Juan Carlos Oganes' film-making and work blog.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Gloria del Pacifico's website soon!

Getting close to finishing the film's official website. Had to dump the prior designer for not progressing at a steady pace and stalling delivery times (a thing I hate and specially when people make stupid excuses like if I were dumb or something) so now I'm working with the guys at Heedcom. Cristian Alvarez is such a great guy and very much into making something good and delivering a polished product. I like people like this. People that like to feel proud of their work.

Dropped by their office this Saturday to supervise the progress and its looking good so far. Brought an intro video that will play automatically. The idea came out from the film Gravity's website and similar ones. The video in Gravity's site is an 23MB MP4 video file having an HD resolution and it took maybe a minute or so to load here. The idea is to have my video play as quickly as possible but the problem is that we still don't have here in Lima high-speed internet so over there at the US it would play almost immediately while keeping the resolution high. I had to compress the video as much as possible down to 9 MB while keeping the same HD resolution. It loaded kinda quick and looks smooth and fine so....problem solved!

Also, I want the site to be very informative, not just show about the film but also proven war facts so anyone from students, history fans and serious people can learn from it. If I can entertain and teach at the same time I can consider myself satisfied.

I'm eager to have it done fast to put it online.

The intro video.

Testing smoothness and initial play speed.

Results overview.

Important to also show war facts from the film.


Sunday, March 23, 2014

A friendly chilean visit

My good chilean friend Enrique Robles visited again Lima and had the chance to meet again tonight. Being an army history magister himself, his interest and knowledge in the field and about the war is deep. Owning a collection of over 2,000 books in the topic, he truly is "talking library" and sharing info and talks about it is such a pleasure. Showed him some finished scenes from "Gloria del Pacifico" like last year and specially scenes that weren't finished yet so he could see the before-after comparison.

Thank you for your visit, my friend. I'll be seeing you soon but next time over there at your place in Santiago. :)

Thank you for your visit, Enrique.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Gloria del Pacifico film seminar

End of last year, I was proposed to start expos and seminars about the film but time was tight and many things were restraining these from happening. Now its different and gave the first of many in schedule. This time at the Joint School of the Armed Forces (Escuela Conjunta de las Fuerzas Armadas).

200 + attendees among some civilians. A packed house meant a lot of interest and its a heart-warming experience to see interest in history and "Gloria del Pacífico". Showed a bit of scenes that were already finished and colored-corrected. Had the chance to talk about the process of creating the film, how it all came together, how my idea started, the hurdles passed in general and the mission to make audiences in Peru reflect on the errors made in the past and how we can avoid them now.

I can't stop mentioning my friend and fellow history-buff Peruvian Navy officer Captain Juan Carlos Llosa, who gladly invited me to the event.

Starting the seminar

A packed house of around 200 people.


Showcasing scenes of the film.





Shaking hands with people of similar history interest.



Saturday, March 1, 2014

Ballroom gala scene: Timotea Vernal's dreams

Preparing these last weeks for one of the last "connecting scenes" or "pickup shots" -whatever you call it- and it has finally arrived.

This last thrusday and friday, we shot a connecting scene of one of Timotea Vernal flashbacks and another Alfonso Ugarte flashback with his mother Rosa Vernal.

Small scene onscreen but quite heavy production-wise for we had to gather mostly light-skin people with the actors as it was a high-class ballroom gala party in Iquique thrown by the governor. Back in the XIX century, class differences were quite marked specially in race and skin color so the historical accuracy demanded it.

Props and stuff were brought in and all the women's wardrobe done in the past months were used. Looked awesome onscreen! The male wardrobe was rented. Planned to make them too but if it was just gonna be used for these scene, it wasn't worth the expense.

Lighting the scene was quite tricky as -not being a built set but an old house- we couldn't hide very well the light stands so some shots need rotoscopy to delete them digitally. Another pain in the ass, but....there was no other way around it. No rigging was allowed in the ceiling for the house is protected (its a landmark building).

Expected to start filming by 11am, we ended up shooting around 4pm...way much late than expected as hairdos and makeup of all extras and actors took quite longer. Even with many make-up artists onset. Also, women were the most time-consuming, as petticoats, undergarments, collars, hair-locks, bags, gloves and hand fans required much assisting. Regardless, the scenes ended up looking beautiful.


The gala ballroom scene.

Last directions before filming.

Checking the wardrobe.

The dresses take first seat in these scenes.

Supervising the makeup.

Some extras practicing the moves.

Used an old wheelchair to follow the actors move freely around the ball room.

Giving directions to Bolognesi and Weguelin.

Sweating under the lights. Weguelin and Bolognesi.

René, dance expert, teaching the moves to the main actors.

Before the dance scene.

The good old clapboard.

Young gentlemen and their ladies.
   
Screen capture: Timotea Vernal and her chaperone Lucrecia.

Screen capture:Alfonso Ugarte, her mother Rosa Vernal and Timotea Vernal.

Screen capture: Alfonso Ugarte meets Timotea.

Screen capture: Bolognesi talking with Carlos Weguelin.

Screen capture: The ballroom gala party scene. Dozens of extras.
It's a wrap! Most of us all for the last picture of the filming day.