Me & Paco getting things done (Hardcore!). (Outside Jesse's House of Art)

Even as far as cliche’s go, today was a very f***ing beautiful day.

And actually, these whole past two weeks have been nothing but amazing, but enough of the generalities and let’s get down to the meat of it all:

• Sunny skies, not warm, not cold. Perfect weather all-day-long.
• We finished our shoot with Jody (Parks and Rec, San Antonio), which was cool (we got to earn our cash).
• Then we went to the Barnes and Noble and stumbled upon a really cool f***ing book called “Film Club”
• Next we visited our good friend Jesse Treviño, to clarify some stuff for the script AND to get another dose of f***ing enthusiasm.
• Next we visited with our good friend Robert G. Rdz, to clarify some financial questions we had for the movie.
• Next we visited with Office of Cultural Affairs (with our dear friends Lindsey & Sebastian!)
• NEXT we went to the hospital. My new nephew Santi Harbison Mendoza (picture below) was born today. Which was THE f***ing highlight of the day. My dear sister Luana was in labor for quite some time until she finally made it through. We were all worried sick, until the news came of the delivery. It’s quite a rush and a quite a heavy feeling of love for a new human being that will take this earth and bend it to its knees. FTW.
• NEXT, Paco and myself were homesick and we hit the road back home. Frank Turner, Basi and propagandhi provided the entertainment for the ride home.
• NEXT, here I am, writing this post. A new uncle. A new perspective. Happy.

On Jesse Treviño: I am happy to report that he looks great and I just admire his f***ing enthusiasm (There’s no other way to put it, there’s “enthusiasm”, and then there’s “f***ing enthusiasm”). Even though his health is not at 100%; his persistence is very overwhelming. Even if I wasn’t making a film about Jesse, I feel very privileged to be in his presence. I don’t think I have ever met a person like him in my life and I am very glad that this movie will let audiences around the world to finally know Jesse.

Me, Jesse & Paco after probing Jesse for some cold hard facts. Picture taken by our good friend Gabe Velasquez.

Also, I am trying my best to write the best f***ing script anyone has seen. I am glad to report that after many, many, many, many rewrites, I have finally grasped the whole concept of the movie. I have been wrestling with the script for almost a year and I am (finally) very happy with what I have right now.

It is filled with surprises and hits all the right notes, but there is still much left to do. And in keeping with my writing spirit I will be in hiding from the world for at least two more months until I finish this damn thing.

Thanks for all your well wishes and support for THE HEART OF TREVIÑO. I can’t wait to finish the script.

Until next time,
Your friend, Ricardo (f***ing) Mendoza.

PS: Thanks again to Jesse Treviño for formalizing our relationship and setting it in stone last week. A handshake can only go so far, but a signature is a commitment. Thanks for trusting us. You will NOT be disappointed.

My sister Luana with my new nephew. aaawwwwwwww.

Basi, Me, Paco & Roger. Happy with contract in hand. Taken Feb 8, day after Frank Turner gig.

This is one of my favorite Treviño paintings. Tribute to John Lennon. Imagine.

Paco and myself saw a great friend this morning.
This particular friend is one of the greatest motivations behind our new film… The conversation and the will to support was electric….

Plus, we met with 3 more friends and one of them, his name is George and he is the newest addition to our ever-growing team of filmmakers that will make this new film a reality.

Welcome to the team George!

This morning reinforced the idea that there is no way, absolutely no way that a project of any magnitude cannot be done without pure and simple help.

Help from genuine people, that have a genuine interest in a common goal…

And that is why through this humble blog we want to encourage you to support independent filmmaking!

SUPPORT

So, if you’re in the Los Angeles Area, let’s rally behind and support the intense drama Night Before the Wedding from our friend David Branin…

Good luck with the film Dave and hope to see it soon in Texas!

Here is a link to various screenshots of the film
http://www.nightbeforethewedding.com/gallery.php

AND, here’s a link to the Trailer (NOT SAFE FOR WORK!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QeQRo5yDZE

Here’s the info:

NIGHT BEFORE THE WEDDING TO BE

1ST FULL-LENGTH FEATURE PREMIERED AT HOLLYSHORTS

“The truth is that, ultra-indie or not, Branin’s Night Before the Wedding is a complex and deep work that easily transcends any initial impressions its subject matter might give.”
J.C. Macek III, World’s Greatest Critic

“David’s ability to direct a group in a totally real and naturalist way was daunting.

