Once and again, Nicolás is travelling to give and receive knowledge.
First of all, he has arrived in Montreal today, where he is going to assist to several masterclasses included in the Festival du nouveau cinéma that will take place in this city. It sounds good, doesn't it?
Next week, the gathering will be in San Sebastian, in the Alter Transmedia Workshop. This is a three-day workshop of theory and practice together with transmedia projects' advisors and directors. Nicolás will appear on Friday to talk about the creation of a community around a transmedia project.
We want to tell you with this post that we will be some days in San Sebastian.
Actually, there is not much left of The Cosmonaut's funds after the filming, but we are going to invest some money with Riot Cinema to go to the festival thanks to a couple of spots we have had this month.
We think that this is going to be the last chance to attend an audiovisual market before the premiere... and we really need to get what is left of the funding. Furthermore, we are not taking a powerful project anymore... but a powerful film. By then, we are going to have a trailer to show (you are going to be able to see it in due course :P), and this will show what we have in our hands.
We are going to attend the first Digital Audiovisual Forum, because, even though we have not been invited (that's not nice!), they talk about us in such a nice way. There will be old friends such as Gonzalo Martín, Robert Figueras, Alberto Tognazzi and Nacho Vigalondo. We hope to gatecrash in the speaker's dinner!
We will also attend the co-production lunch organized every year by the Madrid Film Commission.
Apart from that, we are going to look for investors, co-producers and distributors that can be interested. That's why we ask you for help: Do you know anyone you could introduce to us so we can meet there? Any idea? Any advice?
We haven't looked for accommodation yet, since we need it to be very, very low cost (for one person). Any not too far away recommendation?
And finally, are any of you going to be around there? In that case, let's have some pintxos!
As we've been tellingyou on Twitter, our director and official globetrotter, Nicolas Alcala, is again in British territory.
This time Nicolas is headed to Oxford University, where he's taking part in Remix Cinema. In the organizers' words, Remix Cinema is a workshop that explores the role of audio-visual remix practices in contemporary digital culture. It does sound promising, but he'll tell us how it went later.
Since he's in the UK, Nicolas will also make a stop in London to have the first meeting with the main actors of the movie. What? Actors? Yes, that's what you've read. We got them already! Not very surprising since we recently told you that the casting process went really well.
As you can see, we have a lot of things going on these days. Big news are coming and we'll tell you about them here, so stay tuned!
A couple of days ago, Alex de la Iglesia, the President of the Spanish Cinema Academy, announced in Twitter that he would call a meeting between the Cinema Academy and some internauts and authors in order to debate about possible solutions of the well known problems that came out due to the Sinde law.
In few hours, loads of people asked the president of the Academy to invite us. When he asked who we were, the requests increased.
In few hours we had 8 new investment requests (one of them has already been confirmed). We had more than 2000 visits to the website and our post, we have been on the menéame front page, and 200 new people follow us in Twitter.
We received a call yesterday inviting us to the debate. Thanks to everyone. We are touched :')
Thank you Alex de la Iglesia for listening.
What, how, when
We have no idea. We don't even know if we are going to talk about remedies to the Sinde Law, in that case we have few to offer; or if we are going to talk about possible solutions and new businness models.
This meeting will take place tomorrow and we will tell you all the things we can.
It is going to be me (Nicolás Alcalá) the one who is going, who, for the record, represents myself and, by extension, the film I'm director of: The Cosmonaut (neither its team nor its producers, they are very diverse and with their own opinion, that might agree or disagree with that of The Cosmonaut).
We will try to share all the things we can from this oportunity to start a debate so you can also be part of it. As far as we are allowed, we will tell you whatever happens in our twitter account and we will make a later personal analysis so you can participate and give your opinions.
We hope to be useful and we will try to ask a lot and to listen even more.
This will be our last post about the videodiaries that Nico recorded while being in Los Angeles. In this occasion you'll see him again along with Jennifer Warren, drawing some conclusions ang giving some filmmaking tips for any newcomer to the AFM. You can find much more information about this topic in Angelo Bell's website :)
In this video you'll be able to watch some of the last footage that we recorded in Los Angeles... as well as to hear a funny anecdote involving us and the one and only Harvey Weinstein.
In today's video diary, Nico talks about his experience in LA so far, before going to the American Film Market. But of course, he also shows us another bunch of cool places. Enjoy!
A new video diary is here again! Today Nico seems to be trying to make us jealous, he keeps showing us gorgeous places, pools and free food... He also tells us some more serious things (well, not so much, actually).
