Category Archives: everything but the kitchen sink

Pensioner films his Fourth Movie and Premiers to Sold Out Crowd

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by Lauren Pringle, contributing blogger

Imagine the setting; a small town in the province of Buenos Aires, 20,000 inhabitants, fields surrounding the town that roll on for days, and the local town cinema, which let’s just say is not used to its full potential. A wonderful and blossoming story is growing out of this quiet town and even quieter cinema. It is a Saturday night and the cinema is fully booked. All of the spectators are anxiously waiting to see the preview of the latest work “Destiny” by Felipe “Coco” Gutierrez (76) who is about to preview his fourth film.

“Coco” is a pensioner and his story was made famous on a national level by his son, Ariel who sent his work and story to the national press, as evidenced by this article in Argentina’s most read newspaper http://www.clarin.com/sociedad/titulo_0_700130041.html . He had always has an interest in acting and film and in his 70’s he brought a super 8 camera to film for his children.

Using simple methods, Coco often uses what he has got. He films with friends, neighbours and local people and locations in the town. Speaking to the local school director, who has been involved in one of Coco’s films, she explains, “Coco is a man, just have to know how to handle. He corrects you but also gives you a lot of freedom to work with”. Continue reading →

2010 in review

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(some cool stats from WordPress! This year we´ve reached more than 10,000 viewers! Thanks to all of our readers and we hope 2011 will be full of great movies and fun film shoots).

 

Crunchy numbers

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The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 21,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 5 fully loaded ships.

 

In 2010, there were 84 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 173 posts. There were 55 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 48mb. That’s about a picture per week.

The busiest day of the year was August 26th with 385 views. The most popular post that day was “On the Road” Movie filmed in Argentina..

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, mail.yahoo.com, bloggersinargentina.blogspot.com, blogcatalog.com, and twitter.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for puta, prostituta, mar del plata, villa 31, and laura rajchman.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

“On the Road” Movie filmed in Argentina. August 2010
2 comments

2

The Hooker & the Tranvestite: Short Film Now Published on Filmaka May 2009
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3

Local Fixer for film and TV productions March 2009
2 comments

4

The Hooker and the Transvestite: It´s a Wrap! April 2009

5

Film Schools in Argentina April 2009
3 comments

“Carancho” by Pablo Traparo for Half-Price at Hoyts Cinemas

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by Tracey Chandler, Contributing Blooger

Do you want to see the new Argentine feature film, “Carancho,” by Pablo Traparo, hopefully to be featured in the Cannes Film Festival this year? Staring Ricardo Darin, leading man of oscar-winner “The Secret of Their Eyes”? A movie deals with Argentina’s high rate of mortality from traffic accidents? Do you want to see it for half-price?

Of course you do!

Well, if you ride the subte enough times (always being sure to just by ONE subte ticket at a time, because Hoyts Cinemas are not advertising on tickets that cover more than one subte journey at a time) you are bound to eventually be given a single subte pass which has a Hoyts Cinema Offer printed on the ticket…..

Basically, during the month of May (“Carancho” is showing in the cinemas from 6th May onwards), you only have to pay AR$15 at any Hoyts Cinema if you also have one of these special subte passes to supplement your purchase. I´ve managed to collect three this week without even trying to do so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHtGJmAXARg

Keep an eye out on those subte passes in general. The single subte tickets always have advertisements on them. Sometimes for things perhaps less appealing, like cars or insurance, but sometimes for things more cultural. There are bargains galore in Buenos Aires if you keep your eyes open!

San Telmo Productions Web Page updated!

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In the on-going quest to improve our SEO (search engine optimization) we’ve redone our home page in html (it used to be in beautiful but not so search friendly flash) so check it out, we’d love to get your feedback! We’re hoping that more people will be able to find us when they are looking for film production services, local production fixer or original video, tv and film content.

Home: http://www.santelmoproductions.com/ (same url as always, but new look)

Documentary Landing Page: http://www.santelmoproductions.com/documentary-argentina.htm

Production Services landing Page: http://www.santelmoproductions.com/film-tv-production-services-argentina.htm

SpanishLanguage Landing Page: http://www.santelmoproducciones.com/

New Year´s Wishes. . . ¡Felices Fiestas!

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San Telmo Productions (click to visit site)

San Telmo Productions

The New Year is fast upon us and San Telmo Productions is ready to pop the champagne bottles with you to celebrate a successful 2008. This year, we have created over 20 web videos as well as documentary shorts for Independent Film Channel and Current TV. We have also finished principal photography for two documentaries, one about a shantytown girl’s soccer team in Villa 31 and another about gaucho culture and crafts. Currently, we have three feature films (two fiction and one documentary) in development. We would like to take time to thank all of our clients and fans for helping us to create great videos for the web, TV, and beyond!

We expect 2009 to be a busy year for us, in part because more companies are turning to web video and web commercials to differentiate themselves in a competitive economy. Also, Argentina is continuing to grow as the chosen location for foreign production crews—you would be surprised how many US TV shows, with English speaking casts, are being filmed here. San Telmo Productions is currently positioning its self to become a leader in producing content for the local and foreign markets. We are expanding our staff and completely redesigning our web site, as well as developing competitive production packages for web and TV commercial shoots.

This is an exciting time for new media: studies are showing that US citizens are watching more and more video on the Internet, and that this is slowly replacing TV watching. More and more businesses in Argentina are realizing that a professionally made video is not just a nice extra to have on their web site—it is a vital part of their marketing campaign. Internet surfers no longer “read” web sites, like newspapers, they now expect to search for, watch and interact with web sites.

To meet this growing need, we are launching new products in 2009:

–2.0 WEB COMMERCIALS—just like a TV commercial, but budgeted and filmed with the web in mind. Many different commercials for one company can be filmed the same day, saving costs.

–VERICAST VIRAL VIDEOS—short videos that impart useful information (such as how to do something) while also encouraging potential clients to use a particular business. These can be filmed on location or in our studio at affordable prices.

These are in addition to our core products, BUSINESS TOUR WEB VIDEO and TV COMMERCIALS.

To help us grow, Davin Rockstad (an Alaskan born expatriate currently pursuing a masters at the prestigious San Andres University in Buenos Aires ) has joined our staff as marketing and sales director. After assisting many film shoots with us, Zulma Berardino is joining us as office manager.

While we know that things slow down for many clients during the summer, San Telmo Productions will be open for business during January and February. So whether you’re ready to go right into production, or just curious how video might work for you, give us a call at  4307 7694 or email us at info@santelmoproductions.com. We love talking about video!

It´s not as sexist as you think

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One of the most pervasive stereotypes about Argentina is that it is a very “machista” or sexist culture. I think a more appropriate adjective would be “sexualized” culture. There is no puritan guilt attatched to thinking about sex, talking about sex, or even having sex! Women are expected to dress sexy and men are expected to make comments on said women´s bodies. But, does this put women at a disadvantage in the business world?
I don´t think so.
In film and tv, it is common to see female set electricians doing all the heavy lifting and wiring that their male counterparts do (and I´ve been told that they even get work more easily than some men, because “it´s cool” to have a female electrician). Almost half of all film and tv jobs are filled by women, and I´ve never come across problems when I had to give orders to male crew members as a director.
At a TV production company where I worked as a screenwriter, the ex-owner/founder famously remarked that he prefers to work only with men, because he finds women to be “hysterical”. One of my bosses sometimes made comments that would get a man sued in the USA. But the actual work environment was quite friendly, half of my co-workers were women and at least 40% of all executives were women.
Appearances can be deceiving!