jueves, 18 de agosto de 2011

HA LLEGADO EL DIA. -YA la película- PARTE III- (en español)

Mi último blog terminó en que el día del casting había llegado.
Encontré el edificio y toqué el timbre. Una construcción setentera bien situada en esta ciudad con forma de araña gigante.
El director baja, me abre la puerta y me da la bienvenida tan cordial como siempre.
No hubo mucha conversación desligada a mi razón de estar allí.
Ceratti nos acompañaba con su música, no tan de fondo (Ceratti afortunadamente parece no saber estar en segundo plano). 
Pronta a mi llegada ví el guión de la película en la patalla de la computadora.
"Quiero que leas el guión en voz alta, todo el guión, incluyendolo todo, lee todo lo que se pueda leer"- me dijo.
"Perfecto"- respondí (una vez más, siguiendo la actitud del juego de impro yes-and) .
 Ahora, cuando vean la película verán por qué no es difícil enterrarse en la historia de inmediato.
La primera escena es un golpe seco que ataca el estómago, el corazón y el alma sin remedio.
Esta historia no sabe de ahorro. A lo que me refiero es que YA no guarda nada para el final, no guarda y punto. YA no es ahorradora, sino todo lo contrario; arremete al instante y con premura. Sin embargo, y aunque parezca contradictorio, esta historia no comienza con el final, ni revelada queda su resolusión al primer bocado.
YA empieza por el principio. Un principio que sacude la fórmula: "in creccendo" de la mayoría de las historias, nublando así la expectativa de lo aprendido... 

A la mitad de la primera escena pensaba: "yo quiero hacer esto"
A la mitad del guión sentí que me contaban la historia, como cuando lees un buen libro. 
Algo sucede, que de pronto comienzas a tener la vívida sensación que un amigo/a te está contando su historia. La diferencia fue, que esta vez sentí que yo era mi propia confidente. Una sensación que acudía más allá del tema y la acción...raro.

Hay como 7 personajes además de Daniela. Todos puntuales, tan cuidadosamente dibujados que entiendes perfectamente por qué son parte de su  vida.
Todos activan algo. Todos causan en ella un efecto, cada uno de una manera muy particular y eminente.
Aproximadamente una hora después alcancé el final.
Recuerdo claramente este instante: con precaución volteo, buscando a Víctor (el director y guionista).
Sentado como a dos metros de mí desde donde estuvo oyendo mi primera lectura. 
Cuando por fin lo encuentro con la mirada, él sonríe, afirmando con su gesto que entendía que me había gustado.
Entonces rompí el escandaloso silencio con una pregunta casi desesperada: "Qué sigue?"
"Escojí 4 escenas que quiero que prepares. Aparte de éstas, tu debes elegir una más. El día del casting me mostrarás las cinco. Cuál escojes?"- me preguntó.
"mmm, pudiera re leer-"
"No!"- dice interrumpiéndome. "A partir de esta primera lectura elije una más".
"La primera escena"-contesté 
Su expresión revelando sorpresa es seguida por un: "segura?"
Evidentemente dudé, pero con premura respondí: "sí, la puedo hacer bien"
Confesó que a esa escena en particular,le tenía particular respeto. Consideraba que indudablemente era una de las más difíciles, pero de igual modo un gran momento para explorar una amplia gama de matices del personaje en muy corto espacio. Yo estuve de acuerdo (y confieso en secreto también un poco arrepentida).

En ese mismo instante envió el "paquete" de escenas a mi correo electrónico, diciéndome que tendría un poco menos de dos semanas para prepararlas.
Seguido, hablamos de Daniela. Me hablaba de ella como presentándome a una gran amiga. Una amiga muy cercana, a quien conocía a detalle. Hablamos a grandes rasgos de la materia  que la componía, su naturaleza humana. Los libros que lee, las cosas que le gustan, sus ideas sobre religión, estado y política (muy por encima en esta etapa). Mencionó también su afición por la música.
Examinamos juntos las escenas que habría de preparar, mencionando entre muchas, frases como:
"Lo peor que te puede pasar es la existencia misma"
"Maneras de amar muy jodidas"

(Yo anotaba TODO)
Habían pasado ya 4 horas. Estaba inflada con información sobre esta nueva chica que debía conocer muy de cerca muy rápido. Esa era mi misión, acercarme lo más posible a ella... tanto como me dejara.
El camino a casa esa noche estuvo colmado de imágenes de todo tipo, buscando la tonalidad correcta de un primer acercamiento descarado. Era como tender una cama con cientos de sábanas... tendidas una encima de la otra, y encima de la otra y la otra.  Cada una distinta a la anterior, en color, textura y tamaño. Una imagen pesada pero de alguna manera útil al mismo tiempo.
La preparación comenzó... tenía 10 días para agarrar a Daniela de la mano.

