Editing away....

Photo: Still shot from movie. Filo Valadez (Pepe de Anda). As you can see the colors have been attenuated to a more grainy and bleach processed look. That's a really cool feature about digital. You have the liberty to change anything you want.
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I have been stuck in the editing room for 2 days and everything is looking REALLY good...
We still have to shoot 1 scene, 1 reshoot and some minute pickup shots... but we'll do that nearing the weekend...
I have to take "key" scenes so we can lay music on them in Monterrey next week.

Overall, the edited scenes are exceeding our expectations... however it looks like a hell of a sound job after this... there are so many gunshots, grunts, glass breaking, etc. that we have to put in... in time...

As a side note, Roger is selling his complete Zelda Collection along with his Zelda Gamecube...
"Buy it now", and get it autographed by his dog Zelda :-D

don't be a henchman!
stand on your laurels
do what no one else does
praise the good of other men for good man's sake
and when everyone else in the world follows your lead
(although a cold day in hell it will surely be)
that's when the entire world shall live in harmony
-Greg Graffin

Newspaper + Backwards thinking!

Thanks to Rex McBeath for helping us out and printing the newspaper for Scene #80....
Scene #80 is probably THE last full scene left to shoot...

We have to do the music really soon in Monterrey....

The ASH WEDNESDAY train is at full steam and I am spent.... I'm living without living, and dying without dying.... jajajajaja....
Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh....
F*** that, when I die I'll have plenty of rest....
In the meantime... let's get back to work....
no more whining...

I almost forgot... I posted this morning the theatrical trailer for ASH WEDNESDAY backwards! You read right. BACKWARDS!... No, we wasn't... eeegggghhh... drunk... (vomit)...
NO, nothin' like that... we just thought it was fun to see it backwards... THE REASON? I have NO idea...!!!

If you don't have fun in this life, then why live?
How can hell be any worse, if life alone is such a curse? -BR

ASH Shootout!!!!!

Photo of mean mothers: Ricky, Alonso, Rojer, Cesar, Javier Hernandez, Jose, Mario, and the Diaz Brothers...
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Today we shot (FINALLY!) the ASH shootout.
This shoot had been postponed yesterday, and to be honest I didn't feel like shooting it... I felt it was too difficult to assemble and get everything together, but we just got our act together and clenched our fists and just went through it.

I called J's, I called the cool dudes at the LFD warehouse and we went 12 miles out of Eagle Pass and had one of the bloodiest f******* shootouts... Sometimes it sucks, because you have to self-motivated to do all this stuff... but shit. IF IT WERE EASY. EVERYONE WOULD BE DOING IT.

We shot without Ash, but we'll shoot that tommorow...
Jorge Diaz and other guys from the LFD furniture warehouse helped us out in being Mexican Federales of the AFI agency.
ALSO, special thanks AGAIN to Javier Hernandez from J's Auto Sale's in Eagle Pass...
The shoot included MANY extras for Federal Agents as well as ASH's criminal crew...
Suffice to say that many get killed in a really cool way...
After the shoot, we went back to see dailies and Barco, chato and me were all 'mouthing' with the scenes... sniff.
I cannot wait to see the movie....
ALSO, if you want to see a REALLY cool movie today, rent Running Scared with Paul Walker... It is nothing but COOL non-stop action with a meaningful story.

A Dog's Life

Photo: Ricky, Royer, Randy Laurence, Paco and Officer Escareño
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Two very important shoots yesterday...
We shot half of a missing scene with the great Randy Laurence... who helped us out as Delso Carrete's Ex-Boss at the DEA.
VERY special thanx to the Eagle Pass Police Dept., to Chief Castañeda, and ALSO to Randy Laurence for helping us out.


