diego's selection.
the first time i saw it amazed me. i was really entertained by the technique they used.
it's really magical. there is a lot of work there, good preproduction which is excellent for a straight 8 film.
I really like this one.
scrap paper
andrew jive, 2008
this film really tricked me, and thats what i like to see in a straight 8 film. to use the limitations or the rules of straight 8 in a
very clever and crazy way. there comes a point in the film where you loose count of the cars and you start thinking some one is really fucking with my head.
that's when the soundtrack kicks in. this one is my favourite.
deja vu
sandalz, 2005
i love video games so i thought it would be cool to challenge myself and do something interesting within the straight 8 rules.
it was all done in stop-motion, we had two layers of animations- the power bars and the time, the in-camera effects, and the actors/wrestlers had to move like clay motion dolls.
video fight
diego arredondo, 2006
about diego.
speaking with diego.
diego arredondo, director of 'heel' and 'tequila chamuco', talks about re-making rocky, employing the gas man and what makes you feel like a filmmaker…
see diego’s selection.
heel
diego arredondo, 2004
diego arredondo.
august 2010.
when i was really young and i saw back to the future, it blew my mind. after the movie i was staring at the tv screen, i saw the names coming up and didn't understand what they were. i remember my dad saying "oh it's the people that worked on the film". then i understood that you could work on a film and make films, it was fascinating.
the first film i made was a remake of rocky, either that or the godfather. i did it here in mexico with my friends when we were really young. we did remakes of things like the karate kid, american movies, on a handicam.
i was in the cafeteria of my film school in london and i had my super 8 camera with me. someone saw it and told me about straight 8, i was really excited so i looked it up and i contacted ed. he told me that they'd closed, but if i rushed one in it would be cool.
i had a story in my head about an actress working in a casting agency, who just kept thinking about all the roles she would do. i got together a small team of friends, started working on a storyboard and then a timing plan to make the shots fit in the rhythm.
i kept building on the idea with the people i was working with. one night me and the art director spent the night in the warehouse i used to live in, we were really really tired and drunk i think too. we were talking about part of the film and she just said said let's do something crazy like she goes back in time 40 years.
we needed an extra hand on set and the gas man ended up helping out. it was the scene where everything opens up and we needed about 10 people to make it happen. he stayed for the rest of the filming, i don't think he liked his job very much. he called his people and was like, "i'm working on a film now, so i'm not going to go to work anymore.
at the moment i'm trying to pull together a feature film. it's going to be shot in 3d, so we've been going into the world of 3d, learning about the process from preproduction to post production so that we can do it all ourselves.
right now i'm in the producer role, 2 weeks ago i was filming a short film for myself, but most of the time i'm just producing. i wish i was filming more and i want this feature film to get together faster, the sooner the better.
the only thing that makes you feel like a filmmaker is filming, and then seeing it on the screen. the rest of the time you're just dreaming about what you're going to film or trying to bring the money together to make it possible.