-No, Not again. It just can't be!
You are right, It could be. I had to start over. For a moment I thought that having made the documentary series "A separate world" would pave the path of a new expedition. Maybe I was presumptuous, Maybe I needed to win again the privilege of traveling again. The opportunity does not usually call the door, You have to go looking for it. It is true that I did not have the problem that a producer called CIN TV would stay with much of our benefits and I did not calculate the ravages of the crisis or the disconcerting course of television. In any case, This story began in the same way that the world had begun years ago, in front of a blank folio.
"Peaceful", he told me over and over. Pacific sounds like salt and an island, to the endless sea and calm forged in water. It is just a word but it speaks to a time of peace and oceans although in the memory of my days, it's a visceral way of yearning; peaceful is almost a violent concept in the love of my steps.
Pacific sounds like salt and an island, to the endless sea and calm forged in water
I have had to punish again for the pedregal that takes us to the beginning, To the waiting room of dreams. I have worn the maps, drawing lines, turning the illusion into borratajos on paper. And in each flash of joy a batacazo. In every effort a pisceam on the mount of reality. The idea: Travel from Japan to New Zealand in search of indigenous communities and create a second documentary series.
Fe: Thus easy and thus irrational arises the only form of defense in the world of the improbable. Believe that it made me resist the tyranny of no. The background of the documentary series A World Apart renewed my desire to believe. But memory and experience are a very light baggage for others, For those who can bet their economy, endorse projects from others. Unfortunately, Investing money is the only irrefutable courage test in these times.
I just received me as soon as they received me and now, Upon receiving me, They made a grimace of resignation to ensure that they could not offer me anything. Marketing directors, producers in suit, Account Executives, Responsible for content and commercial departments had succumbed either to the crisis itself or to the fear produced by the crisis of others.
I spoke again Hidalgo's suit, of the spear in shipyard and old adarga, In search of that opportunity.
And then, again, The eloquence of names in a Mapamundi: Japan, China, Vietnam, Laos, Camboya, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Borneo, Brunei, Famous, Papua, Melanesia, Polynesia, Australia, New Zealand. In just two lines I found all the arguments to persevere. I spoke again Hidalgo's suit, of the spear in shipyard and old adarga, In search of that opportunity.
In the fee of faith I needed relay. After many months of implacable negatives, I got the collaboration of some enthusiasts, But time was wearing all association. Two years later, was like at first, But more tired. Had an uncertain future, empty pockets and mood with contractures so much run to anywhere. I decided to form the team. This time I needed a solid commitment to feel that I had at least one expedition, Even if we continued stranded. Tens of candidates for the camera operator responded to the Internet call. Almost all were good people, experienced professionals and showed a great passion with the idea of ??touring the Pacific. Among the two hundred candidates there was one, only one, who called my personal phone- I never left that number in the call-, He also got my private mail and also called me home. I don't know how he did it but it was as if that guy was everywhere. His eagerness was already a symptom of determination and in his tone I perceived more illusion than anxiety. He spoke affable but with an unequivocal conviction. He asked me several times to see ourselves to be able to talk about the project. I valued your poise specially. His name was Yeray and even in his name he showed a differential point.
His name was Yeray and even in his name he showed a differential point.
I quoted the candidates at the Hall of the AC Aitana Hotel, Madrid. My good friend José Luis Feliu was accompanied to the meeting, The one who was a producer of the world. Trusted his criteria and would undoubtedly be a good advisor. With him we chose in that same place, Seven years before Alfonso Negrón, The camera operator that recorded the series A World Apart. Maybe there was some superstition, nostalgia.
After several days of interviews, Yeray appeared with his almost one meter ninety. He had boxer arms and a back like a pediment. His right biceps was decorated with the tattoo of a dragon and a huge scar crossed his left forearm. He wore a military haircut and fallen pants. But its giant giant appearance, As a bad boy from the neighborhood, He dissipated with a child's smile, Own of the good people.
With 28 Years had worked in the television program "Street" and had participated in filming in different countries. During the forty minutes of interview, I discovered in addition to a good operator, to a guy with ingenuity. He showed us some gadgets that he had invented for certain chamber movements and there was no question that did not answer with a mixture of calm and optimism.
-You have to take this uncle- José Luis sentenced when we finished the interview.
Weeks later, Yeray and I closed an agreement with a bottle of wine in a restaurant in Madrid. The "Pacific" expedition already had two members, All renewed hopes but still had no hard.
The name of "The Competition" represented for us the perfect alliance
We managed to exhaust the list of Spanish producers and a good number of foreigners. And then it opened, With some stealth, A door that seemed closed with padlock, hermetic and inaccessible: Spanish television. Those responsible were willing to continue the format of "a separate world". Suddenly, They were interested in the "Pacific" series. Its involvement was sufficient to claim the attention of new investors to offer the television window. The name of "The Competition" represented for us the perfect alliance. It was a producer who had not been affected by general paralysis, nor for panic to bet on something different or for the ruin of the crisis. And then, The stars decided to align in our favor, The wind changed course, The storm dissipated and could continue listing phrases made to say only, that the Pacific project became a reality.
But the expedition was missing a producer, a guy who completes the trio with which to travel for twelve months the eastern part of the world. And we gathered fifty candidates again. We interviewed them, We scrutinized them, We analyzed them. We made severe judgments, because the urgency of covering the position did not allow us too many doubts. With some of them we remain in the heat of a beer to continue knowing the personality of the one with whom we should share, car, hotel, job, jungles, misadventures and joys.
A Galician named Pablo, the 34 years, He appeared with viking air.
A Galician named Pablo, the 34 years, He appeared with viking air. It was as high as Yeray, But without his corpulence. I had clear eyes, beard and blond hair, Below the shoulders although it was collected in a kind of samurai bun. With a voice that seemed very radio, he explained his experience as a producer in documentaries in the Sahara or the Amazon. I had a great curriculum but spoke without boasts. He solved with an incontestable wisdom the production problems that I raised to all candidates. But above all it seemed like a normal guy, An experienced mania producer, No claims, Neither egos.
I had to call the discarded candidates who accepted the news sportsly. And then I called Pablo.
-Do you come to the Pacific?
-The truth- he said containing any type of euphoria-, I can't tell you that no-. With that Galician answer we already had the team, Route, the budget and all the desire of the world.
A month and a half later, The time for vertigo came to the goodbyes, The nerve toasts for the trip, The removals, The noise of the farewells and the thunderous silence of the boarding door.
Yeray Martín Perdomo, Pablo Vidal Santos and I took off from Barajas airport the 15 May 2014, Four years after devising the Pacific project. While Madrid became a model in distance, I felt how the days of struggle were left behind, reveals them, The prelude to dreams. Now it was real, We traveled to Tokyo. The adventure had begun.