_________________
Photo: Dr. Lalo Chapa and Zelda

The next scene involved a very intricate planning procuedure on our part. We have been talking about this scene since Roger first talked to me about it almost a year ago...
It turned out easier than expected, but very stressful nonetheless...
The scene involved ASH Wednesday (Ramiro Briones), a ruthless Warden (played by Raul De La Cruz) and a hungry but unlucky dog (played brilliantly by Zelda, Royer's Dog)... The scene will definetely be one of the most disturbing....
VERY special thanks to Javier Hernandez and his family for their really cool house.
special thanks to Raul De La Cruz and Ash...
SUPER DUPER SPECIAL THANKS to Dr. Lalo Chapa for being onhand and looking out for Zelda.
ALSO thanks to Barco...

ALSO thanks to Grisi Torres for the bottle of Bailey's and the beer for the crew...
bottles to the ground....

Here's Zelda and Link... as you can see Zelda is alive and well.
She barked that she wished to do more movies... I'm glad. sniff.

Production Page

Photo: Dama (Barbara Del Rio) and Hector Mata (Ramiro Briones)... Crew: Alonso Wheeler, Barco De Los Santos, Ricky Mendoza and Paco Flores.
_________________
A NOTES, PICS and FACTS page is now up with fun factoids about the production.

go to: www.someonewillfall.com

Everything is falling into place.

We will have a BUSY shooting schedule this weekend, but hopefully these will be THE last scenes to shoot. YAAAAAAAAYYY. sniffffffff.

Almost there....

Photo: Still shot of the movie. Flashback scene of Hector Mata (Meme Torres)
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All in all, we just need 3 full scenes to shoot and little, small, miniature but significant scenes...
We are hoping to finish by early next week...
Not bad.
We've been shooting this movie since July 1, and there's been a lot of improvements (of the script) and a couple of reshoots, but overall I believe we have done an excellent job of making sure the quality is at an even level.
Looking back, I can't believe everything that has happened since July, and actually since we finished the script.
Some of us really thought that this was just too difficult to shoot, especially with limited or no money at all...
And it was difficult, but we overcame it. COOL.
Thanks again to everyone who has helped us out along the way. sniff.
BTW: the Mana album is cooooooooool.... sniff.

everyone is looking for something
and they assume somebody else knows what it is
no one can live with the decisions of their own it seems
so they look to someone else
to tell 'em what to be
tell 'em what to wear
tell 'em what to say
tell 'em how to act and think and compel others compulsively
until the world is all like them
-Bad Religion (No Direction)

Escape + Mana

October 17 is the official release date of our first movie, EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS...

And this is the official artwork for the DVD cover, so look for it in stores (Wal-Mart, Bestbuy, Blockbuster) or pre-order online at Amazon

ALSO, Today, like awaiting for a bastard child to come back...
I awaited anxiously day and night... and finally...
Yesterday at midnight Mana (one of the coolest rock bands in the world) released their new album...
and it will be looping continously for about 3 months....
This at least pumps up the crew to create a better Ash Wednesday....
turn it up!

Crudos + Shoot Final Scene

______________________________

IT WAS HOT TODAY!
and it didn't help that we drowned in alcohol the night before... I slept at 4ish AM, but the rest went home at 7am...
We had a 10am shoot... it just goes to show you how things work at Digital Work Studios... :-D

ANYWAY, we made the shoot at 11:30am... we got some starbucks double shots and some gatorades and rehydrated ourselves to normalhood...

Roger, Paco, Alonso and myself came up with the scene last night and added a shitload of stuff to it... it is going to be UNBELIEVABLE...
I really cannot wait to edit the film and see it, appreciate it, and just let it sink in... and then watch it again.

Even though we had a HUGE hangover, we still managed to get a REALLY impressive finale...

It's amazing what you can do some candles (from the dollar store), a cool place like the historic Fort Duncan (in Eagle Pass), brilliant hungover producers (Royer, Paco and myself) and brilliant actors like Ramiro Briones (Ash Wednesday) and Hector Muñoz Mijares (Shaman)...

Thanks to Chicken for the great Rodee's Fried Chicken food!

