Transcript:
00;00;03;14 - 00;00;43;06
Justin Joseph Hall:
Hi, welcome to Feature & a short, a monthly podcast hosted by Fourwind Films where our appointed contributor presents their chosen feature motion picture and a short movie. There's only one condition for the screening selection that the presenter must have been directly involved with one picture and not the other. This month, after a long hiatus, we'd like to say hello.
We went off and shot a short film entitled Prologue, and we were finishing post-production in another film, Abuela’s Luck, which happens to be the film that Gary Jaquez, our presenter this week, brought to share with us as his short. For his feature, he brought Children of Men.
Fourwind Films shot Abuela’s Luck here in Brooklyn at a bodega. And so during the event, we had bodega food scattered around the viewing area, and that included Ho Hos, Little Debbie's, fried plantains, different things that you'd find in a Brooklyn bodega. We also had the beer Presidente, which makes it a prominent first appearance in Abuela’s Luck. Gary Jaquez works with Fourwind Films often and is a director of photography.
00;01;10;21 - 00;01;27;20
We had a discussion on what it was like to shoot the film, difficulties that Gary ran through, and working with director and producer Ricky Rosario. We had a lot of people who worked on the film in attendance as this was the first private screening.
00;01;27;23 - 00;01;53;22
Gary Jaquez:
And a little backstory about the film, Ricky and I are both of Dominican descent. Both our parents are from over there, and, this is very much like a day in the life of, of, you know, going in and out of the bodega and what the bodega represents to the community. I, personally, have about 6 or 7 uncles and my grandfather who have owned their own bodegas.
00;01;53;25 - 00;02;19;10
And yeah, it's just very common.
Audience:
Here, and like here in the city?
Gary Jaquez:
Here. Two of them were in Manhattan, two were here in Brooklyn and one in Jersey. So yeah, it's, bodegas are very much like a way to success, um, in the eyes of a Dominican immigrant coming to this country. So. I, am, I've been there since, since Abuela's luck was just, you know, a Venn diagram.
Audience:
When was that?
00;02;19;12 - 00;02;40;10
Gary Jaquez:
Oh, man. Maybe, maybe a year and a half ago already. Yeah, it was quite the process. So I guess the toughest part was wearing as many hats as I had to wear. Being as, you know, Ricky and I, you know, we go way back. We've known each other since before high school. I'm a cinematographer and that's my main focus but I played many roles on this film and in doing so, you know, you spread yourself thin.
You know, I was picking up gear and shot listing and then getting something for production design. I came about a week and a half prior to principal photography, and that was the first time I saw the, the location. The interesting story is that we're on our second day of production, and it's about 1 p.m., we're scheduled to shoot till about six. And a guy shows up and he tells us, he says, hey, I own this building. Nobody's paid me for any of this. So unless you want me to show up with cops by 3 p.m., either you're all out of here or you pay me X amount of dollars. I forget exactly the figure, but it was a couple thousand. Mind you, we had already paid the, the bodega, the people who actually lease a spot.
00;03;35;19 - 00;03;53;10
But, yeah, apparently, you know, because he owns a building, he was the one who had the rights to the money. Whatever. Uh, we ended up trying to fight it a little bit, and clock was ticking, so we ended up having to find the money. We figured it out. We kept going. We pushed forward, and we got it done.
00;03;53;12 - 00;04;00;10
Justin Joseph Hall:
The film ended up. It looks very green and, like it just has a green…
00;04;00;12 - 00;04;05;05
Gary Jaquez:
Well, it’s not so much the lights. And, and I noticed even shooting just seeing like the Rec 709 on that image.
Justin Joseph Hall:
But the skintones look great.
00;04;06;13 - 00;04;29;23
Gary Jaquez:
Right? So that's, and it was shot on an Alexa, like, skintones are amazing on an Alexa.
Justin Joseph Hall:
On an Alexa, yeah. Okay, that’s…
Gary Jaquez:
So, what I chalked it up to was just the potato chip bags. And obviously a lot of that stuff is, is very poppy, it’s greens and reds and oranges. And I just, I noticed that overwhelmingly it was green. But Alexas in general don't have a green tint.
00;04;29;23 - 00;04;51;07
So I'm going to chalk that up to location. And Ricky and I both from the beginning we, we pretty much agreed that, like, we really wanted to capture the feel of a bodega. You know, like, he really wanted it poppy like that. He, he wanted, he wanted a location that was going to, every angle you look, everybody was just going to be engulfed.
Because that's, when you go to a bodega, every little corner of the bodega, there's something there that's for sale. Whether it's, you know, shampoo, deodorant, detergent, food, potato chips, salami. Like, there's everything in a bodega that you can even think of. So.
Audience:
Did you guys change out any of the lighting in the bodega itself, or did you just add to it?
Gary Jaquez:
I added to it. If it were up to me, we would have shut everything off in the bodega and just.
