More Editing Daze

Photos: Screen stills of what was edited today. Characters included ASH, Dama, Filo Matias and Jessica...
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Wow!!!
it is 1:40 in the PM and I've edited 3 complete scenes since 9 AM...
What a fruitful morning...
Here's a treat for our blog audience, here's some screen shots of the scenes that were edited today...
All of which came out very emotional...
DAMN, I can't wait to see the whole film!!!

20 MORE DAYS to ESCAPE

Photos: Comparisons between Escape and Ash Wednesday characters.
1. Alonso Wheeler (as Andres De Los Santos and Delso Carrete)
2. Ramiro Briones (as Paques and Ash Wednesday)
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20 days left for our first film El Escape De Los Santos to be released on DVD throughout retailers nationwide...

For now it is available for pre-order on Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, CircuitCity.com, Barnes and Nobles, and many others...

To pre-order at Amazon click here!

On its release on October 17, it will be available to purchase at Wal-Mart's and other retailers, and to rent at Blockbuster, hollywood video, etc...

So go out and enjoy El Escape! Feedback is always welcome...

On Ash Wednesday, I am editing without mercy or remorse... I am chopping like a mad-man in order to have a rough cut as soon as possible...

The scenes are looking incredible, I really cannot wait to see Ash Wednesday, it is going to be a hell of a trip...

Joys of chroma keying

Photo: Mike Perez in Los Troncos AND Mike Perez in front of my Grandma's house in Piedras Negras.
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Today I was editing an amalgam of different stuff...
all of them very complex in the nature that they were voice-overs, flashbacks and just a lot of different effects...
The ol' chroma key or greenscreen method was employed in our movie many times, and it is a joy to do... because, if done well, you have endless limitations...
In this simple example, we have Mike Perez (DJ in Piedras Negras) plays a national reporter in the film and has to be in several parts of the Mexican Republic.
Here he is in Los Troncos, Quintana Roo.
Oh, and for all those "professionals" that criticize our wrinkled green screen: It works doesn't it! ;-D

Chopping at the cutter

Photos: Screen shots of the film... I'm not saying where they go, or what they do... just enjoy the images... :-)
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I'm up to 50 minutes of pure adrenaline, impacting and dramatic footage... that is edited...
WOW... this morning I edited what we shot on Saturday, along with a sniper scene (with alcoholic / Ex-DEA agent Delso Carrete)...

Kick ass scene...

I've been editing, the ASH flashback scenes, with lots of greenscreen work and effects... Also I've started on the Reporter pieces where it involves some greenscreen work as well... lots o' work still ahead...

Scene 33 Reshoot

Photo: Screen still of what was shot yesterday. Xavier, Omar and Fede...
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Are we happy?
VINCENT! We happy?
-Oh yeah, we happy...

We reshot scene #33 yesterday, with a better perspective and understanding of what Ash Wednesday is all about...
My friends Gibran, Omar and Xavier came over from Piedras Negras and just kicked ass...
Fede and Kristi Gomez (who plays Jessica) is in the same scene and kicked butt as well...
After that, we drank beer in the rain...

This scene was reshot because we were a mess that day... my shots sucked, and we clearly felt very insecure, and un-focused... HOWEVER, we are thankful that we got to redo everything and make it a memorable scene...

Thanks to everyone else who helped make this happen:
Ricardin Gonzalez for the very cool location, Fede for his cool Mercedes and Paco (Leo) for his Suburban...

I don´t know why I go to extremes
Too high or too low there ain´t no in-betweens
And if I stand or I fall
It´s all or nothing at all
Darling, I don´t know why I go to extremes
-Billy Joel

Photo: Xavier, Delso, Omar, Fede, Barco, Kristi, Matias (Ricardin), Teto, Gibran and Ricky

Editing Daze 2

Photo: Screen still from the movie. Tati Mello, with some really mean dudes (Cheko, J's and Gerry) This ain't your regular party!

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In the editing room, a dark and muggy place where all of the characters of Ash Wednesday are taking life, it has been extremely rewarding to see and enjoy scenes that we really did not believe would work... That goes to tell you how organized we are (and lucky)... :-D
Well actually, to give some insight, we shoot what's on the script, as we see it at that particular moment. We don't have our shots planned, but it opens a door to allow creativity, not only from us the filmmakers, but from the actors as well...
In that sense, everyone is putting their own mark on Capitulo Unus.

Today we plan to shoot the scene where we see Jessica for the first time. This is one of the few reshoots planned for this weekend.

I have edited around 40 minutes in total, so it is coming to life very rapidly...

Saludos a Xavier, Gibran y Omar!

Happy B-day MOM!

Photo: Me and my Mom... I think this was Christmas 2004...

