2006

Photos: Behind the scenes pics of the ASH WEDNESDAY shoot, during a REALLY hot summer in 2006...
_______________________________
What an exhaustive year to say the least...
The first part of the year, was filled with drastic changes... I had my regular 9-5 job, I was living in San Antonio, and everything was good... Paco and Adrian were also living in San Antonio... BUT we were all hungry to make the next film... maybe not because of the script, because I still didn't have one, but maybe we were searching for something more...

We all had this incredible experience with EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS, we shot the film in 2004, finished in 2005, we went to hollywood to represent our film in a film festival, we sold it and we were all very proud that not only we finished a film, but we finished a film that was at least worthy of a national audience, and is now being seen across the country...

Then we all kind of separated, until we got together again in early 2006... We all decided to go back to Eagle Pass, not only for a while, but to actually live here, just to make our next movie...

In mid 2006, we were all here in Eagle Pass, regrouped, and determined... Once the script was finalized for ASH WEDNESDAY, we all kind of stepped back and said: HOLY SHIT.

We all knew it was too much work, and it seemed impossible to do by such a small group of filmmakers. This new movie involved makeup, blood, guns, dramatic dialogue, and just a LOT of props, like cars, buildings and an incredible amount of actors (who needed to volunteer for the project)....

Once the camera started rolling in July we were unstoppable.
We were a lot more focused, Roger, Paco and Alonso were on top of everything... We were like a well oiled movie making machine... With every shoot we felt more and more confident, and by the time August came around, and we had shot like 70% of the film, we knew we had something special.

We had a film that was not only enjoyable and fun to watch, but we were going to have a film that will be incredibly relevant and significant...

By the time November and now December, and all of our hard work of the past 5 months is now edited and assembled into an INCREDIBLE one hour and forty minutes of pure adrenalin, it is very rewarding to see that our work will pay off very well...

We have a healthy amount of confidence, that could easily be mistaken for arrogance, but those who have feasted their eyes and enjoyed ASH WEDNESDAY: CAPITULO UNUS, know that this will be a movie that 10-20 years from now, people will still talk about it...

I am very thankful for the people who have supported us, especially our families and all of our friends.
Those are the people who don't ask for anything in return, and are there in your darkest moments... These are people who care.

2007 will be a hell of year filled with even more drastic changes.
The groundwork has been laid. I cannot wait until ASH WEDNESDAY explodes...
People will love it and people will hate it... no "in-betweens"...

Thanks again to everyone riding on this movie, we all hope for the best, but we all know that this, is just the beginning...

PS: Happy Birthday to the coolest Mother-in-law Lupe Torres (AKA Barbara Del Rio and ALSO known as "Dama")

System Error...

Photo: This is a screen shot while my PC was checking one of my harddrives for any errors... Thankfully it was an error caused by the AVID, and that I could correct...
__________________
I am currently rendering and processing everything to compress everything on to a DVD and while compressing it into what we geeks call it a quicktime reference file, the stupid f**ing thing kept giving me a STUPID message that read:
"The system volume is not available"
AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
I spent ALL day strugling, uninstalling, reinstalling, and other crap, until FINALLY I managed to do it, at this moment it is compressing itself to make a "test" DVD (which will be destroyed shortly after analyzing it).... by then it was 7pm, I was frustrated, tired and tense... so me and my wife Gaby went to see ROCKY BALBOA... which is one of the best films that I have seen all year long.. WOW. That was not a film, that was an experience.... great flick...

--...But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done.

--The only kind of repect that matters is self-respect
Rocky.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.

I saw the shine...

Photo: This was during our visit to Valhalla studios (Monterrey, N.L. MX) in September (2006) for the making of the soundtrack to Ash Wednesday: Capitulo Unus... Giuliano (drums) and Waris (guitar)... We were so broke that Paco, Roger and myself slept in the studio...
________________________
As of now, I am relentlessly seeing Capitulo Unus from beginning to end...
The purpose is to check and recheck for any errors, either visual or audio...
It is exhaustive but VERY well worth it... I have corrected dozens of little simple stuff that needed enhancement or just adjusting stuff...

In other news, the band NEXO (from Monterrey, N.L.) has a myspace page and it has 4 BRAND NEW SONGS!
including "I saw the shine"...
here's the link: www.myspace.com/sujetonexo
NEXO (formerly known as Pennylane, then Santelmo) is also known for making the music for the soundtracks to both EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS and ASH WEDNESDAY: CAPITULO UNUS...
The best of luck to Giuliano and Waris!

That's why you hire me...
because I make them suffer!
-Gregorio Cazares (Ash W.: Capitulo Unus)

Merry XMAS!

