characters, the "something" that will finally give the story the spark that it was lacking. You are obviously happy with all this, but for how long? Will it last one, two days? The cycle repeats itself a few times through the process, threatening to leave you with yet another unfinished project.

So, as of late, I've added a next step. And I suppose this is what I wanted to say (damn, you really are a loyal reader if you are still here after all the rambling). Passion is good. Coming up with ideas, a necessary source of material. But commitment, discipline, and actual time spent in developing and making all these ideas come true, is the only way of... well... of making them come true.

Do it! One think is for sure: you will never know whether the idea was good or not if you never bloody make it happen!

Not expecting that surprising ending, were you? :-P

The Man from Earth

2009-02-28T20:52:00.003Z

Screenwriting lesson.

Jerome Bixby's script (apparently finished not long before his author's death) almost starts like a joke to unfold in a most engaging and fascinating story that challenges all sort of preconceptions. Some of the most elaborated dialogue lines of all-times cinema, excellent characters, emotional performances and beautiful, seemingly irrepetible moments, contribute to this ode to humanity, this triumph of reasoning over beliefs, to this pure message of hope for the future.

If you see it with an open mind, The Man of Earth is, I believe, all the above and more. And all with a very low budget, one set and a bunch of actors.

I saw this film recently in DVD, nearly by mistake. I then found out that it had only been released in some countries and always at a small scale. I didn't have high expectations, and I'm delighted to have found gold. As I said to a good friend recently, I'm still pondering whether this might be the best script I've ever have enjoyed.

Then again, you may hate it. Anyway, still worth watching and decide then.

Revolutionary Road

2009-02-21T11:00:00.001Z

Leo and Kate's world of pure suffering.

One of the reasons I keep devouring stories in general, and films in particular is that I firmly believe that the authors always have something to say, something worth being heard. A powerful message, if you may, about their view of life. A revelation to present the audience with, so we can leave the room with that “wow, life is just like that” feeling.

This message may be positive or negative, but it should always be believable within the reality of the film. I confess I rather prefer a positive one. Or, if negative, at least with a tiny bit of hope hidden somewhere, I rather not leave the room feeling miserable. But I understand some audiences may enjoy this and, in any case, it doesn't matter: it's your message, isn't it?

According to Justin Haythe (writer) and Sam Mendes (director), life is just too painful to be lived, too full of suffering and sorrow as to find the time to enjoy, create or love. We are hit with a most melodramatic picture of everyday events in a script that fails to create actual conflicts and believable drama. In such a farce, the luxury of the intense performances given by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio are outrageously wasted.

Fans of the actors will undoubtedly enjoy it, of course, and such an effort certainly deserves recognition. But the story itself contributes nothing, neither to the film history wealth, nor to the poor audience's expectations, that are likely to feel rather down after the show, or even mad at the whole world for no apparent reason, just like the protagonist couple.

Frost/Nixon

2009-02-12T11:19:00.002Z

Television battle for the best film.

The latest Ron Howard’s was something more than a pleasant surprise. It was an example of how performance-based films and historical recreations (and by extension other so-called “smaller films”) can have other excellent features. And indeed should, in order to become memorable films like this one.

Although I increasingly enjoy this type of film more and more, I must admit that they are not my first choice, and I get to the cinema fearing for the worst case of inedible yet sophisticated boredom.

Instead, you are delighted with a profoundly human story about men the size of giants, with a story of responsibility, about facing one’s mistakes and weaknesses and making tough decisions with in an enormous and most enjoyable script. An script that is, not very surprisingly, nominated for an Academy award on February 22nd.

Especially delicious is Frank Langella’s Nixon (effort which, too, has been nominated for the popular award). His unbeatable presence makes you wish he were onscreen every minute of the film. But then again, I though that he was outstanding even as Skeletor, so I suppose this is not much of a valuable piece of data coming from yours truly :-)

It doesn't matter whether Frost/Nixon ends the Oscars night with any of the five prizes it's been nominated for. Whatever happens, YOU should see it.

An incovenient lie

2009-02-07T11:19:00.007Z

A couple of weeks ago, I was very excited to stumble upon the so-called project Virgle, supposedly a joint effort between the two all-powerful corporate giants Google and Virgin.

Although the questionnaire that says whether or not you are qualified to join the project is somewhat entertaining, the whole thing is nothing but a joke that I personally find inappropriate and of course NOT funny.

Science (and ecologists too, but I don't trust the latter that much :-S) has been seriously warning us about the dangers associated to running out of natural resources for decades now. It is a matter of time that we exhaust Earth and need new settlements somewhere in space. The highly recommendable video extract below shows scientist and science fiction writer Isaac Asimov speaking, quite eloquently as usual, about this and other matters.

Google should be the last organisation in making that tacky and frivolous a joke. And dangerous. People like them are to lead the technologically complicated but necessary way to the stars, to convince people that it is paramount to leave the planet. Especially in a time when Virgin is making spaceships for NASA, and having Sir Richard Branson participating on this farce seriously makes me fear for the future of humankind. Moreover, to me, Google simbolises the future, the change, the possibility. I was very disappointed with Virgle.

But of course, it could also be that scientist like Stephen Hawking are simply exaggerating.

A time of busy watching!

2009-01-30T09:00:00.005Z

These days I go to the cinema quite a lot. Out of 21 films currently showing at my local theatre, I've seen 11 and still want to see 4 more. And I already want to see 4 of the 5 that get released today. Sick, I know.

If you are like me, you will know that this is a very good time for filmgoers. With the proximity of the oscars, many production companies that have been holding their products as much as humanly possible, release now oscar-worthy films. Some have been nominated and some haven't (check the list with all the nominees here), but in any case it's a good opportunity to see handsome-looking movies. Valkyre, Frost/Nixon, Seven pounds, The wrestler, The curious case of Benjamin Button, and, depending on how picky you are, probably some more.

So go and watch some cinema! ;-)

The guys who organised ALL the information in the world and then kept going

2009-01-25T21:52:00.005Z

I confess to be quite a fan of Google. Very frequently, I get on my friends', family members' and work colleagues' nerves while I engage in long conversations with myself about their many products and advantages until someone, usually very politely -bless you all for putting up with this sick side of me-, help me snap out of it and come back to reality.

I thought it was only fair to start doing it here too.

That is NOT to say that I unconditionally worship their work or co-founders Brin and Page (often called "googlers" in some kind of elaborate and mysteriously disapproving way). I simply recognise that Google does better what others do, or what others have tried to do unsuccessfully before. And I am glad, and very grateful that so much of what they have done so far have benefited everyone with an Internet connection, and not just a wealthy elite.