By the way, have you noticed the new "share this" link? Yes, the one under these lines. You can use it to share blog posts with your friends on social networks, blogs or even by email. Isn't it great? Hope you find it useful!
Everyone, please, let's give a warm welcome to our host for the next couple of weeks: Nico Alcalá. As y'all may know, he is the writer and director of The Cosmonaut.
For the next two weeks week, he'll be posting several videodiaries telling us about his experiences at the American Film Market. This is the first issue of many to come.... Hope you enjoy it!
In the next following weeks, our team will be fed up with living out of suitcase. And that is because we are going to be attending several conferences, roundtables and talks around the world. Below is a small summarize of our itinerary for the next couple of months.
We start this particular tour travelling to San Sebastián. Nicolás, our film director, is going to participate in a encounter that will reunite people from sectors such as video games, collaborative cinema and series for the internet. Round tables will be chosen as the format and it will take place during the 21 and 22 of September. All of this will take place alongside the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
A week later, Alberto, from our internet team, will head out to Brussels. From there on, and during the 27 to 29 of September, we will participate in the ICT 2010. It is a biennial event about information and communication technologies, that we have been invited to participate by, none other than, the European Commission, the organizers of the event.
Almost at the same time, the 1st and 2nd of October, we will be in the Open Video Conference, an interesting event that will gather participants with a common share interest: freedom of speech and innovation towards video on the web. It will take place in New York and it will be organized by the Open Video Alliance, who has between is members, the world famous Mozilla foundation. In this case, our representative will be Carla, from the production team.
Last but not least, towards the end of October, we will participate in the Free Culture Forum, that takes place in conjuction with the third edition of the oXcars from the EXGAE. We will have free culture to give and take in Barcelona from the 28th of October.
As you can see, we are going to have a busy schedule in the next couple of months. We are waiting anxiously for each and everyone of these events. And you guys, have thought of going to any of these events? We might see you there! :)
After a week of thorough discussions, we now have the list of winners of the Teaser Remix Experience. The election has been so difficult that we ended up creating a special category, to award even more remixes. But we'll tell you all about it below.
Before announcing the winners, let's remember whatwere the prizes. The winner will get a LOMO L-CA+, meanwhile for the second and third places and the 8 áccesits, they will received a LOMO OKTOMAT. All of the winners, except the 8 áccesits, will have a month subscription to The Auteurs and a special Riot Cinema pack.
Without further ado, the names of the winners are:
First prize goes to Robert Pratten, becuse his perfect remix from beginning to end, on its atmosphere, as well as the image treatment process, as well as the game about the memory, las lomos and everything else. It is the mind of the Cosmonaut in images. Inspiring.
On second place we have Miriam Mira remix. This teaser is, without a doubt, the best that managed to capture the essence of the movie beyond images, using fragments from the first draft of the script and it's own text and giving it an absolute radical spin to the general aesthetic seen on the totality of all the teasers. It is a jump into the void, an act of love.
Edgar Lledó takes the third place. His teaser is, maybe, the one close enough to the aesthetics of the movie. Its content, promising and well rounded. The treatment of the image is by far the best we have seen.
First prize: Robert Pratten
Second Prize: Miriam Mira
Third Prize: Edgar Lledó
We go on now to enumerate the eight áccesits.
Jack Shadow. We have been flabbergasted by the backwards take of the cosmonaut, in which his eyes seem completely white.
Tom Schestak. We think this is a very bold teaser. It's first 20 seconds is a work of art, playing with the thunderous sound as he removes his helmet . Because of its experimentalism, a worthy teaser remix.
Santiago Fernández. A pretty disturbing teaser. The take of the cosmonaut "flying" backwards seeming like it was been absorbed has our 5 start rating.
Alfonso Martínez. The use of interpose still film frames is superb. Besides, the sound, the takes and music make a good tight teaser remix.
Visiophone. Experimentalism and lomos, what more can you ask for?
Óscar Rabasa. This may pretty well be the most classic of them all. It's a very "American" movie feel to it, but on a closer look with all that written text, it managed to put our hairs on end. It captured pretty well the spirit of the film.
Ernesto Valiente. A unique atmosphere through the use of still film frames and inverted takes. The music is another point in favor.
Antonio Jarreta. Because it's different, epic and for being ambitious.