Merry Christmas from everyone at Digital Work Studios!
The coolest thing about Xmas, is that you get to spend time with friends and family...
The coolest thing about digital work studios, is that you get to do that, all year long...
well, except the turkey, and the gifts... jejejejeje

Wii Wish you a Merry Xmas!

Reshooting......

Photo: Delso Carrete's reshoot from yesterday, quickly shot and edited in the film...
_________________
The holidays are now upon us, and it is now time to drink and eat and joke around, and drop off the really drunk one at the party in the middle of nowhere, so we can have something cool to hear in next year's party... if he makes it off course...
Well, we were re-shooting some of Delso's scenes, and they came out really great!
I inserted them in th AVID, and are now fully edited into the rough cut of CAPITULO UNUS...

We will be submitting to a film festival, hopefully sometime next week... So we are getting ready all of the necessary materials, poster, paperwork, DVD screener, stills, etc...

The rough cut has changed dramatically over the past weeks... it is getting really close to a final cut for all to enjoy...

Happy holidays from DWS!

Tis the season...

Photo: Doggy Mendoza voice talent in ASH WEDNESDAY... she's the voice of a dog that gets slayed...
__________________
Buyakashaaaa...
Yesterday, I tooled around ASH, perfecting audio, correcting, sculpting...
AND THEN... I took one of ASH WEDNESDAY's most prolific voice-over stars to the vet...
It is my pleasure to announce that Doggy Mendoza is pregnant.
I was really nervous, but I just had to cope with the fact that my baby is now a full grown expecting mother...
Her boyfriend has no plans to marry her, but is very supportive and is committed to take care of the babies if Doggy needs to work on her next film...
So everything worked out.
Check out Doggy's profile on myspace:
www.myspace.com/doggymendoza

TODAY, we plan to reshoot some of Delso's stuff, so it'll be a good day...

ALSO, respek goes out to Brittani Harmeyer, today is her 18th B-day, for her B-day she got accepted to NYU film school... wicked!

More screening + good news...

Photo: Behind the scenes pic, we were shooting one of the key scenes for the end of Capitulo Unus. (In the pic: Producers Barco and Leo, ME, Brittani Harmeyer, ASH Wednesday and Matias)
___________________
Whoa, WHAT A F'n WEEKEND!
We had several screening of the "rough cut" of Capitulo Unus, and they have been VERY helpful, to say the least...
Many peoples, came... and saw my movie-film, and were delighted... absorbed with the content...
Everyday there's something different in it, modifications are constant. It looks better everyday...
The ending is now conclusive, and looks excellent. The audio is also sounding a lot better...

As the circle of life keeps on rolling, 2 great achievements occurred this weekend...
Gricelda Torres (my sister in-law and actress in ASH WED.) graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, HUGE congrats!
ALSO, Brittani Harmeyer (Boom operator) got her acceptance letter from NYU film school, in (obviously) New York City.
It is one of the coolest schools for filmmaking, where (believe it or not) they actually teach you, how to make a film... Congrats Brittani, we wish you the best...

We are preparing a version that can be "submittable" to a very prestigious festival, so hopefully I'll be posting some good news very soon...

Gearing up...

Photo: Barco and Leo making the "festival edition" rustic box. Yesterday, Leo and myself were at McCoy's cutting and finding all of the necessary materials to build a special box that will cradle the delivery of ASH W.: Capitulo Unus. Thanx to Paco for doing the carpentry work.If you really concentrate, you can make a lot of stuff with wood... snf...........
_____________________
We are running full steam and doing everything we can to get this movie in the right hands.
We are producing an impressive festival edition of Capitulo Unus, for (obviously) a film festival.
The festival is one of the most important in the world, however, our focus will be get this to the right distributor.
The rough cut is shaping up, I am still sculpting and cutting, and adding, and BELIEVE IT OR NOT, we are STILL shooting some stuff, to be added...
The story and the images look very sharp and very fast-paced...
We are still in the process of conjuring up one new scene that will be added, I can't wait to shoot that.... we'll keep everyone posted!

Busy weekend, TV Interview, re-shoots, Rough cut screening

Photo: This is a photo of our prototype poster for our film ASH WEDNESDAY: CAPITULO UNUS. Thanks to Hector Hernandez for getting this done in a VERY impressive manner.
______________
WHOA, what a tumultuous weekend, to say the least...
Friday, after shuffling last-minute stuff, we finally made it to the interview at the Alamo Drafthouse (Thanx to Brandon at the Drafthouse)...
Renzo and Wilton from AIM-TV began to shell out questions as we so eloquently responded.
The interview was great, but will not be seen until April, closer to the film's release.

