Down in the Dumps

May 24, 2004

No car, bad mood. My cousin informs me that the original owner of the car is in jail for seven years, therefore he cannot sign over the car to me. But it will be taken care of.

May 25 I am such a loser.

Still no car, still in a bad mood. I must be really unhappy, since I got motivated to start a new feature length script. I write 18 pages.

May 26

Still no car, but there is hope I will be able to get it out tomorrow. I sign a bunch of stuff from the DMV that my cousin brings to me. Maybe I should have read it before I signed it. Cady came over to pick up the foley CDs to give to his friend who has a ProTools set up.

The System Pimped me Back

On my way to the "cipher" shoot, my car gets impounded. I am left on the side of the road with all the film equipment, including the camera and film we need for the shoot. Rewind to one hour earlier. I decide to wear my PIMP THE SYSTEM T-shirt. Rewind to August 2003: my tags expire and I do not renew because I don't feel like it. Fast forward to this morning: I drive to 7-11 to get some caffeine, and as always, there is a cop parked there. I go in anyway, testing fate, and I really need a Red Bull. The cop catches up to me before getting on the freeway.

WHO ARE MY PEOPLE?

Laura and I had lunch at Mona Lisa and she gave me a copy of Pro Tools "Juanito" burned for her. She also told me she was just awarded a grant from the Mexican government, State of Baja. I am so happy for her. It is very prestigious and this is great news. So I go home and try to install juanito's Pro-Tools and I fail miserably. Either it is not working or I don't know what the hell I am doing. I am inclined to believe the latter.

I meet Aaron Soto at the Media Arts Center for the screening of our films (Poly Esther and 33 1/3). The audience is mostly white and filmmakers. The first frame comes up, and everyone laughs at the Chia Pet. That did not happen at the Cinemainc screening. As the film progresses, the audience reacts differently than the Mexican audience, except for the rotten chicken sequence. Disgusting, smelly chicken is universal and Chia Pets are not, I guess. This screening leads me to believe that my people don't get my film. This bothers me because I don't want to make culture specific films. Who are my people anyway? Oh, and Aaron tells me I intimidated the Mexican audience. That I should smile more. I am going to have to take an acting class and put vaseline on my teeth. I scare people. That's just great. After the screening, a few actors and filmmakers approach me and give me their headshots and contact information and congratulate me. A transsexual (I can only assume it is a transexual and not just a transvestive because he/she is serious about passing as a woman) talks to me, but I don't remember what he/she said to me, since it is hard talking to a man trying to pass as a woman. It is for me at least. Very distracting.

HANGOVER

I have a mini-hangover from those two bass ales I drank last night. That's pathetic. It means my alcohol tolerance is almost nil because I am not going out or doing anything "fun." I email the cast crew asking for their bios. I hope some of them respond.

ONE MORE REASON NOT TO MOVE TO LA

Giancarlo’s friend emails me back telling me he no longer has Pro-Tools. Should I swallow my pride and see if the foley artist can do something? I still have some hope I will be able to do this on my own. I search the internet for free webpage design classes. How hard can it be? Sleeping is for people with lives, not filmmakers.

I get drunk with one and a half Bass Ales while listening to Jeff Buckley and working on the press kit. Somehow I find out that it is illegal to lick toads in Los Angeles. One more reason not to move to L.A.

THE FINAL CONFLICT AND THE PEOPLE’S ELBOW

I am seriously considering studying Karl Rove's spin tactics and applying them to film marketing. Evil bastard. I think he might be Damien from the Omen III. They get away with everything.

Laura changed her production company name from Morgana to Suawaka Films. It means "shooting star" in yaqui, our indigenous ancerstors from the Sonora desert. I am very proud of my yaqui heritage, but I must say Suawaka sounds too much like Chewbaca. She says she doesn't care because she likes that "hairy dude." Okay, if that is what she wants I am changing it, but I am sure there are many cool sounding yaqui words she can use that don't sound like a Star Wars character. I go to Digital Pickles to re-do the credits in light of this name change and because Torrence screwed up the credits. I have a few other minor changes. He says I am beyond super-anal, I say no, I have my reasons and they are very specific. It takes us FOREVER to finish, not because I am anal, but because he takes forever! I even had time to watch The Rock on RAW. He was the surprise guest. I also learned what to “rock bottom” is and how to use the “people’s elbow.” That has been the highlight of my week so far.

PRO TOOLS ANYONE?

May 12, 2004

Neil informs me that alt.pictureshows will be at the La Jolla museum. Giancarlo emails me with a potential Pro Tools contact.

May 14, 2004

It has been two weeks since the Cinemainc. screening, and I still have not found a way to get the full foley. The guy Chris F. recommended has not called me back.

SERGIO LEONE AND DADDY’S HOME COOKING

I spend the whole day at my parents’ house recovering, eating and watching Once Upon a Time in the West. I show my parents my film. They don’t seem to get it or like it that much. They do get a kick out of my brother being in the credits though.

SHOW TIME AT CINEMAINC

We finish the mix at 7:00 a.m. Aaron wants me to go to a television interview at 8:30 a.m. to talk about our films and the screening tonight. No way. My cousin has to go to school and I have to go home and get some sleep before I have to come back to TJ for the screening. The line at the border is about an hour. I hate this!

I am not able to sleep. I go to my sister’s apartment and I show her the film. She seems surprised, like she doesn’t believe I made that film. She asks me if I told the Truckees what to do. I say no I told them to do whatever they wanted. So how come they knew what you like, she asks. What a goofball.

I take a shower and I still can’t sleep. I am dying. I don’t know how I am going to get through the evening. Cady picks me up and I get a Red Bull at the 7-11. It makes me feel a little better, but now I am tired and wired at the same time. When we get to the CECUT, Dulce is already there with her friend. We are early, so we chat for a bit.

