2011 balance

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 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

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.

The Entity!! - Teaser trailer (-ish)

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!

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.

Lately

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.

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

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! ;-)

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.

Writing is rewriting

"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.

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.

La sopa (The soup)

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.