Gilles Peterson May Have Saved My [musical] Life

The current music scene is awful. It sucks. I am no longer interested in being a witness to the self-destruction of hip hop nor am I interested in destroying my brain with terrible pop music. People forget that pop music used to be amazing. Now its garbage. I struggle to find good new music. But I may have come across the one person who can spark a Randy Music Renaissance. His name is Gilles Peterson. I knew a little bit about him through his Brazilian jazz projects. But I didn't realize that he had a radio program on bbc radio one in the UK. My man Shaka hooked me up with a show of his that features the great Madlib and J-Rocc. So after listening to that show I found the other ones and have been obsessed with it ever since. Part of the reason is that I've really been interested in expanding my musical horizons and coming across different musical interpretations. I've noticed that I'm really into electronic/synthesizer based music and Gilles Peterson plays a lot of that stuff. He's definitely opened my eyes to a whole new world because I wouldn't know where to start to get this stuff. It's also cool because it exposes the DOPE music scene in London and the UK which I would love to experience firsthand at some point. I'm always down for another reason to travel. Anyway, here is a link to the latest installment of the show. Click on "listen now" to hear it. It's only up for 7 days per episode so don't miss out on listening. The other great thing is that they have a track listing for EVERY single show since 2002 so you can start to build your own collection. In fact the link I'm posting features the track list for this particular show. I hope you guys enjoy. Let me know what you think. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ny75n#segments

Madvillainy 2 Snippets

So for those of you that don't know I am pretty much obsessed with Madlib and DOOM. If you check my ipod I have hundreds of songs by them. You can throw J Dilla  into that group as well. When Madlib and DOOM came together a couple years a back for their album MADVILLAINY I can't tell you how gassed I was. It is one of the best albums I will ever hear in my entire life. Here is the first album if you wanna check it out: http://www.imeem.com/artists/madvillain/album/31jG7SoB/madvillainy-album/

Naturally, you expect for the duo to drop another album because of its critical acclaim and audience approval. We have gone a couple years without hearing anything from the new album. Now we may have come a cross a sneak peek of what is to come soon. I don't know if these are demos or actual tracks on Madvillainy 2 but they do come from J-Rocc who is a part of the Stones Throw camp. These tracks are ridiculous and now I am officially amped for the new joint to drop. Here is the clip of J-Rocc spinning some of the tracks on east village radio. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKs3hsFzNfg&hl=en&fs=1&w=600&h=338]

45th Annual Chicago International Film Festival

Osvaldo's  is an official selection of the 45th Annual Chicago International Film Festival! It is very exciting to be a part of such a historic festival. This can do a lot to get the film some really great exposure. The screening time will be SUNDAY OCTOBER 18TH AT 6:30PM. The screening will take place at the AMC River East 21 which is located at 322 E. Illinos Street. I will be out there for the screening so if you will be in the area please come through and introduce yourself.

Osvaldo's Accepted into the OHFF

What's up everyone. I just wanted to share the news that Osvaldo's is an official selection of the 2009 ORLANDO HISPANIC FILM FESTIVAL in September. From what I hear, the city and the festival are going hard to promote the festival and all the films so we're real excited to be a part of the program. That makes five festivals so far for the film. The success is very humbling and I am very appreciative of all the support that it is getting. When I get more details about the screening I will pass them on. Also, please be on the lookout for details regarding the Urbanworld Film Festival in New York in September as well. I should be getting that info real soon.

Urbanworld and Angelus Film Festivals

Osvaldo's is an official selection of the 2009 Urbanworld Film Festival presented by BET in New York City and is a semi-finalist for the prestigious Angelus Student Film Festival in LA! The film is really starting to build some momentum. Please check out the trailer so you can get a glimpse of what everybody is talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWqB7KYQH2M The film will be making its New York City PREMIERE this upcomng week at the HBO NY International Latino Film Festival THURSDAY and SATURDAY at 3:30pm at the Chelsea Cinemas Screen , 260 w 23rd st.

You can purchase tickets for the "GROWING PAINS" block at www.nylatinofilm.com I hope to see you guys out there!

THANK YOU, GRACIAS, GRAZIE....

So I recently stopped by man Keith Davis' website (which is located in the blogroll. I highly suggest that you check it out. Its a dope site.) and came across a post detailing Jim Jarmusch's five rules of filmmaking. I won't go into the details of all the rules, but there was something that struck a chord with me. Jarmusch mentions that the PA holding up traffic for you to get your shot is every bit as important as the director, the director of photography or the AD. And anyone who had an ego large enough to not understand this should be held upside down by their ankles left wondering why the sky is upside down. I couldn't agree more with this statement.

So with Osvaldo's set to make its world premiere this week I wanted to send a sincere thank you to everyone who made this film possible whether you were cast, crew, support, sounding board, vendor or hater. It means a lot to me that all of you were willing to either help create my vision or at least be engaged with it to some degree. I appreciate it more than you can imagine. Here is the cast and crew list of the film. I wanted to make sure that these hard working individuals were recognized...