The first screening is about half full. Peat and his wife Christina arrive just as the credits to our film are rolling. Cady and I crack up. The next screening is full. I run into Karla outside and I am totally surprised she is there. She is one of the credits Torrence messed up. I explain what happened and she is a sweetheart about it. Okay, so half the cast is here: Dulce, Karla and Carlos. I notice there is a lot of laughs during the boutique sequence. It’s not that funny. I find out later that it was Karla's entourage laughing at her.

Christina, Peat, Cady, Dulce and her two friends and I go looking for food after the screening. I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility, since they are visitors in my country and I must feed them good food. The thing is, I don’t know TJ that well and we don’t have a car because we all walked across the border. Peat looks like he is about to faint with hunger and he wants tacos. So we go to La Plaza del Zapato and the place is an unbearable zoo. A waiter hustles us into his empty Mexican food restaurant. The place is not too bad, but the music is extremely loud. We move to a quieter table and we are informed there is no menu. No menu? We can order anything we want? How about Peking duck? I don’t have a good feeling about this, so I get up and say “everyone get up and let’s go.” I can conclude they don’t think I am serious from their expressions and reluctance to get up from their seats. Peat looks annoyed. The waiter cannot believe it. Finally everyone gets up and we leave. I know where we can go. I put everyone, seven adults, in a cab and we head to La Cantina de los Remedios fka Guadalajara Grill. Peat is not happy. I start to suspect he’s the difficult Truckee. When we get there, we have bribe the host to get us a table asap. Mexican ASAP turns out to be over half an hour. I am convinced my entourage thinks I am a bad hostess and that Mexico sucks! We finally get some food and beer. Food average, beer good. Time to go back to The Evil Empire.

PROFESSIONALS USE PRO-TOOLS

My cousin Gaby drives me to TJ and drives me around. We cannot find Edgar’s house. I have been there several times before, but we just keep going in circles. I am really carsick and I can’t take it any more. I call him from a pay phone and we meet him at a nearby spot. We have to go to Aaron’s house to get him and the computer. I know I am not getting any sleep tonight. I just hope the mix is acceptable for tomorrow’s screening. After a lot of talking and wasting time, we get down to do the mix at about 9 p.m. I don’t drink Coke because it is an evil company, but I have to this time if I am going to stay awake. We are unable to incorporate the full foley as it was meant to because Aaron doesn’t have a Pro Tools set-up and, the foley artist, being a professional, sent me everything in Pro Tools. He assumed the mixer would have Pro Tools. I didn’t tell him otherwise because I didn’t want him to think we were not professional. We have to identify foley sounds one by one and incorporte what we can in bits and pieces. My cousin falls asleep on Edgar’s bed.

Oh shit...I notice the credits are wrong. I am missing three actors. Torrence is going to get it.

NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING A PERFECTIONIST

Torrence tells me I am super-anal about credits. I make him show me every single font he has. We finish at 3:00 a.m. The film is now 17:30 minutes.

LAST MINUTE TITLES

I email everyone apologizing for yesterday's bitchy email.

I haven’t heard a thing from the guy who is doing the titles and credits. He is so fired. Torrence agrees to come to the rescue.

Lesson: Some times professionals are not very professional.

BAD DAY

My car broke down and I don't know what is wrong with it. I wonder if it has anything to do with me crashing it against a pilar at Madstone's parking. Email to cast and crew regarding the name change:

Subject: Very important info about the film

Which film are you asking? The one you were in or were part of the staff and crew. The one you can't remember the name of because you are bad at numbers or too lazy to memorize or whatever. It was brought up to my attention, from the very beginning, that having so many numbers for a title would make it difficult for people to talk about the film or market the film. Of course, I ignored the comments. I even ignored the many signs and evidence, including watching the lead actress make up a number and blunder as she answered questions from an interviewer. Not even the producer was able to memorize the number. Soooooooooooooooo.....I changed the name of the film. The name of the film is now "Poly Esther." When you watch the film you'll know why. It is not polyester. It is POLY ESTHER. Two words. Okay? bye for now, tc

The mechanic advises me to stop crashing my car against walls and then hands me a $300 invoice.

ONE SHEET DONE

I go to Paul’s to finalize the poster. He changes a lot, but it is for the better. I love the poster.

I GIVE IN

On my way to my best friend’s birthday luncheon, I decide to change the film’s title to “Poly Esther.”

NO MORE 540 847 67...???

Paul finishes two drafts of the poster. They are great. I circulate the drafts and get some opinions.

The Truckees call me telling me they can’t remember the name of the film and that I should consider changing it to something more marketable. I am reluctant at first, but then I remember no one can remember the name of the film but me. I consult with many people and they all agree with the Truckees. What should I call it then?

IN TJ FOR THE SOUND DESIGN

I go to Tijuana to deliver the sound files to Edgar and Aaron. As always, we spent most of the time talking about films and gossiping. We finally get down to business and Edgar and I are totally in sync with regards to the sound. He even knew what non-literal sounds were. I leave confident that he knows what I want. He is very talented.

FOLEY FROM CANADA

I hire the foley mixer for "Requiem for a Dream" to do the foley. One less thing to worry about.

I THINK I GOT A SOUND DESIGNER

Got an e-mail from Peat telling me the name of the song is now “Poly Esther” and another from Aaron Soto asking me when I am going to TJ for the sound design. Huh???

THE SONG

I meet Peat and Cady at M-Theory to pick up the song for the end credits. I can’t wait to hear it, since the title is “Polyester Messed Her.” How they knew about my feelings for polyester, I’ll never know. Cady calls me to see how I liked it. I tell him I could not love it more. Later, I begin downloading phone rings from the internet and reading about sound design. I learn what non-literal sounds are.