Still, I will try and balance up Google's good deeds with all those increasingly popular comments that say that Google is failing to live up to its very own philosophy ("Don't be evil"). In fact, to help me illustrate this side of my beloved Google (and again, I guess, to help me snap out of it), my brother recently got me a book that -despite being, sadly, one of the most disastrous cases of translation into Spanish I've ever read- does explore some of the questionable aspects of the company and raises a few interesting questions.

And when I say Google, by the way, I don't mean the popular search engine, which recently celebrated its 10-year birthday, but to the most remarkable technology company of our days. Google is pushing the boundaries of this technology and changing our world in the process.

And whether or not you like their ways, whether you decide to love them or hate them, you must know what they are doing.

More on this soon.

The Spirit

2009-01-18T11:00:00.005Z

The film that wasn't such.

If you think you can make a film with:

A comic-book artist whose graphic style may be something of a legend in his world but has no idea whatsoever about how to direct a film.

A couple of rough guidelines scribbled on paper, too weak to even be called story plot.

Dialogue lines that, for the most part, try to be clever but come off as ridiculous, absurd and embarrassing to everyone involved in the film and their families. Including yourself for watching it.

A female cast dressed up as prostitutes and whose only requirement is too look sexually attractive so that the promotional posters work. Never mind their professional reputation (it's just Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Paz Vega ... who even knows them anyway?). And don't worry about the actual film, they'll just be given any line we can come up with in the set, nobody will notice.

Yet another silly, empty character played by Samuel L. Jackson, who seems to be more resolved than ever to flush what is left of his believability down the toilet.

Well, if you do think you can make a film with all this, then you are wrong. They just tried in The Spirit and failed miserably. Whatever this by-product is, it can't even be considered a film.

I personally think that, as his tribute to his admired Will Eisner (the creator of the original character, who is probably turning in his grave since opening day), instead of creating this pointless sequence of events, Frank Miller should have been as humble as to politely say "no, thank you, get an actual director" to the offer. And same with the actors. I can't believe that they actually read the script and didn't just kill their respective agents for getting it in the first place.

Not even the visual aspect can be praised here. Yes, it replicates Miller's style faithfully, but we already saw that in Sin City (oh, no, parts 2 and 3 are coming!) and there was no need of repeating it if there was nothing else to add in any other sense. At no point is there any sign of efforts for making something that the audience might like.

All things considered, The Spirit may be the worst comic-book-based film ever. Apart from an insult to moviegoers.

Yes man

2009-01-11T13:48:00.005Z

Of course it's a yes.

Some still can't believe that Jim Carrey can indeed perform without resorting to his popular over-acting, and to those faces that have driven so many people insane with killer instinct (me included) in the past. For those as secure in this knowledge as to missing out on true wonders such as The Truman show or Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (script that could never be praised loud enough), using Yes man as therapy for coming back to Carrey's worthy films is a must. Being fair, Yes man is somewhere in the middle (low middle, maybe) between the actor's histrionics and the two modern classics above, but hey, it's a first.

Yes man is a scream to life. For life. Quite a few hilarious moments and memorable comic scenes and characters in this very entertaining feel-good film (yeah, “feel good”, never understood what is wrong with that) may only make you feel better about this complicated but enjoyable adventure of life.

ALSO, Zooey Deschanel (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) is in it. If there is a cuter, more loveable creature in God's Earth, producers have not taken notice yet, or she would be in the film instead. Producers are not idiots.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

2008-12-27T10:53:00.004Z

Alive.

Two things make Madagascar 2 stand out from the usual offer of 3D animation films. The script and the performances (performances? excuse me? I though it was a “cartoon”??). I'll start by the second one instead of the first so as to test if you are alert and engaged, while adding a bit of chaos.

The characters no longer seem to be animated as such at any point. Instead, they now look a lot more natural, and act and move as naturally and effortlessly as yourself (unless of course you are one of those couch potato persons, in which case you can consider that they would easily beat you at that). We often find them trusting comments to other characters, and struggling with their emotions. At times, they even look like their voice actors (I'm certain Ben Stiller would move LIKE THAT if he was a lion). They are alive.

As for the script, we are presented with an enjoyable story with overtones of friendship, love and family. Don't throw up yet. They manage to make it enjoyable and not too cheesy, and top it up with a couple of the most beautifully dialogued scenes seen so far not just in an animated film, but in any film. And this is the key.

3D films have come a long way. More and more, secure in satisfying technological frames by now, 3D-film filmmakers seem to concentrate more and more in something else apart from the animation and the looks themselves, which can only be beneficial for the audience. I see Madagascar 2 as a potential milestone in animation, just as Toy Story 2 -the first script for one of these films to win a Golden globe for best comedy/musical- or, of course, The Incredibles -whose script was also nominated, this time for an oscar, unfortunately but fairly lost out to the exquisite Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, only against another giant could The Incredibles fall!-. Moreover, this existing technological situation, combined with animators' skills and creativity, is meant to keep providing us not only with lots of animation films to come, but with good films. Closer and closer to this academy award for “3D character performance” now.

And yes, the rest is all as expected (I now, I digress). Like in the first "episode", fun characters, simple but very personal visual style and very fast pace. There always seem to be something happening, and the camera is always there to capture it. Go watch it.

The day the earth stood still

2008-12-20T11:00:00.003Z

Still remaking. Willy-nilly too.

Keanu Reeeves (Matrix), still unable to move his neck after the strains of The Matrix, and an underused Jennifer Connelly (Hulk) get the leading roles in yet another unnecessary remake of an old sci-fi classic, just as it happened before with War of the worlds or Planet of the apes. Jaden Smith (The Pursuit of Happiness), Will Smith's son, is consistently annoying through the whole film and completes the protagonist triplet.

The moralistic message of the film is awkwardly obvious and hardly original, and the plot's surprises seldom surprise. Additionally, the poor choice of James Hong as supporting actor (after playing a blind old Chinese master in the comedy Balls of fury quite recently) doesn't help consider this a serious science-fiction proposal. Maybe the film would had worked if the producers had decided to make a comedy out of it?

Enjoyable visual effects, however, in this slow-paced version that adds nothing of value to the original story but will probably make a considerable figure in the bow office.

The Secret Life of Bees

2008-12-13T13:08:00.005Z

From "potentially brilliant" to "actually just okay" with no effort.

Quite a few popular faces in this supposedly small, human film: singer Alicia Keys, actresses Queen Latifah (Chicago) and Jennifer Hudson. All of them terribly underused and making very little effort to leave memorable performances. Only Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) seems to give an acceptable performance. Sadly, however, the high melodramatic charge of the script may ruin the moments at times. Indeed, I heard the audience bursting in laughter before the acting in scenes that were meant to be very serious and dramatic.

In short, a story that entirely relies in its convenient genre and historical background (and these its well known actresses), that promises but doesn't deliver (in fact, doesn't quite now where to go) and that is barely worth watching.

