Onboard Diary

Book at sight!

Once again, we take off!

We are still lomographic

It seems like yesterday when we sent that e-mail beginning "Hi, Lomography guys. Even though we always try to apply the "lomorules", we are going to stick to the order this kind of mails are supposed to follow, whether we like it or not. That is, we will introduce ourselves first, and then, if we have won over your attention, we will tell you what we propose".

It's been two years already! Oh, my god, time goes by... hundreds of e-mails later, we cannot do anything else but grinning from ear to ear with what we have done together. 200 pictures at "The cosmonaut's dream" contest, more than 100 teasers remixed with lomographic pictures and philosophy in the "Teaser Remix Experience", "Cosmonauts' Festival" lomographic cover, and madness such as visiting the LOMO-LCA party to show the suits (people are still asking us as a joke if it's going to be a comedy...)

Until what we are now, with more than 3000 producers.

We have raised the necessary budget, and we have already shot the first images of the movie in Russia. We will finish the rest of it in our next visit to Moscow and Latvia in a month and a half. You already know the actors and you also know one of the most controversial decisions: shooting with digital reflex cameras (Canon 1D and 5D to be precise).

Nevertheless, despite the digital shooting, there are some important things in our movie that will be analogical:

1) Andrei, one of the main characters, will use a Lubitel to take the pictures we'll see later, also developed in the Lomography labs.

2) Andrei Tarkovski, one of our reference directors, made the album "Instant Light" with polaroid pictures. Nicolás is going to make something similar with an original LOMO camera, the Instant Back and Instax film by Fuji. A surprise we'll talk about later on.

3) Some Transmedia scenes as well as some movie scenes will be shot with Diana plastic lenses and a DSLR adaptor.

4) We will probably organize some crazy activity with Lomography Latvia at the same time as the shooting.

5) We have our fingers already crossed to organize together another really, really special thing involving Lomography's secret product.

So, How do you feel now? There will be even more news! So, keep an eye on the blog ;)

The big lomographic bomb goes off TODAY at 19:00

TThis evening, Lomography Spain presents a big surprise: a mysterious product they have been preparing for quite a long time, and if we are betting right, it's going to be a real bomb. They are expecting us this evening from 7:00 pm in Argensola Nº1, Madrid.

A man with mustache

The man with mustache of the picture is Xavier; Xavier Gabriel, to be more specific. He is a 54-year-old lottery seller. He looks at the sky because he is going to space. In fact, Xavier is going to be the first Spanish Space tourist ever.

In 2006, this lucky man said that he was going to go around Spain picking up desires to take them in a CD and leave them floating out in Space. We don't know if he did it, but it is a nice idea indeed.

We have decided to contact him. We think he would be thrilled to invest in our project. We are sure that there are many others that would be thrilled to do so.

Here is where you go in, my cosmonaut friends; because the possibilities of contacting this kind of people increase with your help. So, if you have any link with Xavier or anyone with the same kind of profile, do not hesitate in contacting us at hola@elcosmonauta.es. And, watch out, if the thing bears fruits, you will not only have the satisfaction of helping us, but also a small percentage of the investment.

Thanks to all of us, we are going to make this film better. We are more and more convinced. Thanks in advance.

Yuri's Night 2011

Good and bad news, depending on how you look at them: this year, the Yuri's Night catches us in the middle of the film pre-production, so, even though we would love to organize a proper party, such as the one last year, we have no time. It's a shame, because this year is even more special. It's the 50th anniversary of the event.

However, we still support it as partners, and we encourage you to celebrate it, as we will do ourselves in a more modest and personal way. This year, several great contests have been organized. Around 18 000 dollars of space-related items will be given as prizes in this contests. The deadline to participate is April 15th, so you are still on time.

Anyway, you can check what it's been prepared and follow the news at the Yuri's Night's web. We definetely recommend it to you.

OST by Remate

This is gonna be a week full of great news. First of all, at last, we can proudly show you our dear friend Remate (who, by the way, has just released his new LP) rehearsing for the movie's OST:



But this won't be the last time you heard of us during the week. In a few days you'll get to know our casting results and... our brand new teaser for the movie!

Footagevault will supply us with shot-stock

A couple of months ago, we received an unbelievable e-mail. It was signed by Christopher Riley on behalf of Footagevault, an amazing web-site that supplies with shot-stock, including a huge amount of space flights. Footagevault works with famous media such as Discovery Channel or BBC. They also supplied with all the shot-stock used in In the Shadow of the Moon, an exciting documentary about the Apollo program. It includes a lot of really beautiful images of the original missions.

Christopher told us that he heard about our project, and he was so delighted that he wanted to offer us his collaboration, offering us the Footagevault's shot-stock for the film and related material. The offer couldn't come at a better moment, because we were starting to shape the new Cosmonaut teaser. You will be able to see it soon. So, it's quite sure that we will include Footagevault's material in our new teaser. The image under these lines is, in fact, one of the shots. Here you have it as an appetizer.

We want to thank Footagevault again. These kinds of collaborations are the ones that little by little make the film come true.

