The Cosmonaut
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''The Cosmonaut'' (''El Cosmonauta'') is a Spanish
science-fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, mutants, i ...
directed by Nicolás Alcalá and produced by Carola Rodríguez and Bruno Teixidor. It premiered in May 2013. As the first feature-length project of ''Riot Cinema Collective'', it is notable for its use of
crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...
and a
Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
license during production.


Plot

In 1967, two young friends, Stas and Andrei, arrive at the newly constructed Star City near
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, where the first
cosmonauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserve ...
trained. Here, a race against the clock to beat the Americans into space is taking place. Stas and Andrei witness first-hand the political intrigue, power struggles, and the successes and failures of the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in achieving some of the 20th century's greatest milestones. They meet Yulia, a communications technician, with whom they form a strong bond—always bordering on love but never fully realized.


Influences

''The Cosmonauts conception and filmmaking approach draw from the works of some of the world's most renowned
filmmakers Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screenwritin ...
. The project’s dossier specifically mentions
Wong Kar-wai Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1958) is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films are characterised by nonlinear narratives, atmospheric music, and vivid cinematography involving bold, saturated colours. A pivotal figure o ...
(and his frequent collaborator
Christopher Doyle Christopher Doyle, also known as Dù Kěfēng (Mandarin) or Dou Ho-Fung (Cantonese) () (born 2 May 1952) is an Australian cinematographer, best known for his work in Hong Kong cinema. He has worked on over fifty Chinese-language films, being ...
),
Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (, ; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history. Works by Andrei Tarkovsky, His films e ...
,
José Luis Guerín José Luis Guerín (born 1960) is a Spanish filmmaker and educator known for '' Train of Shadows'' (1997), ' (2001), and '' The Academy of Muses'' (2015). Style and influences As a young cinephile, Guerín attended many film screenings, made fil ...
, and
Robert Bresson Robert Bresson (; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson made a notable contribution to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, Ellipsis (narrative device), ellipses, an ...
as key influences. There are numerous thematic and narrative links to Andrei Tarkovsky's works, including the exploration of memory, lost love, and reality. The names of the two main characters, Andrei and Stas Arsenievich, even reflect Tarkovsky's name and patronymic. Further connections to Tarkovsky are evident in the collaborators’ list, which includes names like
Eduard Artemyev Eduard Nikolayevich Artemyev (; rus, Эдуа́рд Никола́евич Арте́мьев, p=ɨdʊˈart ɐrˈtʲemʲjɪf; 30 November 1937 – 29 December 2022) was a Soviet and Russian composer of electronic music and film scores. Outside ...
and Marina Tarkovskaya, Tarkovsky’s sister. The fictional Program K, featuring a
hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...
icon used prominently in the film's promotion, is inspired by real Soviet efforts to send a cosmonaut to the Moon.


Production

The idea for ''The Cosmonaut'' originated from two main sources: the conversations between Nicolás Alcalá and Bruno Teixidor (the primary creative minds behind the project's visual design) about
conspiracies A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...
,
Lost Cosmonauts The Lost Cosmonauts or Phantom Cosmonauts are subjects of a conspiracy theory, which alleges that Soviet and Russian space authorities have concealed the deaths of some cosmonauts in outer space. Proponents of the Lost Cosmonauts theory argue ...
theories, and the
Soviet space program The Soviet space program () was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Contrary to its competitors (NASA in the United States, the European Space Agency in Western Euro ...
; and the
poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
book '' Poetics for Cosmonauts'' by Henry Pierrot. While the main plot core underwent numerous revisions during development, key elements—such as the return of an astronaut to Earth after a long trip to the Moon—remained intact. After reading ''Poetics for Cosmonauts'', the script evolved into its current form.
Preproduction Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, Play (theatre), play, video game, or other performance, as distinct from Filmmaking, production and post-production. Pre-production ends when th ...
for the short film began in October–November 2008.


2009

In January 2009, the project underwent its most significant transformation: it transitioned from being a traditionally produced short film into a feature-length film funded through
crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...
and distributed for free under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Crowdfunding

Inspired by productions such as ''
A Swarm of Angels A Swarm of Angels (ASOA) was an open source film project and participatory film community, whose aim was to make the world's first Internet-funded, crewed and distributed feature film. The collaborative project aimed to attract 50,000 individual su ...
'' and ''Artemis Eternal'', ''The Cosmonaut'' is the first Spanish feature film that makes use of the crowdfunding financing method. There were two ways to get involved in ''The Cosmonaut''’s production: * First, as a regular producer. From an initial contribution of 2 euros, a contributor may be listed as a “producer” in the film credits, receiving a welcome pack, and a ticket for the drawing of one of the cosmonauts’ suits that will be used in the film. Further investments could be used to buy merchandising items in the film's online store. * Secondly, as a movie investor. From an initial investment of 100 euros, a contributor can own a percentage of the film's profits. Being a cinematographic project whose spread is based mostly in the use of
social networks A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of meth ...
, and synergy between audience and creators, the network material of the movie is centered mostly in the creation of a fan community. Producers, regardless of their monetary participation in the film, form part of ''Programme K'', a social group in which they can relate between each other, follow the development of the film, and take advantage of special perks and draws for Programme K members.


