Thanks for visiting myspace. I hope that you’ll take the time to get to know me and my friends on here, and that you’ll become my friend as well. As you can see, I’m passionate about filmmaking, and passionate about getting to know like-minded people in the arts. This does not mean that you have to be a filmmaker or a fellow artists to get to know me. I enjoy the process of getting to know people from all over the world, and my hopes are to learn from people of different backgrounds, intellect, culture, and opinions. Enjoy my little corner of cyber space on MySpace.
Gracias por visitar MySpace (“mi espacio”). Espero que tomen el tiempo para llegar a conocerme a mi y a mis amigos y que también te conviertas en uno. Como puedes ver, me apasiona el cine y me encanta conocer a aquellos que comparten esa pasión como por el arte en general. Claro que no hace falta que seas un cineasta o un artista para conocerme. Me fascina el proceso de conocer a gente alrededor del mundo y mi deseo es aprender de gente de orígenes distintos, de diferentes intelectos, culturas y opiniones. Disfruta de mi rinconcito en el mundo de la cibernética en MySpace.
Marco
On Risk and Risk-taking:
"Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast..."
— Tom Peters
"Life is being on the wire, everything else is just waiting."
— Karl Wallenda
"If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough."
— Karl Wallenda
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
— Robert F. Kennedy
"Let's make a dent in the universe."
— Steve Jobs
"Progress always involves risk; you can't steal second base and keep your foot on first."
— Frederick Wilcox
"Do you want to be safe and good, or do you want to take a chance and be great?"
— Jimmy Johnson
"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."
— T.S. Eliot
List of Projects Past, Present,
and Future:
86 (Feature Film, 2008)
Synopsis
“86” is a stylized multi-plot drama about four groups of people who embark in separate life-and-death missions across Southern Arizona until their worlds collide in a high speed collision on Arizona State Highway 86.
Set along the Arizona / Mexico border, “86”is a desert noir. Its underlying theme explores the profound consequences of aggressively and blindly pursuing one’s immediate personal goals at the expense of one’s “ own” moral border. The story deals with the consequences of living a hurried life in today’s world.
This overarching theme, which serves as a commentary on the culture of speed in today’s society, is played out in “86” as our players deal with dysfunctionalities in their relationships within the context of abortion, incest, human trafficking, and trafficking in human organs.
The operative word with respect to the above mentioned theme is
Time Sickness - an obsessive belief that “time is getting away”, that there isn’t enough of it, and that one must pedal faster and faster to keep up. Time sickness, as explored in
“86”, is symptomatic of an even deeper existential malaise, where in the final stages of burnout, our characters speed up to avoid confronting their unhappiness. In
“86”, speed is considered an escape, not from life, but from death. It reflects our characters subconscious desire for transcendence and provides a way for them to forget about the fact that they are all going to die – a way for them to distract themselves from the awareness of their own mortality.
(The "86" feature film project is in the advanced stages of Development, Selected for the NALIP Producers Academy and the NALIP Writers Lab in 2006, It was also a finalist for consideration at Sundance Writers Lab for 2007). Marco Santiago, the film's writer-director, has also been selected (and spent two weeks during the summer of 2007) as a directing fellow for this project at the NALIP Producers Academy for 2007, where he shot several scenes under the mentorship of award winning directors, Luis Mendoki ( Message in a Bottle , When a Man Loves a Woman , Trapped ), and Alredo De Villa ( Washington Heights , Adrift in Manhattan ) The project has been optioned.
www.86-movie.com imdb imdbpro
Read more about the project's development in a five page feature article in the April/May issue of Indie Slate Magazine (issue #53), shown below. Pick it up at your local Barnes & Noble book store.
How to Cope with Suburban Stress (Feature Film, 2008/2009)
Synopsis
The disturbing and the satirical come together in this fractured tale of suburban angst and tedium, which revolves around the marital difficulties of Michael Eisler, a psychiatrist who constantly squabbles with his domineering executive wife, Jane, at the expense of the mental health of their prepubescent son, Alex, who slowly sinks into a depression. Meanwhile, a budding pedophile, Ted Sacks, loses his job as a data recovery specialist and slips further into the seedy chatroom-centric realm of would-be child molesters. He soon grows tired of chatting about molesting "boyz" and begins stalking them in Alex's neighborhood.
. . . Think "American Beauty" meets "Little Children" or "The woodsman"
The screenplay is based on the novel 'How to Cope with Suburban Stress', by David Galef, which was aquired by Volarefilms, LLC. The project has been invited to participate at the prestigious NALIP Writers Lab for 2007 and is also a finalist for consideration to the Sundance Writers Lab for 2008. Marco Santiago is being mentored by Harrison Riener on this project. Mr. Riener is former Production Executive at Sovereign Pictures, which produced 'My Left Foot' and 'Cinema Paradiso'. As well as working as an independent producer of feature films, Mr. Riener currently teaches screenwriting in the MFA program at UCLA school of Film and Television, and currently works as Story Analyst at CBS Movies of the Week and Mini-Series.
What's being said about this novel and the project.
"...Galef's tough-minded book may well be too explosive for a mainstream filmmaker to touch. But its volatile combination of whiplash plot and two frighteningly real, flawed characters ought to appeal to the industry's more creative mavericks. And if Tom Hanks really wants to change his aw-shucks image..."
