Onboard Diary

Astronauts in El Retiro

Until the 26th of March, all you cosmonauts in Madrid have an unavoidable date at the Casa de Vacas space in El Retiro park. It's the 'Vivir en el espacio: desafío del siglo XXI' exhibition ('Living in Space: a 21st century challenge'), in which isuues such as the Moon conquest, the life of astronauts in Space, the study of the Solar System, exploring Mars and satellites and spaceshit development are dealt with.

The exhibition has been organized by the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA), whith the cooperation of Madrid's city council, and its aim is to spread information about the activities that humans have developed in Space for the past 50 years. To achieve this, it has a group of monitors and university students specialized in Space, who are in charge of passing on their passion about this world to the visitors. Activities open to all participants will be held next weekend too. 

Its main attraction is a set of pieces from the firts Space flights made by the Soviet Union and the United States, most of which hadn't been shown to the public before. Also, the visitor will enjoy INTA's contributions to aeronautic technology together with other belongings which made life in a Space station easier: flight costumes, soft drink cans, underwear, 'liquid evacuation' systems... The exhibition also includes a collection of robots made by the kids from Colegio Público Miguel Hernández, in Alcalá de Henares (They've one world-famous prizes!)
 
You'll catch us there one of these days, taking notes of some of the details for our new draft of the screenplay. Stay tuned...

Zinemastea 2.0-Memories

Our friends from Fundación KREA / Zinemastea 2.0 (in particular: Lorena Montejo, the Visual Arts responsible) have kindly sent today a couple of pictures of us they took at the festival to preserve the memories.

Just like we already told you in a previous post, you can enjoy these pictures in a set in our Flickr account :)


Don't forget that you can also take a look at our slides for the transmedia workshop we gave there... you can see them and download them from the Riot Cinema blog!

Zinemastea 2.0-Perspectives

These shop windows surprised us right in the Vitoria's city centre. They're courtesy of the Fundación KREA/Zinemastea 2.0, whose good organizing skills are far beyond our imagination. Thanks a million. 

You have some of the pictures from 'The Cosmonaut' exhibition and the Transmedia seminar we gave on Flickr. In no time, you'll the slides we messed with on the Riot Cinema blog.

              This goes to our Basque producers: look for us on tomorrow's El País!

Mission #1: Travelling to Zero Gravity

Dear comrades:

Next January the 29th we're starting a series of space expeditions to promote our project. At the ship's controls there's The Cosmonaut's team itself, and our friends from Improba España and Metronoche have already RSVP confirming their attendance as crew members. The only people still missing are YOU.

The Soviet Aerospace Agency have informed us that the hall in the new part of the Sol underground station has the perfect facilities for the launch. Our inaugural mission is arranged to begin at 20:00... and we must be perfectly organized to make it a real success ;)

To start our engines, we'll have to carefully inspect the area. The mission officially starts when security measures have been guaranteed. When we reach the outer wolrd, we'll arranged ourselves in groups to explore the surface of a new plante. Our task will be to delimit an area in the square and make it a zero gravity platform. In this way, any pedestrian will be able to join us and enjoy this unforgettable experience.

Join in and share this once-in-a-lifetime experience with us! If you are interested in taking part in it and you want more details, write an email to hola@elcosmonauta.es, send a message to @El_Cosmonauta on Twitter or leave a comment on our event page on Facebook. 

Everybody is invited, It doesn't matter if you're a producer or not, so... bring your friends and spread the word. The more participants, the more fun for us all!

 The Cosmonaut team, Improba España and MetroNoche

IN CASE YOU MISSED OUR WARDROBE DEPARTMENT COSMOPARTY

 

Today, we have an exceptional guest signature: Daniel Torrelló, our official photographer. He was as nice as to offer to tell us his experience at the last CosmoParty and here's the result:

Anyone who might have dared to organize a party knows that this is an important task that requires team participation and commitment in its two most important stages: planning and implementation.

There are always multiple problems which one has to face and increasing planning efforts doesn't mean they're going to disappear. I don't know about the type of planning The Cosmonaut's wardrobe girls carried out, but what I'm sure about is that judging by the results, they worked a lot, the worked as a team and they worked well.

The party was filled with details for its cosmo-Russian atmosphere. The cabin of the spaceship was printed on cardboard. There was a photocall, to take pictures all yourself with all the faces of the crew. A girl carrying a Lomo Polaroid kept giving away beautiful memories. Russian snacks which were incredible and, of course, our cosmo-girls were dressed to match the scenery.  An eminent vintage touch all around in a venue brimming with sensuality: ConSentido bar.