...continuará. Gracias por leer.

viernes, 12 de agosto de 2011

The Audition day Arrived (YA the movie part III)

 YA the movie part III
So, i was given my audition date, right?
That's where i stopped last time i wrote. Now i feel like writting this in Spanish...what do i do? I'm kind of screwed...Changing to spanish would be kind of  saying to my english speaking freinds... "introduce this part of the story onto google translator if you want to know what happened next". 
Mind you, if the damn thing would do a better job, i seriously would continue the story in spanish....Cause for obvious reasons i refer writing in Spanish. Actually i'm not sure if that is a totally-true statement, it depends on how i feel on the day i write. Anyway, I've come up with the brightest of all solutions: (HA!) I'll write this thing twice. One for you and one for me. 

So the audition's day arrived.
I found the building and rang the bell. 
A well located small flat in Mexico City.
The director comes down to open the door and greets me as warm as always.
There isn't much chatting around the bushes... 
Ceratti plays in the background and i can see the script is opened on his computer screen. 
"I want you to read the whole script out-loud...Everything, including the scene headers, cuts, fade ins, fade outs, etc"- he said.
I was like: "Alright!" (again, playing the yes-and improv game).

Now, when you see the film, you'll realise why it isn't hard to get into the story. 
The first scene is a dry punch on your kidneys, heart and soul. 
This film is everything but a saving account, and what i mean by that, is that unlike most stories YA doesn't safe stuff for the end.  YA doesn't do saving. It throws it all at you at once. However, by saying this i'm not talking (by any means) about the end, or about beginning with the end.
YA begins with the beginning. The beginning is so tough it feels like a smack at breakfast time...when your vision is cloudy and your heart is still at ease.
Half way though the 1st secuence i was like "I want to do this". 
Half way through the script i felt i was being told the story... just like what hapens when you read a good book. Somehow you acquire the feeling a friend of yours is telling you a story, his/her story. 
The difference this time was that i felt i was telling my story to myself. There are about 7 characters apart from Daniela. They are all so punctual and well drawn that you know exactly why they are a part of her life. 
They all switch something. She's affected by them all...in different ways.
After about an hour i had finished reading YA
I remember this moment so clearly: carefully turning around, away from the computer screen, searching for the director's eyes. He sat behind me listenning to my reading. When our eyes met, he smiled, like he knew exactly how much i liked it.
So i said: "What do i do now? What's next?".

"I've chosen 4 scenes i want you to prepare, and you get the chance to choose 1. On the audition day, you'll show me 5 of them"- "Which one are you picking?" -he asked
"mmm.... ehhh..... can i read-" 
"-NO!"- he interrupted me. "From the read through, which scene you think will show an element of your acting i need to see".
"The first scene"- i said hastily.
His face turned into a huge bright question mark as if saying: Really?
I doubted myself for about a second, but quickly answered YES. I think i can do that one well.
He told me that scene1 in particular was the one he felt to be the hardest, yet a true oportunity to show different tints of the character. I agreed.
He sent the 5 scenes to my mail account and told me i'd have a little less than 2 weeks to show them to him.
After that, we talked about Daniela. Like he was introducing me to his best friend. A girl he knew so well, so i detail.... We spke about the stuff she was made of as a human being. The books she reads, the stuff she loves, her ideas on religion (very roughly at this point). The director explained to me how much of a music lover she was....
He went though the scenes he'd asked me to prepare and came up with phrases like:

"The worst it can hapen to you is to exist"
"Very fucked up ways of loving each other"

These above are amongst many many many many others.
4 hours had past. I was soaked with information about this girl. 
I was determined to get to her. The ride home was full of images... i felt as if i was making a bed with hundred of bedsheet- placing one over the other and over the other and over the last one... Each one with a different tones of blue...and gray...Really a heavy yet great picture.
So the preparation began.... i had 10 days to get to Daniela.


