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)

Watercooler shoot...

Photo: Dianira Martinez, plays the Water-cooler girl, and she works in Filo's company. She is the person that Filo and his co-worker/friend Jorge reference in a somewhat disturbing scene...
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Buyakasha...
Finally, we had a shoot, NOT A RESHOOT, but an actual shoot...
It was cool, we felt alive again, we felt like us again... jajajajajaja
Albeit, it was a shot that will be on-screen for 4 seconds... Nuttin difficult, just a "go up to the water cooler, pretend to talk to someone, and walk away... CUT, PRINT, CAPTURE, EDIT, COLOR CORRECT, AND FINISHED! It's now IN the movie...
Special thanks to TVAW channel 20 in Eagle Pass (Vic Wheeler) and to Dianira Martinez for helping us out in appearing in Ash Wednesday... She was really cool about it, very professional... THANX!
In all, I believe Ash now stands with a total of approximately 70+ credited actors that appear in the movie (not counting extras).... AND of all the 70, I think that 5 characters get to live... jajajajajjaja

Ever get that feeling you can't go on
Just remember whose side it is that you're on
You've got friends with you till the end
If you're ever in a tough situation we'll be there with no hesitation
Brotherhood's our rule we cannot bend
Bro Hymn (Pennywise)

Cannes we do it? YES WE CAN!

Photos: The engraved wooden box that holds the DVD screener of Capitulo Unus. ALSO: Paco working his magic on the wooden box designed by Paco himself...
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Well, here is the final submission to a film festival at least for this month...
AND yes it is THE biggest film festival in the world...

The question is CAN the movie make it? is it possible?
Well, first of all I think that it is a great movie that definitely deserves the respect of ANY film festival in the world.
I know that EVERY indie filmmaker thinks that their film is the greatest thing ever, HOWEVER, I knew deep down EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS (which was our first movie) did NOT have what it takes to be worthy of an important festival. Let's just say that we learned from our mistakes, and NOW Ash Wednesday is everything we could wish for in a movie...

ALSO, we didn't rush to make ANY festival deadlines or distributors date or anything, we worked on our movie until it was ready...

The film will eventually find an audience, but to how wide the audience depends on the decisions we make from now until May... So we'll be thinking as big as possible.

The premieres are cooking and some extra surprises that we have up our sleeves to make the best of the whole thing.... stay tuned....

Mid-month

Photo: Paco, Ramiro (Ash) and myself... Being silly with the sword... buyakasha... this was during a REALLY HOT day in August during a shoot... COMPARED to today, it's fr-fr-fr-freeeeeezing... I can feel Ash Wednesday changing the weather already... respek!
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I am juggling between finishing a final cut of the film, getting TWO screenings (one in San Antonio and one in Eagle Pass) AND getting press kits assembled for distributors and our last film festival submission...

On finishing a final cut version, I was fixing EVERY single error in the subtitles, nothing too alarming, just simple apostrophes and stuff... ALSO I was updating the credits, to make them look really cool and interesting...

Most of the time when one submits to a film festival, one depends on luck, more than anything else, because we [filmmakers] tend to rapidly submit a rough cut in order to make the deadline...
HOWEVER, I am happy that we took our time, and that I KNOW, that we did EVERYTHING we could to let the movie succeed. We have NO REGRETS on how this movie was submitted.

I don't know where this movie is headed but I can't wait for the trip.
Climb on or get the hell out of our way...

Happy Birthday to Roger (Barco)

Photo: Barco... 'nuff said!
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Finally the time has come for Roger to be 21 years old and can finally be drinking with us (legally)...
Hooray!
Our youngest producer is now a man (teardrop... jajajajajaja)

LAFF + Bob Polunsky Comments

Photo: Second submission to a film fest. Check out the Los Angeles film fest online.
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I have sent our second submission to a film festival, this time it went out to the Los Angeles Film Festival. That fest isn't until June, so that'll give us a lot of leeway.
Next week we send out to the most important festival in the world. We'll see.

Last week I had sent a screener DVD to movie critic and film professor Bob Polunsky to get his comments and any helpful input.
In a private letter from Mr. Polunsky to myself he says and I quote:
"Thank you for sending me a copy of "Ash Wednesday". I admire your workmanship and the statement the film makes. It's a shocker more than a thriller because it has more punch and moral value than most crime movies, and I appreciate the fact that you show characters on the side of law and order doing their jobs with pride and a good conscience... The movie ranks alongside such Hollywood films as "The Departed" in as much as its "thriller"and "shocker" values develop together."

I was very pleased to hear his comments because it has been a LOT of hard work and effort by all of us who have been in production throughout the last 5 months...

Now the movie is just about finished but this is just half the battle.
Now it is time to focus on getting this movie distributed so the whole world can experience the film.

You can see Bob Polunsky's movie reviews on WOAI-TV (San Antonio) and in Primetime Newspapers (in San Antonio as well).
Thanks again to Mr. Polunsky for his help.

The upgraded torture scene

Photos: Film stills from the actual movie, color corrected and everything... HOW COOL... Gregorio Cazares (Fred Cisneros) torturing one of his longtime enemies Nestor Pragas (Rolando Tamayo Chavarria). Nestor and Delso infiltrated the crime group and befriended Gregorio. When Gregorio found out that Nestor and Delso were DEA he captured Nestor and tortured him for 7 days.
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One of the coolest scenes has just been overhauled.
What was my favorite, is now my favorite scene times two...
It looks REALLY cool...
I forgot to thank George Bass for lending us the place to film at BASS AUTO PARTS in Eagle Pass...
The place was perfect!

Ricky's Bday and ESCAPE room service...

