Back in the Bay Area, California
I haven't been as disciplined as I should about this -- either the blog or the film itself. That's really affecting me. I've been back here home for about three weeks and this is really the first film-related thing I've done.
We decided to come home early both because we missed home and our friends, and also in order to give me more of runway to finish this project and get it out there, before having to get a day job again. My uncle passed away suddenly in our 2nd week in Barcelona and that triggered a re-assessment of the trip. It really made sense for us to cut out most of the Central America portion and just head home.
But we did shoot in Barcelona and we also shot in Puerto Vallarta Mexico.
Barcelona was not looking good for actors. I had no film or theater friends there (unlike La Roche and Dublin), and I didn't speak the language very well. I sent emails and even called a number of theaters and acting-related websites. Nothing.
Our wonderful neighbors (college students from New York) were willing to be in it, despite that they were not actually actors, so we had a back-up plan.
The night before shooting was to begin, we passed a small theater while walking through the Gracia area. They were just opening up the front lobby. I hung back and went up to a guy outside who had been talking to one of the people setting up. I thought perhaps this was someone that worked there and I could ask him if he had suggestions on where to find actors.
His name was Fernando and he spoke perfect English. Turns out he was an actor -- and quite a ham too. Very outgoing, but genuine too. Within about five minutes, he was tentatively cast as the Barcelona Mary and we agreed to meet up later that night at an underground club where he was playing music to discuss further.
It worked out great. He was fantastic and definitely got what we were trying to do.
The shoot itself went well. When one of the locations was closed (a bar that had said they would be open), I just rewrote the scene into a separate scene and it worked out (and saved time, frankly).
One of the biggest challenges in Barcelona had been trying to link up with the Muslim community there. Before I met Fernando, I was hoping to cast Mary as a Muslim, so I went (like Mary himself) to the Ravel area where there's a large Muslim community. I spoke with a few shop owners who couldn't help with any actors and eventually ended up at one of the community mosques, just as services were starting.
It was quite odd and despite my strong leftwing, humanitarian beliefs, I could feel an uncomfortable "clash of cultures" stereotyped fear at the back of my mind. It's amazing how strong the cultural pull toward racism and anti-muslim feeling is, even among us progressives.
In fact, all the people there were extremely polite and nice. One of the guys acted like a guide and got a few other men to try to help out. Eventually a mosque leader (perhaps an imam?) came over to talk -- his English was good. Clearly though, he didn't think I could find help here, though I spotted a good number of possible Mary's in the crowd. I was just too nervous to ask them myself. He politely said that there's no acting or college Muslim groups here. That people come here for work (I may put that in the script in fact).
Acting was clearly something seen as a waste of time, compared with putting food on the table (a reasonable perspective, considering their situation).
So I basically gave up on the Muslim angle. And then I found Fernando, which worked great.
In Mexico, it was crazy. We were in Puerto Vallarta for a wedding, so I cast two of our family friends (father/son) and then went looking for a local for Mary's role. I had no idea where to start looking. I spoke virtually no Spanish.
Then (slightly stereotypical) inspiration hit me: I ended up trolling around the gay part of the beach (Blue Chairs, if you know) and asked one of the waiters about my mission seeking actors -- particularly strong, handsome Latino actors. He knew exactly where to point me: the local community theater.
Turns out one of the regulars at the theater had a young boarder that matched the description. He was a bit shorter than I wanted (hopefully the camera could hide that, as it does with Tom Cruise) and spoke about five words of English.
Luckily, one of the family friends I cast spoke fluent Spanish (the father). I had no idea. The day was saved again. Unfortunately, only one of the three actors had ever actually acted before, so we'll see what we have to work with. I'm somewhat optimistic -- editing (plus voice-over and perhaps some looping) can work wonders.
