Producers Delso and Roger hit the streets of Laredo

Photos: Paco, Alonso and myself unloading the stuff in Laredo (Sunday)...
Me directing the whole unloading process... Pimpin' ain't easy, but necessary... jajajajjaja
AND DELSO CARRETE, handled and killed pedophiles and criminals in the movie, but in real life, he got severely injured with a washing maching... He lost a LOT of skin... snff
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We thought the day would never come...
Sadly, Digital Work Studios' producers Roger and Alonso have moved to Laredo.
Unfortunately we couldn't completely get rid of them... DAMN! jajajajajajaj
They will still be an integral part of our team and they'll more than likely be visiting every weekend...
But who knows! They'll probably be back sooner than I can say blueberry pie... "blueberry pie"...
"-well, probably not that fast, but pretty damn quick!"

2 Years Bloggin'!

Photos: El Escape Team, Alonso, Rolando Tamayo, me, ASH (Ramiro Briones), Paco and Chicksters. (taken 5-17-2004)
I think that Barco was out sick that day or something, but here's a picture of him in case you miss him... (snff)
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I totally forgot that february 22nd marked the 2nd anniversary of this BLOG...
TWO YEARS!
When I first started writing this "diary" it was when we were finishing EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS, a very stressed time, for all of us...
we were barely starting out as "filmmakers", and that in itself was incredibly stressful.

Tonight I saw the OSCARS, which is the highest recognition given only to THE GREATEST films of the year.
AND man what a year of incredibly great and memorable films... my faves:
Babel, departed, children of men, blood diamond, last king of scotland, borat, el escape de los santos (jaja), to name a few...
These were all great films that inspired me in so many ways... they made me laugh, they made me cry, and alomost made me vomit (borat)... It was a great year for me as a movie-goer... :-D

I was glad for Scrosese and for the guy who made the music for BABEL, it was incredibly good...

I hope Delso gets his OSCAR one day, and if not, I know an Oscar in Mexico that can show him a lot of love and passion... jajajajajjaa

Happy Birthday Rosalinda

Photo: Here's the gang! Alonso (in the back), Roger, AD Ibarra, me, Rosalinda and Paco. Taken July 8, 2006.
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If you've seen the trailer to ASH, you've obviously seen Rosalinda in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes of the movie.
Rosalinda (who plays Matias' aunt) is dragged by the hair by some psycho swat guys... In the trailer it is intense, however in the movie it is so much over the top, and that is all thanks to the wonderful acting of AD Ibarra and our Bday gal Rosalinda Coto.
That scene is the one that sets the tone of the whole film, and that is why it is the opening scene in the film.
Happy Birthday from all of us at DWS!

On ASH, TWO Mega events are in the works, so stay tuned!

ASH WEDNESDAY DAY

Photos: July 8, 2006. First day of shooting with Ramiro Briones (Ash). The scar looked so weak we had to reshoot a closeup on his face months later.
The second pic displays the makeup that we used to make the scar look real. We used nose and scar wax, matte foundation (to match the actor's skin) and a sculpting tool... Paco quickly mastered the art of making the scar, so he became the official scar guy... The few times that I did it, it looked like crap...
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Today is ASH WEDNESDAY... I mean for real...
It is a day observed by Western Christians, and it marks the first day of lent.
In mass a priest puts a cross on your forehead of ash, and it is to remind us that "Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris." meaning "Remember, man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return."

HECTOR MATA, our Ash Wednesday puts a cross of blood (on their foreheads, if it is still attached to the face) on everyone he kills... I guess his message is "chingatus madreis" meaning "I am putting a cross of blood on your forehead, because the movie will look much cooler, and I want to be different than all of the other crime bosses in other films..." or something like that... :-D

SO, how the hell did we come up ASH WEDNESDAY (the character)?
Well, as we were beginning to write (very early on), I had an acquaintance that happened to have a birthmark on his forehead and I swear he looked as if he had gone to church on ash wednesday, BUT EVERYDAY!!!
I always thought to myself, that the only day he must feel normal was today, on ash wednesday.

SO, I had an idea to make a hitman character called ASH, because he had a birthmark on his forehead...
ANYWAY, as everything started evolving, I decided to have the crime boss as ASH... HOWEVER, later on, we changed his birthmark into a scar. With a scar we could now add a really healthy backstory, of HOW he actually got the scar and so on... and ended up being one of the coolest scenes in the movie...
Our only dilemma was to actually make the scar look real, but after multiple tests we got it right and we moved on...

"Listen Dama, if I find out that you had something to do with this, I am going to rip your heart out and feed it to your kids..."
-Ash Wednesday, scene 48

The making of the "Making of"...