The night filled up with familiar faces, although there were many more unfamiliar ones which showed their interested support to the project.

In brief, this was a fantastic night full of friendo in which the only thing that was missing was the usual inflow of crew members.

Thank you Margarita, Arantza, Sira and Isa for such a good job, organization and evening. Thanks also to Mercedes, Aída and Raúl, who helped our girls to make it all run smoothly.

Para ilustrar el evento, adjunto algunas de las fotos que realicé esa noche.

Here are some pictures I took that night to illustrate the event.

See you at the next party!

Daniel

Paris, Cáceres (by Wim Wenders)

We find ourselves in the midst of a start-but-never-stop hustle and bustle. With hardly no time to recover from the wonderful CosmoParty last Saturday, we are already charging our batteries full-throttle for next Thurday (December, the 3rd): We've been invited as lectures to the... zOMFC... PIXEL: Paris cinema and cross-media forum.

Oui, Paris! And this isn't where the party ends. During these hectic days, appart from mixing with distinguished figures of creation, funding and distribution... we'll also have the opportunity to share some time off with our admired Velasco Broca; who will be walking around town, showing his latest creation (give cinema a chance: Aurora) to certain authorities in this sector. That's right, we'll have a couple of coffees with this Titan.

Last but not least, please nobody get distracted yet... Because, at that same time, another cosmonautic delegation will be present at the Free Software World Conference , organized in Cáceres. Well, actually, it's going to be a bit more than 'being present'. We'll take this opportunity to give a workshop about Creative Commons (we've a bombshell in store for them) and taking part in a round table together with Ícaro Moyano and Lorenzo Silva, among others. Who's got more to offer?

The Cosmonaut at the "New means of audiovisual distribution" seminar

Don't stop the вечеринка!

This time, it's the girls from the wardrobe department who have decided to organize this Cosmonautic party with a very special touch: a RUSSIAN touch.

The thing is they're just back from a trip to Москва and they have arrived filled with ideas for the wardrobe in our film, Russian food and many more surprises... So they want to invite us all, to show us what they have in store :^) 

They didn't even want to tell us what they've prepared!

They only clues they've let us have are:

Saturday, November the 28th, from 20:00
ConSentido Bar (C/Barco, 32 <M> Tribunal)

Don't stop the вечеринка!

This time, it's the girls from the wardrobe department who have decided to organize this Cosmonautic party with a very special touch: a RUSSIAN touch.

The thing is they're just back from a trip to Москва and they have arrived filled with ideas for the wardrobe in our film, Russian food and many more surprises... So they want to invite us all, to show us what they have in store :^) 

They didn't even want to tell us what they've prepared!

They only clues they've let us have are:

Saturday, November the 28th, from 20:00
ConSentido Bar (C/Barco, 32 <M> Tribunal)

Don't stop the вечеринка!

This time, it's the girls from the wardrobe department who have decided to organize this Cosmonautic party with a very special touch: a RUSSIAN touch.

The thing is they're just back from a trip to Москва and they have arrived filled with ideas for the wardrobe in our film, Russian food and many more surprises... So they want to invite us all, to show us what they have in store :^) 

They didn't even want to tell us what they've prepared!

They only clues they've let us have are:

Saturday, November the 28th, from 20:00
ConSentido Bar (C/Barco, 32 <M> Tribunal)

INVI!

There isn't a better way of saying good-bye to FICOD than with this piece of news: The Cosmonaut won at the fiction category of the INVI awards! Little by little and thanks to all of you, we're getting closer to achieving something incredible: Not only making this film come true -your film-, but also proving that another way of making films exists. 

You can watch our video here, where we share the list of winners with those who got lucky in the two other categories. We're talking about For less or free (non-fiction) and 7 Hipopótamos (educational); to whom we congratulate and wish the best of luck, taking the opportunity.

Did you miss the broadcast of the awards ceremony? Now, isn't that nice? OK, no problem. A recap will be posted today on the INVI Awards website, in which you'll be able to see The Cosmonaut's team getting up to their old tricks.

Thanks a million to all of you for making this possible!

FICOD

We're already at FICOD! :)

you can follow all the news and updates in real time on the @riotcinema twitter 

WHO SAID WE DON'T THROW PARTIES?

From now onwards, we're going to develop a series of agreements with different places to offer you the best party. What do you gain by this? Partying like crazy with the best cosmonautic cocktails and the people in our team. The best music and lots of surprises. And us? A percentage for each parchase, new producers... and getting closer to have the budget that we need to make YOUR film.   

So here's the first one. After piling up anxiety and stress during hours of conferences at FICOD... Is there a better way of  having a perfect finale than a cosmonautic party?

