So for all the bat-fans out there going crazy over Nolan's latest entry into the Batman Canon, a disclaimer: Even though I'm a huge fan of Batman Begins, Nolan's and Bale's work, and have been a Batman fan all my life, I haven't seen The Dark Knight yet (will see it today! promise!) So, we didn't talk much about that surefire awesome work of art. Sorry. I said SORRY!
but but... this is sort of batman related...
Christian however liked a drawing of Batman that I had left, accidentally but oh how conveniently, amongst my sketches for a project of mine I was telling him about.... (Waking Shadows, the feature film version of this so I autographed the drawing and gave it to him ( no kidding! ). The meeting took place in Culver City around noon and we talked about many projects but this is what little I think I can dish out: Killing Pablo... Bale has been in talks with Joe Carnahan on this story of Colombian Mafioso Pablo Escobar, he loves the script but the money people are trying to place many name actors in roles that Christian feels should go to Colombian unknown actors. There is a rift between how hollywood, or how realistic the movie should be, with Carnahan and Bale on one side and the suits on the other... guess who's on which side. Yup, as most of you know both Bale and Carnahan have shown great artistic integrity throughout their careers. Christian doesn't paint the producers as villains, merely recognizes that they are thinking only, or mostly in terms of money, that's it. Oh, and also, Christian told me there is the issue of timing, as Oliver Stone is competing with a similar project based on another book related to the events. We also talked a lot about writing and in particular the work of Joe's brother, Matthew Carnahan who we very much admire as a writer.
Speaking of artistic integrity. I told Christian I never thought I'd see his name and McG's together on the same credit sequence, referring to the upcoming Terminator: Salvation, and he grew quiet for a little bit and finally he said, this is very different from everything McGinty, as he refers to him, has done so far. I sure hope so.
I asked him about working with a director I greatly admire, Werner Herzog (on Rescue Dawn) and I'm happy to report that the two are good friends and are in the very early stages of developing another project together. Here's hoping another Herzog/Bale collaboration materializes. We also talked about one of my projects and he wrote on my sketchbook an address of where to send the new material, Christian is going on a trip with his family so we said goodbye. He struck me as a very passionate man who deeply cares about his work and the many aspects of production . I thought he would be taller for some reason, but he's personality and his looks are those of a regular guy, with very short hair and bit of a graying beard growing at the moment, part of John Connor look for terminator i'm sure. There is also a dark edge and real intensity to the guy, I guess it's that factor that made him perfect for Batman and so many roles. But overall very friendly and his wife is an absolute sweetheart. I also discovered that Batman, who would've thought, is quite the family man.
That's it, gotta go!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Film Festival photo
Hey there, let's catch up... I've been given the reigns of that Martin Luther King project that I wrote, and will serve as producer and one of the composers. Fortunately there is a growing interest in my feature film project Waking Shadows so I'm back to work on the screenplay... I set up a little studio at my place and will record a couple of songs that I've been commissioned to do and hopefully get to the graphic novel and I'm also itching to do some political cartoons.
Here's a picture of actress Tamlyn Tomita (Joyluck club etc), myself and other filmmakers and communicator's at this years Asian Pacific Film Festival. (The reason I was there... I was invited as part of a panel and my "Si Se Puede Cambiar" music video was screened at the Director's Guild fo America during the fest - since we had a lot of Asian talent appearing or workin on our video: Kal Penn, Kelly Hu, Ken Leung, Eric Byler and Warren Fu to name a few). More pics coming up.
From left to right: Jack Song, Phil Yu, Panney Wei, Andres Useche, Tamlyn Tomita, Amyn Kaderali, Christine Chen, Warren Fu.
Here's a picture of actress Tamlyn Tomita (Joyluck club etc), myself and other filmmakers and communicator's at this years Asian Pacific Film Festival. (The reason I was there... I was invited as part of a panel and my "Si Se Puede Cambiar" music video was screened at the Director's Guild fo America during the fest - since we had a lot of Asian talent appearing or workin on our video: Kal Penn, Kelly Hu, Ken Leung, Eric Byler and Warren Fu to name a few). More pics coming up.
