Out-of-sync dub: This is a little trickier, especially if you’re mixing languages! My suggestion would be to shoot the entire film in one language, either Spanish or English. Go with what is natural to most of your actors. It will look far better to have your entire film shot in Spanish and dubbed into English (e.g. El Mariachi) than to have half of the film spoken in English and the other half spoken in Spanish and dubbed into English. (Again, for more information on actually synching up same languages in a traditional ADR setup, see the aforementioned ADR article.)
Most of the soundtrack was taken from other films (most notably Kill Bill). The director did inform me that he is waiting for the actual score to be finished; however, even for a “rough cut”, it’s a good idea to list in the credits the copyright info for music that’s not yours. That way people won’t think that the music is yours. Information to list would include: title, writers/ composers/ performers, copyright holder (e.g. RCA, Columbia Records, etc.), and date of publication.
Important note: if you intend to submit a project to a film festival or have it considered for distribution, you cannot include any product (music, movies, brand names, etc.) that you don’t have expressed permission for. If you don’t have permission for it, don’t use it. (To get music that you can legally use, check our Music for Indie Films section, where we list a number of bands and composers who are willing to allow you to use their music on a pure deferred basis.)
In several scenes, dialogue was
out of sync with the actors' mouths...
...while other scenes tried to cut multiple takes together for one take.
Use of Budget
As with most films, a good chunk of the budget went for food for the cast (and growing kids eat a LOT of food!) and the crew. The remaining money went for props and equipment. At just over $8.50 per minute, that’s not a bad budget.
Lasting Appeal El Caniquero has a good story that fits well for its intended audience. However, the technical problems (choppy editing, awkward dubbing) make it difficult to watch. As it currently is, I would not watch this film again, nor would I recommend it. However, if the technical problems were corrected, I’d definitely give it another go.
Overall Comment
In this debut film, Abe Duenas targets an audience often overlooked by microfilmmakers: kids and family. Although the type of plot is familiar, Duenas is able to effectively communicate a good lesson in a decent story. The editing is very rough –to the point of distraction—with awkward cuts and choppy transitions; however, editing skills can best be improved with repeated practice. The quality of the dubbed audio in the film was uneven. All of these problems are relatively easy to fix after the fact, and can be done, even if you don’t have higher-end microfilmmaking equipment. (I know, that probably sounds like an oxymoron.) I really appreciate that Mr. Duenas made a family-oriented film, which is something that we rarely receive here at MFM, and I look forward to seeing what he has to offer in the future.
A
powerhouse in management, Kari
Ann Morgan successfully produced a feature length film before
coming to work at Microfilmmaker as Assistant Editor. In addition
to writing for the magazine, she's been successfully working with
various distributors to get microfilmmakers the chance for theatrical
distribution.
