Our latest signing, director Lluís Quílez, is one of the 10 shorts listed to Oscars 2017
What does David Domingo do in his free time?
We know David perfectly well. But he seems to be leading a mysterious double life as a director with a secret identity on Instagram, Stanley Sunday. We have embarked on the heavy task of finding out what he’s hiding, or showing, under that pseudonym. This is what we got.
¿Stanley Sunday or David Domingo? David Domingo or Davidson? Who is who? Are there any differences between them?
Actually, it’s all the same. This goes back a long way but I can’t recall it very well. Stanley Sunday is a name Luis (Cerveró) gave me. Sunday because of my surname, Domingo. Stanley because of Kubrick: odd films such as mine should bare the name of a great director. Davidson was the name I was given by an actress I once worked with. She used it affectionately, it came out naturally and I liked it. I guess that if sometimes people use David Domingo instead is because Stanley Sunday might sound like a joke.
You have a vast filmography in Super 8 and 16mm but it seems you also feel at ease working with digital cameras. How did you live the transition from analogical to digital? Today, which of the two do you prefer to use?
There was no transition. I shot in video and Super 8; I’ve always loved analogical film. Since it was all amateur and self-made, for example with Super 8, I couldn’t record live sound; I had to do it on video. When digital came along all this became much simpler. But today I can’t choose between one and the other, they complement each other.
You have lots of fans on Instagram. How do people find you in this social network? What does this format offer you or lets you do that others don’t?
I don’t have that many fans… (He laughs). I love the format. Shooting very short films for people to watch. One day I can make a collage, another day a cut out film, another one a 3D film…
But do you follow any strategies to get more followers? Do you check what people like the most? Do you do what they expect of you or try new things out?
I simply try new things out.
Do you use Instagram as a test tube to try things you later on use somewhere else?
No, I don’t like that test tube idea. I like Instagram as a format in itself, although I sometimes think, why do I post this?
And why do you? Do you have an answer?
(He laughs)
Both on Instagram and other social networks, GIFs are very popular, but you don’t give in to this “trend”. Why videos and not GIFs?
I am not a consumer of GIFs; I prefer videos. At first I thought videos would be too heavy for Instagram, but as I said earlier, I love the format in itself, because it’s ephimeral, it’s brief.
Your imaginary goes back to certain recurring topics but I guess that’s a personal thing and there isn’t much to be said there. For instance, when you use Walt Disney images, you know they can provoke different readings, some of them quite controversial. What inspires Stanley Sunday? Any aesthetic is good enough to play around with?
Wow, in order to answer this I’m going to ask you to sit with me and watch me make a video. For instance, today I’m doing this Snow White one. But it could be Pinocchio. I love Snow White, but at the same time I don’t really care about her. Like Cleopatra, whom I love too but at the same time I don’t care about her. I’ve watched Snow White several times because it’s on my hard disk and what I do is look for clips where I think I can introduce some element to play with the absurd.
Talking about the absurd, up to what point everything is a big joke?
I try to maintain a bit of a mad attitude, none of this is so important. Look! I’ve found a clip of Snow White getting water out of a well and I think she could be getting something else out. I’ve tried a burger but it doesn’t look too nice.
(He shows me two versions of the same clip in which Snow White takes a hanged man out of the well and he tries different audios.)
The first version makes a direct reference to Walt Disney. It might be just too creepy. Which one do you prefer?
Both are creepy but the second one is probably subtler. Where do you get the time to do all this?
Well, I should be doing something else right now and I’m doing this. Sometimes ideas come this way. It’s relaxing.
We’d like to accompany this interview with some of your favourite Instagram videos. Which of them make you feel happiest?
All of them!