 

For the past few days we've been organizing this stuff with the people from Iberminuto and thanks to the intervention of the incredible Eva Furio (DC Group), everything is sorted out. And well sorted out:

 

- How do you feel about next Wednesday -November, the 18th- at 23:30?

- That sounds good but... where do you say this is?

- -It couldn't be any easier. Note down:
 Sala Vanitas (C/ Velázquez 128, <M> Avenida de América)

 

- And what do you have in store for us?

- Appart from the fact that the place is really nice -if you've been there, you know what we're saying- and entrance is FREE; with each purchase you'll be contributing to make this project more and more real. So don't forget to bring your friends!

- Geat :D See you there!

Things to do in Barcelona... if you're a Cosmonaut.

 

As you may know, a fraction of Cosmonaut's guerrilla team is in Barcelona, invited by our friends from the ciutat. 

Today, we've got two appointments that we want to share with you:

(1) An interview in ComR'adio, in "Extraradi"

Live at 16:10!

Is there a radio near you? Tune in on 91.10 FM in BCN! No radio? Connect to ComRàdio's website!

... y ojito, ¡porque hay premio para el que nos escuche!

...and careful, there's a prize for those of you listening!

 

(2) We're going to the Oxcars, the Free Culture ceremony, organized by the adventorous people from eXgae and the Free Culture Forum.

 

Over 100 artists, national and international organizations.

Over 2,000 people were their in the last edition.

Controversy, show time and... above all, juicy free culture proposals (cinema, digital arts, novels).

Sala Apolo
Nou de la Rambla 113 -- Metro: Paral•lel
From 21:00 onwards
Don't miss it!

What's eXgae?
 It's a legal consultancy dealing with over 40 cases a week: it gives information about abusive practice in rights management and the culture industry and, it is mainly a project to educate people in direct and resposible author rights management.

 Among all the projects which had a place too, you can find initiatives like PureFold, Tony and Ridley Scott's bet on free licenses. Science-fiction licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike? We have British 'brothers' sponsored by the director of Blade Runner! 

 Let's discover this incredibly interesting free culture establishment and... let's defend our way of understanding creativity! See you there! :)

Things will be happening in Barcelona this week!

As you all know we work in Madrid, but... some producer friends have invited us to Gaudi's city and we have taken advantage of the situation to do many things: explaining our project at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, participating in COMRadio's 'Extraradi', attending to the two main free culture meetings in our country and... ¡throwing a little party!

We'll be doing it again in 'Barna': We'll be raffling our two new t-shirt models among all of you confirming attendance (via mail or social networks)!

Two days ago, we had a party in Madrid to celebrate reaching the number of 1000 producers. We want to share this with you and to celebrate it together in Barcelona. You'd better not make plans for the evening of Friday the 30th of October: we'll be waiting for you and all your friends, from 21:00 onwards at Plastico (St Ramon street, 23, next to Nou de la Rambla. Underground: Dranases-El Raval). You know, the more the merrier. So, spread the word!  Share your film whit all those who may not know it and make them cosmonauts!

3 days in Barcelona. Will we see you there?

 

Conclusions on the 1,000 Cosmonauts Party

In one of the meetings with Cosmonaut's team, one of the issues to consider was the fact that in that week, we would probably reach the number of 1,000 producers. After the initial joy about the news, it came an analytic moment. We discussed what we have done right, what we should correct; strategies were set out and we established our targets for the next few months until, making the most of a strangely quiet moment, Nico raised quite an appealing question: 'Hey, why don't we throw a party?' To which Wendy, my production workmate, quickly replied 'I'll see to it!', followed by, 'That's the best way we could meet each other' -this was added by Carola-. And that's how, my friends, the party began.

The formula should be simple: A place in the city centre, good drinks, good music and of course, Cosmonauts.

Contacting Muleke was the next logical step. Its two areas and the informal warmth of the walls made it the ideal place to party like crazy.

Dj Nelson's music moved our bodies like floating and the blue star shone all night. What a feeling is to know what a cosmonaut tastes like!

If you were there, I think I may have seen you at the 'videomatón', at the bar, buying one of our new t-shirts or when you went outside for a bit of fresh air... Because at 2 a.m. the party was on fire!

It was undoubtedly a night to remember. Everything else is just History and to document it, some numbers of the night: 

300 attendants (Muleke staff, we're sorry you had to work so much! :P)

90 new producers
47 videos recorded at the 'videomaton'
79 sold cosmonaut drinks

Nearly 1,000 € collected from drinks, new producers and merchandising.