New T-shirts by Filmin

Some months ago, we announced some great news. Cameo will distribute The Cosmonaut in DVD through its Video On Demand platform: Filmin.

This collaboration led to another collaboration with our production company , Riot Cinema Collective, and we ended up shooting two spots for them (that can be found in many of the Cameo DVDs), and a small launch campaign of the portal.

We wanted to dedicate them this post for all this and because they really believe in a new way of doing things.

They have a catalogue that keeps on growing. They have carried out initiatives such as organizing contests every month, offers, or even creating a community of small film makers, so that they can upload their short-films and share them with the world.

They are a great alternative and the first step of the shape of things to come.

Of course we are not telling you this just for the sake of it.

From now on, and for a limited time (while stock lasts, that it is not much :P), you can buy some t-shirts made by Filmin for their subscribers with a super indie touch. They are available on our shop

What do we gain? Everything, because they gave us the t-shirts and all the benefits will go to fund the movie, as if it were one of our shop's item.

Here, we really want to thank Filmin, and all of you, of course.

The Cosmonaut will have digital copies

In September we received an email from Antonio Casado. Not only did he congratulate us for the project, but he told us that his company, Timelapses, wanted contribute with The Cosmonaut as sponsors: They offered us to make free DCPs copies for Digital Cinematography.


Despite the fact that Digital Cinematography, is still not implemented at silver screen level it's already offering a more affordable alternative to small and medium producers, since it's a much cheaper process than the 35mm copies one, keeping up to great quality levels.

So we met, hit it on, and we confirmed we would be delighted to count on this sponsorship by Timelapses :) Thanks!

With the shootting round the corner, proposals like that of Antonio are great, because we still have to achieve lots of things. We've always said that in The Cosmonaut there's always place for trademarks, sponsorships and contributions from whoever wants be part of something new. And we've always said that we could include trademarks looking for new and cheaky ways to participate in the film-creation process. Because in Riot Cinema we believe that advertising has a lot to offer and a lot to say; we've always believed that it would be the best way to finance a project like ours, always making non-invasive and cool ads.

If you're a company, trademark or firm, we have many ways of including you in The Cosmonaut, so that we can keep on building this project and joining your name to ours, like others have already done.  

Elmur.net

Their initiative shares some common things with our movie. The first one being, the spirit of sharing, of taking an image to any part of the world, of being international (or what is the same as on the internet, being form every part of the world but none in particular), to create besides others in order to make it into something bigger than itself. 

Brief praise to The Cosmonaut (by Gonzalo Martín)

Gonzalo Martín, one of the greatest minds of this industry of ours, who is worth following for how he writes each comma, has dedicated us a post which falls right into our absolute top ten most exciting things that we ever read about us.

There is only one thing left to do: thank him eternally.

The new audiovisual industry

It's already been two weeks since Gonzalo Martín premiered a new and impressive interface for his website.

For being closely related to our film, for his posts (of which we're huge fans), for all the things we've learned by reading them and for being cool in general, we toast to this new stage :)

Cheers!

http://www.gonzalomartin.tv/

Riot Cinema in Zinemastea (Vitoria)

Riot Cinema Collective and The Cosmonaut are leaving for Vitoria, from the 22nd till the 24th of February. We've been invited by Krea Audiovisuales.

What's KREA? Promoted by the Obra Social from Caja Vital Kutxa, KREA Expresión Contemporánea is a resource centre, a place for education and knowledge which promotes professional meetings and a wide range of courses, seminars, workshops and conferences. Also, this is a leisure space and meeting point promoting modern creation from a multiple-task and network-oriented approach.

These days, Krea will be hosting the second edition of ZINEMASTEA, a six day encounter to share and reflect on new ways of understanding audiovisual works, where there will be workshops and activities by means of which they want to support the new possibilities offered by contemporary Cinema. (Nacho Vigalondo will be there too, he'll be giving a workshop about the potential in contemporary cinema).

Riot Cinema will be there on the 22nd of February to offer a workshop about Trasnmedia. KREA has given us the opportunity of sharing our view on Transmedia and how we're going to carry this out with university students and the people who might be interested in it (you can take a sneak peak here)

All you people in Vitoria, we'll be waiting for you! In the workshop, we'll be telling you what Transmedia means and why you won't stop hearing about it in the next few years. And since you're there, we'll tell you how you can make your project (film, short film novel, internet series) a transmedia project that will grant you your friends' jealousy and the public's admiration.

How? The workshop is free and anyone willing to attend can send his/her personal projects so we can choose 4 or 5 projects among the participants. In the practice part of the workshop, we'll be analyzing the project's possibilities in transmedia. Any ideas you may have, send them! To see all the info about the workhop, click on this.

 
Also, The Cosmonaut will have its space too (and a big one, for that matter): during all week in Zinemastea, there will be an exhibition about The Cosmonaut presenting all the achievements the project has obtained until this day, in addition to artistic sketches from Art and Wardrobe (we'll be even showing the script of the short film which existed previous to the project the way it is now!). Finally, there will be a meeting where we'll be explaining the project in depth.