From left to right: Jack Song, Phil Yu, Panney Wei, Andres Useche, Tamlyn Tomita, Amyn Kaderali, Christine Chen, Warren Fu.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Election rocks to a new Latin beat for Obama
We want you: Election rocks to a new Latin beat
I'm quoted in an article by Jordan Levin that came out in today's Miami Herald. It talks about Latino musicians, actors and celebrities who are getting involved in the U.S. presidential campaign to an unprecedented degree this year, from voter-registration campaigns to online music videos for Barack Obama, the candidate drawing the most support from young Latinos.
This article references and/or quotes rocker Juanes, actress Rosario Dawson, singer Alejandro Saenz, Merengue legend Juan Luis Guerra, Mexican Rock band Mana, film actor John Leguizamo, pop singer Paulina Rubio, tv actor Wilmer Valderrama, Comedian George Lopez, producer Andres Levin, and filmmaker and signer-songwriter Andres Useche (yours truly).
A shorter online version of the article can be found at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/1043/story/585707.html
Si, Se Puede !
I'm quoted in an article by Jordan Levin that came out in today's Miami Herald. It talks about Latino musicians, actors and celebrities who are getting involved in the U.S. presidential campaign to an unprecedented degree this year, from voter-registration campaigns to online music videos for Barack Obama, the candidate drawing the most support from young Latinos.
This article references and/or quotes rocker Juanes, actress Rosario Dawson, singer Alejandro Saenz, Merengue legend Juan Luis Guerra, Mexican Rock band Mana, film actor John Leguizamo, pop singer Paulina Rubio, tv actor Wilmer Valderrama, Comedian George Lopez, producer Andres Levin, and filmmaker and signer-songwriter Andres Useche (yours truly).
A shorter online version of the article can be found at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/1043/story/585707.html
Si, Se Puede !
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Newscast video of Andres Speaking live about Barack Obama
Here's the link:
http://www.mega.tv/EkEFEFkZVVutcLgLMP.html
It will stream in windows media, I'll try to upload a flash version at some point.
Here are some stills and a rough transcript English translation for non-Spanish speakers:
Maria Regina:
And now we go to Los Angeles where
we have singer-songwriter Andres Useche who supports
Barack Obama and demonstrates it clearly with a
song he composed about the senator.
Welcome Andres, tell us what drew you to Barack Obama's candidacy?
Andres:
Thank you Maria Regina, the first thing that made a big impression on me was his early opposition to the war in Iraq. He displayed very sound judgment regarding the global situation when he foresaw what would happen there and also what would happen with Al Qaeda in the surrounding countries, also I thought he came across as a very honest person, who, for example, defended Latinos in front of a predominately African-American audience at Martin Luther King's church, as well as in the debates seen around the world, which led me to believe that he wasn't just fishing for the votes of whatever audience happened to be in front of him, but that he stood for what he believed was right, which is that we should accept the great diversity in this country and around the world, and reach a greater understanding among all nations and that he was communicating this attitude to the different groups.
And regarding the economy, he's shown he doesn't want to just put a temporary band-aid
to try to solve our grave problems which include the gasoline prices rising, and the economy declining, but he wants to follow through with a true energy revolution which is possible and he's figured out how to pay for, it seems to me that he can accomplish it if we all get involved. An important aspect of Barack Obama's candidacy is that he has brought in a lot of people into the fold that were never part of this process, like me, I never thought I would get involved politically, I was more or less well informed but a figure like him, honest, clear and eloquent, was needed to galvanize this young community from around the US who are struggling and are the ones who are going to make sure that all these promises are kept.
Camilo: I want to ask you, sorry to interrupt you... You've made an extraordinarily positive analysis of Obama, but we have to remind of viewers, to provide full disclosure, that Mr. Obama is in favor of building the wall along the US, Mexico border and that he would require that illegal immigrants learn English as a condition to legalize their situation. But aside from that, I want to ask you how how it's going for you with this song for Obama, popularity-wise...