As you can imagine, with such a hectic atmosphere,  I didn't have the time to be at the 'videomaton' and to say why I'm a cosmonaut, so I will take advantage of my 15 minutes of blogger fame to say it:

I am a cosmonaut because I believe we all have the right to make films.
Because we are an alternative to traditional ways.

Because, more than a simple cinematographic project, this is a movement which supports and encourages freedom of contents. A movement which crosses borders and ideological boundaries.
Because 1,185 people (and going up) make a community with the same objective: CREATING.

And finally, because we are a team who is capable of doing what we are determined to do and to do it well... O.K. Really well!

In other words, if you were there you know exactly what I'm talking about.

If you missed it, I can assure you that you shouldn't miss the next one.

I'll see you there my friends, поздравления!!!

Calina Jove

Photos in Flickr!

Saturday the 24th is a celebration

It's been only five months since Cosmonaut appeared online (we opened our website on May, the 11th) and we have achieved the amazing digit of 1000 producers. You are one of those great friends who have made this possible. Thank you so much por giving your "granito de arena" to this amazing project and for believing in a boundary-free cinema which has started to see the light little by little.

Are we going to celebrate this? Of course! 

We want to share this good news with you. Don't make plans for the evening of Saturday, the 24th of October. We'll be waiting for you and your friends from 10:00 p.m. onwards at Muleke.
<M> Noviciado o Plaza España. (on Google Maps)

We have created the Cosmonaut Cocktail just for the occasion. With a cosmonautic flavour, this cocktail will make you a producer too! (That is, if you're not one already).

If you bring 5 friends to the party and they become producers, you have one free Cosmonaut drink!

Also, we'll be raffling two of our new t-shirt model among all of you confirming attendance (via mail or social networks)

You know, the more the merrier. So spread the word! Share your news with people who may not know us and make them cosmonauts!
Do you want to start warming up? Don't miss our commercial! :)

1001 producers

We've been on the Internet for a bit more than 4 months (we opened our site on May the 11th).

So little time has been enough to find a place and, above all, heaps of friends who have believed, just like we have, that the adventure of making films can be approached as such: with passion, efforts and... a 'different touch': believing in the community. Believing in sharing, building and enjoying between us all.

To all of you, thank you for making it happen. For making us reach 1000 without a notice (we had been updating all day, with a few friends who had been pending for a while, in order to get the yearned for first four digits position :P) As if it didn't matter. Thank you, Néstor. And thank you, Trini, for being the following person.
 

Are we going to celebrate? Mark in your diaries the 24th of October and think if you're good with Muleke (in Madrid, on the corner of Noviciado with Acuerdo, <M>: Noviciado/Pza. España).

"На здоровье!"  (Na zdarovia!)

We'll be able to say this together in a few days! Meanwhile...

Tell us why you are a Cosmonaut!



We're still getting videos on our Youtube which move us and make us laugh, and make it impossible to forget what led us to start all this.

 If you haven't send it yet... we want yours!

For those of you who have been with us for a short time or simple, for those who want to check this adventure, we have made available a chronology of the project which you can visit any time from our Home page or by clicking on this link.

This wonderful protozoos' evolution towards Space has been made by Angel Trancon.

Space photography: what are you waiting for to take the leap?

Quietly through summer heat, our first call for entries for materials
(made by Lomographic Embassy in Spain- LomoSpain) has been a success: in 'The Cosmonaut's dream', over 180 peek into The Cosmonaut's universe from as many angles as authors there are: poetry, tompe l'oeils, irony and humour... We have loved some of them because of their visual inventiveness and the way in which they transform everyday things and space. We have loved some other because of the feeling they recreate... Remember that we'll give the prizes to the most cosmonautic pictures. The atmosphere doesn't matter, but the topic does! :)

Double exposures and  reverse mirrors: Cosmonautics peeks into an old theme park from eugenia+ 's point of view.   

 Do we still need to remind your why this call for lomographies is so special?

You still have until the 25th of Octuber to send us your lomographies, in order to receive prices and become our official lomographer!

 

A last minute tip-off: There's an intrepid female lomographer who has written to us asking for the costumes 'for a couple of pictures you are gonna love'. She has promised to 'send the costume back just as it is or I'll go to Russia and find another one', We thought... well, why not? So if you have that photograph in your mind and you need one of the costumes, we're waiting for your audacity at hola@elcosmonauta.es... and the promise of a corn-fed ham if you cause the costumes any damage. 

What did you do on Monday and Tuesday?

We've been asked the same question.

 Flickr set: Cosmonauts @ Heineken!

(more pictures by Adriana del Teso)

Let's see. Cosmonauts Festival. Our first bite to music production.