It reminded me a great deal of Robert Altman.”
Jamin Winans - Director, INK, 11:59, Spin

Hollywood, CA (July 8th, 2009)— After many months of great anticipation, the racy and funny film NIGHT BEFORE THE WEDDING will finally make its world premiere. The setting in which it is doing so has many talking, as NBTW becomes the first full-length feature to ever premiere at the prestigious HollyShorts Film Festival (HSFF), a festival that, as its name suggests, is traditionally where the biggest short films in the world premiere.

“Hollyshorts has chosen to screen Branin’s gem of an independent film as a way to begin the process of showcasing our alumni growth, as Branin is a past Hollyshorts award winner, along with showcasing our growth as a festival to look out for” stated Theo Dumont, co-founder of HSFF. NIGHT BEFORE THE WEDDING will screen on August 11 at Laemmle Sunset 5 as part of the week-long events of the festival “I have long believed that NBTW would play best in front of a ‘live’ audience. Now that idea will be put to the test. I am so honored and humbled to be presented with this opportunity by HollyShorts, Theo Dumont, and Daniel Sol. Tuesday August 11th is going to be a night that I am going to cherish.” says David Branin, the film’s director.

The buzz around the film revolves around the topic of the film itself.  NIGHT BEFORE THE WEDDING portrays a realistic look into what occurs at a bachelor party and how the celebration of a man’s “last night of freedom” can ultimately become the demise of his beginning.   Film reviews have commented how this film has been able to set aside the “indie” judgment and make its way to the viewer’s eyes as a movie of great thought, superb plotline and strong realism. It is with that realism in mind that Branin decided to cast La’rin Lane, a real life porn star, as herself.  The cast also includes John Keating, Gregor Collins, Christopher Guckenberger, Mopreme Shakur, Sarah Ronaghi, Kevin Deen, Chad Davis, Johnny Giordani and Kristen Sullivan.

For more information on the film please visit www.nightbeforethewedding.com

The 5th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival will be held Aug 6-13 in Hollywood, CA.  For detailed schedule of events, tickets, location, or more information, please visit www.hollyshorts.com

Press Contact:

22 Entertainment

Isandra Gonzalez

isandra@22entertainment.net

818.668.4718

###

7676 Hollywood Blvd - SuIte 8 - Los Angeles, ca 90046

(818) 668-4718 - (818) 351-8133 – Fax

It’s been more than 5 years (2004) since we started filming our first movie EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS, AND 3 years since its release (2006)…

It’s been 3 years (2006) since filming ASH WEDNESDAY: CAPITULO UNUS and it is still unreleased…

It has also been more than a year (April 2008) since the idea for our third film was conceived…

That being said, since April 2008 we’ve been slowly climbing this steep mountain.

We have achieved so many “mini” goals, and I have been privately updating this journal (without publishing)… which I hate because there’s so much material that could be so useful and entertaining (especially with the characters we’ve been meeting with)…

We have fought so damn hard for this new movie… just to get the permissions has been a challenge, to get the support, the writing has been very challenging, the research has been extensive and intensive, every single wall that has gotten in our way we have destroyed it with our bare hands…

we are bloody and we are hungry…

It has been quite a journey and the coolest (or saddest) fact is that we are in the very early stages of pre-production… So there’s still A LOT more that needs to be done…

What’s also cool (at least in my little world) is that we are building all this from the ground up.

We have learned from our mistakes and this time around we are energizing and building an infrastructure way, WAY before we start shooting… It is imperative and of the utmost importance that we attain the support of as much people as we can.

If you are a fan of San Antonio, we need you… If you are a fan of Eagle Pass, we need you! If you’re a fan of Monterrey or Piedras Negras, we need you!

If you are a fan of Art, Love and Life, we need you!

If you want to be inspired by this incredible true story, we need you!

In October (2009) we will be releasing a teaser and a full fledged website that will announce to the world our very precious and ambitious project…

Lots of stuff is happening and for now please help us by subscribing to our blog or to our twitter thing-a-majig…

twitter.com/dworkstudios

ALSO, special thanks to everyone that has lent a helping hand to some humble independent filmmakers (us).

