The ultimate weapon

It's Friday, nearly the weekend, you don't feel like working... If you have been neglecting your reading, now it's a good time to catch up with Calachurras!

The story reaches the point of no return in this exciting Episode 15. May the maker watch over us all.

Calachurras - The little weird webcomic

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.

What's been happening

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!

Cats in the water. Only, with no cat.

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! :)

Calachurras character cards

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?

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.

New comic CALACHURRAS!

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!

"The bigger monster" ending

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)

Webcomics!

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.

Busy times!

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!

Eskimo Effect is here!

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.

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Weirdo.

The joys of feedback

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.

Current projects

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.