Maria Regina:
Yeah because, it's one thing to support
(Camilo: Is that a fly? It's John McCain. McCain sent a fly in here! LAUGHTER)
It's one thing to support a candidate but to actually write a song for him and put it out there is something else, how is it going with that?
Andres:
The truth is that I'm not the only one, and it's to Barack Obama's credit that he's inspired so many of us to use whatever talents or abilities we have to push this movement forward. It's also important to mention, regarding what you said before about immigration, that we have two options right now, Barack Obama and John McCain.
And as you can see McCain has devolved, he has regressed to the far right to cater to that group with xenophobic, we could say, anti-immigrant tendencies, his perspective has changed so much, so sincerely I think, right now the clear choice, for us Latinos is Barack Obama.
Maria Regina:
Andres, to return to Camilo's question... is it going well with the song?
Camilo:
Have they played it on the radio?
Andres:
They have played it on the radio, and there are opportunities for me to write other songs for other causes I think are very important, but to me more than a professional accomplishment I had something to say and had to find a way to say it,
Often times we think we can't do anything, we let cynicism overcome us and we stay static, and truth is that there is so much we can do, whether you can sing or not, if you can stand up and join a group, it doesn't have to be Barack Obama's, whoever it is that you support, I think every person has the power to do something, make a call, invite or take someone to vote, it is something very important we can do, to get involved to achieve a better democracy.
Camilo (to Maria Regina):
It's cool that young people are doing this uh? People say that young people are apathetic, but here's an example of the youth getting involved in the electoral process.
Maria Regina:
And it's very true, what he is saying that no matter who you are going for, it's important to come out, to vote and that our voice is heard. Andres, I think that if someone from the Obama campaign is listening to us right now, they should get in touch with you, really.
Camilo:
Or from McCain's, you never know.
Andres:
No, no, not McCain.
Camilo:
No, but if democracy...
Maria Regina (to Camilo):
But it became perfectly clear that McCain isn't... at least to him... isn't an option.
Camilo:
I'm just saying... they might say they didn't like that, and they would like another...
Andres:
Maybe another against McCain.
Camilo:
Thank you very much
Andres:
You welcome, thank you Camilo and Maria
--
That's it... overall it was fun. The LA studios turned out to be rather close to Culver City, where I live, but the anchors were broadcasting from their main studios in Miami so I couldn't see them as we spoke. I just had to stare at the camera and since we could have very little time during the live news broadcast, I was told I should just go on talking until they interrupted me which made it a bit hard to know when to wrap up my points into a conclusion.
Upon watching it I also realize that I should have found a way to talk about my collaborators, Eric Byler, Warren Fu, Annabel Park, Loni Pham etc... or at least bring up the name of our song which the anchors never mentioned... but I'm happy I got out some of the more important stuff i wanted to say.
Go Obama
http://www.mega.tv/EkEFEFkZVVutcLgLMP.html
It will stream in windows media, I'll try to upload a flash version at some point.
Here are some stills and a rough transcript English translation for non-Spanish speakers:
Maria Regina:
And now we go to Los Angeles where
we have singer-songwriter Andres Useche who supports
Barack Obama and demonstrates it clearly with a
song he composed about the senator.
Welcome Andres, tell us what drew you to Barack Obama's candidacy?
Andres:
Thank you Maria Regina, the first thing that made a big impression on me was his early opposition to the war in Iraq. He displayed very sound judgment regarding the global situation when he foresaw what would happen there and also what would happen with Al Qaeda in the surrounding countries, also I thought he came across as a very honest person, who, for example, defended Latinos in front of a predominately African-American audience at Martin Luther King's church, as well as in the debates seen around the world, which led me to believe that he wasn't just fishing for the votes of whatever audience happened to be in front of him, but that he stood for what he believed was right, which is that we should accept the great diversity in this country and around the world, and reach a greater understanding among all nations and that he was communicating this attitude to the different groups.
