Foley fun

Photo: Silly photo of myself with my handy-dandy audio recorder... Very cool stuff...
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Sound is one of THE most important aspects of a film...
Almost all of the ultra low-budget independent films suffer from poor audio, because not many people realize how important it is...
IT IS VERY F'N IMPORTANT!
and I'm not talking about the music, sound is clean crisp dialogue, sound effects (cell phone rings, thumps, gun shots, car sounds, crashes, etc...
Sound raises a film to a professional level.

Here's a quick tip on audio; this is from the "Escape" website:
http://www.digitalworkstudios.com/audio.htm

For now, I am adding sound effects to different scenes that need it. In the "business", the adding of sound effects is called FOLEY.
When you don't have clean dialogue, actors have to come in and "voice-over" the parts that are not clean. That process is called ADR (Audio Dialogue Replacement).

I am adding cell phone ringers, car noises, footsteps, and all sorts of fun stuff...
I have a special digital audio recorder (model Zoom H4 by Samson), that records professional quality audio and records on an SD chip, so I can just pop it into my PC and edit away...

Dignity

Our first attempt at movie-making [El Escape De Los Santos] is trickling into the American mass-market with more and more force as it positions itself at Wal-Marts throughout the United States...
When I was first contacted by our current distributor Venevision International, they told me their plan of having El Escape at Wal-Marts at a low price of 10 bucks a pop...
I thought it was too good to be true, because at the time I was being rejected by all of the important film festivals...
HOWEVER, after 13 months, their plan has finally come to fruition, which is really cool for us... not financially (boo-hoo), but it serves as a chance for Digital Work Studios to be a serious and established film company for many years to come...
COOL!


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On Ash news the picture above shows the remnants of our fake blood... We finished 3 little bottles and this 32oz. bottle of fake blood throughout production of Ash Wednesday which started July 1, 2006...

When we ran out of professional fake blood, on our last shoot, we used a mixture of syrup, red food coloring, cofee and flour to make a blood-like substance... YUMMMMMMM

Enhancements

Photo: Robbie Flores with producer/bro Paco Flores at AJAANA site #2 in Maverick County.
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After a brief rest from editing we reshot a scene with Robbie Flores (sister to our producer Paco Flores)...
In the pic, Paco is putting make-up on Robbie...
Paco has put ASH's scar (the cross on his forehead) 99% of the time, he has also done makeup for almost every charachter in need of makeup, including ASH Jr., Jessica (Kristi Gomez), Filo (Pepe de Anda), etc...
Paco has been so incredible at makeup, he is starting to walk funny... respek... jajajajajjaja

It seems we have been reshooting a lot, but trust me, the main beneficiary will be the audience enjoying the film.
We are so close to wrapping up I can even smell the blood clot... snifffffffffff....
jajajajajjaa
Today is Sunday, which is a working day... type, click, cut, snip and roll...

Rough Cut: part Duos

Photo: This was THE first scene we shot of Capitulo Unus. My cousin David Cervantes from Monterrey, MX. Unfortunately, this part of the scene did not make it into the film... :-(
But we'll pay it's respek, here at the blog... buyakasha...
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Relief.
Ok, I have to be honest. The first rough cut was a mess!
I couldn't understand my own movie!
HOWEVER, after spending thanksgiving day secluded inside my dark little editing room, like a little chemist...
Rearranging scenes, enhancing sound, smoothing transitions, making titles for dates and places, I can now proudly say that I have a rough cut that is worth watching... I can now thoroughly understand it and get submerged in the story...

It still needs a lot of work, like inserting ADR (Audio Dialogue Replacement), inserting some re-shot stuff, some animations, smoothing audio, sound effects, and a lot more stuff...
It looks very good for a 2nd draft. By the time we're at the 15th draft it'll look extremely well...

Just to put everything into perspective, our last movie (El Escape De Los Santos), went through over more than 30 drafts!

Ash Wednesday: Capitulo Unus Rough Cut #2 clocks in at 1 hour and 37 min.
I shaved 3 minutes since the last cut.
I think the final cut will be 1hr and 45 min. (with credits)

Happy turkey day!