Specially disappointing and sad involving Jennifer Hudson, who plays an amazing leading character in Dreamgirls, whose recent personal tragedy makes it very likely for this to be her last film ever.

Quantum of Solace

2008-11-09T16:55:00.011Z

When change is GOOD.

While keeping the idea of the intelligent, elegant British secret agent that bad guys can't possibly outsmart and ladies can't possibly refuse going to bed with, Daniel Craig makes a much more believable spy than any other James Bond (if not excessively British, okay, but wasn't Sean Connery Scotish?).

Although in this new new “episode”, Bond's heroic deeds seem to be more diluted in visual effects than in Casino Royal, and lacking the memorable scenes (like the opening and the poison scene -tremendous, see it-), Quantum of Solace is still a very valid film, and so is the new Bond generation, to which I can't help to dedicate a few more paragraphs...

Mark Forster's new Bond is very capable, you can see he undertook a tough training to become a “00”, yet he struggles in his own over-human way. Believable-yet-amazing is always better than spectacular just for the sake of it.

Leaving aside the exaggerate advertising campaign that has flooded our lives for the past month, I like to think that the secret to keep such an old character “in” doesn't lay in the more spectacular approach visual-effects-wise, or the additional violence added to the series. But in the daring but necessary time re-location of the character and, of course, in the fact that the new Bond stories, unlike the classic ones, move forward and force the characters to grow, evolve, or even die.

It would look like what a few years ago wasn't but a moribund franchise still has a lot more fuel to keep going. In the days of degrading narrative and worshippers of J.K Rowling, this is something to be looking forward to. Too bad that in this second new film visual effects have such a patent, visible prominence, when it wasn't really called for.

The strangers

2008-09-11T18:01:00.009+01:00

Not very surprisingly, just disappointing.

Another dull “horror” film built with easy scary scenes and with nothing else behind to back up the sensationalistic series of events.

But rather than being utterly unnecessary, the actual problem is realising that no one even tried to create anything minimally original or even worth of the genre at any point.

As usual, it is the poor audience, lured into the cinema with attractive, promising posters and expectation-creating commercial slogans, who suffers the ultimate disappointment.

On the plus side, the protagonist couple (Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler) is really good-looking, and their mere sight will delight the audience greatly. Which must be rewarding for the producers, since, given the rest of this uni-dimensional product, this seems to be the one aspect they were concerned about.

Madagascar

2008-08-30T11:31:00.001+01:00

(IMPORTANT: This is an old review. No matter how fast you run, it won't be showing at the local cinemas when you get there. You can always get in on DVD though...)

By using the same vivacious and quick style present all over their previous blockbuster “Ice Age”, Twentieth Century Fox’s latest picture offers another simple –but still fresh and effective- story with a handful of animals as protagonists.

“Magascar” combines numerous enjoyable moments (above all those involving the hilarious penguins’ activities, which really make us laugh) with a few others, kind of dull and boring (that we secretly feel were not needed).

The 3D characters and the environment, like in a two-dimension cartoon, don’t look real, but didn’t mean to, either. Still, the chosen abstraction works, showing roles that, despite not being human, look familiar and believable to our eyes. All encapsulated into a scarce-in-details atmosphere which also works out.

Except for some easy jokes about cartoon-like falls and blows, which actually happen in a couple of occasions, the movie holds itself on a neat and clear storyline, dressed with very few sub-plots. It almost reaches unexpected deepness, however, but apparently the reflections such an event would have led us to would not have been appropriate for a U-classified (suitable for children) film.

So fun that does not go any further then, but is absolutely worth enjoying.

Hellboy 2: The golden army

2008-08-18T20:00:00.003+01:00

Yep. I'll do it this way because I can.

Once more that beautiful word, “respect”, comes to mind. Respect to an author like Hellboy-creator Mike Mignola, who has earned the reverence of his peers and the interest of readers all over the world with his solid and original characters, and his very personal, apparently simple and yet so complex style and enjoyable stories. But also, respect to the audience, us. We don't go to the cinema to watch a bad film, we subconsciously expect the best and, if rightfully feel disappointed when we don't get it, we may even feel betrayed when we are lured to a film with false hopes and lies.

In the comic-book, Hellboy -despite his appearance- is quite a human character. His believability and sense of humour contrasts with the very essence of his stories, in which he often sees himself involved with mystery, darkness and monstrous creatures, while remaining someone we can identify with.

Director Guillermo del Toro and his producers take all this and, quite lightly, turns it all into a mixture of forms and colours where you can hardly identify which character is which. After the success of Pan's labyrinth, he, apparently backed up by Mignola himself, seems to think that the key to a good film is to pack it with his typical creatures, and so he creates an unrealistic (but not fantastic) and more often than not even ridiculous world populated by dozens of ugly monsters, supposedly ON creativity's sake. Characters' arcs are clumsy and vague, as are their personalities (so to say). Over and over again, we are forced to see visual and make-up effects which are so careless most of the time that one would think that not even the crew liked the film, not even during the making.

In other circumstances, this Hellboy 2 would only be a poor film. Being an adaptation, however, it denotes either a complete lack of interest or too lax a criteria when working with someone else's character. This is an offense to good, solid stories (like the original Hellboy's), and to the audience.

Let's be professional. If adapting, let's do serious research before embarking ourselves in this fascinating although dangerous journey of transformation. OR let's create our own characters and then, if we so wish, let's destroy (or rape!) them. But in this case, don't expect the audience to come back for Hellboy 3.

The dark knight

2008-08-13T16:37:00.003+01:00

A film for a villain

Christopher Nolan's second episode of his Batman film series contains some excellent scriptwriting and quite a few powerful moments meant to stay in our memory. Not that we need any incentive to go and watch it (and enjoy it, despite its excessive length), after such a huge advertising campaign. It would appear that the producers' decision of using Heath Ledger's death as bait in the campaign was quite a wise one. Business is business, after all.

Ledger's character, the delicious joker, undoubtedly is the best treat of the film. From his first moment on screen, it is clear that we are before an intriguing character, that throughout the story becomes one of the most convincing and terrifying villains we have come across.

Sadly, the Batman character (played by whispering Christian Bale) is not rendered as that captivating, and the human dimension of his decisions ends up being nearly totally eclipsed by both his infinitely more interesting arch-villain, the rest of a luxurious cast, and the high-tech atmosphere (more suitable for the Mission Impossible saga, really).

All in all, a film worth watching, as well as an interesting social theory about duty , responsibility, and what makes us human.

Hotel Rwanda

2008-08-06T10:51:00.003+01:00

(IMPORTANT: This is an old review. No matter how fast you run, it won't be showing at the local cinemas when you get there. You can always get in on DVD though...)

