The making of Vive Cuevo!, was a strange process that turned out to be a beautiful masterpiece. Salty Dragons Productions made a film that nobody can match. This movie has everything from soupier acting to unbeatable editing. A lot of hard work, sweet, and tears went into creating this movie, and I think it shows.
I was one of the actors in Vive Cuevo!. I costarred with Yale Lee, and we went together like lamb and tuna fish (maybe spaghetti and meatballs?). Simon Tosky was the mastermind to this film. He was the one with the original idea of creating an avant-garde film. Simon was also the one who thought of most of the scenes. Yale and I were just his puppets. Together as a team, I thought that Salty Dragons Productions worked extremely well together. Simon told Yale and I what to do and we did it, we took a couple of takes, and that was it. Everything went smoothly.
Vive Cuevo! is about a day in the life of Bro B (Yale Lee). There are many strengths of this film. Simon’s creativity, Yale’s acting, my dancing, are all strong points to our movie. I see little flaws in our movie. My favorite scene is when Bro B eats his breakfast. This scene is very funny and I also like that he fed the dog cereal. The movie came out perfect and I don’t think I would do anything different if I had the opportunity to make this movie over.
We added many cinematic effects to this movie. There were non-diegetic sounds, close-ups, we had a non linear story, we stole a shot, and of course, we had many formalistic elements. Some of the formalistic aspects of the film included, human alarm clocks, shirts being edited on and off during a scene, and Bro B finding his clothes in the freezer. These elements are what make the movie truly avant-garde. We stole a shot of a Bob the Builder mascot advertising a hardware store. Our plot is very non linear and that is okay because our film is not about a story, it is more about art. The close up of the alarm clock is very important because without that, you see the whole body. You’re only supposed to see an alarm clock, nothing else. One of my favorite cinematic effects in this film is the non-diegetic sound. Simon found numerous sounds that were used beautifully. For example, when Bro B goes to open the freezer, Simon recorded a noise and it made it seem like that was the sound that the freezer made when it opened. What was a normal piece of the film suddenly became a very funny piece of the film.
Without a doubt I think the MVP of Salty Dragons Productions was Simon Tosky. Not only because he did most of the filming and editing, but because of his love for this film. He put some much time and effort into this film, and it definitely showed. Vive Vuevo! shows how creativity can be formed into an amazing film.