Have a great and safe thanksgiving!
I will be isolated in solitary confinement editing. Please leave the leftover turkey plates under my door, so I can gobble it up at my discretion...
yummmmmmmm
Keep it real... I'll be refining my rough cut, putting titles and enhancing scenes... I can see the final cut from afar and the horizon looks pretty cool...
Have fun and respek!

First rough cut

This morning (EARLY this morning like at 1am) we had our first rough cut screening.
Paco, Alonso, Barco and me, analyzed the movie as a whole.
The results were mixed, but there was an overall feeling of accomplishment.
We still need to mix in titles and wide shots of cities and other footage to make the story flow better.
We did pinpoint what was missing and we plan to shoot that this week.
ALSO, we had a more lucid perspective towards the movie, because it was the first time we saw the edited scenes as a whole sequence...
As of now the rough cut is 1 hour and 40 minutes. I expect the final cut to be 1 hour and 45 min....

tell me what do you need to make you happy? indeed, is it out of your reach?
beware of number ones, see all the damage it has done, there are so few of them
you won't find too many in the land of competition
southern california doesn't breed them
if you just want the best turn to yourself for the rest
and forget about the ones who have it all...
-BR- Land of competition

The Final Scene... DONE!

Photos: Ash during his final scenes along with Tati Mello at Fort Duncan (Eagle Pass, TX) NOTE: These pics are not color corrected, these are stills directly from the raw footage.
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Scene 80, the "final" complete scene in Capitulo Unus was shot today... FINALLY!
After months of trying to film this scene, everything aligned itself for it to be shot.
We needed Ash, Tati, a nice lincoln continental (thanx to Tati's Grandma!), myself, the camera and a crew of one, Alonso Wheeler (hungover but pumped for action)...
Tati and Ash were incredible! Tati was willing to do her best, having in mind that the goal was the final product of Ash Wednesday, and thanks to that, it is going to look much, much better...
Thanx Tati, for being such a great sport and having fun with us!
ASH, was his usual. Excited and ready for action... He kicked ass (literally)... and gave us a great performance!


Photo: Filo flashback with the one and only Gaby Mendoza
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ALSO, as if that wasn't enough (snf)... Pepe Anda (FILO) came over to do HIS final shoot. It involved a flashback of him hitting his wife, while his daughter was watching...
MY wife Gaby (who plays Filo's wife) was in the scene, along with Justice Martinez who played very realistically, Filo's little girl...

We had good day of shooooooooooting, and now everything is set to make a rough cut of the film.
We still have VERY minor stuff to shoot, but ALL of the scenes are shot!
COOOL!

We are SO CLOSE, SO CLOSE....

When all soldiers lay there weapons down Or when all kings and all queens relinquish their crowns Or when the only true messiah rescues us from ourselves Its easy to imagine There will be sorrow... no more.
-Bad Religion- Sorrow

Patience, young Padawan....

Photo: Fake drug traffickers packaging flour. Scene for a 5 second flashback...
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Do you ever get that urge of desperation when you're SO CLOSE to finishing something, and you know that you're ALMOST done, but it still needs a lot of work? ARGGGGGGGHHHHH!

Shit. We have 1 hour and 35 min edited... I am missing 2 scenes which have not been shot (but will be shot this week), it feels that we are SO close, yet so far away...

We are also at a stage where we are viewing scenes, and if they are not good enough, we are reshooting... We won't be one of those independent filmmakers that say, we wrote this in a week, shot it in 2 weeks, and finished the film after a month or two... it's been 5 months since production began... and we are still shooting and reshooting... but I don't care...
We will be very proud, that we'll have a cool quality film at the end, and that all of our hard work will show up on screen... and that my friends, is worth waiting for...

Yesterday, we shot a quick flashback scene, with our producer Roberto Rodriguez, my cousin Victor Wheeler, and his friends at Paco's garage/basement...
Thanks to everyone for their patience....

