Guest Blogger

Location: Distrito Federal, Mexico & Tegucigalpa, Honduras

And now [cue drum roll]

The leads of Sin Nombre…

 

I feel like a truck's been lifted off my shoulders now that that's done.

One of the things I stressed most about this film was the cast. We have some 80 speaking roles of people hailing from all regions of Mexico and Central America. But more important than anything, the leads, the damned leads.

For the last 4 weeks I've been sweatin it — watching the clock tick closer to 0 hour (down to 22 days). And now it's suddenly done, I can finally focus on other things, like how to actually shoot the film, here to shoot it and making tattoo guns. Yes, I made a tattoo gun yesterday — it's a great stress reliever, end result feels like a less intensive form of yoga, letting my mind focus on something small and intricate for a few hours really was like a vacation from the stress of the film prep.

I will place instructions:

Combine the following ingredients in a sauce pan:

CD player servo

Shirt button

Toothbrush

2 AA Batteries

Bic Pen

Guitar String

Lots of Electric tape

Add water

Et voilá! I tattoo for free. Email for schedule.

Funny how it all goes down, this casting thing. One thing I firmly believe is that casting makes the film (that can be said for many steps of the film process so I'll probably say that about something else at some point, but for now, believe me, casting makes or breaks). The actors are the fabric of your film, they are the colors you paint with and I want them to be dope.

So I hunted up and down central and north America for a Honduran Sayra and a Mexican Willy, almost one year of casting, at least 500 girls out of Honduras for Sayra and countless numbers here in Mexico for Willy… and for all that, I now have a Mexican Sayra and a Honduran Willy. And they are going to be dope. It's just funny how that ended up happening. You go looking for something and you find exactly what you need where you weren't looking. I will apply this strategy to all things in life now.

As for realism, although I did not succeed in finding Sayra in Honduras, I found an awesome Honduran girl named Erika Mendoza (16) to be a part of the film. She was in the runnings for the role, but ultimately I gave it to an actress who was the part. Erika however got a consolation prize, she will be flying up from Honduras to play the role of Sayra's friend and then take over as the defacto Honduran dialogue coach. Neither Erika nor Edgar have ever left Honduras before, nor have either of them been on an airplane. That will be an interesting flight.

It all came down to 4 final girls about a week and a medium sized aneurysm ago — when if we were going to go with a Honduran girl, passports and visa's would need to be drawn up immediately in order to get them to Mexico in time for the shoot.

Now, me, Mr. Decisive here, couldn't pick who was right based on the 3 inch compressed Quicktime files I had for review. My previous trips to Honduras were inconclusive, I had two other options, both amazing actresses, one from Chile and one from Mexico but I really wanted a Honduran for the role. So, 10 hours later, Amy and I were on an unplanned flight to Honduras — once again looking for our Sayra. This in the midst of our compressed pre-production schedule already stacked with special effects, safety, train, train safety, production design, production design safety, costume design, extras casting, locations, location safety, cinematography, and safe cinematography meetings.

Results, a damned difficult 4 day casting sessions all with real potential for a Sayra, but ultimately, a huge risk to put on a completely unexperienced actress. Each girl had something amazing to offer, but each offer was one piece of a more complex "whole" that I needed for the Sayra character. Paulina, however lacking in the authenticity of a Honduran Sayra, had all the other components, the naïveté, stubborness, innocence, sadness, and acting experience. It was a damned damned difficult choice and I'm sure I lost brain cells over it. But when I reasoned to myself that we are just making a movie, not saving the world, I swiped those brain cells back.

Regarding this 16 year old Erika. First of all, she's a smart and witty girl with natural talent as an actress. I knew she had to be part of this film from the moment I met her. Problem, she's only 16 and can't technically leave the country with out her parents.

So, up to date, one of the most bizarre and odd pleasures in this film adventure took place. I got to watch my producer, Amy Kaufman, sit down in Erika's cyan-lit dining room and in a calm, matter of fact Spanish, ask Erika's mother for her daughter.

Now you could imagine, the mother didn't go for it at first, I mean, how often would you let a room full of foreign strangers barge into your home, ask you to send your 16 year old daughter alone to a foreign country with promise of work and be all cool with it? Sounds like something out of an Amnesty International human rights report. But Amy somehow convinced her. Perhaps aided by Erika, who, stood behind all of us with her eyes fixed like lasers on her mother (unflinching for the 20 minute negotiation) as her mother weighed the facts.

Her father admitted he did what ever his wife told him, so it came down to the jefa. In the end, she's coming to Mexico and now Amy has a new flat mate and we have our Honduran girl to represent properly.

 

So here we are now, 22 days away from a shooting, 80% casted, 70% location scouted, and shot listing for hours and hours. Rehearsels and Edgar's arrival on Monday. Scouts in Veracruz and more testing of film stocks, blood, sweat, sun burns, chapped lips, tattoos, and colors, lots of colors. I can see the swell coming.

Update: Besides the Mexican consulate in Honduras doing all that they could to make Erika's visa problematic (and ultimately delaying her arrival by a month so that she missed her part in the film, Edgar got to Mexico with out a hitch… except for walking out of the airport in Mexico City, past the man holding a sign with his name on it and into a taxi that took him to a seedy motel near the airport and charged him $150. We eventually found him, shaken but not stirred.

Welcome to the big city, Edgar.