Photo: Me, ricky Jr, marcus, roger and paco... It took us almost 3 hours to build this thing... We found it a lot easier to make a movie... :-D
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MAN, after a celebrating Gaby and drinking tequila... (for the sore throat... of course...) I woke up in a daze...
I still had the task to build a 14' trampoline, with the help of the hungover Paco and Roger, we finally managed to build the damn thing.
BUT it was all worth just to see the tremendous surprised face of my son... good times...
AFTERWARDS we all jumped in and had some fun...

TODAY I also got some great news from our ESCAPE distributor Venevision International...
El Escape De Los Santos starting on February will be available in 800,000 hotel rooms in the US.
The service is called "On Command", and it is like video-on-demand but in a hotel room...
Hotels include Hyatt Int., Hilton, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Ramada, Sheraton and many more prestigious hotels across the nation....

EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS is out now on DVD available anywhere that DVD's are sold and rented.

Yesterday's shoot + Gaby's B-day!

Photo: Top-Fred, Rolando and me (the guy with the camera) Middle- Paco, Alonso, Passion of the Lic. Rolando Tamayo, Hector Hernandez and Fred Cisneros Bottom- Paco putting special FX makeup on Lic...
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WOW, what a day...
Yesterday, we filmed with our friend Lic. Rolando Tamayo who is coming back after a very scary health crisis. He was in the hospital for months, but now he is back and ready for action.
People who saw our first film EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS might remember him as the exuberant lawyer of Andres De Los Santos...
Originally the role of Gregorio Cazares (a torturing hitman in Ash Wednesday) was written for him, but health problems didn't allow him to do the role.
Now he serves as Nestor Pragas, an ex-DEA agent who gets tortured and killed by Gregorio Cazares (played by Fred Cisneros)... Nestor is Delso Carrete's longtime friend and mentor, whom which in their time they infiltrated drug cartels and brought drug dealers to justice...
Fred Cisneros and our agent Hector Hernandez came down from San Antonio to shoot a really cool flashback scene...
As of now Capítulo Unus is a very close FINAL CUT of the film, however there's still room for improvement...
We are very happy of how the film turned out.
I'm sure that the final FINAL cut will be even more satisfying...

Photo: My cool girlfriend Gaby Mendoza
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Today is my wife/girlfriend's birthday... she is, ummmmm, very very young...
ANYWAY, at the time when we did not have ANY money, and we needed $ for important stuff, she was one of the very few people who believed in me, in what I could succeed, in my hopes and my dreams... and maybe the sheer fact that someone else believes that you can be someone special is enough to make you confident to do a lot of cool stuff... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Gaby has been with me throughout the past 9 years, and we have been through A LOT... and that is probably an understatement... I'm just very glad that we have more time to enjoy life and each other...

It's Puppies!!!!

Photo: Doggy and her pups born today Jan. 6th...
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Our Co-editor and voice-over chick Doggy Mendoza is the proud mother of 3 beautiful baby pups...
2 of them look exactly like her with spots (only their spots are darker), and a cute brown puppy...

The procedure was painful since an induction injection had to be used, but she did have them naturally, under the vet's supervision.

The babies are mexican citizens, since they were born in Piedras Negras, Coah. MX, HOWEVER her mother is a US citizen, so I gues they have the benefit of enjoying dual citizenships...

They were born in Clinipet under the supervision of MVZ Gabriel Rivas. Thanks to all his staff.

Tomorrow we shoot a VERY cool flashback scene... stay tuned...

First Submission

Photo: This is the package containing one of the two existing DVD's of Ash Wednesday. We poured our hearts into not only the movie, but the website, the promo pics, and all of the promotional materials... Now we can't say we "should have" or "could have"... because we did...
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Whoa, we barely made the deadline for our first film festival submission.
The Tribeca film festival in New York will be the first to receive a submission for ASH WEDNESDAY.

After the countless rejections from our last film, I have developed a thick skin, so I am not really anxious to hear back from ANY particular film festival.

In the coming weeks we will be submitting to many other important film festivals, however we will still be sending ASH directly to distributors and the like...

We are still tweaking the movie and enhancing it, as a matter of fact we have 2 shoots this weekend... not of much importance, but shoots nonetheless... one of the shoots will be of utter importance in Capitulo Duos (Chapter Two)... stay tuned and wish us luck!

Render, render, render...

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Photo: Paco made this COOOOOOOOL handmade collector's box for the DVD screener. This will be sent to a very important film festival.
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I slept until 6am assembling and creating all of the needed materials for the film festival.
Paco created the immensely cool wooden box a few weeks ago, and I had to print film stills, fill and pay the online application, make a director's bio, and of course make the actual DVD for ASH.

As of now, there is ONLY one DVD of the film in existence in the whole universe.
Sadly, it will be destroyed after we watch it for errors.
Tonight I'll fix any errors or enhance stuff, and I'll make a final DVD to send to the festival.

By then the festival will be the only one who will have a DVD copy of ASH Wednesday.
In the coming months I plan to submit to more festivals and be sending screeners to distributors, and I will be in production of the behind the scenes stuff, as well as to create a press kit for ASH.
AND we will still be enhancing the movie itself, by retooling some small audio stuff and adding extra footage that will make the movie even better...

NEW Stills gallery

Photo: Mysterious shaman dude, Hector Muñoz Mijares stealing the spotlight in Capitulo Unus.
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It's the start of 2007, and I decided to move into full throttle with the NEW film stills gallery now uploaded into www.someonewillfall.com

Wicked....

A very busy week awaits us as we submit to film festivals, and actually produce the DVD for Capitulo Unus...

Gotta go back to work!

2006

Photos: Behind the scenes pics of the ASH WEDNESDAY shoot, during a REALLY hot summer in 2006...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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)
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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...........
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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.
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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)
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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

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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...

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