Thank you for helping us make our past two films [sad isn’t it? two films since 2004! Ha!] and we hope you can join us into the dark and treacherous path of our next motion picture.

This week we will head on to even more encounters (or meetings, as the upper class call them) with a bunch of individuals that are crucial for the continuation of our illustrious path.

Before I go, I’ll leave with one of those “inspirational” quotes from a guy that looked like the penguin in Batman:

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”-Sir Winston Churchill

PS: if you are one of the privileged few that have a netflix account, pretty-please-with-sugar-on-top, take 5 minutes of your time and post a review of EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS… thanks!

On Tuesday, September 16 my grandpa Juan Manuel Wheeler passed away.
He was bigger than life in many ways, and he lived life to the fullest AND had a huge impact in all of our lives.
He was a poor kid from Mexico who became a giant in his field and in the region of Coahuila and Texas, he started as a radio personality and later he created a TV station on which he was the owner and the main anchor for the news.
This was the most trusted man, way before the internet, and when TV ruled the world.
He was my hero.
He cursed worse than a sailor, and his daily mission was to make everyone around him laugh.
He wore very cleancut suits with a crazy tie and had a huge mustache. His pride was his voice and his voice was his life.
His voice was very commanding and deep, and when broadcasting he sounded like a Mexican version of Walter Cronkite.
Naturally, he had a way with words.
As a kid he never finished elementary school, he had to work to support his Mom and the rest of the family.
He taught me many lessons that I will never forget. He was always there for me and he inadvertently did things that changed my life forever.
He was a great mentor and a great friend.

You were a fighter, and even though it hurts losing you, I still laugh at all the insane things that you did every day.

That’s all I could write.

I Love you.

This is yet another non-requested opinion, and this time I am going to rant about the independent film movement…

The Oscars gave an interesting insight and while the media keeps pounding on how boring it was because nobody has even seen the films that were up for awards.

The only film that made more than 100 million

dollars was the indie hit JUNO. Juno also won Best Picture at the independent spirit awards (where Chris Eska’s August Evening won the John Cassavetes Award. Much congrats to his team!)

The others made less than $65 million (in theatres).

What’s interesting is that these meaningful movies that are quite unique and thought-provoking get shunned by the public but shine at all the award shows.

The truly sad part is that the big studios are making these movies only as side projects, and when they make them, they make them with a very modest budget compared to the big blockbusters.

I guess that’s the independent filmmakers job. Our job is to illuminate the world to our truly unique vision and perspective.

Our passion for telling a story is almost tangible. We don’t see it as a job, we see it as our duty.

I truly salute everyone that is pushing the limits…

As we set to the task of delving into our next not-yet-named-feature, we are all incredibly excited about the whole independent movement.

Some movies are fun, but there are others that are unforgettable…

As I’m sure you must have not heard by now… The HD war is over, and the winner is Blu-Ray!

Hmmm the bad thing is nobody cared…

And that got me thinking into the future for distribution, obviously being an independent filmmaker I’m affected by this.

Well let’s quickly talk about the past and the present state of distributing feature films.

Ever since its introduction the feature film has been enjoyed the most at a movie theatre. It is easy to get sucked into a great story told by a huge screen and loud speakers…

A movie could last months or even years in theatres… No one could take the movies home, so it was natural that movies would last for months in theatres…

Later on with the advent of Home Video (VHS) Hollywood became very nervous of this newfound technology. They thought people would never go to the movies again.

Video rental stores devoured the film business, but later found out people still went to see the latest movies… And that was only because for a movie to come out on VHS, you would have to wait more than 8 months to even a year until it came out for rental (and forget about buying a film, since it would cost 80 to 100 dollars to purchase a VHS copy!)

DVD came along and shook the film business again, only this time it was for the better, economically at least.

Almost 80% of Hollywood’s profits are from DVD’s today. For a big budget movie that is only going to stay at the local theatre for two months (at the most) it will barely break even… After the 2 months they would release the film on DVD and really rake in the profits.

You see DVD’s are cheap to produce and now people could buy their favorite film on high quality AND receive bonus features for a super low bargain prices (there are DVD’s at the dollar store!!!).

