Believe- the shooting

Hi everyone,
Time to talk about  the battle plan . We took 5 hours to make a clear overview of each sequence, and all the locations . The table was perfect to make a board , it a short movie come on forget the powerpoint ;)

While Paul and Rosario cast the kids, Renata and Mathieu go house hunting in the Barrios, and Valerie goes to pick up the rest of the crew – Baptiste Gautier Director of Photography, Delphine Bellonnet Producer from France, and Caroline Madec Make up Artist- finally arriving from Salta.  Time for the first crew asado …

Today, we are having the call back for the 10 kids we selected out of the 150 people showing up at the casting a few days ago. Out of the 10 kids, we are very interested by two of them, though we are still waiting for them to show us their horse ridding skills.

We had to wait for the two horses that a friend “gaucho” lent us for the casting. We have learned today to adapt ourselves to Argentinian time, which is different to French… we had to wait a few hours for the horses to come.  Nevertheless, we are very grateful of the help we are receiving from Oran’s inhabitants . Without their support most of our project would not be possible.

The days of preparation continue between location scrutiny and consolidation of contacts.
Imagine our joy, when upon the return from a location scrutiny, Paul comes back with a child on a horse, accompanied by the child’s father and brothers; all appearing in the sunset.
Paul immediately casted them, organizing a horse race in the middle of high grasses and orange trees.

Soon the team will grow, with the arrival of Renata Biagiola, Paul’s assistant and Mathieu Hutin – Photographer. Both arrive right on time for our meeting with the Chief Firefighter.
We rely on the firefighters for additional help during the shooting. Again we receive a very warm welcome and the firefighters immediately offer us their entire support.

We are still missing the rest of the team, “stranded” now in Salta, after the delay of their flight to Buenos Aires from France.  They will join us at last tomorrow after a final 4 hours bus journey from Salta to Oran.

Days pass by and location scoutings are getting more precise. Paul Mignot decided to shoot part of the movie in Oran’s Barrios.

Our friend Pablo Maella explained us that each Barrio has a “president”, and that it would be advisable to have him/her introducing us to inhabitants. This way we will get better access to the “casita de madera”, wooden houses where most of the Barrio’s inhabitants live.

We decided to organize an Assado meeting with all the Barrio’s presidents to introduce ourselves and our film project.

The next morning we started meeting the very warm, smiling and sharing people of Ramon de la nueva Oran’s Barrios in their houses.

Hello dear friends and blog reader!

Sorry for this moment of absence. Things have accelerated here and we haven’t had time to update you, but we enjoyed every moment of our Oran experience!

After our promotion and media days – Oran’s Television, Radio station and newspapers - where we explained our project and made a call for the casting, 150 people presented themselves, willing to participate in the movie.

This enthusiasm pleased us a lot, although we are still searching for our main actor.
Oran’s inhabitant show great interest in our film project. People are very supportive and regularly invite us at their places, offering their help.

Rosario is my brilliant producer and also in charge of the communication around the movie as my spanish is… really … really … bad.

Here a quick rough of the interview made by channel 11 for the argentinian network. 

Today was a very special day for us. we began at 8 am, at the Alto Verde Hotel, witch is the most classy  hotel in town. Juan Carlos, a journalist from Radio Guemes came to interview us. We had a very emotive moment when Val red on the air a letter in spanish that Lorena Pereyera (Thank you, Lore, we love you) helped her translate, thanking all the people of Oran, specially Pablo Mealla, for helping. 

The interview was such a success that an hour later we had another Radio called Foloklorisima, one of the most heard ones in Oran,  giving us a call to comment on our story. They also invited us to a special radio session tomorrow where there will be folklore singers and asado. Not only we will be on the air, but the reunion will be filmed and shown on local tv on Saturday. In the meantime, we received a very special call letting us know that the city of Oran will give us a diploma as honorable guests and that our project will be named Municipal Interest.  Later on, Radio A 92.3 came to Alto Verde and in the garden, under a beautiful sun we told one again the purpose of our voyage. Canal Dos, a TV chain came to join us and we had a first time in front of the camera.

After we finished the interview, we went to OTC`s studios (Oran Televisión por Cable) were this time in front of 3 cameras we presented Believe, our motivations, our goals and our love for the people of Oran. 

We finished the day in Alto Verde Hotel with the same journalist from the morning, this time for Salta National TV.

We want to thank Radio Guemes, Radio Folklorisima, Radio A 92.3, Canal Dos OTC, Sabrina, her father, and her grand mother Nelly, Cesar, the people from Oran that keep calling to offer their services, and you readers !

Rosario & VAL

In the mean time, in Paris, Marie Dubaille, 1 AC and the Dop of the Argentinian part, Baptiste Gautier, is running the camera tests before leaving. From my side I wanted to thank Alga Panavision for their incredible support and specially Jean-Claude Ruellan , without them , this project would never had come to life… Thanks … 

Wednesday. Third day in Oran : ” Escuelas Tour  “. After the political meeting where we met Noemi Zelaya we had the opportunity to see her school ,  Osvaldo Pos . We had a great meeting the director of the school  Liliana Teresa Mora de Palajos who was really enthusiastic and helpful, she already had some ideas on the casting …

Then we went to the” Burela escuela”  and met the director Edith Beccari de Nani, she offered to talk about the project to the child and to present them the project.

We went in few classes and discovered incredibly generous and kind children, full of life and humor. A moment filled of tenderness

Pablo invited us to a political meeting. We had the chance to discuss the project with the political figures of the province . Mayor of the city,  Marcelo Lara Gros  , Minister of the government Dr Pablo Kosiner and governor of Salta’s province Juan Manuel Urtubey. We also made great contacts to enter the school system and start the casting.

I wanted to say that the murder of the two french tourists was a very sad event, but completely isolated. The area is really safe, and everyone fought really hard here to solve the case. So , don’t be afraid , this area is a jewel and people incredibly kind.

Presentation at Jose Pons’s house of the typical Saltanian clothes

Street casting