-- Hollywood Reporter, August 14, 2006
Read the Hollywood Reporter article here
'A Suburban Compulsion' (Summer, 2008): (Dramatic short)
Synopsis
A man stalks an eight year old boy in a suburban mall and returns home to find tragic surprise. The story is loosely based on the character of Ted Sacks from the novel, How to Cope with Suburban Stress.
Read eleven page script Here
By the way, I love this quote:
I found the piece disturbing, so it makes me want to shoot it …
Vincent Pascoe, Cinematographer
"A Suburban Compulsion"
www.vincentpascoe.com
"A Suburban Compulsion" was recently selected as an alternate to recieve $50,000 in production grant at the Duke City Shootout in New Mexico. Selected in the top 10 out of over 500 short screenplays submitted. Click image to find out more about the judges and mentors involved.
Fallen Hero (2008): (Dramatic Short)
Fallen Hero examines the relationship of a divorced father and his seven year old son in the aftermath of a school parking lot altercation in which the son witnesses his father brutally beaten by another man (emasculated, if you will) in front of his classmates. The story deals with the disillusionment of the boy’s hero worship for his father and how he tragically deals with it at school when his classmates tease him about his father. This story examines the delicate psychology involved in pre-adolescent males as it relates to their growing awareness of what it means to be a man. (Super 16mm SAG) www.fallenheromovie.com
Download Script
Diablita (2008): (Action / Comedy short)
Synopsis
A script development meeting degenerates into a surreal nightmare for the screenwriter as two fast-talking studio executives proceed to turn his script concept into a T&A laden, gun-fest driven, car chase between two hot & sex females, in order to conform to a Hollywood style commercial marketing strategy. Stars Jeff Fahey (Lawnmower Man, Wyatt Earp, Silverado, Grind House ), Amy Weber (CSI, Bay Watch, Playboy), and Cathy Rankin (Jolene, Wild Seven, Netherbeast Incorporated, Monday Night Football).
(35mm/HD, 20 minutes, Post Production)
www.diablitamovie.com imdb imdbpro
Once Upon a Time in the Desert (2006): (Action / Drama) Rival gangs of human traffickers engage in a rolling gun battle over human cargo in the Arizona high desert. (16mm/MiniDV, 5 min)
www.onceuponatimedesert.com imdb imdbpro
El Trafico (2004): (Drama) Award winning short film about a young boy who gets caught up in the underworld of human border smuggling and attempts to run away from his captors. (16mm, 5 min)
website imdb imdbpro
Into the Border: (Feature Documentary) Begun in July 2003, this feature length documentary follows the day in the life of Miguel, a young border crosser who is picked up by the border patrol and is used to help locate a couple of young woman he left behind in the desert. (MiniDV, Pos-production)
Website
Broken Poets Music Video (2005): Award wining music video of Broken Poets single "Built Upon the Present Regardless"
www.brokenpoets.com MySpace
Watch Jeff Fahey and others in this behind-the-scenes
making of Diablita
Send Comments
Watch "Once Upon a Time in the Desert"
(my second narrative - experimental film)
Send Comments or rate this film on IMDB
Watch "El Trafico"
(my very first film, 2003)
Send Comments or rate this film on IMDB
Music Video - Broken Poets'
Built Upon the Present Regarless
Send Comments
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Me and the other Top Dauug filmmakers at
the prestigious NALIP Producers Academy, 2006
It's nice when the powers that be (HBO, MTV, Time Warner, ect. pay for all this great shit. ;-)
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Festival
Me and Scott at Phoenix Film Festival
Invited guest on screenwriting panel discussion (I'm third from left)
I like pontificating
Favorite Movies
Boogie Nights, Pulp Fiction, Amores Perros, Fight Club, Crash, Magnolia, Shakespear in Love, The Graduate, The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon, Talk to Her, Hustle and Flow, Midnight Cowboy, Taxi, Hard Eight, Blow, Wall Street, Mulholland Drive, American Beauty, Fight Club, Napoleon Dynamite, The Big Picture, Riding Giants, Capturing the Freedmans, Wild at Heart, True Romance, Maria Full of Grace, Jules and Jim, 400 Blows, City of God, Ran, Blood Simple, Touch of Evil, Faces, Dirty Pretty Things, Rumble Fish.
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Some of my favorites ;-)
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Stay up to date on projects in development and other things worth knowing about my projects.
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This newsletter is definately not abused and
is not meant to pitch or sell anything.
I still don't think I belong in front of the camera!!! ;-)
I'd like to meet:
I’d like, or wish I could have met, guys like Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, David O. Russell, David Fincher, Gael Garcia, Robert Rodriguez, Spike Jonze, Paul Haggis, David Lynch, Orson Welles (too late on that one). For now, I'd like to meet fellow filmmakers, storyboard artists, people with Visual FX talent, writers like myself, and anyone with a serious creative heart & soul. Most importantly, I like meeting people with a voice - people who have something unique to say.
My Interests are Obviously - Filmmaking, writing, watching movies – lots of movies. Writing, hope to travel a lot soon – been way too busy writing, Hanging out and a having a few with friends, watching movies, music, playing pool, reading about movies, watching movies, talking to people about movies, music, listening to music, listening to music in movies, and watching and talking movies, and making movies. Can you see where I’m getting at.