Director Terry George found in the material that inspired “Hotel Rwanda” a perfect excuse to let the inhabitants of ‘the first world’ know about African struggles. This particular story, although sadly real and shockingly human, is just an example of what usually happens in those forgotten areas of the planet.

Whether or not the film fulfils one of its missions (the main one, the director says) of raising people’s consciousness about the situation that the movie shows, “Hotel Rwanda” is a beautiful and touching story properly shot and told.

In general, the actors know how to create intense personalities and give outstanding performances, favoured by the propitious and hopeless war environment.

Don Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina, a man who finds out what kind of human being he actually is during the terrible events. His character -a real person, by the way, who did save more than one thousand people from the slaughter that many other suffered- is difficult to separate from the rest of the movie since, in a way, they both are the same thing.

The appropriate choice of shots, containing all that the audience needs to know in order to feel along with the protagonist, undoubtedly helps him. But Don Cheadle’s work amplifies what happens on the screen, widely supported, for his part, by the rest of the cast. This is the case with the seemingly passive Nick Nolte or the awesome Sophie Okonedo, Don Cheadle’s wife in the film.

Apart from the actors, there are some breathtaking moments in which we can barely blink because of the intensity of the emotions that spill out of the screen. Some Don Cheadle’s lines, like the conversation with his wife in the roof or the meaningful speech to his guests, are especially remarkable.

The director counted on a very tasty material at his disposal: war between neighbours, families, brother against brother, the evasive attitude of the rest of the world (“the civilized part”), … But, instead of getting too excited, he wisely handles all these ideas without overusing of ghoulish or bloody resort.

His crew’s choices also achieve an adequate atmosphere, which makes us feel empathy, guilt and responsibility. The light and the music, for example, are appropriately used for this purpose.

Since that’s not my task here, I won’t finish this cold piece of writing trying to tell the reader, in a moral-like way, what they should do after watching the movie (or what we should have done before). I won’t even wonder if Joaquin Phoenix’s words in the movie, speaking about some shots of the conflict that he has shot, are truth: “If people see this footage, they’ll say: ‘Oh, my god, it’s horrible’, and then go on and eat their dinners”.

Ray

2008-07-30T10:51:00.003+01:00

(IMPORTANT: This is an old review. No matter how fast you run, it won't be showing at the local cinemas when you get there. You can always get in on DVD though...)

“Ray” covers the early years in the life of the pioneering musician Ray Charles. The movie tells us about what the road to fame is like, going through the different steps and aspects of this intense experience quite faithfully. But it’s also the story of a man –who, despite being amazingly good at playing piano, singing and composing, is as any other- struggling for a chance to live his life without becoming a monster in the process.

Only someone like the director Taylor Hackford, who, as we realise during the first minutes of the movie, deeply admires Ray Charles, would have been capable of going through such a difficult and long project (which, incidentally, involved Charles himself in the early stages, before his death). On the other hand, this vast love ends up ruining some moments of the film (and some others that, because of the same kind approach, were never created) in which the behaviour of the philandering and heroin-addicted soul singer remains unscathed instead of being condemned by the eventually too belligerent director.

The same thing happens, in some way, with the subplot that takes us to explore the past from time to time. Although it’s in general well handled, it becomes quite tedious by the end. And the almost celestial final image is definitely too much and doesn’t contain any new meaning: after an almost-three-hour film –seemingly longer because of the constant fades by the end-, the director feels he forgot to include a deep moral (which is not needed) and hurries to ruin another moment of the story.

Yet “Ray” is an enormously human story, in part because of a meticulous script and in part thanks to the actors.

The choice of Jamie Foxx -by the way, approved by none other than Ray Charles, who also taught ‘some piano tricks’ to the actor- as the protagonist give us the chance of enjoying a delightful unrepeatable performance. Foxx, also pianist, looks and sounds like the original Charles. And he offers nerve and authenticity while playing and pretending to sing his recordings.

Let's not forget the impressive Sharon Warren, as well, in the role of Ray’s mother, so shocking and decisive at all times like a whole life of maternal schooling encapsulated in a few minutes.

But, the way I see it, the best present that we receive from director and scriptwriter with “Ray” are various wonderful scenes, two in particular: one, belonging to Ray’s childhood, in which he falls over already being blind; and another, close to the end of the movie, in which Ray’s wife tells him about what he could lose if he didn’t give up drugs. I still feel something special while I write these lines. Scenes like those remind me of the power of good storytelling and would make the movie worth watching even if it told nothing else.

The music is, as expected, one voice more, speaking about that period and its composer’s attitude before it (as the gospel music subject). It’s easy to fall in love with the toe-tapping rhythm as you watch the movie. And particularly enjoyable are some parts in which lyrics completely integrate into the story to tell part of what is happening.

Wall-e

2008-07-26T21:01:00.008+01:00

They would never let us down.

Pixar, the production company responsible for diamonds like Toy Story, Finding Nemo or The Incredibles, keeps doing it. They keep making compelling human stories with each of their films. And they do it with all of us in mind, knowing what we like, how we understand stories, what is too obvious and must be discarded, or what is too clever and might go overlooked. How we react to what happens on the screen. They know their job. After decades of film making, we should be able to delight our senses with this level of craft all the time, to find that our likes have been learnt from and respected for making the next film in line. But the reality is different, and the nature of the business often causes the beautiful entertainment side of it to be undervalued. The capability of keep respecting us as spectators, rather than any other compliment that I could try to fill this article with, is what makes Pixar special.

Wall-e, the most tender and human of all the robots, lives his adventure among a full set of human and robot characters that move us, make us hold our breath, smile and laugh out loud. Some of them, we only see for seconds, but even so, they often become a story in themselves, and rarely aren't examples in characterisation.

Nothing to say about the 3D itself. As usual, Pixar makes it all believable. And this is the greatest achievement. The animation becomes reality and, when it comes to characters, beautiful performance. Computer generated actors will have to qualify for an academy award one day if we want to make this world a little bit less imperfect, just like Wall-e attempts to do with its ending moral in the film.

Wall-e is one the films one can't miss. However, despite its brilliance, the incredible The Incredibles is still the best Pixar ever made. To me anyway. Maybe it's the patent division between the two parts of the film in Wall-e (although it doesn't affect the rhythm greatly), or maybe it's just a personal priority for the genre. By the way, when I wrote the review for The Incredibles, the article turned into an ode in the end too...

The incredibles

2008-07-20T11:34:00.001+01:00

(IMPORTANT: This is an old review. No matter how fast you run, it won't be showing at the local cinemas when you get there. You can always get in on DVD though...)

Incredible indeed!

