CICATRIZ EN MOVIMIENTO

Violencia tangible

 

Desastre natural

 

Censura infantil

 

Condimento pasional.

THE FIRST TORTILLA PART ONE

THE COMIC

“The enemy of humor is fear and this, alas, is an age of fear. As I see it, the only pleasure of living is that every joke should be made… By its nature, humor is anarchistic, and it may well be that those who seek to suppress or limit laughter are more dangerous than all the subversive conspiracies with the FBI ever has or ever will uncover. Laughter, is fact, is the most effective of all subversive conspiracies, and it operates on our side.”

Malcom Muggeridge

 

 

I am a screenwriter with too much imagination, a short story teller with an excessive amount of dialogues or simply an introverted filmmaker. What I would simply like to express is that instead of just making another short film, by the end of last year I began a prosperous exploration in the world of graphic storytelling, until I discover Will Eisner and Scott Mccloud have shown me the brick-yellow road for all my dust scripts.

 

This blog –which contains a lot of text, is proud to present tomorrow and every next saturday, the comic titled “The First Tortilla”.

 

Subconcious: “As of tomorrow all the professionalism and seriousness you had managed to achieve on this blog would be lost.

 

Me: “ I know that, but I really don’t want to add any more drama into this would, at least not during the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

LA PRIMERA TORTILLA PARTE UNO

LOS DIBUJITOS

“El enemigo del humor es el miedo, y, estamos viviendo en la era del miedo… Por su naturaleza el humor es anarquista, y todos aquellos que buscan eliminar o limitar la risa son mucho más peligrosos que todas las conspiraciones subversivas que el FBI ha tratado de resolver. La risa, es sin duda, la conspiración más eficiente y funciona a nuestro favor.

 

Malcom Muggeridge

 

Soy un guionista con demasiada imaginación, un cuentista con muchos diálogos o simplemente un cineasta introvertido. Lo que quiero decir simplemente es que en lugar de hacer otro cortometraje, desde finales del 2011 he comenzado una exploración fructífera por el mundo de la narrativa gráfica, hasta descubrir que Will Eisner y Scott Mccloud me han mostrado el camino dorado para todos mis guiones empolvados.

 

Este blog –que tiene mucho texto, se enorgullece en presentar este próximo viernes (mañana) y todos los siguientes, los dibujitos titulados “La primera tortilla”.

 

Inconsciente: Toda la seriedad y profesionalismo que habías logrado conseguir se va a perder a partir de mañana.

 

Yo: Lo sé, pero es que ya no quiero contribuir con más drama a este mundo, por lo menos no durante el fin de semana.

MY FATHER’S FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY PART FOUR

Friday, December 24th

 

There’s nothing that will get you cramming into the christmas spirit like spending twelve non-stop hours in front of your screen editing a video, or at least that is how JES works. He even brags about belonging to the lucky people who must work on the happiest day on earth. When he was about to destroy his computer, he remembers the next day he could rest and keeps on repeating this mantra until he is not hyperventilating.

 

At eight o clock I listen again to his voice, he begins to ask me some technical questions that for a moment I am not sure if he is not calling the wrong number. He tells me that he has finished the video, or almost, he just needs to do some format conversion or something that sounds like that.

 

Our Christmas diner concludes at four in the mourning, so my mother believes is the right time for my father to open his gift. Something I believe is unfair because “Santa” always told us we couldn’t open our gifts before sunrise. I guess when one reaches the half a century, there are exceptions.

 

We began to watch a three day old interview of ourselves, until every image reminds about the whole process. I am sure we could show this video as a final project from a university student, brag it took us months to film it and no one would argue against us.

 

This is a glimpse at the world of movies, at this rhythm JES, JPE and MB work, making it look as if some amateur could give it a try.

 

The thirty hours it took us to ensemble this toy are a cheap price for the amusement it brings to man who can buy almost anything.

 

LOS CINCUENTA AÑOS DE MI PADRE 4/4

24 de Diciembre

 

Supongo que no hay mejor consejo para entrar en espíritu navideño que frente a un monitor por doce horas continuas. Así es la vida de nuestro querido editor JES, quien ese año se une al selecto grupo de personas que deben laborar durante uno de los días mas felices en este planeta. Por lo menos descansará al siguiente día, lo que imagino fue una de sus motivaciones en los momentos en que estuvo tentado a destruir su laptop

 

A las ocho de la noche vuelvo a escuchar la voz de JES, comienza a hacerme algunas preguntas técnicas que por un momento ignoro si en realidad yo soy la persona con la que quería comunicarse. Después me informa que ha logrado terminar el video, solo necesita realizar una conversión de formato, pero en términos generales, este proyecto ha concluido.

