I was thrilled when Robb Garcia (of 3807 Productions, as well as co-honcho at G2E Services) asked me to shoot a music video for Bombasta, the barrio big band, who fuse a wonderful and heady melange of cumbia, hip-hop, funk, and whatever might strike their fancy. The song, "De La Calle," is great. Check it out here. The video below is just a taste -- a single camera set-up from a shoot we did at Salute on N. St. Mary's Street. We had some amazing dancers moving to the beat.
OCTOBER - 10.22.11
"Noche de Recuerdos" is an annual art and cultural event put on by Proyecto Locos (a sort of ad hoc collaborative of San Antonio-based artists Ramón Vásquez y Sánchez, Deborah Keller-Rihn, and Erik Bosse). Staged on the casting pool adjacent to Woodlawn Lake, this evening of music, dance, and floating, illuminated altars is sponsored by American Indians In Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions. Proyecto Locos were inspired by the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco and the autumnal Native-American season of remembrance.
Although I created a video installation which was projected on the shore of the pond, I didn't have much opportunity to video-tape the event. You can barely see my projection in the distance of the video below I shot of Leith Askins performing a bewitching candle dance. (I would like to thank darkhaunts.com for posting this video of the event.)
SEPTEMBER - 09.28.11
"Michelangelo Antonioni Is Dead" is a staged performance piece incorporating live theater and live cinema. A short version premiered at the W-I-P ('Works In Progress / Wednesdays In Performance," a monthly performance / workshop jointly produced by Jump-Start Performance Company and the San Antonio Dance Umbrella). Performers in the video are Amanda Silva, Marc Daratt, Carlos Pina, Gabe Carmona, and Jack Clarke. The work was presented as a live cinema work with me (Erik Bosse) as projectionist. Hector Machado performed the staged monologue. The video clip below served as a short internet teaser for the performance.
JULY - 07.27.11
"Urban Hoop" is another fruitful collaboration with ST Shimi. I finished a performance edit and delivered it to Jump-Start Performance Company. Shimi performed a hoop dance on stage while the video screened on the wall behind her. This was for La Luz, part of Sandra Cisneros' Macondo Foundation's Writers Workshop.
JUNE - 06.10.11
I began the summer of 2011 in collaboration with Jump-Start Performance Company. Steve Bailey directed "The Last Thing You'll Ever See," written and performed by Doyle Avant and ST Shimi. I provided the video design. Steve's minimal stage design provided me with three rear-projection screens. The plan was to generate a three-channel video environment, with each of the three screens showing images from a separate source. Ultimately I found myself setting up three laptops at the rear of the theater. Two laptops were running VJ software (GrandVJ), the third was using FCP (this allowed us to have a source which could also provide audio with the video). The video was a mixture of material I shot, as well as recontextualized clips from two movies, "The Battle of Algiers," and Visconti's "The Stranger."
Thankfully I had Aaron Richmond-Havel to assist me. Below is a clip from one of the interrogation scenes.
JUNE
Slab Cinema is a staple of the downtown San Antonio arts and cultural scene. They've been providing free outdoor movie screenings since before I moved to the King William neighborhood. Recently they asked me to make a short video promo for them. It's still a work in progress. I want to shoot some crowd scenes and edit a bit tighter to the beat. Angela got her friends in the band Los Mescaleros to let us use one of their songs. I think it works perfectly!
MAY - 05.02.11
For several years Seme Jatib has operated Proyectos en Movimiento, a multi-disciplinary collective of artists with backgrounds in dance, music, photography, video, etc. Seme relocated to San Antonio from Monterrey back in, I believe, 2009. I've been collaborating with her since November of 2009. This year she premiered a new work she choreographed, "Píntame el Alma." The dancers were Seme, Mario Gomez, Serena Mackool, and Tiffany Skinner. Video artist Roxana T. Barraza Domínguez (AKA, VjThai) ran the video projections. And much of the video footage was shot by me. Radha Murrillo also sang and danced in an earlier piece created by her and Seme ("Palabras al Viento").
The work was presented at the Instituto Cultural de Mexico on May 5th, and again at the Little Carver Theater, May 6th and 7th. Below is a short clip from the performance at the Instituto.
APRIL - 04.21.11
The Push Pens are Manuel "Cros" Esquivel, Dino Foxx, and Billy Muñoz. This piece is from "The Push Pens: Last Call For Truth," the "new hip-(h)opera featuring the sounds & true stories of three young Chicano men from the West & South sides of San Antonio." The show premieres at San Antonio's Jump-Start Performance Company, April 21-23, 28-30, 2011.
Below is something of a music video I made of the Push Pens' song, "Pretty Packages." It features Cros, Dino, and Billy, as well as Claudia A. Rubio. The piece was shot at the Pedicab Bar and Grill.
MARCH - 03.26.11
This year I decided to enter the Neighborhood Film Project. And why not? The San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs, who put on this contest, were giving away $16,000 in prize money. I decided to feature the Southtown area (one of the four artsy neighborhoods to chose from). "A Bourbon Would Be Nice" is an eight minute narrative film starring the amazing and lovely Lisa Suarez. It screened at the Guadalupe Theater twice: Saturday night, before the awards ceremony, and Sunday afternoon, as part of the GCAC Cinema en el Barrio film series.
Unfortunantely, we didn't win any money.
MARCH - 03.12.11
This year marks the fourth Luminaria Arts Night in San Antonio, an annual arts festival in downtown San Antonio. I've been honored to have work accepted each year. This year I once again collaborated with ST Shimi. The piece, entitled "City Hoop," is a six minute video of Shimi hoop-dancing at various sites around downtown. For the evening of Luminaria we put on two performances on the stage in the Plaza de Mexico. Shimi danced onstage as the video of her dancing was projected on the wall behind her.
Below is the video component of "City Hoop."
JANUARY - 01.08.11
I was invited by Jump-Start Performance Company to participate in their annual Performance Party. 2011 marks their 26th anniversary. The show had a TV theme, so I created a video about seven minutes long. My concept was to produce three promos for programs which were slated for the spring season of the fictional Channel 26.
Not only was it a thrill to screen work at Jump-Start, I also had a great time making this silly, ephemeral short. I got to work again with my talented dear friends, Rosalinda Coto-Patlan and Amanda Silva, but I also had the pleasure of working for the first time with Jay Pennington and Gabe "the Babe" Carmona.