Special thanks goes to Hector Hernandez for setting up everything and making sure everything ran smoothly...

After our interview we saw Apolcalypto, and it was very cool... Roger was even drooling throughout the whole film... jajajajajajja

On Saturday we re-shot some stuff with main actress Eva Akashi.
This time it was incredibly cold, so it was not easy to shoot summer scenes in the cold... but we did get some VERY incredible footage, that enhances the film on so many levels.
Everything went smoothly and now the rough cut looks so much better... :-D
ALSO we voiced a lot of stuff including some ADR, and other narrations...

That same night Gabino Portes came in from San Antonio as well, and viewed the rough cut, and was impressed by the message and the look of the film...
He understood completely the concept, little details embedded in the film,
PLUS he understood the characters and their motive for their actions...
THAT was very important for us, and very rewarding to hear someone say that the movie has a lot of significance and meaning... very cool...

SUBTITLED!!!

Photo: Scene from Capitulo Unus, Evangelina Akashi (Alicia Bloom)
______________________
Este pinche pedo YA ESTA SUBTITULADO!
Translated: The movie has been subtitled!

The only part subtitled is the parts in Spanish (which accounts for 60% of the film)...
We started Monday at 8 AM.
Subtitling crew was:
-Royer De Los Santos
-Paco Flores
-Alonso Wheeler (Delso Carrete himself)
-Ricky Mendoza

The crew came in Monday and Tuesday from 8am until 5pm...
and after everything was typed in, I went in to the AVID, and inserted every subtitle (approx. 500)...
It took me Wednesday and Thursday (between Tetris breaks and playing the Wii, and the usual bathroom stuff... :-)

Now it's time to get ready for a looooooooong working weekend giving interviews on TV and some VERY important reshoots...

BRING IT ON!

Wii have a winner

Today wii (I mean we) finish subtitling the movie from Spanish to English.

Special thanx to our dedicated producers Alonso, Paco and Roger for spending all day subtitling the film, apart from from actually producing and making the film day in and day out for the past 5 months! CRAP! We're almost there...

And also, special thanx, to the HH agency working behind the scenes and making sure we have a succesful campaign pitching it to distributors and the public alike.

On Friday we'll be interviewed by our friends at Maximas productions for the nationally syndicated TV shows American Latino TV and Latination, we'll keep you posted...

Meanwhile, here's the part when we were featured on Latination, this part March for promoting El Escape De Los Santos.
DWS on Latination

Add to My Profile | More Videos

This morning, after waking at 6am and dashing towards my local WalMart in search for a nintendo wii, I was denied, after 9 people were already in line (and only 9 were available).
I quickly directed my truck towards the next closest Walmart in Carrizo Springs (35 miles from Eagle Pass), and I was #8 (out of 9 wii's)...
Now it's time to list it on eBay... jajajajaja Nah, this one is for my son and me (or mii).

Stroke of genius

Photo: Thanks to Doggy Mendoza, she's ready for X-mas!

It's funny how life turns out to be...
This is the story of a sound effect.
It was 8 pm tonight, I was making myself a turkey sandwich, while pondering and thinking HOW THE HELL was I going to capture the sound of a dog dying without actually harming a dog.
This had been bothering me this whole week, UNTIL:
While making my sandwich I took out the turkey out of the fridge and my co-editor chihuahua Doggy Mendoza comes to me excitedly crying really loud for a piece of sliced turkey. AND IT HIT ME.
I quickly went to my editing room, got out my handy, dandy recording device and hit the record button while my dog begged and cried for a piece of turkey. ALAS, I got some great sound effects which I am going to insert as soon as this blog post hits the web....

Sometimes strokes of genius comes at the stupidest moments, it's up to us to recognize an opportunity and convert a banal moment into something useful and creative.
Oh, and by the way, my turkey sandwich tasted twice as good, and my dog got to eat 2 slices.
jajajajajajjaja

OK, a quick recap of what's been going here at Digital Work Studios (which is actually a room next to my bedroom =-D...
On Saturday night newlyweds Omar and Susana, Gibran and Lopez came to watch a rough of Capitulo Unus, and were blown away by the story... HOWEVER, I still do not feel confident to show the movie, because it is lacking some key elements that we will be reshooting this whole week...

Thankfully ALL of the reshoots have been incredibly successful, the acting and the changes in the story take the movie to a different level everytime...
ALSO, today Paco, Roger, Adrian and myself woke up at 8 in the friggin morning, to begin the daunting task of subtitling the film from Spanish to English...
We finished translating everything, but it still needs to be inserted in the movie itself.
Tomorrow we''l start on that, and we'll probably be shooting some stuff as well...