Day Four, Madrid

Wake up this morning exhausted as ever but as usual had to hurry and get ready for another speaker. This morning we are getting a chance to hear about film production. Simon de Santiago is an MOD film producer. He has business in both Madrid and London. Simon went to film school in Paris for production and ended up with producing a Spanish speaking channel.
Simon had very interesting information to tell us about his career which I had not known prior to listening to his presentation. With production, you have to produce the film first before you actually see the profit it produces. So it’s pretty much an investment. After or during the time your film is being produced you have to sell the story line to advertisers and sell your rights to particular events and cinemas. This technical method is called windowing. So an example of this would be sell Latin America rights so show a particular movie on TV for one year.
Another great topic Simon discussed was a class of film festivals such as Can and Sundance which are both popular. He also informed us of some drama that goes on behind the scenes of production especially with actors. One story he told us was in relation to Tom Cruise and his then leading lady at the time Nicole Kidman. Their marriage fizzled during the making of their film “The Others” and after the film was finished they would not attend red carpet events together. Their split gave the media more to talk about and gave the movie great publicity and basically free advertisements. In the end, it was great for the film but not so great for the personal lives of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
I really enjoyed the fact that Simon took time out of what sounds like extremely busy days to come and speak to us. He was very knowledgeable in the information he shared with us and the class had great prompting questions for him. As usual we ended our speaker session with a group photo and thanked our speaker for coming.
We are free now to do as we please until our Flamenco ballet version of Carmen at 8 tonight. Me and a couple other girls decided to take this time to check out the shops around the town. We went to Sfera and Mango the two main big stores our Speaker Antonio discussed on the second day. We found some great buys then decided to head to our favorite bakery and get another chocolate neapolitan… hmm hmmm delicious! After several shops we were exhausted and still a little jet legged so we decided it would be a great idea to rest up until we get dressed and ready for the flamenco ballet.
My roommates and I woke up from our naps excited as ever for the flamenco ballet. We put on our nice dresses and heels and got dolled up for a trip to the Apollo Theater. We went downstairs to meet the rest of the group in the hotel lobby then headed out. We walked to a couple of bars to kill some time because we were running earlier than expected. We stopped at a plaza and each had a glass of sangria. I soaked up the moment as much as possible, we’re in the heart of the capitol of Spain drinking sangria and waiting to go to a flamenco ballet. This is the life! After I get out of my day dream I finish my drink with the rest of our group and we continue our walk to the theater.
After tripping on a few cobblestone sidewalks in heels along the way, we finally arrived and took as many pictures as we can while we were outside. We were not able to take pictures inside the theater. I wish we could have at least gotten one snapshot of the gorgeous dresses that the girls were wearing especially Carmen’s. Their dancing was excellent and so beautiful. I did not once take my eyes off the stage because everyone did such an amazing job. From the clapping to singing and tap dancing, the entire ballet was perfect. Everyone has heard of Carmen before and to see it translated into a flamenco ballet was just beautiful. For more information about this ballet visit www.balletflamencodemadrid.com.
After the ballet we all went back to the hotel but a few of us decided it would be a great night to visit the night life in Madrid. So we took a few minutes to freshen up then met back down in the lobby in ten minutes to discover what Madrid has to offer when the sun goes down. We walked through town and entered the very first club we were greeted at by the manager. He escorted us inside and gave us all a round of shots and that’s how our night got started. We felt as if we were VIP because by the time we left the club we were waving goodbye to everyone as if we were long time friends. As soon as we leave Emily hops up to touch a sign and landed on her foot wrong and before you know it her ankle is swollen. We all help her up and get back to the hotel as soon as we can to put ice on it immediately. Let’s hope it gets better by tomorrow. Bedtime is near and we’re all so tired… goodnight! See ya in the morning.