 

La cena de navidad termina a las cuatro de la mañana por lo que mi madre decide que es el momento adecuado para que mi padre abra su regalo. Lo cual hasta cierto punto me parece injusto ya que “Santa”, nos obligaba a esperar hasta el amanecer para abrir nuestros regalos, pero supongo que cuando uno cumple media década, hay excepciones.

 

Estamos observando a una versión de nosotros con tres días de antigüedad en la pantalla, hasta que finalmente cada imagen me hace recordar todo este proceso.

 

Estoy seguro que podríamos presentar este video como un proyecto final, decir que nos ha tomado meses realizarlo sin que ninguna persona pudiera demostrarnos lo contrario. Así es el mundo del cine, a ese ritmo de vida trabajan JES, JPE y MB, haciendo que esto se vea como algo que cualquier amateur puede intentar.

 

Las treinta horas que llevó ensamblar este juguete son un precio económico  por sorprender a un hombre con uno de los mejores regalos que ha recibido en su vida.

MY FATHER’S FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY PART THREE

Wednesday December 21st

 

JPE sends me an email the night before with the questions and locations he would like me to consider for this video, I reply to him just before midnight with my complete approval.

 

The next morning MB arrives with her staff, she is going to help us with the shots inside the factory. I am unaware of the pep talk she had with JPE, but I can see the results when after a few minutes of the factory tour, I understand the hint of being an obstacle in her creative process and therefore I return to my office.

 

At night, we have reunited almost every family member of my father at my grandpas headquarter to do the interviews. I had completely forgotten I will have to sit in front of the camera and answer some questions. My father had transformed into a private detective, if all his investigations had lead to him to believe we were planning a surprise party, when they denied him the entrance to grandpas headquarters, he joined all the missing pieces of the video puzzle. He had the consolation prize of some steak and chorizo tacos, amongst his family members who remained silent when asked about the interview.

 

We have to think about the raw material we have available when we reach more than three hours. To narrow down all this information into twenty minutes seems like another obstacle we just have to add to this tower. The good news is we have finished the shooting and now is the time to lock down JPE and JES to edit the video.

LOS CINCUENTA AÑOS DE MI PADRE 3/4

Miércoles 21 de Diciembre

 

JPE me envía un correo la noche anterior con la propuesta sobre las preguntas y locaciones que le gustaría realizar para el video, le respondo un poco antes de la medianoche aprobando este plan de trabajo.

 

Por la mañana llega MB junto con su personal, quienes nos van a apoyar con algunas tomas dentro de la fábrica. Desconozco la plática motivacional que tuvieron con JPE, pero supongo que es una de las mejores ya que prácticamente después de un breve tour por las instalaciones recibo la indirecta de ser un estorbo en el proceso creativo por lo que me retiro a mi oficina.

 

Esa noche en el cuartel de mis abuelos convocamos a casi todos los integrantes de la familia de mi padre para realizar las entrevistas.  En todo este tiempo me había olvidado que yo también tendré que sentarme frente a la cámara y responder algunas preguntas. Mi padre convertido en un detective que hasta ese momento había sospechado que todo ese complot se trataba de una fiesta sorpresa, al negarle la entrada al cuartel termina por descifrar que se trata de un video. Su premio de consolación son unos tacos de bistec y chorizo, acompañado por sus familiares, quienes guardan silencio sobre las preguntas y respuestas en la entrevista.

 

Tenemos que reflexionar sobre la duración del video cuando ya hemos superado la marca de las tres horas de material. Condensar toda esa información en veinte minutos nos parece otro obstáculo más que agregarle a esta torre. La buena noticia es que prácticamente hemos terminado la producción, ahora viene el momento de encerrar a JPE y JES para editar el video.

MY FATHER’S FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY PART TWO

I wake up at eight in the morning to feed my daughter and remember how imprudent I have been not mentioning my mother that a seventeen year old baby requires the same attention as Michael Jackson, therefore I am not in physical or mental conditions to be part of this project because all my time outside the factory I am a father.

Monday December 19th

I abandoned my house in the afternoon with the same guilt as those parents who were just going to buy some cigarettes and never return home, but in my case I am going to the factory for our second meeting with JES and JPE. I find out they never received my email so all that desperate need for sending it to them has been just a severe hit to my body with the same benefits as drinking ten shots of vodka. Before the meeting my mother tried to contact me but all she could listened to where my insults for making me take this project. She tells me to cancel it, I supposedly say I will, but we both know that is not true.

The rules for this project are very simple: four intense days shooting places and interviews to reach the goal of forty eight hours of healthy editing. If we want to be more accurate we are not even talking about full days but a couple of hours in the afternoon. In the first minutes of the meeting I make one last attempt to sabotage this project or at least express myself in a hyper-realist picture of what awaits for us in the next days, but the director and editor ask me if they can begin to interview some of the associates. I bring them to an empty office to place their camera and I begin to write a list with all the people who I believe could provide us with accurate information about my father’s path as a impresario.