The moments of your yesterdays
are in the wake behind you
You can't assess the future
if you're living in the past
Sharpen all your senses,
face the opposition
You can overcome
with fortitude and mental might
-Bad Religion

Photo L to R: Hector Muñoz Mijares (Shaman), Ricky Mendoza (director) and Ramiro Briones (Ash Wednesday)

Still shooting...

We started to shoot at 9 pm and finished at 2 am...
but it was well worth it!
Thanks to Lalo Ueta for the use of his store!
ALSO, thanks to Robbie Flores and Sonia Valdez for their awesome performance! Shakira, shakira....

Thanks to everyone who has seen the trailer, your support and emails have been very helpful...
keep spreading the word!

Trailer

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
cool.
After months of pre-production and a month of NON-STOP production, it feels REALLY good to finally see something done...
It feels really cool to see the trailer and watch how other people react to it.
ALSO, if you think the trailer is gritty, it is NOTHING compared to the actual movie.
Thanks to everyone for spreading the word!
Let's keep it going!
YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
Photo L to R: Producers Paco Flores, Alonso Wheeler, Roger De Los Santos, Roberto Rodriguez and Ricardo Mendoza

You did good! -Leon

It seems like such a long way to go
As obstacles get bigger,
prevailing winds blow stronger and the fire continues to grow
in your soul...
So be bold, let it grow, Don't let it die, Let it burn 
-Bad Religion (Let it burn) 

Tell me, can you imagine, for a second,
trying half the things, you ever wanted to,
well that's just what i do, so hooray for me...
oh, yeah, i'm not respectable, and never sensible,
i've been incredible, so damned irascible
and i like the things i do so hooray for me...
-Bad Religion (hooray for me)

Trailer + Random thoughts

We have paused shooting this weekend to make sure the trailer is in perfect condition to be released this Wednesday.
We have made a lot of changes since the first draft... so [this Wed.] enjoy!

Also, in retrospect, I cannot believe how much we learned from our first film experience with El Escape De Los Santos...

The film was [in my opinion] very good, but our minimum experience was very transparent.
Ultimately, what we have to acknowledge is to live, learn, and move on...
Also, thinking back, what helped El Escape was the cool marketing campaign on our website... this includes the poster, the site itself, the trailer... it helped us a lot in getting the film distributed nationwide...

Now this time, with Ash Wednesday, we have risked a lot of stuff...

1. First, this film is so much more expensive, and $$$ is always an issue.
2. Me and many of my friends quit their jobs in San Antonio, in order to make Ash Wednesday.
   
3. We almost lost ALL of our main actors, each of them have thier own stories... (too long for now)
4. We put a lot of trust in actors/actresses, without even having a casting.
   
5. The script is just too collosal for an independent production crew.
6. We filmed the movie in an entirely different format than EL ESCAPE (which was shot with a miniDV camera) Ash is being filmed on HD (High Definition)
7. We filmed the movie without storyboarding, not even a scene. We just filmed in a very spontaneous manner.
   

Our philosophy this time around is just "Ask and you shall receive"... he have achieved a lot by simply doing this. From casting to getting Rolls Royce's, to getting food, etc...

ALSO, on the production of the trailer, we employed the HVX-200 camera for shooting the film, AVID XPRESS PRO for editing, Adobe After effects for compositing and Adobe audition for sound. We were going to shoot using the same equipment form our previous movie, but we figured that if we want to grow as professionals, we might as well just risk it and start using unfamiliar equipment that will ultimately, make us and our film better.

The music in the trailer was made almost entirely from scratch.
I used my desk, can of starbucks double shot espresso, a wooden chair, and a door to make the music which was recorded with a digital audio recorder (Edirol R-09) and put together in Adobe Audition. I also included a song used for El Escape, but I reversed it for a cool sounding anxiety song...