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Chalk full of Birthdays this September!
but there's none more of importance than me Mom's!
The famous Luana Wheeler, photographer, painter, artist, etc...
Love you Mom!
You're the best! Have fun in San Francisco...
-Rik


Photo: This is one of her masterpieces. This one is called: Raining in the forest

three-zero

Photo: Gaby, Grisi, Rik, Royer, Alonso, Jerry, Sir Rodriguez and Paco. Bringing in the three-zero...

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Could you believe it! I'm Thirty. Who Cares!

So what to do today... well hopefully just being with people I like is e-nough for me...
Have a few beers, a few laughs, what else could you ask for...

My continuous rant on age:
if you're 40, 50, 60 or even 20 and you say to yourself I've always wanted to be a chef, a filmmaker, a fireman, whatever, and haven't done it....
What are you waiting for?
Drop everything and just do it...
"It's hard, I can't, my kids, my money, my bla, bla bla..."
F*** that. It ain't easy to do what you want.
If it were easy, everyone would be doing it, but that's why it's so f***ing rewarding.
So get out there, build your own train, ride it, invite everyone and tell them to get on or get the f*** out of your way...
AND this f****ng conludes my 2 part rant on age. back to editing...

See that lil' lady? Respect. Respect for one's elders gives character.
I have character.
Just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character.
-Mr. Wolf

Go ahead and stamp your form, sonny...

Photo: My cameo in Capitulo Unus, In a meeting with Filo, Jorge and Paco...
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Well, this is a 2 part series of rants and irational random thoughts...
The first part is to be written on my last day to be a juvinile 20-something, the second part (tomorrow) will be written by a mature 30-something...

Today is my last day to be in my twenties... and what am I going to do today, on this "seemingly" important day???

I will do nothing. nothing. JAJAJAJAJAJ (evil laugh)

Age is in your mind.
F*** AGE. If you start celebrating something so inane, as the loss of your twenties, well you'll be pretty much f'd and be depressed for the rest of your life, saying "I wish I'd done this or done that", F*** that.

I'm happy to say that I have done a lot of things that I'd always wanted to do, and I know, a lot of my friends and family have done so, as well...

So, now what?

I'm editing Ash Wednesday, and I am on an incredible train called Digital Work Studios.
For those who are on, enjoy the ride!
For those who are not on, either hop in or get the hell out of our way!

There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret.
Not because I'm in here, or because you think I should.
I look back on the way I was then, a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime.
I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't.
That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that.
Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit.
-Red (The Shawshank Redemption)

Happy B-day Diana and Hector!

Photo: Our lovely Mom, DIANA Mendoza (Bday gal), Rik and my other sis' Luana Mendoza at the Premiere of Escape De Los Santos (Dec. 2005)

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Happy Birthday to my sister Diana!
She is celebrating her 19th year on planet earth! WOW!
Congrats, we miss you and hope you have a hell of a day!
I'll see you soon!




Photo: Hector, QT and me-self.
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AND Happy Belated Birthday to our Agent and friend Hector Hernandez...
I really need to compile a birthday list! I am the worst when it comes to Birthdays!!!
F***!
ANYWAYS... HAPPY B-B-day! his birthday WAS on the 15th... :-o

AND, just to let our friends know, (so they won't feel like idiots later on... :-) MY Bday is on the 21st...

Out sick...

I don't know what kind of freakin bug I got, but I was out of service this weekend...
we were supposed to shoot, but instead I was in bed sick for these past 2 days...
These occurences happened a day after a mega-downloading of non-stop flowing beer that might have provoked my defenses to weaken and ultimetely pin me down and confine me to my bed and suffer watching hollywood romantic comedies....
OH well... Today there's no photo because I look like s**t. (I know I already looked like s**t, but it's worse when I'm sick...)
boo hoo... BUT, I'm ready to get back to editing, and hopefully finish shooting this WEDNESDAY movie really soon....
-rik

Editing daze...

Photo: Still shot extracted from the movie. Ex-DEA agent Delso Carrete in action and kickin' ass...

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My eyes hurt... |-)
I've been at my PC since 8am... editing scenes with Gregorio Cazares and Delso Carrete...
I also made some cool action theme songs to go with these scenes, and that was the time-consuming part...
at 6:30pm we were invited on my aunt Raquel's TV show at the local Eagle Pass station... Me and Ramiro Briones (Ash Wednesday) were interviewed. We showed the trailer for both Ash and Escape, and phone calls poured in about the flicks...
Too bad I could not reveal many questions asked... but in time, everyone will be pleasantly surprised...
We plan to begin our slew of interviews as soon as we finish the film, hopefully by the end of October.... we'll see... BTW, my eyes hurt...
Saludos a Barco

you want to play blind man?
go walk with the shephard, but me, my eyes are wide f'n open...
-Jules

Sunday Eagle Pass News

Among the throng of newspapers this Sunday, there was a well-written article about Digital Work Studios on the front page of the Eagle Pass Sunday News.
Thanks to Rex McBeath and all the guys and gals who work at the Sunday News for your support!