Justin Joseph Hall:
That’s hard, that’s hard with…
Gary Jaquez:
Right, but it’s just not realistic. So I shut them off when I could, and I supplemented that, that stuff with, I had an HMI outside, uh, an Aladdin which is small LED that’s nice on skintones.
00;05;31;17 - 00;05;50;28
We had that right behind the cash register to pretty much act as daylight. So, yeah, a little bit of both. We.
Justin Joseph Hall:
I didn't even see that.
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah, I, I did. You actually see it in the movie, but I.
Justin Joseph Hall:
Oh really?
Gary Jaquez:
I’ve asked plenty of people and nobody can tell what it is. And I'm like, it looks like just a piece of window sunlight coming in, but it's a light.
Justin Joseph Hall:
Oh. Okay
Megan Masur:
(laughs)
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah. And honestly, the whole shutting of the lights, that was never planned. That scene, what we were shooting on our second day, and we're on our way home, and I'm trying to think, like, how could we make this a little better just so it's different, just so we have a little separation? Then I'm like, okay, if I'm a thief, you know, it's the middle of the day kind of, kind of makes sense.
00;06;15;26 - 00;06;31;12
Like, hey, shut the fucking lights off. You know what I'm saying? So we ran with it. He loved it right away. We had him do it. The, the bodeguero, we had him do it in sections from where I was back there with the camera on top of that ladder. So, it just went boom, boom, boom. You know what I'm saying?
00;06;31;12 - 00;06;51;01
Just to kind of, like, guide us into what was going on. So that was kind of my idea was like, just have like the, the light or the lack of light, the lights going off, guide us to, like, the shit that’s going down, then boom, we cut right into like a slider of, of us going into to them silhouetted a bit which was just probably my favorite shot. Yeah.
Audience:
(laughter)
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah.
Gary Jaquez:
Do I get to ask any questions?
Audience:
Yeah.
00;06;57;18 - 00;07;09;21
Gary Jaquez:
Cool. All right. Justin. So, from an editing perspective, what was your favorite part to edit? What part were you editing? And you said, oh, wow.
00;07;09;23 - 00;07;21;09
Justin Joseph Hall:
Well, definitely when you have the more angles. So when we ha–, when the lights turned off, that’s probably more exciting.
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah.
Justin Joseph Hall:
The worst part, though, was when it went to the black and came up. That was a little confusing.
00;07;21;11 - 00;07;38;13
Gary Jaquez:
That actually, congrats to you guys. I didn't know that was going to happen and I thought that worked great. To be honest, he, he, he told me I want to shoot this at a higher frame rate. I want to do slow motion. When the gun comes to his head. And I fought him on that. It’s just at the time, I could not visualize it. Kudos. Kudos to you, Ricky. Kudos to Ricky,
Audience:
(laughter)
Gary Jaquez:
because I just didn't, I could not see it. Just with the sound design that you guys got going on and, and also props to the sound mixer right there. Just the music.
00;07;50;22 - 00;07;52;02
Justin Joseph Hall:
…Yeah, that's Josh Heilbronner.
00;07;52;04 - 00;07;58;05
Gary Jaquez:
The music that came in and everything was just how I'm happy to be wrong. Yeah, yeah.
Audience:
(laughter)
00;07;58;07 - 00;08;00;06
Megan Masur:
Where did the music come from?
00;08;00;08 - 00;08;08;08
Justin Joseph Hall:
Ricky had it all made. Well he licensed two, but I think, but that was from the same artist that composed it. So there was the original songs.
Gary Jaquez:
Yes. Yeah.
Justin Joseph Hall:
And then he licensed the last…
00;08;08;10 - 00;08;16;13
Gary Jaquez:
Which are very, they're, they're, they're actually a group that's very common amongst a Dominican community here in New York, New Jersey.
Justin Joseph Hall:
MaxBanda?
Gary Jaquez:
How do you know?
00;08;16;15 - 00;08;17;18
Justin Joseph Hall:
Because I edited the film.
Audience:
(laughs)
Gary Jaquez:
Oh, okay.
Audience:
(laughter)
Gary Jaquez:
Is that what you did?
Gary Jaquez:
MaxBanda, very popular amongst the Dominican community. It was very nice of them to, to, I guess, help push the culture forward. I got a question for you, Daria. What was your favorite part about the titles?
Audience:
(laughter)
00;08;37;05 - 00;08;47;10
Daria Huxley:
I like Ricky’s vision. I mean, I think he really had a clear vision on how they should look like.
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah. Yeah, he did.
Daria Huxley:
And I try to suggest, like, something else but it was very clear, so…
00;08;47;12 - 00;09;11;12
Gary Jaquez:
That's so funny, I did too. I was like, what do you mean you want bubbles, man? How old are you? But no, it came out, it came…
Audience:
(laughter)
Gary Jaquez:
It came, it came out really good, man. And stuff that people don't even catch like the radio announcer in the back.
Audience:
Yeah, that's.
Gary Jaquez:
That's my cousin, Billy.