We finished the list of winners with three additional award badges, creating it's own new category. This new category is for all those remix teasers that seem more like a video clip than a teaser trailer. All three of them, will be given a T-Shirt with the logo of the hummingbird and a copy of Poetic for cosmonauts, the book that inspired the film script.
Gil McRipley. What can we say about this teaser? It's was love at first sight. Humming the song under our breath while we worked. We have seen it a million times and showed it to all our friends.
Isaac Rupérez. Few times have a song moved us so much, and it's exceptional use of the images with the music.
Alberto Romo. For it's amazing work put into this "video clip", worthy of winning this award, but also, for using a format different from that being posted online, adjusting the images to a superb ratio of 2:35, making it worthy of its award.
The only thing left is to congratulate all of the winners and thank all of those who participated in the contest. We also take this opportunity to thank those who made possible the original teaser trailer, to Cumie, for letting use her song and her voice; to Jonathan Mellor, who dub the English voice over; to Alexey Shurupov, who dub the disturbing Russian voice and to the rest of the people who participated in the creation of the teaser: Carlos Martínez-Abarca, Rubén Durán, Daniel Torrelló, Ezequiel Romero, Angel Trancón, Juan Cabrera, Miki Ávila, Edward Artemyev, Luz Nicolás, Carola Rodríguez, Javier Serrano, Margarita Mansilla y Silvia Benito).
We leave you with a few words from the film director of the movie.
As the film director, seeing each of the 78 teaser presented continuously to the contest has been a wide opening experience. Not only have they made me realize the sheer magnitude of this project and of the potential of what we are putting forward. But also being deeply moved. It made my hair stand on end thinking of all the people that played, giving a new interpretation to the images and on the multiples ways it transform the teaser.
And not only that. Also, seeing them as a whole, I have learnt more about cinema than any other class about editing or realization. This is a magnificent exercise to see how a piece of work can change the view of the creator. How you can go from one edge to the other, from the experimental to the classic Hollywood. From the contemplative to the emotive.
I strongly urge everybody to download them all and give yourself the pleasure to learn. This have has been to me, a wide opening experience.
All that there is left for me to do is to give a big THANK YOU, for making of this movie a bit more real and beautiful than yesterday's dream.
Last week we reached the 2000 producers for the movie and now we add 3000 € and a trip to the next ICT in Brussels. All thanks to a innovation award that we won at the Campus
Party Europe and Nokia for the category of Digital Creativity... and, of course, thanks to all you. Stay tuned!
The Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation presents in Madrid from the 14th to the 18th of April, and during the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, Campus Party
Europe: a special edition of what is considered the biggest event for technology, creativity and digital culture online in the world. The event is also supported by the European Commission.
For four days, 800 young people from each of the 27 member states of the EU will participate in activities.
We are proud to have been invited to participate but, the most important part of the news is that we have been selected in the Projects Forum under the Creative award for the CP Europe.
Twenty projects from each of their categories(Innovation, Science and Digital Creativity) will be presented before all the participants throughout the Campus Party. We will have 5 minutes to give our presentation.
The three wining projects will each be granted a 3000 euros award and they will be invited by the European Commission to go to ICT 2010, the most important european forum about investigation and research en TIC, which will be held in Brussels between the 27th and 29th of September of 2010.
Oh dear... we've just finished baking a cake and we're already stealing more dough. If a couple of weeks ago we were summoned to give a lecture in Vitoria about transmedia fiction, now we're in deep research for a round table about social networks that will be held next monday.
Beyond the neverending 'social networks yes/no' debate, this table (organized by Know Square) aims to analyse how the bursting of this networks has affected us in terms of communication, work planning, participation and cooperation. And in The Cosmonaut, after a year of battling in all fronts, this is something we now quite about...
At the event (apart from rubbing shoulders with another 5 exceptional guests), we'll do our best at showing those present what networks are, their implications and we'll review some of the most important cases:
Facebook, Twitter, Tuenti and LinkedIn. Is convenient to be part of them? What new opportunities do they give to both comapanies and individuals?
The round table will be held next Monday, March the 15th, at 16;30 in the assembly hass of the E.T.S. de Ingenieros de Minas (C/
Ríos Rosas 21, <M> Ríos Rosas, Madrid).
If you're interested, get in the mood and come... so we can talk face to face!
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...
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!
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.
A week later, Alberto, from our internet team, will head out to Brussels. From there on, and during the 27 to 29 of September, we will participate in the 
This goes to our Basque producers: look for us on tomorrow's El País!
