By definition, we are amateurs – devotees
to our work, willing to push through extreme measures to get our vision across.
This project was made with our blood, sweat, and tears and a budget so low that
we have no idea how we even finished shooting it.
We received a tremendous amount of support
from our community and we can’t thank everyone enough for allowing us to roam
around filming guerilla-style, capturing the hidden magic of Austin. We are
grateful for those that donated in the beginning; it was enough to get the ball
rolling. Unfortunately, the process cost us more than we had anticipated.
There’s a hole in the pockets of those involved in this project. It has gotten
to the point where we are rationing food while working full time on
post-production.
There is a lot of material to sift
through, and a lot of work to be done. We have made this trailer to show a
glimpse of what the film will encompass. We also hope that those cinema
aficionados and supporters of independent artists can help us get funds for
distribution, film festivals, extra post-production costs (such as audio mixing
and color correcting), and paying off debts to those that contributed to the
making of this movie in different ways.
We hope that by finishing this feature film, we can
inspire others to make movies about what they love, even when all odds seem to
be working against them. This has been a tremendous learning experience for all
of us. We learned a lot about our selves and each other, what we’re capable and
not capable of, and what it takes to pull off something of this magnitude
essentially with just the scraps in our backyards. Please help us make this
ride as smooth as possible; we’re not quite out of the woods yet…
Vanessa Pla, the director and writer, studied French Literature with a minor in Film Studies at the University of San Francisco and moved to Austin to work for Detour Films, Richard Linklater's film company, in the spring of 2014. Federico Moreno, the cinematographer, got a BFA in Film Production from the University of Central Florida with a focus on cinematography and has been shooting films since 2008 and doing light shows in Austin since 2012. We started Cosmic Reel Pictures in the summer of 2014 and began making music videos for local bands. At this point in time, we feel that we're ready to take on the challenge of making our first feature film, and we have the support of our friends and community to help us realize this vision.