Will you guide me now, for I cant see
A reason for the suffering and this long misery
What if every living soul could be upright and strong
Well, then I do imagine...
there will be sorrow
-Bad Religion- Sorrow

Buyakashaaaaa

Photo: Top-Tati Mello on the phone with el Jefe... Bottom- Alejandro Wheeler with Tiffany, getting ready for delivery to AJAANA in Don Ra's van...
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We had a fun day today... Despite some shortcomings, we shot our remaining footage with Tati Mello... a special thanks to Gerry Mendez and Don Raul for the cool van, and for driving around with us...
Great overall footage, this was part of scenes 13-14 which is still missing Matias... but we'll fill that in tomorrow...
ALSO we shot a quick flashback scene of a random kidnapping and my uncle Alejandro Wheeler and Tati's sister Tiffany were in it... it was a blast, and quite some work for a short 4 second flashback... if you think about it, there are 24 frames per second, so it is really for 96 frames of pure intensity...
GREAT JOB EVERYONE...
And once again our food sponsor Rodee's Fried Chicken saved the day!
Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh....

Oh and on Escape De Los Santos News... I bought El Escape today at the WalMart at Eagle Pass!
Many friends have been getting El Escape in WalMarts around the nation, so go buy it and support your cool independents!
Respek!

Re-shoooooooooootings

Photo: Julio and Ramiro having a laugh after a goofy take...
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Buyakasha... shake it like a polaroid...
Yesterday we reshot some stuff with Ash and his loyal henchman (played by Julio Valdes)...
Despite the fact that we were all sick, I had a bad cough (and I could barley talk), Alonso and Paco had a cough as well, and Barco, well, his herpes was getting worse (jajajajajaja) just kiddin', he was just mentally sick...
We went through the day, and a great day it was...

-My parents say that Mexico is a really dangerous place...
-Yes, it is... it's full of Mexicans....
One of my favorite lines off of the new movie Babel

Ash Wednesday's Piano Man "Lando" Rolando in Colmar, FR.

Photo: Rola in France! I wonder what they call a Whopper in France?
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News from music genius "Lando" Rolando Garza...
He is living in Colmar, France, where he works with the Atelier du Rhin.
He is also working in Strasbourg as a pianist for the production of La Belle Helene, de Offenbauc (for the Opera of Rhin).

Rolando Garza will be best known throughout the universe as the pianist for the soundtrack of ASH WEDNESDAY: CAPITULO UNUS, where he graciously recorded for us this past September (2006).

EXCLUSIVE: Download the audio for scene #69 where Delso Carrete tortures the fiercest assasin in Mexico, Gregorio Cazares. (mp3 format, 1.7 MBs)

The best of luck to Rola and all his endeavors!
Rock on!

Almost there...

Photos: Kristy Gomez in a flashback scene & Gerry Mendez (as Gibran), henchman of Ash Wednesday.
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While editing we have found some problems with some scenes, and if left alone, it won't affect the story, but it will affect the overall quality of ASH WEDNESDAY...
And we think that quality, even though a little more effort has to be taken, it is VERY well worth it...
We still have stuff to shoot and reshoot some more...
The edited scenes are looking incredible!

Bottom picture: while shooting scenes, Barco and Leo encountered a dead cat... we paid its respek, but we're glad it died happy... Hours later the cat had its revenge by losing Barco's glasses. Barco ultimately found his glasses next to the cat, they were chipped at one end. After that Barco buried it in his backyard... :-D

"Escape" on a whim...

El Escape is generating some good "word of mouth"...
Here's a slice of what people are posting online:
"Rented this on a whim and I was pleasantly surprised..." and " also if you rent the vid, make sure to view the two special features."
Coooooool
Here's the link to the forum:
http://bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=357898&page=21
scroll down until you see the escape picture...

Here's an interesting article about El Escape:
http://www.terra.com/ocio/articulo/html/oci152058.htm

Very busy... Respek...

Photos: Top, Hector Muñoz Mijares as the mysterious caller. Bottom pic, Jesus 'Flaco' Flores calling the shots... snf
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There's so much stuff to post...
we have been shooting a bunch of stuff that is missing, or that we forgot to shoot, or simply needed to reshoot to improve some scenes...
I have edited close to 95% of the whole film, and cannot wait to finish shooting this whole week to finally finish a rough cut...

Thanks to everyone that has been VERY patient with us... like Kristy Gomez (who plays Jessica), Tati Melo, Jesus "Flaco" Flores and others...

The scenes were shooting look great, so hopefully we'll keep it flowing...

A'right respek, and keep it real...
I hope you all go see and like my movie-film... I like you, do you like-e me? snffffffffff