Juan Carlos Oganes' film-making and work blog.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Making the dream

This first day of shooting has been quite good. Things went smooth most of the way and time was mostly on our side. The second day (sunday) was full of electrical problems and some lights wouldn't work, but a way around it was found and had to use car lights to mimic a solution I tried a couple of times in Peru that worked fine. The only setback was that the Letus eats out half a stop and needed more light of what was available....so more cars were called for to help. Yes, just for the lights!

I have to say that doing things here are much difficult that in Peru. It's a lot of hassle to get things going, lack of support and an excess of laws that puts obstacles in everything.

To secure a place or location you need so much paper stuff or so much coordination that if not backing it up with the right amount of money you wont get far anywhere. I was lucky to have some clearance thought, thanks to the help of close people to me that had contacts.

In Peru there's not so much lawsuits for anything like here, not so much fear of giving, not so much fear of risking like in the US. If a location or simple image of a building shows in the shot they freak out and say no just for fear of the image being mishandled...no matter how much u explain what the idea is. I think people in the US would have to go and make business in Peru to know what I'm talking about and they agreed when I shared my stories of how I get things done over there. Things are gotten easier there. People are more supporting, warmer. I's sure if indie filmmakers here had the freedom I have in Peru, there would be more productions and more movies finished. The fear of lawsuits here is so strong. And that simply isn't just annoying...it's fatal to filmmaking.

Found out that ambulances here are not aloud to turn on their siren but ONLY if in a real emergency. The EMT's and the station could get in serious trouble for doing that. When I've shot in Peru similar situations, sirens could go off at any time and cars would pull over or clear away of the ambulance's path and then it could be turned off later....no big deal. Who cares anyway?
I could only have sirens and lights on for 15 seconds (after which the police came in the act, but I already had the shot "in the can" so to speak). Placed siren sound effects in post later to fill in the takes.





But I was lucky, I've got to meet and make the most amazing friends that putted so much of their support on my dream and thanks to them (actors and crew), this was able to become a reality.