And regarding the economy, he's shown he doesn't want to just put a temporary band-aid
to try to solve our grave problems which include the gasoline prices rising, and the economy declining, but he wants to follow through with a true energy revolution which is possible and he's figured out how to pay for, it seems to me that he can accomplish it if we all get involved. An important aspect of Barack Obama's candidacy is that he has brought in a lot of people into the fold that were never part of this process, like me, I never thought I would get involved politically, I was more or less well informed but a figure like him, honest, clear and eloquent, was needed to galvanize this young community from around the US who are struggling and are the ones who are going to make sure that all these promises are kept.
Camilo: I want to ask you, sorry to interrupt you... You've made an extraordinarily positive analysis of Obama, but we have to remind of viewers, to provide full disclosure, that Mr. Obama is in favor of building the wall along the US, Mexico border and that he would require that illegal immigrants learn English as a condition to legalize their situation. But aside from that, I want to ask you how how it's going for you with this song for Obama, popularity-wise...
Maria Regina:
Yeah because, it's one thing to support
(Camilo: Is that a fly? It's John McCain. McCain sent a fly in here! LAUGHTER)
It's one thing to support a candidate but to actually write a song for him and put it out there is something else, how is it going with that?
Andres:
The truth is that I'm not the only one, and it's to Barack Obama's credit that he's inspired so many of us to use whatever talents or abilities we have to push this movement forward. It's also important to mention, regarding what you said before about immigration, that we have two options right now, Barack Obama and John McCain.
And as you can see McCain has devolved, he has regressed to the far right to cater to that group with xenophobic, we could say, anti-immigrant tendencies, his perspective has changed so much, so sincerely I think, right now the clear choice, for us Latinos is Barack Obama.
Maria Regina:
Andres, to return to Camilo's question... is it going well with the song?
Camilo:
Have they played it on the radio?
Andres:
They have played it on the radio, and there are opportunities for me to write other songs for other causes I think are very important, but to me more than a professional accomplishment I had something to say and had to find a way to say it,
Often times we think we can't do anything, we let cynicism overcome us and we stay static, and truth is that there is so much we can do, whether you can sing or not, if you can stand up and join a group, it doesn't have to be Barack Obama's, whoever it is that you support, I think every person has the power to do something, make a call, invite or take someone to vote, it is something very important we can do, to get involved to achieve a better democracy.
Camilo (to Maria Regina):
It's cool that young people are doing this uh? People say that young people are apathetic, but here's an example of the youth getting involved in the electoral process.
Maria Regina:
And it's very true, what he is saying that no matter who you are going for, it's important to come out, to vote and that our voice is heard. Andres, I think that if someone from the Obama campaign is listening to us right now, they should get in touch with you, really.
Camilo:
Or from McCain's, you never know.
Andres:
No, no, not McCain.
Camilo:
No, but if democracy...
Maria Regina (to Camilo):
But it became perfectly clear that McCain isn't... at least to him... isn't an option.
Camilo:
I'm just saying... they might say they didn't like that, and they would like another...
Andres:
Maybe another against McCain.
Camilo:
Thank you very much
Andres:
You welcome, thank you Camilo and Maria
--
That's it... overall it was fun. The LA studios turned out to be rather close to Culver City, where I live, but the anchors were broadcasting from their main studios in Miami so I couldn't see them as we spoke. I just had to stare at the camera and since we could have very little time during the live news broadcast, I was told I should just go on talking until they interrupted me which made it a bit hard to know when to wrap up my points into a conclusion.
Upon watching it I also realize that I should have found a way to talk about my collaborators, Eric Byler, Warren Fu, Annabel Park, Loni Pham etc... or at least bring up the name of our song which the anchors never mentioned... but I'm happy I got out some of the more important stuff i wanted to say.