“The Incredibles” is the last CG film (completely generated by using computers) made by Pixar, who already surprised us with “Toy Story”, “Monsters Inc.” and “Finding Nemo”. As any Pixar film, this is a movie which appears to be sometimes a very funny comedy, sometimes a moving story capable of touching the toughest spectator. And, as any Pixar film (it doesn't matter if they use toys, bugs, monsters, fish or super-heroes) it remains a powerful story about relationships between human beings.

This time, they tell the story of a family of super-heroes using lots of references to super-hero movies, TV serials and comics, as well as adventure films. “The Incredibles” delights our senses with a powerful script full of sub-plots brilliantly treated, including several relationships inside the family (Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl’s love, parents and siblings, children's problems) which are easily believable as well as amazingly familiar.

By combining virtual people and real actors’ voices, the characters (all them, not just the main ones, but every single one) end up having more personality than many human actors: nice characters whom we get attached to and whom we worry about. Their bodies and faces make us believe in them and create a favourable atmosphere for humour. Pixar accomplishes the most difficult thing in this kind of movie: credibility. And this is the point: when a character is beaten, we know it hurts; when a character runs, we know he's going fast. When a door is opened, a train is trying to stop and people or objects are falling, we are sure that they are all heavy, as if they were real elements. From the character's expressiveness to the fanciest effect seen in the film, Pixar’s animators and programmers achieve the impossible.

Completely believable hair, muscles and fabric, including several costumes per character (for the first time in a movie like this). Explosions, water, explosions in the water, lava, ice, shattering windows, energy fields, invisibility effects, light beams, plane reactors, robots… everything is possible, even stretching human limbs. We have no reason to not believe in it because it’s very well done.

In regards to music and lighting, the film opts for a colourful environment typical of old-fashion comics and Saturday morning cartoons which turns into a James Bond-like environment as the story moves forward. Of course, every effect related with light and used to personalize each moment of the film (daylight, dust, clouds, fog) is perfectly created.

The “60's 007”-like look is reflected as well in the multi-location design of the film. From the interior of a volcano to the open sea, from remote forests to common cities, we visit many different beautiful sceneries. Furthermore the director consistently uses the camera intelligently throughout each set (he seldom overuses the fact that everything is 3D to take odd shots), so we don’t have to see spectacular yet absurd views.

It’s difficult to decide if “The Incredibles” is only one of the best animated movies so far or it’s one of the best super-hero films ever created as well. Whatever the case, this is not a story just for kids. In fact, this is the first PG (Parental Guidance) movie made by Pixar. And this only means that parents will enjoy as much as their children. Or perhaps even more.

So, technical perfection, an enjoyable story and tons of fun in a film which maybe is a bit long -for an animated movie- but is incredible in all other respects.

Hancock

2008-07-11T12:00:00.007+01:00

An oddly enough ride.

Hancock is enjoyable, but has three little drawbacks: Will Smith, the clumsy usage of visual effects and (how not so?) the script .

Although Will Smith has proven that he can act like an actual actor (see the heart-warming The Pursuit of Happiness), most of the films he gets involved in are just commercial blockbusters, with all their negative connotations (his first actual big-screen hit, Independence Day, may have set the tone...). And if he can get involved in the production (and he does again in Hancock) and show off a bit, better still. Show off chest muscles, or backside, or simply poses... You can tell he likes that. He shows off less minutes than in previous films, but he shows off. Just like in I, robot, or I am legend. Still, there's something about Will Smith's presence that stops you from hating him so much despite all this. Odd. Whether this is charisma or not, or whether this film should have been called “I am Hancock” is obviously not the purpose of these lines.

All the visual effects from the trailer and used as bait seem to happen rather soon in the film. Which is good, since they aren't anything special or unseen before. After that, for a moment, it seems the story will acquire deeply human overtones and leave effect in the background... but then the film takes an unfortunate and inexplicable path and we come back to visual effects ad infinitum. No surprises here.

But we also come back to a much darker atmosphere that changes the style of the film and that (again) seems to be uncalled for. There is a similar confusion with the genre itself: comedy, more dramatic at times, “adventure” parts, ... The surprising and unconventional approach probably comes from the intention of making a different superhero film. In practice, however, the producers truly seem indecisive about this, and so ended up creating a strange hybrid creature.

All the above, plus the fact that the relationship between characters is awkward and twisted results in, yes, an entertaining film, but one that doesn't make the most of itself or even reach the end of the story looking like it's the end of the story. If you are reading this in disbelief, go and watch it: the cleaners may have to kick you out, because you won't believe the film is over. As spectators, we are entitled to a fulfilling experience. And if a script doesn't give us this ultimate experience, then we feel emptiness in our film goer hearts. Subconsciously, we ask for more and we can't help cursing the experience.

Old film reviews (old the reviews, not necessarily the films)

2008-07-09T10:00:00.006+01:00

I start re-posting some of my old reviews in Canalmanchester as well as new ones for the following reasons:

The main reason (and also the most outrageous one) is that, since they are already written, old reviews will save me some time and effort and may make me look like I'm a lot more productive than I actually am, leaving, at the same time, more time to dedicate to pleasures of life other than writing.
The original website where my old reviews were kept, is now dead and buried, and so I'd like to re-post these old reviews so I can have them on-line again and even link back to them like I did with my latest (new) review (comes in handy sometimes!).

Some of the Canalmanchester reviews in their original format.

Robots

2008-07-09T10:00:00.004+01:00

(IMPORTANT: This is an old review. No matter how fast you run, it won't be showing at the local cinemas when you get there. You can always get in on DVD though...)

”Robots”, the latest 3D production by “Twentieth Century Fox”, is built on a too obvious and little original story which eventually turns out to be only and excuse to fill the screen with lots of colourful robots during almost two hours.

It’s a true shame when something like this happens. The audience is asking for more and is actually able to absorb much more content. And since this need doesn’t disappear during the movie –because the script is too simple, like it was only meant for our kid brother- we appreciate the always amazing 3D environment but don’t enjoy it as much as we should.

Still, the film offers some hilarious moments, until we bitterly find out almost all the jokes are based on the fact that the characters are living machines and start to hate them. Again, this helps us to unconsciously switch our attention to different things; like the music, for instance (which is really enjoyable, by the way, but this is beside the point).

The messy cast contains millions of unnecessary characters, each of them with a different colour, slightly different shape and seldom showing more than one sign of personality. The good guys are kind and pleasant and have many merry friends; the bad guys have no feelings and of course no friends. Inside this context the audience doesn’t get to believe in them, since neither of them seem to have powerful motivations nor even show a different facet at some point.

On the other hand, our senses are delighted by a feast of 3D graphics, credibly created and satisfactory animated (along the lines of the fast and vivacious “Ice Age”). After a while, however, so many robots on the screen at the same time become tiring and pointless, as it happened before even with the numerous armies of evil creatures in the multi-award-winner “The lord of the Rings”.

