First "final" rehearsal for Sin Reversa

Today we held a production meeting and the first of two final rehearsals for our short film Sin Reversa.
We had plenty of our actors/extras showing up, that was awesome!

We also got the actor we were looking for! Not in the way we had thought. Actually, the "loudspeaker" method didn't work at all. I don't think even one person showed up from hearing that. But some other people showed up, some that we had invited personally. No, instead our last-minute solution was to call back a previous actor we had seen and who we were unsure about. But... we saw improvement! So much that we decided to stay with that person.

We keep learning. One thing, casting auditions need to be well announced. The key is how you announce....

Today I learnt something else. Producing a feature film vs. producing a short film is not like driving a car vs. driving a bicycle. It is like driving a car a long distance vs. driving a car a short distance. You need the same complete car. You need a complete team to produce a short film. Every position and procedure is important and needed, down to the assistants. You need a lot of time to prepare. Meetings, preparations, lots of think-through. Equipment. Bring-in-case's. Calls. People need to know where to go and what time. And last but not least, you need money.

Well, I guess this is all valid if you want to do something with "almost" the same quality as a feature film. And that's what we're trying to do.

Tonight I feel totally dead. One of my most stressful days in a long time. How dead will I feel directing a feature film? I hope a good team would keep me alive...
But I am also happy. We got so many things to work tonight. I am grateful to God. We are going forward.

One more rehearsal to go tomorrow.

PS. If you want to support this project, click here!

Scouting actors.... on the streets of Medellin

Last week we had four different casting sessions for our short film Sin Reversa. We are getting our actors together step by step. But since we are working with non-paid and many non-experienced actors,  we get a lot of "acting" that we aren't pleased with, or simply put, it looks acting.

There was one important role that we still hadn't got the actor for at the fourth and last casting last week. What to do? We have our last blocking rehearsals on Wednesday and Thursday this week. I said, "Let's go out on the streets and simply ask people".

Since we are Christians and do our film projects with a spiritual purpose, I thought, "Ok, we'll pray and go out and God will do the rest", just like the disciples of Jesus did, has they held up their fish and bread to Jesus.

So we decided to go to a poor area (a "comuna"), because the role we are looking for is that of a person from such an area. My friend and casting coordinator J-C told me,
"Urban, there is a way, my friend works with this 'perifoneo', a car that drives around the area announcing cultural events with loudspeakers. It would only cost us 25.000 pesos. Do we have the money for it?"
I sadly responded,
"I'm afraid we don't have that money."
I had already spent the double of that on newspaper casting ads the other week and I am just out of money.

Then, after having prayed for God's guidance and protection, we went out on the streets. We started to ask some people. But quite soon J-C told me,
"Urban, I want to pay for that loudspeaker thing out of my own pocket."
"Really? Ok, let's do it".

So we went to this local cultural center in the comuna and asked to borrow a hall were we could do an audition tomorrow. Gracefully, they not only had a space free tomorrow, but they would let us use it for free! J-C would go on and contact the loudspeaker guy.

Then, in case the loudspeaker method wouldn't be efficient, we went out on the streets again. With only a notepad in our hands, we went around and asked the people walking by, "Would you like to act in a short film? You look like the character we are casting" and informed them about the audition tomorrow. Some of them were interested, others were not, or were busy working. Surprisingly, nobody seemed to think we were weird or suspicious.

Anyway, I am excited to see what this can lead to and what can happen as we pray and go forward. Starting with nothing, we now have a new audition set up, one that will be announced by an ambulating loudspeaker car!

We asked somebody "Do you think people here are interested in such a thing? Would they go if they heard the message?" "Oh yeah, everybody here wants to do stuff like that" they assured us.

Tomorrow we will see!

Sin Reversa funding campaign!

Preproduction of Sin Reversa is getting more and more intense.
This week we had four casting auditions and a productive production meeting.
Set design is getting discussed and made, and we are creating some interesting extra characters.
We are getting the final production team together and today I agreed with a location sound mixer.

And.... we just launched our IndieGogo Funding campaign! Check it out!

Location scouting

Unexpectedly meeting a storyboard artist 

Yesterday we went to see a location for our upcoming short film No Return.
We had scouted a bar in Poblado, Medellin and had agreed to meet the owner, whom I had never met.

For some reason I had pictured the bar owner to be a half-alcoholic, rough-looking slob, but I was pleased to meet a distinguished physician, who immediately showed us around the whole premise and then asked us if we were looking for any other locations.
Sure, we are looking for an apartment...
"Let's go and see my place" he said and then presented us to his cousin and his cousin's mother. Then he took us to the bar's garage where his pickup was parked. "Here they filmed a scene of the film In Coma", he said. In Coma is a Colombian feature that came out last year and was pretty decent.