Photo: still from the raw footage of the behind the scenes... Paco Flores putting the scar cross on Ash (Ramiro Briones). In this scene, we were about to shoot a scene where ASH kills off a VERY important character in the film...
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After spending the whole year of 2006 making ASH, well, more than half of it writing and pre-producing, and from July-December shooting and editing...

We are now in production of a very cool documentary about all the stuff that happened behind the camera of CAPITULO UNUS...

I don't think it will be long, I will try and keep the most interesting facts to keep it incredibly informative as well as entertaining...

This would be for the DVD, but I will put a cool piece up on our website...

We are also planning a "Behind the Score" segment as well... with all of the important musicians including Waris Rodriguez, Dude Ibarra, Lando Rolando Garza, Chaviro Villa and Giuliano Innocenzi...

Some very cool stuff planned... stay tuned...

HAPPY Valentine's DAY

Photo: Dedicated to all the ladies! Straight from the movie, here's badboy Gerry with his trademark smirk... yeeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh!
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Valentine's Day... Just another marketing tool for rich corporations to make money or is it really dedicated to love... Whatever... you decide.
ANYWAYS, to all you love birds, to my friends, and to movie lovers in general, Filo and Matias and the rest of the Ash characters wish you a Happy Valentines's Day!

ESCAPE flying high...

Photo: These are the DWS team on the Nintendo Wii... Wii made them ourselves as Mii's... jajajajajaja From L to R: Roger, Paco, Me, Delso, Ash Wednesday and Chicken... Barco also made many of the characters of ASH...
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After its Pay-per-view/ Video on Demand stint AND now in hotels nationwide, AND now on the web at JAMAN.com, AND on DVD available everywhere, we can say that our first feature film EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS is flying high...
HOWEVER, it REALLY is going to fly high!!!
Venevision International (Our distributor for EL ESCAPE) have negotiated a deal with some airline companies for a new Video-on-Demand system called letVAfly...
Here's an inside look at this new system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=609i-OhFhoQ
Very cool stuff...

Goodbye to Angel Guerrero

Photo: Angel Guerrero- Aug 10, 1986- Feb 9, 2007
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Angel is not a member of Digital Work Studios, however he is my sisters' (Luana and Diana) friend.
Personally I did not have the privilege to meet him, but of what I have heard he was an upright and cool guy...
He was involved in a fatal car accident in Laredo, TX. which happened on Friday.
Unfortunately, he passed away Saturday evening.
ALSO, it goes to show what a small world we live in, as Max Seturino, a friend of mine from Piedras Negras, Mexico, was Angel's uncle and friend... His family is also from Piedras Negras.
My heart goes out to his family and his countless friends that loved him very much.
If you're a myspace citizen, and you knew Angel, visit his space at:
http://www.myspace.com/aagc1186

Happy B-day Chato (AKA Delso Carrete)

Photo: Delso and me...
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Happy Birthday to Alonso Wheeler...
As of today, he has inhabited the earth for 27 years...
Leave a message on his space:
http://www.myspace.com/ezpanol

ESCAPE online...

Photo: from the archives of EL ESCAPE... Here's Alonso, Robert (chicken) and Paco putting on a fake beard on Chicken... BIG MISTAKE, because it looked awful and we had to reshoot everything... that involved the fake mustache and beard... at the time it seemed like the right thing to do... OH WELL, live and learn!!! But don't worry, in ASH the makeup is close to perfection... right Paco? yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhh
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Trust me, it has NOT been slow here at DWS...
We've been working tirelessly behind the scenes to prepare 2 special events, and unfortunately I cannot redact the details as of now...

However, there is a new online service called JAMAN in which you can rent and buy cool movies from your PC (or Mac) and EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS is waiting for you to view...
If you have not seen our first feature film go to www.jaman.com subscribe and rent it today...

Jaman is a film community for movie lovers, think youtube/napster/myspace rolled into one...
The movies are of VERY good quality and they have free short films to view... I highly recommend it...

So go and view ESCAPE and leave us your comment... If you want to get the regular version with all the special features (on DVD) go to AMAZON.com and order today...

More to come...

In the works...

OK, well...
We have been "low-profile" lately, because we are planning 2 events, that are going to be WICKED! Respek...
We had a very private screening this morning with a few city officials (city not named on purpose), and the reaction was really cool... suffice to say, that they "got it"... they got the overall message and understood the relevance of the movie...
Stay tuned for more updates on these "events" that we are brewing...

Best things come for those who wait... snffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

A horse is like a man...
If a horse is... good... is like a man is good...
If a horse is, you know, angry... is like a man is angry...
If a horse is... tall... is like a man is tall...
If a horse is... hungry... is like a man is hungry...
If a horse is... strong... is like a man is strong...
-Borat (21st century philosopher)