As a computer-generated film, we must say that, although the 3D effects are in general believable (except maybe that oil which doesn’t convince completely…), “Robots” is not as daring as other recent products in regard to virtual effects development. By the time it was released, “Shrek” came up with the best liquid effects; “The Incredibles”, along with many other improvements, contained the first attempt to use create human character for the whole cast. But, what is it that “Robots” has to offer as its new and revolutionary contribution?

When the script heavily arrives at the ending, we are given the oldest and most overused message of the film history: “Be yourself”. Unfortunately, we are quite fed up with the movie in question by then and feel our intelligence has been insulted in some way. I wonder if even the little kids won’t feel the same.

In short, few surprises in a film which probably shouldn’t have been made and undoubtedly deserves oblivion.

See here the original Canalmanchester format.

La sopa (The soup)

2008-07-04T12:54:00.002+01:00

I finally managed to add showy (well...) English subtitles to one of my old Spanish short films filmed in 2002 (oh, my god, I just realised, that is 6 years ago!). To be honest, the experience was rather painful (the subtitling, not the filming itself), as there seems to be no software capable of handling all the different steps in one go. This was little more than a test ("La sopa" can be understood without subtitles, I like to think), to see if I could subtitle the yeap-still-in-Spanish-only Eso que Pasó, a longer short film that I made in 2004 and that does need translation. I will do so at some point during the next few months, depending on other projects.

In any case, here is the link to the youtube video. I hope those of you who didn't know about this 7-minute oldie will enjoy it!

Thanks for watching.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

2008-07-04T11:56:00.007+01:00

The poorest fantasy world even summoned.

Unfortunately, not all the fantasy stories that make it to the big screen are of as good quality as The Lord of the Rings' latest film adaptation. There already are 5 Harry Potter films (plus 3 more on the making). The Narnia series is, too, a good example of how far we can go (Disney, in this case) in our effort for trying to reproduce the key elements of a hit of this kind. Although the result may be financially rewarding, randomly placed bows, magic spells and sword fights don't make a good fantasy film. More importantly, this sort of production may make audiences lose faith in next ones, as they would end up not expecting much of them.

Visual effects in this second “Narnia” deserve special mention. There is quite an impressive sequence in a bridge towards the end of the film. Other than that, it is not often that what may be a combination of lack of imagination, poor criteria and/or scarce interest results in such a huge amount of pointless soulless ugly creatures (right, the pointless and soulless side of it has to do with scripting and acting, but all together makes a terrible combination!). Not even films like Robots (with its too many meaningless machine-like characters) leaves you with such a bad taste in our mouth. It is hard to believe that there is still something in the fantasy line that we can't do convincingly with 3D computer graphics. Or maybe there is, but it sure has to be something more complex and creative than anything we can see in this film.

According to the director himself, the film is meant to make us reflect upon the transition to adulthood, the sacrifices that you have to make and those things that you have to leave behind. But since very often actors just stand there, in front of the camera, hoping the melodramatic musical background will do all the work and the script only collaborates with a few scenes that require the film to stop completely while torrents of explanations are given... well.. it doesn't quite work. Other than that, nothing more to say about a script that doesn't say much itself anyway.

Luckily, despite upsetting experiences like this, Disney doesn't seem to be totally dead. There seems to be life after its divorce from Pixar, and the trailer of Blast (first 3D film on their own) looks quite good and serves as evidence of an encouraging future. There are Let's hope they'll follow this path instead of going through the gate to Narnia again..

The Incredible Hulk

2008-06-24T22:36:00.011+01:00

The green giant is in shape.

There was a time when comic-books were not treated with much respect on the screen. Then one day Marvel released Spiderman, and saw it was good, and then got really excited with the money-making machine and went on to release and release films that were not in fact that good. Fantastic Four 2, to take a case in point, was a most painful experience.

Having finally rethought their concept of film business, they revamped their franchise with Iron Man and now continue with this The Incredible Hulk. The now rightfully named Marvel Studios are finally paying greater attention to their final product and clearly going for a new generation of super-hero films. Now the story and the characters are far more important than just having spectacular shots, and the complex “marvel” universe is finally taking the place that is its by right.

The film shows off (although doesn't rely on) fantastic visual effects, as expected. The jade giant looks a bit different than he was in Ang Lee's very personal and venerated version, but he is as impressive and powerful as ever. And Edward Norton's unheroic constitution in this film seems to make him a much better candidate for Hulk's human alter ego than Eric Banna was. It seems filmmakers didn't want to use much of the first film, and of that particular vision of the character that make so many people so enthusiastic. This new film opts for a more commercial, but also a more loyal version of the comic-books, respecting the original characters and using them to orchestrate a most human story with power and responsibility as the main points.

Especially enjoyable are a few moments that one wouldn't expect in this type of film in which interesting aspects of Hulk are shown from a very human point of view, far away from superheroes. These scenes help understand what might be like to have to bear a burden like that of the protagonist's. Further into the movie, tender “beauty and the beast” moments, enormous critters fighting, and Lou Ferrigno's appearance (from the Hulk TV series), are there to keep entertaining and surprising you.

Please keep it up with the incoming Magneto, Captain America, and so on, Marvel. And no rush with Fantastic Four 3...

The Happening

2008-06-16T23:43:00.006+01:00

Whatever you do, don't insult the audience.

It is hard to imagine a film worse than The Happening.

The seemingly endless series of scenes itself seems to get lost in nonsenses. The script is over-dramatic and incoherent. The acting, painfully executed through some of the most senseless lines of the film history, is just terrible. Both main actors, Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel give very poor performances, sadly matching the quality of the story. We can almost feel the pain as we watch in astonishment, denying what our eyes see, and force ourselves to smile before a few scattered jokes. This is a film that doesn't move forward. Nearly every scene of the film is either unnecessary, or badly built, or both. Ridiculous moments and easy scare shots degrade the genre and insult the public over and over.

Before watching this film, after seeing the promising trailer, one would want to go out of his way to compliment M. Night Shyamalan, director of The Sixth Sense and would even be inclined to forgive his momentary slip-up with the lamentable The Village. But the truth is that, in The happening, the script is as weak as the directing work. And the actors' delivery is just one of many tokens of it.

Out of respect to filmmakers who love what they do and make films for intelligent audiences, films like this should, quite simply, not be made.

The "open souce" wonder

2008-06-14T10:26:00.013+01:00

“If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” - Isaac Newton

The idea of isolated creation is vanishing. In its place, a collaborative Internet-linked world takes shape. This is good news. The more people are allowed to participate, the better humankind's creations will become, and the greater and more numerous our resources will be.