Cool, we enter the pickup and then the owner's cousin presents himself as a storyboard artist who had lived in California for 30+ years working with digital art for films and commercials. Okay!

The apartment was nice, but we decided we would need more space (on film everything looks tiny). But we agreed to shoot at the bar, and then the cousin showed us his conceptual art he had done for different film projects. They actually looked really good! I showed him some reference pictures for our other upcoming short film Hero. He said he would gladly collaborate with us and do some conceptual art for free. No joke? Awesome!


Tech scout

Today we went to the village where our bank location is for No Return. Normally after a first visit, if a location shows out to be suitable, the next step is to do a "tech scout" (except signing contracts). So we went with the producer, the producer assistant, the art director, the camera operator and the gaffer. Unfortunately the director of photography could not make it, but he sent the gaffer instead.

We discussed the lighting, the angles and how to decorate and prepare the place. The executive of the bank, as last time, was very collaborative and generous with letting us run around with cameras, measuring-tape and note-pads as the customers were there.

On the way back we stopped and looked for an outdoor location for Hero.

Thank you God! I am happy with how the preparations are going, we have a team that is ready to do some great work and things are falling into place as if they were blessed from above.

Colombian ID card

Today I went to get my new Colombian foreign ID card, the "cédula de extanjería", at Migración Colombia (former DAS).
They had said I could get it in 20 days and the time had come.

The attendant handed over a piece of printed paper and said "This is your temporary ID card. Come back 15th of January to get your real one."
"What? 15th of January? In six months? That is a very long time! Why?"
She explained that the company that previously had made the plastic cards for the immigration authorities, had some problem and they had to change company (or something like that).

Six months to get a new company to make plastic cards? Come on, Migración Colombia, is this stone age? I thought we were getting forward in this country!

Finding a bank location

An important aspect of filmmaking is finding good locations.

We are in the preparations for a short film called "No Return". This film has a scene in a bank.
When we started this project, we had no idea how difficult it would be to find a bank premise that somebody actually would allow us to use. All banks are rigorously concerned about security and we visited and wrote to many institutions, but none would let us film in their premises. We went searching for other alternatives, like educational institutions and even empty museum halls. But we knew that if there were no counters for example, our production cost would skyrise to provide with, or construct, all the furniture ourselves.

Now, in this process I learned about the power of good connections. I knew that a friend of our ministry who is actually the father of one of our previous students, had some influential contacts. I wrote him an email and presented out problem. And just within days, he presented us to a bank president, a friend of his. Almost instantly the president said yes. First we went and saw their premise in Medellin, but when we started our technical scouting we understood that this premise would give us some real challenges. There was a huge pillar in the middle of the hall, and the doors were awkwardly placed.

So we heard that the same bank company had another premise in a village, two hours from the city. We  thought "Ok, so what if we just bring the whole crew and cast in a bus then?" The president was just pleased to show us this place and let us use it for our project.

So yesterday we went there, and finally we found our place. A traditional bank hall, with counters and doors from where you instantly see the counters. The walls and the floor have the characteristics that we were looking for.

This was another occasion when I was overwhelmed by the "Paisa" generosity. The executives invited us to lunch and even showed us the surroundings.

We were ready several months ago to shoot this film. We had the whole thing ready to go, but we were hindered by the that bank location. Now, if we can quickly get the finances together, it seems we can finally greenlight this film.

Why did this run so smooth? Because of our friend's recommendation. Those few words opened all the doors. It reminded me about what the Bible says:

A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. (Prov.22:1)

Medellin Flower Parade

Today I visited my second Medellin Flower Parade. It is an annual event, where the flower makers of the village Santa Elena outside of Medellin, go down to the city and parade their "silleteros", a kind of chairs for vending flowers that they carry on their backs.

The parade goes on for hours and have thousands of spectators. Not only flowers are exhibited, but also marching bands, circus figures, trucks with music groups etc. One thing that I noticed was that the amount of sponsored participants seemed to have increased from last year, thus we saw lots of flower installations with the names of the bigger companies in Medellin (come on, let this be a cultural festival and not a comercial event).

Another thing you can notice in the parade, is the joy of dancing of the "Paisas" (the people from the department of Antioquia in Colombia). The flower parade might not be the same as a Rio carnival (which I have never seen), but there is a lot of spectacle, lots of joy and willingness to share the fun with the audience.

The parade is just a part of a whole program of activities in Medellin during this week.