A very risky bet: a concert in which the audience (with their tickets) and music groups (playing for free) become producers of an independent film.

In Madrid, at the end of the month. In the second biggest venue: Heineken.

Uh-oh! I can see where this is heading to.

Did the figures add up?

No. We haven't covered for the expenses and we've lost a bit of money really. We only filled a quarter of the venue's capacity each day. Looking at it from this perspectiva, maybe the venue was too big for us. Looking at it from a positive perspective though, we gathered 400 hundred people on both days.

 Why did we not fill the venue up to its full capacity?

We have two different thoughts about this... Was it because is was during the week? Because we were on the Media late? Because we didn't offer insultingly cheaper prices? (It is true that we could have cut it down even more, reaching 6 euros maybe, with the purpose of only recouping costs and advertising our project) Was it too close to a massive and free event like the Día de la Música, in which some bands like Remate and Cohete had already played? Should we have embraced the possibility of an anticipate 2x1 when the guys from Atrapalo.com suggested it to us? Not doing a 'forward it' or massive emailing all of our friends?

Was it worth it? Yeah, we think so. (That's so typical- you may say :P)

We were in the Media, in La Sexta, 20 Minutos and on the 3 most important music radios: RNE 3, La SER's program 'La ventana' and Los 40, and in other big media companies who contacted us after our long Wednesday, to arrange an interview.

Our sales in the online shop rose up. We're 400 producers no! Yipee!
And so did the demands for info about investment.

For two days, we were floating between good vibes and music. The atmosphere at the CosmoNauts -please correct me if I'm wrong-, had 'something magic'. And that, in spite of what one may think, our number of friends and colleagues among the people who bought tickets was scarce.

But, above all, we draw lots of conclusions.

Little reality bites (all messed up)

The best organization work that I can remember in our career.

The loveable quote: We're Amigos Imaginarios (Imaginary Friends) and we produce films'.

The duet: Anntona and La Bien Querida (wow)

The huge smash: Celia Blanco vs Nacho Vigalondo.

The big fat surrealist song: 'Cosmonaut' by Nacho Vigalondo and Migle Chin (in brief, we'll upload a video of its biggest moment).

Great versions: Remate: 'Billy Jean'// Alex Ferreira 'Espérame en el cielo'.

Sound punch: Zoo, by far. Woah!

House fans: 2 girl whose names and origin I can't remember, and who travelled three hours to see Sidecars performing... and who found themselves turned into film producers.

The silliest Twitter: and the possibility of having many friends like us, even though they weren't there.

The instrument: Migle's theremin.

The sabotage: Migle's theremin :S (no, we won't work with that sound technician again)

The prize to the best selling group at the stand: Cohete

 

The merchandising stall with Gagarin, Tereshkova and Laika wearing our t-shirts. (Thank you Miki, Henar and Miriam)

The quote: 'You're producing Cosmonaut with your ticket, and if you have a drink at the after party in Fotomatón Bar... and tomorrow, when you're buying custard apples, you'll still be producing Cosmonaut' (Vigalondo)

 

The huge 'making' which we're all excitedly expecting, made with care by Juanjo, Luna and Gonzalo. And the incredibly funny interview which was done to Nicolás, Nacho and Migle in the dressing rooms (we're dying to see it posted!)

All the visual delirium which we could enjoy all night, played by Josep, from LACOMIDA Visuals. This was one of the best things about the concert by far (and an open path to future collaborations we're really looking forward to starting)... and the cameramen, whose work allowed us to edit all the images from the different bands in a firm and sophisticated manner, Juanjo and the other were in charge of that. (Guys! You left without letting us give you a tee!).

 Our star last-minute signing: Willy, the runner.

Our official photographers, always ready to blind us with their flash, even brighter than the spotlight.

Our retro touch: Pasquale and his lomographers, spontaneously and without looking through the viewfinder even once.

 

The two incredible nights that we spent in Fotomatón Bar with the best gintonics, music and treatment that we've had for a LONG time. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It was the perfect icing of the cake.

The compliment which makes us blush: 'If Nicolás Alcalá and Co. have proved something with this event it's their capacity for invention, energy distribution, discipline, in brief, they've proved that mysterious art called production and they've left me publicly without words. If only all production were as well fitted as those of last night. Let them make films.'

Will we be doing this again?

Here's our signature (literally, we've got a comeback in the attic)

However: we'll correct each mistake that we've made.

 

Our next CosmoNauts will have all the good things from the first one. But it'll have more and, above all, better ;-)

You've all pictures, by Michael J. Fox in our Flickr.