Go Obama
Monday, June 09, 2008
catch a live TV interview with yours truly TODAY, 2 pm
Hey there. I'll be on live today talking about the Obama movement and my Si se Puede Cambiar song and video. Tune in to Mega TV (available on DirecTV) at 2pm , to watch me on one of the segments of MegaNews.
Thanks,
A.
Si tienes Direct TV puedes ver y oirme hablar sobre el movimiento que llevo Obama a ganar la nominacion democratica y sobre mi cancion y video "Si, Se Puede cambiar".
Solo ve a Mega TV a las 2 pm.
Gracias
A.
Thanks,
A.
Si tienes Direct TV puedes ver y oirme hablar sobre el movimiento que llevo Obama a ganar la nominacion democratica y sobre mi cancion y video "Si, Se Puede cambiar".
Solo ve a Mega TV a las 2 pm.
Gracias
A.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
OBAMA wins: A personal look back at the primaries plus Barack speaks about the road ahead
This is the end of a journey and the beginning of an even greater and transcendent struggle. All of us Democrats, independents and disgruntled Republicans must make our stand against McCain's policy of war and economic inequality.
It's our time to turn hope into action and dream into reality.
Here' are some personal flashbacks from the primaries:
(with cameos in the video or photos by Kerry Washington, , Hill Harper , Tatyana Ali , Jasmine Guy ,
and Eric Byler ,
Ken Leung,
Kal Penn
Kelly Hu
Annabel Park, State Senator Gil Cedillo, Wendy Carrillo, Ted Kennedy, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama
and many, many others):
Above: In a more intimate setting Barack addresses HQ staff and volunteers about the path we've traveled, and the road ahead.
Hillary Clinton concedes:
I for one am grateful for Hillary Clinton's gracious speech and regardless of aggressions of the past, I welcome the Clinton supporters into the fold. We stand united against the war and against inequality. We stand together against the Bush-McCain domestic and foreign policies that have proved so disastrous. We seek, along with many independents and disgruntled Republicans, to turn the page and embrace a new era, when it is the majority of people of this nation, and this world that are the main beneficiaries of their and our collective efforts and not just the wealthiest.
VIDEO: Barack Obama becomes the Democratic nominee for President of the United States:
Something that might help bring those Latinos still making up their minds is Hillary's full endorsement and support of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Here they are on their first joint appearance of the general elections:
click here for the second part, Barack's speech
Si, Se Puede!
It's our time to turn hope into action and dream into reality.
Here' are some personal flashbacks from the primaries:
(with cameos in the video or photos by Kerry Washington, , Hill Harper , Tatyana Ali , Jasmine Guy ,
and Eric Byler ,
Ken Leung,
Kal Penn
Kelly Hu
Annabel Park, State Senator Gil Cedillo, Wendy Carrillo, Ted Kennedy, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama
and many, many others):
Above: In a more intimate setting Barack addresses HQ staff and volunteers about the path we've traveled, and the road ahead.
Hillary Clinton concedes:
I for one am grateful for Hillary Clinton's gracious speech and regardless of aggressions of the past, I welcome the Clinton supporters into the fold. We stand united against the war and against inequality. We stand together against the Bush-McCain domestic and foreign policies that have proved so disastrous. We seek, along with many independents and disgruntled Republicans, to turn the page and embrace a new era, when it is the majority of people of this nation, and this world that are the main beneficiaries of their and our collective efforts and not just the wealthiest.
VIDEO: Barack Obama becomes the Democratic nominee for President of the United States:
Something that might help bring those Latinos still making up their minds is Hillary's full endorsement and support of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Here they are on their first joint appearance of the general elections:
click here for the second part, Barack's speech
Si, Se Puede!
Friday, May 16, 2008
VIDEO: The Story of Stuff
A fun and clear vision of economy and its impact on society and the environment.
Get the complete higher resolution version here:
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Get the complete higher resolution version here:
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
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For Obama: "Si Se Puede Cambiar " by Andres Useche