...to be continued. Thanks for reading






jueves, 4 de agosto de 2011

THIS IS MY LIFE NOW: YA The Movie (Part II)

So on my last post I made an attempt to translate the tittle of the film. In fact, the screenwritter and I spent about 2 hours chatting about what the translation would be. 
If i remember right, the one that we thought came closer to the meaning of YA in our context was "THAT'S IT", although on the other side, we hated that it sounded so alike Michael Jackson's documentary: This is it. 
Hence, we still have no idea what of its many translations will eventually embody YA. The good news is that it doesn't matter just quite  yet.
So let's go back to the party.
The small-room-plenty-of-alcohol party.
The small-room-plenty-of-alcohol party where the director said he'd like to see me auditioning for this film.

Now there is something extremely cute and genuine about this story. I met this man while auditioning for a tiny tiny part in a film he was also directing. My part, a waitress, had about 2 snappy appereances in the film and that was it. So I auditioned. He liked it. He asked to see me again for a "call-back". And i was like: "Seriously? A call back for this waitress that has no importance in the story  AT ALL? really?". I was there, ready to convince the director i was perfectly capable to play that part (which didn't even have a name. Well she did: she was called Waitress 1. No jokes). 
At least i got the part, the mini mini part. I was actually really glad about it.
That's how the director thought of me for YA. And i find that so extraordinary. A teeny-weeny role brings to my doorstep the biggest role i've ever played. And that's when it comes very apparent to me that life is made of .... well whatever it may be made of is surely entangled one another, nothing is really isolated, not even our "Topus Uranus". Nothing i feel. And i'm shamely aware i'm not bringing news to any of you lovely readers by saying that. But it did actually made me think of the times when i've said: "No, i don't do this or that". For whatever reason it might have been, i've had times when i just said no. And not once, i thought i was also, indirectly perhaps saying "no" to that thing next to it...
Weeks later my cellphone rings, the number is unknown. I pick up and say hello.
The man i met in that party said he's finished writting the script. "The first stage of the audition is reading the script, outloud, here"- he said. All i said was: yes and,  yes and, yes and (just like the improv. game). 
I was given an autione date. This is how the moon was in march... when i was given my 1st audition date:


 To be continued...

martes, 2 de agosto de 2011

THIS IS MY LIFE NOW: YA The Movie


It feels like you know when something is going to 
be special, from the beginning. 
From the word GO, from the moment when you 
hear of it or you are told directly. 



I was told directly.
I was told directly in a party. 
I was told directly in a party with no much room but plenty of alcohol around. 

When the topic came on i sort of sobered up a little and thought: shit shit... this ain't no chitchat. 
I slowed down on the drinking and listened to him. He said he was finishing writting a movie where the whole action, drama and all of it hapens around this girl, a young girl, a young girl called Daniela. There was a pause. I didn't talk cause i did not want to interrupt his flow and also i wanted to know what this whole thing had to do with me.
Daniela -he continued- is a girl who's life changes throughout the film. Her story takes her through deep dark moments of sorrow and despair, pushing her instincts to act untenably. So the character is complicated -he added- And it is so, cause we see her doing what usually happens behind closed doors. 
We see her alone a lot of the time. Her and the hell she's living, sharing a flat, in Mexico City. 

So Daniela has to be as real as you and I. There would be no way of hiding holes.
And of course, if you are an actor you may be thinking "of course, all the characters i've played are real". 
I must confess I've never known this much about a person i'm about to become...Never before i've asked myself how does my character wipe when she goes to the toilet. 

Let's go back to the beginning of this whole story. So he said he would like to see me audition for this film.
I was so glad. Cause you'll be surprise what some people do. After telling you about a character, that according to the descriptions could perfectly be performed by you they tell you something like: "... and we are so happy with  XXX who is our main actress, she's fabulous..."  SERIOUSLY It happens!.

The film is called YA, which has so many meanings I'm fearfull not to find the roundness in English which it has in Spanish. But it could mean the following: (it all depens on the entonation you give it)
       That's it
                    Enough
                             That's Enough
                                                  Right now
                                                                   Already
                                                                                 At Once
                                                                                                 Now

 ... to be continued




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