PENDECHOS! Super-16 Roadmovie / Blu-ray

My feature PENDECHOS! was premiered in 1999 in a very rough version. Dubbed at the local TV-station without professionals, the final dialogue track wasn't good enough for a wider distribution. Shortly afterwards I got in contact with many Peckinpah-actors such as James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson and Ernest Borgnine and I then immediately started a row of Peckinpah-related projects, my feature-length dokumentary PASSION & POETRY -THE BALLAD OF SAM PECKINPAH, many DVD & blu-ray co-productions, retrospectives and book publications on Peckinpah & Steve McQueen.
With the technical possiblities of our time I now think it's time to completely re-work PENDECHOS! and release in on DVD & Blu-ray. To achieve that a lot of work is needed, creating costs I can't cover myself: First a HD transfer of the 5 hours Super-16mm raw footage (the negative was never edited, I edited on BetaCam in 1999), creating a new cut & dialogue / soundtrack version, the rating board, production of supplements and of course the DVD / Blu-ray production...

The Film was shot on Super-16 mm film which has the modern 'Flatscreen' aspect ratio of approx. 1:1,75. Therefore a new HD transfer would make a lot of sense now. The old 1999 version was edited on Beta-Cam video, analog... The quality was OK in the 90s, now it dated. The dubbing was poor as well, since funds had been running out (shooting on film is expensive).

If you love movies and adventurous independent film projects, please support us!! With today's technology we can breath new Life into this rare undertaking (not many feature films have been shot on Super 16 for less than 30,000.-) and release it on DVD & Blu-ray! (German & English version of course).

From an artistic point of view I'd love to find out what I have learned in te last 15 years :). After all my second film PASSION & POETRY - THE BALLAD OF SAM PECKINPAH was critically acclaimed, it played on international film festivals and was also sold to TV (also available on DVD as is my othe documentary OPEL GT - DRIVING THE DREAM).

PENDECHOS! was a rather unique project here in Germany. In 1996 I had met up with film maker Robert Rodriguez who was in town for the premiere of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. I was in pre-production for a 35mm short film I wanted to make for DM 10,000.- ($5000.-). Robert talked me out of it and told me in detail how he had made EL MARIACHI in 1992 forr $7,000.-. I decided to try the same here: shoot silent on 16mm, some. 4 - 6 hours of footage, transfer the negative to Video and cut the film (without paying for it of course) at the local TV station. And that's what I did.I bought a 1970 16mm Bolex Camera, which a friend re-built to Super 16!
It was a big adventure. We only paid for gasoline, blank ammunition, movie blood and one sugar glass bottle.
It was a project born out of passion for film making. With the same passion I know when to breath new life into the film. Back then I ran out of money to give to film a proper postproduction, which was all done analogue anyway..
We already mad a HD test, it looks great!
I think DVD / Blu-ray sales will be fine, the project was quite well covered here where I live, I know press people and cinema owners. So we're gonna have a premiere & screenings to promote the DVD / Blu-ray-release once all the work is done. It was quite an undertaking to make a film on celluloid for less than $20,000.-. A lot of enthusiastic friends supported it while we made the film and it finally deserves a proper release I feel. With all the technology available now. Please support this project as well :).

- The first step will be the HD transfer of the 16mm film negative - 5 hours, all the footage we shot. The negative was never edited 'on film', but was transferred to BetaCam in 1998 and edited on (analog) video. I have valuable contacts in the film industry and will get a very good price for this transfer.
- Next is editing a new version in HD (Sound & Vision). Here my contacts will also help, regarding editing facilities and visual post-production..
- The next steps require a certain investment: a new dubbing with professional actors. Then we need music and the rating of the German rating board.
- Once the film is ready for distribution I will produce a lot of supplements, documentaries, audio-commentaries in German and English.
- Now we have to produce the Blu-ray / DVD. A dear friend of mine already aggred to co-produce, he is one of Germany's top people when it comes to authoring, menues, artwork.. Perfect!
- Finally the DVD / Blu-ray, the final product (Combo maybe?). Again we will get a very good price thanks to our contacts. It will depend on the final budget whether we will produce a media-book, a Blu-ray/DVD combo or a digi-pak..