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August 26, 2010 · Five years ago, Buddy Calvo was an international business major at UTSA when he decided to chuck it all and become a filmmaker. He had read Robert Rodriguez’ story of becoming a self-made filmmaker, Rebel Without a Crew, and decided he could do that, too. So Calvo left after his third year at UTSA for San Antonio College.
It was in 2005 that he and two friends, Perla Rivera, and Joe Gallegos III, formed Machina Cinema. Their first endeavor was a feature length comedy that failed miserably, according to Calvo. “After that,” Calvo says, “we went back to the drawing board. I’ve heard of these things called ‘shorts,’” he joked to his partners.
Cutting their teeth on short films helped to hone their craft, and after a successful 40-minute film, Jacob, sold out shows at San Antonio’s Alamo Drafthouse, Calvo last year felt the time was right to try again on a feature film.
Calvo’s new dramatic feature, The Powderkids, sold out a screening at an even bigger theater last week—the gigantic Santikos Palladium, in The Rim shopping center. Another screening will take place this Thursday, August 26, at 7 p.m.
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Buddy Calvo (right) and The Powderkids cast and crew set up for a shot. Photo Credit: Buddy Calvo
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The Powderkids is about a young writer that comes back home to hang with his old crowd, hoping to mine them for material. He soon finds out his old crowd is also the wrong crowd, and the characters get mixed up in some dangerous activity. “A lot of my real-life experiences did make it into the film,” Calvo says. “Not everything [in the movie is drawn from life], but there’s a lot of truth in there.”
Besides being a narrative accomplishment for Calvo and his crew, The Powderkids is also unique for being the first feature-length film shot in Texas using the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a DSLR camera that not only takes great still photos, but shoots full HD video. Calvo is proud of the way the film looks, crediting his cinematographer, Darren Abate.
Calvo says he hopes that like Rodriguez, one day his films may inspire others to pick up a camera themselves. He’s based in San Antonio, but he says, “My films are for everyone.”
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