So everyone wins…

So along comes Blu-Ray HD, and is promising to replace the DVD… Don’t get me wrong, the quality is jawdropping, but I am not paying 30-40 bucks for quality…

I honestly think that Blu-Ray is not competing against HD-DVD, it’s real competitor will be online download video rentals and purchase sites… (iTunes, Jaman, are great examples)

With the advent of high-quality screens on phones such as the iPhone, the new nokia phones, and other smartphones this will also be an important factor in the consumption of media…

These next 2 years will be very interesting to see where everything is going…

Staying Independent

It is very exciting to see this as an independent filmmaker because of the wealth of opportunities this creates.

I can’t wait for the revolution…

_____________________________________

References:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/16/toshiba-pulling-the-plug-on-hd-dvd-already/

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/wal-mart-to-officially-discontinue-hd-dvd-sales-by-june/

Now, that we are on the verge of selling the rights to Ash to a distributor and throughout these past months of peddling Ash to anyone who would listen… Some people say, “move on… get on to the next project… don’t get stuck… bla bla bla…” Well my response is, I would love to but I honestly didn’t feel like making another movie… or just making a movie, for the sake of making a movie…

I have 3-4 treatments (future scripts) that I’ve been working on over these past 3 months (one is a comedy, the other a very personal drama, Capitulo Duos and one other nameless genre) and I have to say that none of these ideas really ignited my fire… I don’t think it’s because they are uninspired but because, I don’t think they’re challenging. I think I can do them pretty well, and to me that would be very boring to do…

HOWEVER, yesterday I had a flash of lightning inspiration… the kind of creativity that is sudden, the kind that you have to drop everything and write down…

Well, I wrote it down, and I am very excited about this… I can’t give any details until I flesh it all out, but finally I’ve found what I’ve been looking for…. I doubt that I could do it, and that’s whats’ exciting about it…

Paul Haggis (director of Crash) said in an interview: “Only if I’m sure I’m going to fail at this, I’m gonna try it…” I agree very much… I honestly didn’t think that Ash was going to turn out the way it did, but we did it, we pushed ourselves, and we were pleasantly surprised with the results… It was a scary script to make, but somehow we found a way… It wasn’t easy, but it was very challenging…

If it were easy, everyone would be doing this… right?

NOW, this future script, sounds scary and very tough to make, but now we have more friends that can help us out, so who knows “what” or “where” we’ll be in 2008, but it sure sounds like an adventure!

Anyone up for it?

PS: I’ve changed the look of the blog to make way for new projects…!

First of all, there is no ONE way of writing a script, so that being said, I have discovered (over the years) my own way of writing.

I find it very difficult to write a script without support materials, I cannot just “write” from page one and go from there… instead… what I do, is gather a sh**tload of support material.

Support Material
This is the basis of my scripts, and that is what I am finishing up right now…
Of course that my strongest support material is my own experiences, and that is why it is so hard to write when you’re inexperienced. Not young, just inexperienced. That’s why you see a young and successful eminem hit the charts because he has a lot of “experience” in life and channels it through music, so really what counts here are your experiences in life that count.

Also, whenever I talk to people, or read the news, or whatever I’m always on the lookout on something that makes me “feel” something… for example, if someone tells me an incredible funny anecdote or joke, I will jot it down and put it in my notes, or if I see a very interesting newspiece that can be part of the script I jot it down and put it in my notes…

In my notes I gather a bunch of stuff, and somewhere in the process I define my characters in the script, and from there I blend my notes with my characters and try to come up with something incredibly interesting.

I have been doing this since writing Ash and Escape, and it has worked out really good… I think that our stories rely heavily on the plot twists and surprises, because that’s what I like about my favorite movies…

Check out if this method of screenwriting works for you… but if you come up with something different just let me know in the comments…

Oh and before I leave on my binge-indulging weekend I leave you with a plethora of quotes that for some reason I liked a LOT!

El Guapo: Would you say I have a plethora of piñatas?
Jefe: A what?
El Guapo: A *plethora*.
Jefe: Oh yes, you have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
Jefe: Why, El Guapo?
El Guapo: Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora.
Jefe: Forgive me, El Guapo. I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?

jajajajaj here’s the quotes:
“Dont try to be original, just try to be good” -Paul Rand

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” -Confucius

“A product is perfected, NOT when you can add anything else to it, but when you can no longer take anything away.” - Yvon Chouinard