The so-called Web 2.0 played an important role on collaboration. Open source software, however, is to me one of the most interesting creations that this new world has come up with. Program packages created, bug-fixed and maintained by people, for people. Free, and very often more efficient that their commercial counterparts. Here is a brief list with some of my favorites, all of which I use or have used in the past.

OPEN OFFICE: Yes, it is like Microsoft Office. Spreadsheets, its own version of the popular Word, databases, ... Some options may be in a different place, but everything is there. And if it is not, it probably will be in the next release. You would have to wait longer (and certainly pay) for Microsoft to update their package.
GIMP: For all your image manipulation and digital retouching needs. Much like the popular Photoshop.
INKSCAPE: For those more into vector graphics, here is the alternative to Freehand, Illustrator or CorelDraw.
BLENDER: Excellent 3D package, just as 3D max, Softimage, Maya, etc.
CLAMWIN: Scans your computer for viruses, just as Norton or Panda would. Only, more discreetly and without Panda's spooky voices talking to you all the time.
AUDACITY: A great simple-looking yet powerful sound editor.

I even, not long ago, found a way of finally writing a script without having to worry about the format at all, celtx. Of course, I use it now.

All I can say is that if any of these fall within your area of interest, you HAVE to try them. If not, well, why don't you try to run a search for “open source” for whatever your interest are? Why not? You might be surprised. Have a taste of open-source software, at least. In most cases, it's a most rewarding experience of discovery. In the unlikely case that you don't enjoy it, well, you can always go back to the old conception of “paying for your software must mean that it is better software”.

I am so happy to be living this technological revolution.

By the way, if you want to understand better how open source software develops, or if the consequences really are the fall of empires like Microsoft's, I would recommend a fascinating book called Wikinomics (of which, not surprisingly, a wiki, editable version of is available on-line too).

Mongol, the rise to power of Genghis Khan

2008-06-07T14:40:00.006+01:00

Spectacular is not enough.

I like to think that when we watch “personal journey” films, we subconsciously expect genre conventions and a wide range of subtleties to eventually give us an overview of the character's motivations, as well as a good understanding of his life, all this packed in two hours of well-built narration. When this doesn't happen, I personally feel very disappointed, and somewhat deceived. What, after all, if not the rise to power of Genghis Khan, do we expect to see in a film about the rise to power of Genghis Khan?

Mongol starts off in a very promising way. We enjoy the first steps and taste the excellent performance given by Odnyam Odsuren, the boy playing the protagonist's young counterpart. Soon, something terrible happen. The necessary gradation to make scenes flow through time seems to be forgotten and the story stagnates in a series of unfortunate scenes that, although still remarkable, contribute very little to the personal story of the main character. When it is finally resumed we are only left with the battles to be entertained with, and of course Khulan Chuluun's strong character, far more interesting than the protagonist. The clumsy captions and voice-over narrations become additional testimony of the script's inability to tell a story for the screen.

The remarkable premise -the human right to choose- probably comes later than it should too and, since it is not maintained convincingly throughout the film, we don't get to really get attached to the character's principles. A real shame, after bringing a figure like Genghis Khan to an innovative human level, far away from the brutal, infamous conceptions that are common in historical data (Tadanobu Asano's looks and acting contribute to this end in a laudable but eventually vain effort for turning the protagonist into something that he is not).

Yes, the stunning photography, the astonishing natural scenery and a couple of spectacular battles are of course there as expected. But that is about it. In short, enjoyable (no one said otherwise) although not-that-epic film that could have been a lot more convincing and much better built.

Cassandra's dream

2008-05-31T10:58:00.006+01:00

Woody gives himself another treat.

No other director can beat Woody Allen's possibilities of doing whatever he wants on screen. His stories continue selling, all the actors he wants to use will say yes without even reading the script, so he keeps filming in whichever country he chooses and doing one film per year.

By using his particular modus operandi he has produced some of the most beautiful, human and entertaining films of the last century. Still, out of such a matchless wealth of production, (and since, unsurprisingly, most of what we all do is not as good as our best) most of them turn out to be average productions. I personally don't think it has to do with Allen's age, but rather with his seemingly endless energy for film making. In fact, although unquestionable gems such as Annie Hall or Manhattan belong to his universe of past productions, the more relatively recent Deconstructing Harry is to me the most enjoyable of his extensive filmography. In any case, Cassandra's dream is to be counted as one of those poorer films which, unlike the above, won't resist the passage of time.

This time Allen treats himself to the nearly ubiquitous and always charming Ewan McGregor. Unfortunately, his looks are not enough in this occasion and, except for a few moments more purely entertaining than remarkable, the Scottish actor contributes with very little to the film. The same can be said about Tom Wilkinson, both seem to get seriously affected by the unavoidable frivolity of their characters. Colin Farrell is blessed which a much more interesting role, and his deeply human performance doesn't disappoint.

As usual in his Allen's films, it does take a while for the film to get started, but one it does (and here we have again another one of the newyorkian's hilarious settings) the rhythm is elegantly maintained during most of the story. It is throughout the middle part, where so many other films fail, that the script shows the most interesting, witty-dialogue-packed scenes, and the best examples of apparently unintended humorous treatment.

Don't expect anything radically original, or a classic meant to go down in history. But if you, too, usually enjoy Woody Allen's films, Cassandra's dream will certainly entertain and make you have as good a time as any other average Woody Allen's.

Stories in general -and films in particular- in a rapidly changing world

2008-05-24T14:38:00.010+01:00

I haven't written any film reviews for a couple of years -damn it, time does fly-. I used to, for an independent student site. I had this crazy idea that it would help me both with my language learning (I had just arrived in the UK from Spain back then) and with my writing skills.

Surprisingly, it was a rich experience that did help me in both these aspects (yey!), and even beyond. It got me thinking about films' flaws and strong points in what I thought it was sharp and incisive way. Well, it wasn't that sharp, actually, but it did force me to understand a little better how stories are structured (that and several script books, god bless Robert McKee), which in turn helped me -and still does- write my own stories, not for modest less in need of a good old-fashion structure.

When that review-writing period ended (mainly due to my editor and myself not getting on very famously), I was sorry to stop writing altogether. But since I was also busy with a new study program that lied ahead at the time and it wouldn't have been easy to keep doing it anyway, I just let it go.

In this time, I have continued going to the cinema. Sure. My films-per-week average doesn't go below two unless something VERY serious happens. I love stories. All sorts. And I believe that films still are one of the most powerful ways of telling them. I also believe that, as long as we don't forget that entertainment has rules, and that they need to be respected (“please don't bore me”), or at least understood before we can break them, films still have at least a little life longer before being taken over completely by the new media platforms. But only if they don't forget. Ironically enough, these new platforms are also giving everyone the chance of speaking up, of saying “I really hated that” or “I couldn't believe how good this other one was!”. Every day, millions of people make the global wisdom grow by modifying a wikipedia page, adding an entry to their blog, or posting their new vision on youtube. And those views affects other people's, and help them making up their minds. And I believe it also affects the way that stories, and films as one type of them, evolve.