And we never stop: On the 18th, Gabriela and Carola will be giving a conference at the Universidad de Gandía. And on the 25th, Nico will be at Pamplona's uni...  We should clone ourselves one of these days!

The box, the box!

 

3 mysterious Christmas boxes... A present for all the contestants... could it be as easy as to answering a few questions?

After Laika...

This is the first dog-producer of our film :)

Do it for them and give your pets a treat! ;)

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.

The gospel of an investor :-)

Nico ('from Nikita and yes, I'm Russian') wrote to us from Malaga at the end of June, 2009, and he asked about details on the investment. Some time after that he became one of our investors, a few beers in Malasaña being the only thing left.  It is always difficult to shake hands with someone who lives on the other end of the country! We didn't want to leave out posting the lines which he wrote, telling us what made him 'go ahead with it': 'I have a feeling' -he says- 'that this bird is a winner' :D

A thousand thanks, Nico!


Let's face it, we like complaining: I want to make copies of this book and I'm not allowed to. Going to the cinema is so expensive. I'm not allowed to download films from the Internet. What a Secretary of Culture we've been given. And here they come these gentlemen from SGAE again. And your downstairs neighbour's son is a bitch. And your dog has had a shit again...

And it's true. But behind each objection there must be a contribution, an alternative. And it seems that this is what we're lacking most of the time. And in this ocean of trials, private prosecutions and other legal battles we can find something good too. You just have to know where to look for it.

The right to access culture, free licences and the economic viability of these models isn't a topic for intellectual 'farties' any more.

With music, it seemed easy to prove viability: an increase in spreading for the artist, remuneration at concerts and so on. Websites like Jamendo make it clear that this isn't only a model which works, but that every day more artists are on its side.

But... What about Cinema? Neither at university schools, nor on the Internet... nothing.
Nothing, up till one unexpected day in which I found a very 'rioter' bird which gave me what I was looking for: Cinema under Creative Commons. And not only that, but they also opened up new funding sources, much more democratic and participative and -to make things even better- they were as cheeky as to premiere the film for FREE on the Internet! And what happened afterwards... Well, I guess you would have guessed it with these lines.

They say that if you don't risk you can't win. And I have a feeling this bird is a winner. And you, Are you still considering it?

Nikita Bachmakov.

 

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. 

This is the CNN

Ten days ago, our friend from "Fuera de Órbita" (a great Sci-fi podcast in Spanish) broadcast in their number 63 podcast a 40 seconds commercials of Cosmonaut (made in 5 minutes at Campus Party, with CC music of the great Century of Aeroplanes *)

 

Two days ago our phone rang: Víctor Esteban, from CNN+, he had listened one of the commercials, he was fascinated by the idea... and he wanted to know more. 'Where could I interview you?'

They came to our studio today :)

The interviews were for the technology programme "La Red", in Cuatro, and for the programme "Globoeconomía", in CNN (which is broadcast in Spain, South America and the USA). If we're lucky, short videos will be on CNN+ too.

 

Stay tuned!

 

We tell you all about it in our Facebook profile... and we include a few stolen fragments :)

 

 

 

Cosmonaut on Fotogramas

"After changing distribution systems forever, the Internet puts the classic production system upside down with Crowdfunding". The article by John Tones (Mondo Pixel) for this month's Fotogramas rewievs the troops of four Crowdfunding props: the inspirational platform IndieGoGo, the documentary Age of Stupidity , the Swarm of Angels phenomenon and... us :)

And old dream is made true: we are on the pages of our beloved Fotogramas. This month's guest "signature" dedicates one of those three well-sorted paragraphs (to which only one "but" could be said: that even though Age of Stupidity was financed through Crowdfunding, the fundraising wasn't done online) to us, and the  title is 'Benefiting from the Net' :)

It's funny to see how the data (Nico did the interview only a month and a while ago) are now outdated: 640 producers then, now, by means of Campus Party -true-, we have 900 (stay tuned, surprises will come with number 1,000).

'Crowdfunding is the way in which new creators benefit from the Internet, thanks to the instant obtention of data, information, advertisement and money'

 

The question ending the article is one of the good ones (and one of the uncomfortable ones), and it brings to the surface something which has been disquieting for all of us sharing this new front: the standstill of A Swarm Of Angels , the ambitious collaborative film project ( in their twitter we find a short announcement of 'total relaunching in 2010', whatever this might mean).

Here it goes:

'(The question is) if, outside of an strictly economic scenario, the audience means an obstacle or an impulse'

After this question, the article ends with a new mention to Cosmonaut , which is precisely ending this summer with the preparations of its collaborative aspect launching.

'Cosmonaut, for instance, dares to take off with a Creative Commons licence. It's been proved that, well directed, the fans can participate in the production process. Yet the never-ending question of social networks is still throbbing: Are they prepared to meddle in the creative process?'

 

Chapeau.

 

And let's hope that we'll be closer to the answer soon.