So what is Estebandido Productions, ya ask?

Well...

Estebandido Productions focuses on creating and developing film, video, and other media projects in collaboration with musicians, writers and other artists.

So what were we up to?

Check it out...

September 21, 2004 Don't Call it a Comeback. All right, ya'll. Now I get to retort. Since it seems that Miguel, the mouth of the south, is the only perspective ya'll have been getting around here. First of all, let me just say that it's Raffi, thank you very much. No, actually first is Raul, the name my parents gave me. Second, if you wish to call me by any other moniker or nominclature, is Raffi. R-A-F-F-I. Comprenday? That being said, I'm writing in to let everyone know that the trailer for There's No Heroin in Heaven is finally up on this site and I sincerely invite all ya'll to view it a.s.a.p. The film was shot in April/May down in the McAllen/Reynosa/South Padre Island area. Miguel and I assembled the craziest, most bloodthirsty group of film artists willing to risk life and limb to get this film done. Needless to say, everyone worked their asses off and I feel proud of the work we did those two weeks in the spring. Recently we were finally able to attain a digital transfer, courtesy of some very helpful friends, and the editing process is now in full effect. We hope to have cut soon. So, check out the trailer. For that matter, do yourself a favor and check out the Star Girl trailer and anything else Miguel has on here. We have alot of stuff in the works and soon we hope to supercede George Bush for the position of total world domination really soon. Thanks. - raffi

August 3, 2004 Sliding Panels. So I've been playing around with this idea lately. Translating contemporary graphic novel page layouts to the screen. Or rather, lifting some of the storytelling techniques used in graphic novels and comic books (sequential art as Scott McCloud would say) to compress and/or decompress time within a film. I excitedly explained what I wanted to try specifically with the editing of Star Girl (a film not designed with that in mind) to a couple of friends.
I received blank looks.
Damn the masses. - mig

July 31, 2004 The Orgin of Ralfie. On the set of Heroin:

"Why don't you put my real name?"
"Cuz there's three fuckin' Rauls on this set."
"Well why do you have to spell it that way?"
"What way? How else do you spell 'Ralfie'?"
"With a 'y'. When you use 'ie', it looks like a girl's name."
"How many girls do you know named 'Ralfie'?"
"And there's no 'l'. I don't want the same name as that kid from 'A Christmas Story'."
"R-A-F-Y?"
"Yeah."
"That's so gay, man."
"Shut the fuck up. No it isn't."
"Tell ya what. I'll spell it R-A-L-F-I-E, but we'll pronounce it R-A-F-Y."
"...."
"Besides, shouldn't we be shooting a movie?"
"Fine."

Incidentally, this is the same creative process upon which we write. -mig

July 15, 2004 The First Update. It was Ralfie's idea really. I had toyed with the idea of doing a hybrid blog/production log/update separate from the website, but Ralfie suggested otherwise. His point was simple (they usually are). When people learn that you're a film-maker, they usually ask what you're working on (or they ask if you're famous; which really makes no sense, because if you were famous, wouldn't they already know it?). And if you have a website, why not use it to both show and tell what you're up to? Of course Ralfie had his own reasons for a regular on-site update journal. We had just wrapped shooting on his directorial debut, There's No Heroin in Heaven, and he wanted to tell everyone about it. Not in that egotistical, maniacal self-absorbed way that some film-makers are known for, but rather in an excited, child after opening X-mas presents sort of way. How could I say no? I had just spent 10 days in the Rio Grande Valley gleefully riding his ass (exploiting my Producer/AD/friend status to its fullest) and he had somehow tolerated it without knocking my ass out. So after a month or so of re-tooling the site, here we are. There's a trailer for Star Girl up. Individual pages for the shorts. A trailer for Cine las Americas' last film fest that no one really understood (auteur-ism at its finest, I say), and of course, these ramblings. Look for them regularly. see ya - mig

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