Audience:
Oh, it's your cousin! Man.
Gary Jaquez:
That's my cousin Billy and our friend Phil who was actually the person I moved out to California with.
00;09;11;12 - 00;09;14;00
Justin Joseph Hall:
Wait, they did the pop up text, texts…
00;09;14;02 - 00;09;24;03
Megan Masur:
Oh, yeah. Those were awesome. I love when movies use that. That's an amazing way to be, to show text message.
Audience:
I think…
Megan Masur:
I hate seeing… shot the phone.
Audience:
Yeah.
00;09;24;04 - 00;09;28;15
Justin Joseph Hall:
I think, I think we used inspiration, high maintenance…
Megan Masur:
Yes! And yeah, I…
Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):
After the discussion, Gary introduced Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who often works with the famous director of photography, Emmanuel Lubezki. Children of Men is especially famous for the cinematography and the, the use of long takes. There's a famous sequence in the film that is one shot. Emmanuel Lubezki did not win the Oscar for this film, but with his unique style and this was sort of the launching pad for that style, he ended up winning two Oscars in the future as the director of photography.
00;10;03;00 - 00;10;26;08
Gary Jaquez:
So, I chose Children of Men because it's actually one of my favorite films, particularly because of the cinematography on this thing. So, little backstory. When I moved to California, my first day at Panavision who's prepping for their next movie is the one, the only.
Audience:
Really?
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah.
Gary Jaquez:
So. And mind you, I was already a big fan. So I see him and I'm like, no, no way, no fucking way.
Audience:
Do you notice anything?
Gary Jaquez:
The DP is called Emmanuel Lubezki, but they call him Chivo, Chivo Lubezki.
Audience:
Oh.
Gary Jaquez:
That's his nickname. They're, they're, they're all Mexican. All three of them. They kind of grew up together, came up together. They went to film school in Mexico.
Audience:
Oh, okay.
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah. So Iñárritu, he's the one who did like Birdman and Cuarón, I think, did this one. And he also did like Gravity. But yeah, he pretty much works like, like exclusively with them. Yeah. But yeah, so I, I, I started this job at Panavision. I, you know, I was skeptical going in and then I see this guy, I'm like, okay. I'm where I need to be because this is already a guy that I study and here he is testing lenses for his upcoming movie, The Revenant. And, yeah. Like, I guess maybe I'm a little biased because there’s just not a lot of Latino cinematographers, so I'm drawn to that. But that's just a talking point because at the end of the day,
Audience:
Oh, he’s the best.
Gary Jaquez:
He's, he's awesome. He's awesome. And, and this movie that's already 12 years old will show you that, like, he's not joking around. He wasn't joking around 20... It didn't take, you know, The Revenant, you know, deciding to shoot everything in natural light and, and 12 mil lenses. It didn't, it wasn't that that made him great. Like, he's been awesome. And even before this he also, I believe he also shot Y tu mamá también. Right? Back then, he was more, more longer lens. Now, as of recent, is more wider.
Justin Joseph Hall:
Oh, okay.
00;11;50;24 - 00;12;08;22
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, which he'll showcase in things like The Revenant. He doesn't like to do interviews. So it's kind of hard to, like, really dive into his head. Uh, but the times that he has, he's, especially in regards to the wide angle stuff, he feels it's very, uh, intimate. You're very intimate with the, with the…
Audience:
That’s what my, my directors, the directors who I work with who are also cinematographers, vérité, they say the same thing.
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah.
Justin Joseph Hall:
They live off it.
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah.
Audience:
And they, they live off of it.
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah.
Audience:
That's what they do.
00;12;16;18 - 00;12;33;27
Gary Jaquez:
Yeah. Which is interesting to me because I'm not the. I'm, like I wouldn't naturally gravitate towards that because of what wide angles does to, like, faces. You know, it really kind of like distorts the faces and whatnot. But I mean, but the proof is in the pudding. It works because he's amazing and he has Oscars to prove it. So with that said, ladies and gentlemen, let's dive.
00;12;37;15 - 00;12;58;16
Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):
As food is pretty scarce in the world of Children of Men, during the film we brought out some peanuts, but we also had a whiskey and coffee mix that we enjoyed just as Clive Owen's character enjoyed during the film in addition to some white and red wine. After Children of Men finished, we had a quick discussion in reaction to what we just saw.
Justin Joseph Hall:
Thank you so much for listening. If you would like to see Abuela's Luck, the film that we executive produced at Fourwind Films for yourself, it is going to be playing in film festivals. To get more information, the best way is either follow Fourwind Films on our social media. It is f-o-u-r-w-i-n-d-f-i-l-m-s, so you can follow Fourwind Films. Or you can follow Abuela's Luck on Instagram. That is a-b-u-e-l-a-s-l-u-c-k. And those will have all the informations for future viewings for the short film. Please leave us a review. Wherever you listen to this podcast, we'll be broadcasting out to you. Thank you very much for listening.
