One of the weirdest things I've ever taste! It happened in Pingjiang Road, in Suzhou!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Express Journal #2: Language Exchange
Introducing Kevin The Driver, his excellent Spanish and my ridiculous Chinese.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Express Journal #1: Dear Mike
Meeting my old friend and Cinematographer Miquel Martinez during my transfer in Taipei International Airport.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Suerte in Dijon
The festival Fenêtres sur Courts in Dijon (France) projected my shortfilm Suerte in the framework of its European Competition. This was the first time I saw one of my films surrounded by french audience, and it was very special to see that people caught the intention of its last joke. I think those seconds of laugh before the final credits gave sense to all the work done on this little, modest film.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
A video for Jordan Sights Travel and Tourism
Once the shooting for InterContinental is finished in Amman, I get in touch with someone indirectly related to the project, Mr. Adnan, who's the managing director of the agency that has driven us all around the city during these days.
We meet in InterContinental's lobby, and explains me he wants to do a commercial to show the team in the agency, in order to showcase it at the Jordan Sights' website. No need to add monuments or touristic attractions in the video, as that's what all the website is about; he wants to center on the workers and the vehicles they have for their services.
I've just got one day more in Amman, I'm leaving tomorrow, Friday, at 3h after midnight. We talk about that, this could be a hasty decision, not just because of the few time we got, but also because Friday is weekend in Jordan, so he has to convince his people to come and use a free day for work. He starts calling people, some of them are far from the city and can't be back, but others would definitely be there.
He tells me that, for him, investing on this commercial is investing on the future, as the Arab Spring is damaging the tourism all around the region, and Syria is in its boiling point.
We close the deal, we schedule the shooting, and I spend my last day in Amman filming the commercial for Jordan Sights!
Monday, January 30, 2012
Shooting tourism video in Amman for InterContinental
December 5th, 2011 I travel to Amman, the capital of Jordan, to
shoot a concierge video for InterContinental Hotels & Resorts. The
video is a new episode of a series of touristic guides that the brand
have of the most important cities where they own hotels. I already
worked in one of them in Madrid, but this is a completely new
experience, as I'm traveling to a country I've never visited, and in a
moment where the region lives a complicated situation.
Avoiding the tripod
I'm flying with turkish airlines, and the communication with the airline has been frankly difficult. After a long conversation where they tried to make me understand I couldn't bring any big object because of its weight (they wouldn't have an answer to "what's more heavy, A kilo of paper or a kilo of lead?"), I decided to just leave the tripod and shoot the video without any stabilization.
The Turkish hologram
To fly to Amman from Paris, I change plane in Istanbul Ataturk Airport, and there I'm very surprised to find out that turkish have got the hologram! Of course is a trick, but for the few seconds you don't realize it, it's awesome!
Arriving to Amman
Latest weeks the arab spring has been constantly mentioned in newspaper and tv. The Spanish ministry of home affairs website targets Jordan as a country with not known problems, but it also says that risk to travel to the region is high and that any precaution taken was good, which actually I don't know how to interpret.
I arrive to Queen Alia's airport, where a guy called Ali receives me, and tells me that everything is arranged. With a smile to every controller, the security measures pass very fast, and in five minutes I've got my visa and we're out of the Airport, where InterContinental's concierge Anas is waiting for me with another guy from the hotel and Mansur, the man who's going to drive us all around Amman city for the video shooting, with his characteristic kufiyya.
After the warm welcome, Mansur drives us to Amman, 40 km. from the Airport. I can't avoid to connect the road crossing the desert, the sand-coloured houses, the driver and the sound of everybody's accents with those images I had seen all the previous days on the tv, It's like being inside the tv-news. I ask them about the arab spring, they say these days they're receiving refugees from Syria, but that Jordan still lives a calmed situation. They seem to be more interested on talking about Barça v.s. Madrid match that takes places next weekend, like Al-Jazeera is discussing at the moment I get my room in the hotel and I turn on the TV. Maybe it's football the nowadays opium of the masses!
The shooting
It takes three days to shoot the video, and I'm taking some additional shots on Friday morning. Among the greatest locations:
The Royal Automobile Museum: A wide collection of cars and auto-motives from King Hussein of Jordan, from old cars to a new Lamborghini.
Wild Jordan: A complex devoted to preserve natural heritage in the country.
Restaurant Abou el Abed: Which name's identity comes from the Lebanese comedian character who holds credit for most of the arabbian jokes.
Avoiding the tripod
I'm flying with turkish airlines, and the communication with the airline has been frankly difficult. After a long conversation where they tried to make me understand I couldn't bring any big object because of its weight (they wouldn't have an answer to "what's more heavy, A kilo of paper or a kilo of lead?"), I decided to just leave the tripod and shoot the video without any stabilization.
The Turkish hologram
To fly to Amman from Paris, I change plane in Istanbul Ataturk Airport, and there I'm very surprised to find out that turkish have got the hologram! Of course is a trick, but for the few seconds you don't realize it, it's awesome!
Arriving to Amman
Latest weeks the arab spring has been constantly mentioned in newspaper and tv. The Spanish ministry of home affairs website targets Jordan as a country with not known problems, but it also says that risk to travel to the region is high and that any precaution taken was good, which actually I don't know how to interpret.
I arrive to Queen Alia's airport, where a guy called Ali receives me, and tells me that everything is arranged. With a smile to every controller, the security measures pass very fast, and in five minutes I've got my visa and we're out of the Airport, where InterContinental's concierge Anas is waiting for me with another guy from the hotel and Mansur, the man who's going to drive us all around Amman city for the video shooting, with his characteristic kufiyya.
After the warm welcome, Mansur drives us to Amman, 40 km. from the Airport. I can't avoid to connect the road crossing the desert, the sand-coloured houses, the driver and the sound of everybody's accents with those images I had seen all the previous days on the tv, It's like being inside the tv-news. I ask them about the arab spring, they say these days they're receiving refugees from Syria, but that Jordan still lives a calmed situation. They seem to be more interested on talking about Barça v.s. Madrid match that takes places next weekend, like Al-Jazeera is discussing at the moment I get my room in the hotel and I turn on the TV. Maybe it's football the nowadays opium of the masses!
The shooting
It takes three days to shoot the video, and I'm taking some additional shots on Friday morning. Among the greatest locations:
The Royal Automobile Museum: A wide collection of cars and auto-motives from King Hussein of Jordan, from old cars to a new Lamborghini.
Wild Jordan: A complex devoted to preserve natural heritage in the country.
Restaurant Abou el Abed: Which name's identity comes from the Lebanese comedian character who holds credit for most of the arabbian jokes.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Tapis Volant to produce Random Voices // Tapis Volant va a producir Random Voices
Random Voices, the documentary project I started four years ago, has now the support of Tapis Volant, the new media division of Cinédoc Films, based in Annecy (France). With this collaboration, the documentary becomes a cross-media project, which includes a film and an interactive web-documentary produced by Pierre Mortimore and Christian Lelong.
Random Voices connects people from different countries to establish a Collective Interview between all its characters. Settled in Europe, finds different realities and perspectives spread all around the old continent, featuring a real portrait of real people who talk about personal issues, far cultures and global subjects. It has no intention of convincing the audience with any idea or vision, but to motivate their participation on giving their own opinions.
Random Voices connects people from different countries to establish a Collective Interview between all its characters. Settled in Europe, finds different realities and perspectives spread all around the old continent, featuring a real portrait of real people who talk about personal issues, far cultures and global subjects. It has no intention of convincing the audience with any idea or vision, but to motivate their participation on giving their own opinions.
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