A Filmmaker’s Report from Cannes

Cheap in Madrid sat down with filmmaker José Antonio Rodríguez, a.k.a. JHoss, to talk to him about his recent trip to the Cannes, where his documentary “Dixieland, Jazz Band” was entered in the international film festival. It was this 31-year old Madrileño’s first time at Cannes.

CiM: What did you learn at Cannes?
JHoss: It’s more like what I observed from all of it. You go there with one idea about what Cannes will be like, and you leave with another. When you’re in a new place, you’re alert and you notice everything. If I had to sum it all up, it was about the infectiousness of cinema. Even if you’re not accredited with a badge showing you have a film entered, it is still like a magnet for the film world. If you have it well planned where you’re going to go—great. I didn’t really, because even if you have seen the schedule written, you don’t realize the magnitude of the festival until you’re there experiencing it live. But any event that took place—for example, about short films or in the digital library—I found out what was going on so I could go to see what was worthwhile. It’s good to go once to see what it’s all about, and then go back another year to really take full advantage of it. Definitely, the experience is very recommendable.
Once we were walking to a Brazilian party, and we saw a group of 5 or 6 people who were practically naked, covered in paint of all different colors, playing guitars and dancing. They were actors seeking producers. They couldn’t get in because they weren’t accredited, so they stood outside doing this.

CiM: Did you see any celebrities?
JHoss: Well, it’s not like you imagine it’s going to be, like you’ll get there and suddenly you’ll be having drinks with Salma Hayek. Really, it’s more like they have platinum passes and we have copper ones. Anyone famous that I saw, I saw from a distance, and they were surrounded by an entourage.

CiM: What you most went to see in Cannes were other short films?
JHoss: Yes, in the digital library I saw many interesting shorts. Also, there was a corner in the pavilion called “Short Films Corner” where there were conferences about how to distribute short films. That’s where they interviewed me for Short TV. In the pavilion, I spent most of my time either at the “Short Films Corner” or at Spain’s stand.

CiM: How did you get involved in “Dixieland, Jazz Band”?
JHoss: At the end of last year, I finally decided to venture more into the audiovisual world, professionally speaking. The great film critic Antonio Peláez was giving a course in Madrid on “Direction, Production and Post-Production in Film.” Before taking that course, I didn’t know how to hold a professional camera, or how to use the AVID program. I used to use an application like Sony Vegas, a bit of adobe premiere in terms of video editing. But Antonio Peláez’s course was so thorough and instructive that I felt more sure of myself when dealing with a more professional infrastructure.
As a final project for the course, we made 3 short documentaries about the Ciudad Lineal Jazz Festival. I had to direct one of them called “Dixieland, Jazz Band” as well as edit it and include Flash effects. On Antonio Peláez’s initiative, the three short films were sent to Cannes where they were accepted. This has been tremendously exciting for me.

CiM: Tell us about your YouTube miniseries “Crónicas de un Camarero” [Chronicles of a Barman].
JHoss: The start of the economic crisis in Spain meant I had to work as a barman for two years in an Irish pub. It wasn’t so much my chosen profession as a necessity, but it helped me to learn more about human behavior. It’s quite interesting, the same types of people visited us at that pub over and over. When you’re there for a while, you realize that just by watching the way a customer enters the pub, you can figure out almost intuitively what type of drink they’re going to order.
With “Chronicles of a Barman,” I wanted to convey to people what a barman feels when certain types of typical customers come into their bar. It was made with modest means, on the ground floor of an establishment my father owns, with a green sheet as a chroma screen, a home video camera, a construction site spotlight—and above all with the participation of my friends, mostly as actors. Without them I would not be sitting here today.

CiM: Tell us about your short film “Eslabones” [Links].
JHoss: The characters in “Chronicles of a Barman” were well received, among my friends and among the actual customers at the pub. Some even asked me why I didn’t make a short film with all the different characters in it, to create a story.
I had actually been thinking about doing that for a long time. I just needed to take the step. After 5 episodes of “Chronicles of a Barman” I began to film “Links.” I put almost all those characters in “Links” with their personalities to create 2 separate stories that intersect. The short was well received, despite the modest infrastructure used.