Out of the 365 days in the year, today is one of those 5 days that it actually rains in Eagle Pass... We are planning our last shoots for this week, so hopefully we can be finished completely with production...

WE ARE BACK!!!

Photos:

-Waris getting ready to shred the guitar.

-El Dude playing the digididooo (a weird, but cool african instrument)

-Barco, Leo and my shoe.

-AND Roger and Rik at Valhalla Studios in MTY.

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Woooooooaaaahhh!!!
What a f*****ng week!
The music is simply unbelievable...
The only way to describe the music would be to tell you that it is an interpretation of the story itself.
It is not overdone with many orchestrations, it is a simple, raw blend of music that moves you.
Thanks to the many people who helped us out:
Giuliano Innocenzi
Waris Rodriguez
Fer Dude Ibarra
Rolando Garza
Freddy Galvez (for lending us the synth)

As score supervisers:
Paco Flores, Roger De Los Santos and myself.

Great job guys!
Everyone was really excited about the project, and can't wait to see it finished... neither can we...

Day 4

Photo: Dude Ibarra putting his mark on ASH WEDNESDAY. ALSO, Waris, Ricky, Rolando Garza and Paco at Valhalla Studios, making music for Capitulo Unus... yeeeeeaaaahhhhh

Yesterday
we made an amalgm of arrangements...
we concentrated on getting sad, tragic songs...
Dude Ibarra (guitar) had 3 songs written which 2 of them were hammered out.
One sounds very Mexican, and the other a more tragic surrealism that I can´t explain...
Than Rolando Garza visited us again and jumped in and performed 2 or 3 other incredibly moving songs that ranged from infinite sadness to tragedy...
We are very thankful for the people that have believed in us and in our project, especcially to all our friends in Monterrey.
Giuliano is to make some tribal drums for the action sequences, and suspense as well... so we´ll see how everything works out.

DAY 3

Well, we´re still here and kicking...
Yesterday, Waris made up a great piece for the finale narration... it sounds really cool...
after hours of putting in more and more stuff.... we were visited by Rolando Garza... who is a very interesting Opera Piano Concertist or something crazy...
After explaining the movie and showing some key scenes, he was inspired and keyed some incredible notes without an effort...
Can't wait to insert all this into the movie....
Today DUDE Ibarra is coming in to hammer out something amazing... so we'll see....

Pics coming soon....

Soundtrack DAY 1-2

Photos: Roger munching on his favorite burgers in the whole world... he says its better than Big Kahuna´s... ALSO, an empty chair for Alonso and Chicken who could not come... in honor... :-)

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We got here on Monday at around 9pm...

We had a great reception with carne asada and some beers... The conversation flowed from our lives in the past year to the obvious topic, and the reason of why we have come to this great city... ASH WEDNESDAY.

We told them THE WHOLE movie, and they were extremely excited to be working on this project... and we were just mutually happy to see each other...

Yesterday we started making music... we started off with drums that sound extremely tribal, but cool... today, "Dude" is bringing in a synth to create cellos, violins and other strings...

We need to create the most we can, from here to Monday... so the boiler is on, and the pressure is cookin´ ....

until next time...

Ash Soundtrack

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Tomorrow we will be on our way to Monterrey, NL, Mexico.
We refuse to observe Labor Day, so we are obligated to leave the country for a week to produce the soundtrack for Ash Wednesday: Capitulo Unus...
Man, that sounds cool. sniffffff
Roger, Paco and myself will be the music supervisors.
Musicians on board will be: Waris, Giuliano Innocenzi and Fer "Dude" Ibarra...
I can't wait...
Archive Photos (2004): Waris and Giuliano making soundtrack for ESCAPE. AND Dude Ibarra (photo below) sporting his kilt and also producing the soundtrack for ESCAPE.

Comparison

Here's an example of a screen shot that has NOT been processed compared to the other picture below which has been processed digitally to give it a more cinematic feel...
As you can see it makes the image itself look more crude and raw, and very edgy...

A look back...

Photo: Screen shot from movie.
Filo (Pepe de Anda) making friends with Matias (Ricardo Gonzalez).
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It's frickin' September and it has been 2 months since production started on Capitulo Unus.
Looking back, we have been very fortunate to have accomplished what we have done in 60 days...
This is all thanks to the hard work of the filmmakers that are there day-in-day-out... (you know who you are...)
I have edited a healthy amount of scenes, and they all have this grainy, dirty, bleach process... This adds so much to the look, that I even feel tempted to fiddle with EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS, to make it look more filmic... but, that's a lot of work, and maybe we'll save that for the 10 year anniversary edition... :-D
Today and tomorrow are to be shooting days, and editing nights... We have to pull overtime for the making of the music... Relax!
-Ay Diosito Santo...