Mark Becker:
Living La Vida “Romántico”
It was only supposed to be a ten minute short film, a glimpse into the lives of Mexican mariachis strolling and playing for tips in the taquerías of San Francisco’s Mission district. Instead, a serendipitous encounter and a willingness to trust his gut led filmmaker Mark Becker on a three-year journey to document the life of an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstances.
”Romántico” reflects the real life of Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez, a middle-aged mariachi working illegally in the United States to support his wife, two young daughters, and his dying mother who live in Salvatierra, Mexico. Sánchez struggles with the heart-wrenching choice of earning an adequate living for his family without ever seeing them or returning home to Mexico to live with them in poverty.
Opening in Los Angeles on January 12, the feature-length “Romántico” was shot with 16mm film and edited with Final Cut Pro. In addition to editing with Macs, Becker uses them to direct and execute the thousands of time-consuming details involved in promoting and distributing his first feature documentary as it opens around the country.
An Unexpected Story
Sánchez was the last man Becker spoke with when he interviewed mariachis for the film in 2000, and from their first meeting, he knew that he was special. “He was immediately receptive,” says Becker. “He said, ‘Mark, I must tell you that I’ve been waiting a long time to tell the story of my life and I think this may be it.’ He was offering me this perspective, this internal struggle between the music and his life. What I never expected was that he gave me this story of reverse immigration.”
Becker had found his ideal subject. But just a few days into filming, he was stunned when Sánchez announced he intended to return to Mexico the following day. “He’d been in California for three years,” says Becker. “On day five of that first shoot, he was at the airport leaving. I never expected that.”
Becker could have chosen to end the story here, but his instincts told him that Sánchez’s return home would provide a compelling counterpoint to his life in San Francisco. So for the next three years, Becker traveled to and from Salvatierra to document Sánchez’s reactions to a life that included emotional warmth but provided his family with little else.
Filming With an Editor’s Eye
Since the 1990s, Becker has worked editing documentaries for independent clients, including several years as an editor for LucasFilm. He explains that his years of editing taught him to shoot scenes efficiently — an important skill that came in handy once he decided to shoot “Romántico” on 16mm film instead of digital video. “Shooting film is very expensive, every ten minutes costs you $100 for the roll and a couple hundred bucks in processing and transfer,” he says. “But I wasn’t editing one of those films where you start with 400 hours and have to take it down to 90 minutes.”
”One can shoot film in a way that’s cost-effective,” Becker explains. “You have a different mentality than when you’re shooting DV. I didn’t roll endlessly. I had the camera at my side and I was instinctively trying to find the moments. When they presented themselves, I started shooting. So I had a super low ratio. For this 80-minute film, I only shot 12 hours of footage.”
Concurrent Production and Post-Production
Becker started editing “Romántico” in 2000 with Final Cut Pro 2.0 on a Power Mac G4 and a PowerBook G4, using rushes he’d transferred from 16mm to digital video. “I also had audio that was recorded separately on digital audio tapes,” he says, “and I did all the synching with Final Cut Pro.”
When Becker had a sense for what he needed next and could afford to travel, he’d fly back to Mexico and shoot more footage. “Production and post-production went on concurrently,” he says. Working from his home office, he’d systematically edit his most recent footage, cutting scenes and getting ready for the next grant application. “Editing is integral because grant organizations rarely part with money unless they can see something,” he says. “So you’re in constant need of cutting updated versions of the film in order to include them with proposals.”
Finally, in January, 2005, nearly five years after he first met Sánchez, he finished “Romántico” using Final Cut Pro on a Power Mac G5, in time for its premiere as an official selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.
A Continuing Commitment
After the Sundance premiere, Becker’s work on “Romántico” had just begun. In the two years since, he’s juggled the tens of thousands of tedious details that go into marketing and distributing a national release. “It has an ongoing life,” he says. “Right now I’m working on additional scenes and various other things for the DVD version.” Becker runs the marketing campaign for his movie from his PowerBook, collaborating with graphic designer Peter Haas on posters, postcards, and the movie’s official website, using Adobe PhotoShop and Adobe GoLive for most of the press materials.
”What I like about the whole workflow is how seamless it is,” says Becker. “I can be working in Final Cut Pro and export a trailer straight to Compressor for streaming optimization. Then I can open up Mail and attach the compressed video with just a couple of mouse clicks. In the office we send digital files back and forth with each other via AirPort. Peter can work on an HTML page and I’ll grab it over the network, FTP it to my website using Fetch, and open it up in Safari to see the update.
”We have so much more power at our fingertips than we did ten years ago,” he adds. “We don’t have to hire out for this or that because we have access to technology that’s suitable for non-experts to work with. We get it all done in-house, we can do it ourselves, and we can afford to do it. Somebody like me who doesn’t have a real budget can make his presence felt. It doesn’t look like I’m working from the corner of my living room.”
Not a Political Statement
When Becker conceived the idea for “Romántico,” he didn’t anticipate that the subject of illegal immigration would become as politically charged as it is today. It may appear from the timing of its release that “Romántico” is intended as a political statement, but Becker insists there was no agenda, no preconceived ideas. “I feel the process of making the film has enlightened me on the subject of immigration,” says Becker. “But it’s really not a political film, it’s a very personal film. Hopefully, it will give some insight into all the factors that can lead someone to the border to take the risk.”
