The importance of a team.
Sometimes I practice in front of a mirror
that way I can adjust my tone to the text
or I can ask for advice from my friends
to adapt to the text.
It is a job that requires team work.
Working together is very important for a team.
I have always liked to work like this.
If everyone pitches in it helps the acting to be better
and the show to be successful in the theater or the cinema.
If we don't, the quality goes down.
It is more fun if your are on a good team.
Thanks to everyone's contributions
I have made progress.
When the director gave me a text I didn't understand
actors and the director helped me to adapt it
to sign language. Then everything flowed.
Thanks to everyone's input
we can better represent our roles.
We've been working like this for a while, and we will continue.
In 'Checkmate' the director, Rafa Puig.
told us that we should sign
what the script said.
Later, we as actors
adjusted the text so we could better express ourselves.
How the project started.
When I was 30 years old I went to Arkadin cinema,
on Regás street, on the corner with Balmes.
There they played the classics
and I went to see "The Seventh Seal".
The scene with the chess game by the sea
left an impact on me, even if I didn't know what they were saying.
Since then and until now
I still think about it!
"The Seventh Seal" was filmed in Sweden.
Two chess players face off
and you see the game, the sea in the background, a horse walks by....
The film is by director Ingmar Bergman.
I loved it so much
that whenever I play chess I remember it.
I have always wanted to reproduce it
looking for variations.
On the train tracks, while the train arrives....
During the summer I would go visit Rafa Puig, in Marçà
And he showed me the train tracks
which would be the perfect spot for the scene.
We thought about different actors
like Juan Masas, among others.
And every summer we went back to the project.
I didn't really understand what it meant
that scene for him, but he was trapped by it.
It is a recurring scene, and very artistic.
A chess board, a train, and the station.
And when it seemed like the idea was forgotten
He would bring it up again...until he did it!
We've been talking for 6 or 7 years
with Judit Ferrerons about this idea.
And she helped me to write the script.
And it was understandable
but later she explained it more clearly to me
defining the roles of each character
with different acessories
to tell them apart.
The idea was frozen, stuck for 4 or 5 years
until it was my turn as director inDouble Eye{
The other members of the group
had already directed a short film.
Which is when I recovered the idea to make 'Checkmate'
I spoke with Xavier Álvarez
and Jesús Benabarre
and we prepared
the script for 'Checkmate'
During rehearsal
we improved the weak points in the script.
Jesús helped me
by asking why things happened
and that is how we enriched the dialogue.
The production process.
We filmed 3 times.
The first was before the COVID-19 pandemic,
at the end of february.
And when I went to edit
I saw mistakes.
So we filmed again.
And while I was editing
the pandemic arrived and we were stuck at home for 3 months.
Later, in September or October that year
we filmed the missing scenes.
The sunlight, the colors, everything had changed
and it was hard to get the same shots.
Even so, I had to edit the colors
in post-production.
The process of post-production
It took me one month of work.
I did my first draft, then I corrected and cut things out
to no go over the 20 minute limit.
I had to eliminate material, even if it hurt.
If I had the choice it would have been 30 minutes long.
I really hated having to eliminate scenes I would have liked to include.
Until it became the film "Checkmate" that you've seen.
Aspects that new creators should consider
When I was little, during the summer
my father took me to the cinema
in the town of Cubelles.
Back then, there weren't any subtitles.
My father loved Westerns
because of the movement and facial expression
I could easily tell who the bad guys were.
When it was over we would talk about the acting.
It was very easy to identify the good guys and bad guys.
The bad ones made movements and expressions
that were very consistent.
The same thing with the good guys.
Always with variety but it worked with their role.
The contrast between facial expressions
between the good and the bad still happens today.
Like everyone, I liked the bad ones best.
It is an easier role. Being the good guy is harder.
A reflexion of our reality
This year, the movie that won the Oscar
is based on a French film
made last year "The Bélier Family".
Personally, I don't like it. It is written
and made from the perspective of the hearing.
They don't know the deaf perspective.
In the movie you see some deaf parents
that take advantage of their hearing daughter.
In reality there are many children of deaf parents
who take advantage of their parents and that is not reflected.
It is too stereotypical
in the script
like that the deaf are very sexually active.
It also happens in other fields.
Psychiatrists don't like films about psychiatrists.
What they show is superficial, not reality.
Hope in generational change
Young people are our hope.
I am already over 65!
Thanks to them I will continue to be able to see films.
But if they don't take over, I won't be able to enjoy films.
And that is not what I want.
I also hope and wish that they will do better than us
and that they new generations surpass us.
Finding the right intensity with acting
It has happened to me. Sometimes in front of the mirror.
Sometimes I don't like what I see when I see myself on film.
If my acting seems forced I am not happy.
Natural acting is better than forced.
I have learned that and how to tell the difference
when I act.
I would advise young people not to force their acting.
Regulate what comes out naturally.
If the director need more intensity
then you can be more intense.
If you start out forced, then you can't increase the intensity
and it will lack variety. Viewers like a change of tone.
But if you have already given it all, you can't give more.
The same happens with the modulation of the voice.
Our culture, our art.
The cultural expression in sign language
is best through theater and cinema.
They are totally visual arts.
Which also express a visual language.
Another form are songs
interpreted in sign language.
They transmit the melody, the music
through expression
and rhythmic movements.
Just same as it done with intonation.
Getting fired up on stage, to act in front of the cameras
is just as important in film as in theatre.
I would urge you to try theater
but you must know you need a good base in theater.
In a theater an actor must provide
a more lively performance whereas in film, it is measured
the director decides the shot of each scene
Everything is thought out and the actors don't interact
On the other hand theater offers more freedom
and requires more effort.
And the good thing is when you are done
the actor receives critics and opinions
which are helpful. I used to get offended but it shouldn't be like that.
It is constructive criticism.
It helps to modify and regulate acting for cinema.
After seeing a film and the applause
everything is over. In theater they get more, more love
in addition to being a good place to learn
to adapt texts.
Upcoming projects
I hope to become inspired
to make a documentary.
Monday I will start to think and later I will film.
I want to try it.
I've always participated
and I don't want to miss the 7th edition.
It isn't a genre I am really comfortable with but I will try.
The 7th edition of vicmovies, proposes
two options: documentary and sequence shot
I think that Double Eye will participate in both.
We will see how we manage to film a sequence shot.
It will be like theater.
When I saw the advert for the genres I collapsed
But as it gets closer
I am very sure
That I never want to miss an edition of Vícmovies
Vicmovies and the creation of Catalan Sign Language
Without Vicmovies we wouldn't advance
It challenges and inspires us
it motivates us.
It also favors a healthy competitive spirit.
All thanks to Vicmovies
which we hope continues for many more years.