Can't wait until Wednesday.
Photo: screen shot of the theatrical trailer. Alicia Bloom (played by Evangelina Akashi)

ASH Trailer launches August 16

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH....
The moment of truth.
The moment that everyone has been waiting for. snifffffffffff.
The theatrical trailer is cooked and will be launching at www.someonewillfall.com on Wednesday August 16...
It reveals a very small part of the story, so this is not a spoiler kind of trailer...
It shows a lot of emotion, and I honestly believe you will be watching this trailer for days to come...
It is INCREDIBLE.
Thanks again for everyone who has contributed to Capitulo Unus (meaning Chapter One).
and thanks for believing in us, we won't dissapoint.
We still have some stuff to left over to shoot, but we will probably be done in a week and a half.
-rik

Delso Carrete's LAST LAST reshoots

Yesterday, we reshot 2 of [Delso Carrete's] (played by Alonso Wheeler) scenes to intensify everything... it was a bit hard because his lines were too long... but after a WHILE, he finally did it...
After that exhausting shoot we went to Richie's bar and drowned in beer.
Thanks to Javier Moncada for inviting us out to the bar and for the carne asada...
Photo: Delso Carrete (Alonso Wheeler)

Last Part of Scene 68

What a difficult shoot.... simple flashback scene turned into an epic moment that will leave audiences haunted....
VERY special thanks to everyone who came out.
The scene involved Ash Wednesday as a kid (Played by Meme Torres), Ash's girlfriend (played by Brenda Vazquez) and 3 bad dudes (George Bass, Tavo Landa and Toño Reyna)...

Since this was a night shoot, we got there at 9pm and wrapped at 1am... damn!

I wish I could say exactly what happens, but it would ruin the cinema experience of Capitulo Unus.

ALSO, special thanks to the coolest crew in the world: Royer, Paco, Alonso and Chicken (who is to be an official teacher today, CONGRATS!)

Until next time....
-rik

Photo: Ricardo Mendoza and Ash Wednesday (Meme Torres)

Delso Carrete Ex-DEA agent... puf-puuf

Yesterday we shot Delso's (Alonso Wheeler) last scenes... FINALLY!
He is now able to shave off his beard and live in peace.
Thanks to Delso's accelerated puberty for the help...
The scenes came out great, which we shot at AJAANA and Canayito's snack place (in Eagle Pass).
We just need 8 full scenes and like 20 simple pickup shots... we are almost there I can smell it...

Alonso's Last film EL Escape De Los Santos is to be released October 17 nationwide. You can Pre-Order here

Special features include:
-Feature film in widescreen format
-Behind the Escape featurette
-Behind the Effects featurette
-Behind the Score featurette
-Subtitled in English
-Theatrical trailer

Thanks to all of our friends for your support.
-rik
Photo from L to R: Fred Cisneros (who plays Gregorio Cazares) and Alonso Wheeler (Delso Carrete)

Happy Birthday PACO!

Happy Birthday to our friend/producer/heavy-drinker Paco Flores... Aug. 7
Hip-hip-hoooray

Gregorio Cazares!

Very cool day.
Today, we shot with the fiercest assasin in Mexico.
The art in killing is back.
Fred Cisneros (who plays Gregorio Cazares) knocked it out of the park and gave us an incredible show... the shots look very crude and amazingly painful....
This looks like trailer material....
We started early at 9am and ended at 5pm.... Thanks to Fred and Hector Hernandez for making the trip to Eagle Pass a memorable shoot.
Photo: Gregorio Cazares (Fred Cisneros), Delso Carrete (Alonso Wheeler) and Ricardo Mendoza.

MATIAS

Yesterday, we finally finished EVERY single scene that involved our main character Matias....
Quite an accomplishment... we actually never thought this day would come.... sniff, sniff.....
Almost there. Almost there.
TODAY, We shoot Gregorio Cazares, the fiercest killer in Mexico.
He is not sent to kill, he is sent to torture, rape, humiliate.... sick f***.
-Delso Carrete

Nothing.

I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything I thought it could be.
-Peter Gibbons