Today, with no frill but with quite a lot of excitement, I start using this site again, powered by my renewed resolution of publicly writing again and contributing to this wonder. Like all those other people before me, I take the chance to speak about what I love, and to share my views and material with all of you who regularly lean regularly into this fascinating universe which the web is becoming. Let this be my humble contribution to this new and increasingly complex world of opinions, stories, and entertainment.

Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull

2008-05-24T13:30:00.010+01:00

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Neither Lucas nor Spielberg are in need of popularity, and certainly not money, which is the main reason for any sequel. It seems that Lucas will manage to stretch the Star Wars product forever, and Spielberg... well, he didn't get the nickname of Hollywood's King Midas for nothing. From the very beginning, it was clear that “Indy 4” would be a present from them to the fans. Take it as what it is, a present. Deeper insights will probably ruin your experience.

Yes, everything is there: they have made sure that all the elements common to other films of the series are present: punching fights, innumerable chases, humour, the charismatic sidekick, bugs and reptiles, dark catacombs,... Just hearing another character calling Harrison Ford “Dr. Jones”, or having the main theme on the big screen again after such a long wait makes it all worth it.

However, certain aspects of the film deviate from the atmosphere present in the previous three films. A few far-fetched situations, even for Indiana Jones, somehow manage to ruin the credibility of all other things, humanly impossible and still believable, that the character has done in previous films (Indy is not 007!). Some scenes, like the very first one, seem to be unnecessary long and reduce the pace of the film and makes it harder for the spectator to get into the story. And of course, there is what Indy's new adventure is about: it seems to fit perfectly with the others when, suddenly... well, we are taken in a direction where we don't want to go! (you'd better watch and judge for yourself).

Something similar happens with the load of visual effects. Just as we saw in Star Wars, the urge is felt, it seems, of making use and overuse of the new technologies where they hadn't been needed before. The result, rather than Indy, feels more like watching its putative relative, The Mummy. Actors don't seem to get along with the new technologies either and so sometimes they just stand there looking around, unable to interact with the digital part of the set, fact which contributes to a couple of unsuccessful scenes.

One would think that after managing to go on without Sean Connery in the project quite believably, Spielberg would be able to rely on the rest of the cast (Karen Allen, from the first film, among them) to put strong empathetic characters into play, just as he usually does. Sadly, there are quite a few occasions in which the characters either don't seem to know what to say -or how- or they just come into the scene for no reason, and leave as clumsily. The combination of the relationship between the characters and the high level of adventure is not handled as successfully as it would have been expected, and we are left with a certain thirst for more personal moments and less action (and explanations!): moments to show us more of this new, older Indiana Jones, which is taking more and more after his father, or to enjoy Indy's reunion with his very first film girl.

Let's hope this is a momentary lapse for Spielberg's otherwise excellent craft, and that he is not finally listening to Lucas' directing suggestions.

Limited limitlessness: the invisible barrier

2007-06-30T22:22:00.002+01:00

It all starts. It may take a couple of hours to find your way around. Eventually, though, you find yourself talking to someone, or touching that whatever-it-is object over there.

- SIM OWNER: Hey! You can´t be here without wearing a combat HUD!
- POOR NOOB: Sorry, a what?
- SO: Did you not read the notecard?
- PN: I don't know what you are talking about, dancing is the most complicated thing I've learnt so far...
(Noob dances)
- SO: Are you laughing in my face??
(Noob is ejected form the parcel and permanently banned)
- PN: Hey, wait, wait! What is going oooooon!?

Have you ever experienced something like this? If you are new to SL, you probably have, in some way or another.

Ever since I started wandering around Second Life, I had mixed feelings about the world and their inhabitants. On the one hand there were all the good (amazing!) things that SL provides us with: a plataform for global communication, a magical place where to turn dreams into (virtual) reality... On the other, I noticed an awkward “something”, silently inherent to the residents and their particular spots: the smell of private property, human liking for possession and prohibitions.

At this stage of development, I don't think there are many people left thinking that the economic dimension of SL has not contributed greatly to its success. This economic dimension entails, of course, private property, boundaries and numerous constraints to the potential of a virtual existence. And this is also why we should not forget that the world itself belongs to every single resident when lifting barriers to seal our properties off. After all, what is the point of being able to fly if you keep running into invisible walls which destroy the illusion of freedom?

Also, if you are a sim owner and would like visitors to act according to your rules, remember to make them logical, practical and actually possible to obey. Find the way of making it easy for people to "walk" around your place, don't just overuse your power over your own sim for the sake of it. Above all, don't make your guests (sure they are!) remember an awful experience they won't like to repeat.

Let us control our (real life) impulses for (real life) needs that are not necessary in SL and keep it open and magic. As anything new, learning SL may be hard. Let us try to make it enjoyable for everyone, including the newcomers, and not more complicated.

Enjoy and let enjoy.

¿Second Life? ¿¿¿Y eso qué es???

2007-06-12T21:54:00.002+01:00

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Para aquellos que pueden no saberlo, Second Life (SL) es un mundo virtual. Aunque no sea primero ni el único, es, hoy en día, el más popular. SL es un "lugar" al que cualquiera puede acceder a través de la web, y donde se puede establecer una presencia permanente. Una vez allí, se puede no sólo interactuar con los elementos a nuestro alrededor, sino también crear otros nuevos. Se puede encontrar gente de todas partes del mundo, comunicarse con ellos y compartir todo tipo de experiencias.

En este blog exploraré el emocionante desarrollo de este nuevo mundo desde mis intereses personales (rodaje de películas, educación, idiomas, tecnología,...) y quiero hacerlo de forma comprensible, esperando que todo el mundo pueda sacar algo de estas líneas que pueda serle útil en el ambiente -a veces muy complicado- de SL. Intenta de crear dos copias de todos los escritos y escribirlos tanto en inglés (el idioma que utilizo a diario) común español (mi lengua nativa).

Lo que es más importante, creo que SL -al igual que cualquier otro futuro mundo virtual- debe pertenecer a todos, como Internet. Debe convertirse en una extensión de nosotros mismos, en una forma de hacer la comunicación más fácil y agradable a escala global. Y, si bien se trata de una poderosa herramienta para nosotros, también es cierto que todos debemos responsabilizarnos de ella y hacer de esta plataforma la mejor de las posibles. Este es el tema principal desde que regirá estos artículos.

Hasta pronto.