Cast

Juan Dominguez            LEMON ANDERSEN Ana Daisy                GINA RODRIGUEZ Jerry Dominguez            JEFF LIMA Glenda Dominguez            MARIA ACOSTA Ambiorix                DOMINIC COLON

Crew

Director of Photography        CHRISTINA VOROS Editor                                         RYAN DENMARK Production Designer        BLAIR DOROSHWALTHER Original Score                     JONATHAN ALTMAN Costume Designers            DAWN WEST SAUNIELL CONNALLY Assistant Directors            SEAN WELSKI JONAS CARPIGNANO Producer                         KIA M. NEAL Writer/Director            RANDY WILKINS

Assistant Editor            PHIL HUGHES

Assistant Camera            ELENA GREENLEE Assistant  B Cam            NICK BROWN Steadicam Operator        BRANDON SUMMER P2 Card Assistant            BOHDANA SMYRNOVA

Gaffer                    MICHAEL ROSETTI Grips                     SHAKA KING JAY FRANKLIN COLE WILEY DOUG LENOX LEVI ABRINO

Sound Mixer                DOMINIQUE DELEON Boom Operator            NIKYATU JUSU Sound Design            DANIEL DZULA

Set Designer                YVONNE SHIRLEY CHRISTIE NEPTUNE

Makeup Artist            NATASHA RENEE

Production Assistants        ALFONSO RODRIGUEZ ALEC VAZQUEZ

Osvaldo's Director Statement

What's up everyone, I thought it would be cool to give a little insight into why I chose to write this particular story. Instead of just blabbing along I'm attaching my director's statement about the film. Its just a glimpse into how I came up with the idea and arrived at some of my decisions. We're less than a week away...

Osvaldo’s was conceived completely by accident. I was having my interview for the NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate film program when one of the faculty members mentioned that there was a piece of glitter on my face. Initially, I thought the glitter was distracting and he was asking for me to remove it. Instead, he wanted to know more about the glitter. I told him that prior to the interview I got a haircut from my local barbershop. The name of the shop was Osvaldo’s. Another faculty member asked me to describe my barber and describe a sequence of three events that occurred after the shop closed. This is where the story for the film was born.

Photo by Peter G. Svarzbein

Originally the film was about Juan Dominguez’s struggle to cope with his newfound responsibility of being a single dad. My parents have been divorced for over 15 years and I have been in the loving care of my mother ever since. This always made me curious how things would be if my dad took care of my sister and I. The more I thought about it the more I was captivated by the idea of the father being incapable of assuming the figurehead position of the family and one of the children assuming that role. How would the interpersonal relationships play out if the child acted upon more traditional parent responsibilities and sensibilities? What would happen if one parent was removed from the equation and the remaining parent didn’t really know his or her own kids? How does the presence of a relative stranger affect an unstable dynamic?

I decided to have the mother pass away because I wanted to place the family in a desperate situation. The stakes needed to be raised to the point where the only viable option for the Dominguez family is to move forward. The arrival of Ana Daisy to a home of transition serves as the catalyst for the family to self-evaluate themselves and one another. The film explores how they begin that journey with the realization that things have changed permanently. A very important step for me in writing the screenplay was fusing my personal experiences with that of the Dominguez family. Jerry was an opportunity for me to explore certain feelings that have stayed with me for years. The intimate relationship between Jerry and his sister Glenda is almost a mirror image of the one that I have with my sister. It was imperative to me that the family came across as sincere and organic as possible. The intent was to highlight the cultural specifics of an evolving family and place them in the context of a universal story.

Model Minority Podcast

What's up everyone?  I'm going to be a guest on the model minority podcast TOMORROW NIGHT AT 6PM. We'll be discussing Michelle Obama and the standard of beauty which is something I covered in an earlier post. If you want to call in and talk shit to me the number is (347) 843-4723. Please tune in if you can. The link is http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ModelMinority/2009/04/05/Michelle-Obama-and-the-Black-Female-Bod It should be fun.

Thanks

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Hello World...

20080530_randy_film_park_0331So  this is my first foray into the blog world. A couple of good friends are blog veterans and it inspired a quiet interest in me for a while now, but I never thought that I would actually capitalize on it. I was listening to an internet radio show that was talking about setting up your own film company and it made me realize that I need to take advantage of the tools that exist around me. I'm an up and coming film director that is very close to finishing my studies at NYU'S Tisch School of the Arts and receiving my MFA in film production. I'm starting to get those "what are you gonna do after you graduate?" questions so I decided to be pro-active about my future. This blog will be a part of that. I plan on posting my previous work as a director and camera operator on here as well as any new work that I may be working on or finishing. I'm pretty opinionated according to my friends so I will definitely be sharing my ideas on a lot of topics, but mainly  SPORTS, FILM, MUSIC, BOOKS AND STUPID PEOPLE. I won't go through the whole introductory thing because I figure you will learn about me as I put more posts up. I'm gonna try to be pretty diligent with this so please check in regularly and I hope you enjoy  what I have to offer. I'm excited about this and I hope you will be too. Peace