Release

The film, when finished, will be released on the Internet available for download and in HD. Also, besides the full movie on HD, all raw footage shot during the movie's filming will be uploaded too. As the film is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, the users will be able to download, lend, re-cut or use the film footage in any way they wish. This way, the audience not only will be allowed, but also encouraged by the producers themselves, to create new versions of the film and other derivative works.


2010

Between December 2009 and June 2010, the Riot Cinema team worked in modernizing the previous business model. On 2 June 2010, the new model, called “The Plan”, was launched in a press conference by the people in charge of the company. It provides the project with some developments. These developments increase the project approach and infrastructure, keeping its previous features, but, in general, taking them a step further.


Crowdfunding and financing

A totally new funding plan is introduced in the business model. While in the old model the film funding was through crowdfunding and private investment, in “The Plan”, a three-staged progressive plan is detailed, in which there is room for private financing, crowdfunding, sponsorization, and distribution presales. Even though the new three-staged model (in which the first stage would be the first year of the project) keeps crowdfunding and private investment as funding means, their role in the project varies: economically, crowdfunding carries less weight than in the first draft of the project. Nevertheless, its use is kept due to the weight such a completely developed infrastructure has in keeping and strengthening a fan community. Regarding private investment, it keeps the same operational system, but the owned profits per invested money ratio vary depending on the project stage. According to Riot Cinema data, of the €860,000 the project will cost, it is expected that 6.5% be financed through crowdfunding and/or merchandising, 21% by private investment, 32% through sponsorship, and 40.5% through presales distribution (approximate figures).


Yuri's Night

One of the examples of the application of the new sponsorship option was available in the party carried out during the 2010
Yuri's Night Yuri's Night is an international celebration held every April 12 to commemorate milestones in space exploration. It is named for the first human to launch into space, Yuri Gagarin, who flew the Vostok 1 spaceship on April 12, 1961. In 2011, th ...
. Since
Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful Human spaceflight, crewed sp ...
is a kind of mascot of the project, the people in charge of the film worked in collaboration with LEEM for months in order to join the world initiatives celebrated in Yuri's Night. It also happened to celebrate the achievement of 2000 producers of the film.


Distribution and transmedia

In the same way, the movie distribution model has also changed. The project has suffered more noticeable changes in its distribution channels and in the final completion of the project. Regarding distribution, the new plan's objective is the simultaneous premiere in all release windows. The
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
behind this decision is to allow the user to choose the format he wants to watch the movie. Different particularities have been adopted for each release window, taking each mean into account, but making some changes in the traditional way of distribution. For instance, the release on the Internet will still be totally free and in HD, while the TV release will have an alternative ending for that channel. In the same way, the people in charge of the movie have designed a special presentation in cinemas to encourage people to go the theaters. This is called “The Cosmonaut Experience”, and it merges performance elements with recreational interaction with the audience, classic screening and a traveling tour, in order to provide the audience, according to the creators, with an added "experience". This tour of screenings will not replace the traditional screening in cinemas, but it will be done at the same time. The Cosmonaut, regarding its current completion, is no longer a science fiction feature film. Following the steps of
franchises Franchise may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Media franchise, a collection of related creative works, such as films, video games, books, etc., particularly in North American usage * "Franchise" (short story), a 1955 short story ...
such as
The Matrix ''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction film, science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in the The Matrix (franchise), ''Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ca ...
or Lost, The Cosmonaut will be a transmedia project with ramifications in different fields. It is planned to make a series of
webisodes A webisode (portmanteau of "web" and "episode") is an episode of a series that is distributed as part of a web series or on streaming television. It is available either for download or in streaming, as opposed to first airing on broadcast or cabl ...
, mobile content, or even an ARG, among others. Each series of content will show its own perspective of a story included in the film. It won't be necessary to watch them in order to understand the given facts, but it will provide some data and information about The Cosmonaut world that will complement each other.


2011

An update of the business model ("The Plan 2") was presented in October 2011, once shooting was finished. The Cosmonaut is one of the most successful crowdfunding projects in history with about €300,000.


Save ''The Cosmonaut''

After having raised €120,000 during the first two years, the decision was taken to shoot with that money together with €120,000 more contributed by a Russian co-producer. One week before shooting, when all the tickets were purchased and all the reservations made, the co-producer had to withdraw. A desperate campaign was then launched requesting the community to help save the movie. More than 600 people contributed a total of €131,000 in 3 days, beating all the world crowdfunding records in such a short period of time, and allowing the film to be shot. With such a huge success, the possibility of investing was kept during the entirety of shooting. A streaming window was created so the investors could watch the shooting they had made possible live. Lánzanos, the Spanish crowdfunding platform that collaborated during the whole campaign, faced, together with ''The Cosmonaut''s team, what they called "their most beautiful failure of design": the raising status bar exceeded 173%, going beyond the box it was embedded in. The same happened on the film website.


Media coverage and reception

After over a year of promotion, the project received certain degree of attention from the national media in Spain. There were reports about the film in various television channels of the country: TVE, in the news program of
LaSexta La Sexta (; ; stylised as laSexta) is a privately owned Spanish free-to-air television channel that was founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV and began broadcasting on 1 April 2001. By 21 July 2003, the channel ran into debt and was shut down, bu ...
,
CNN+ CNN+ is a defunct subscription streaming service and online news channel owned by the CNN division of WarnerMedia News & Sports. It was launched on March 29, 2022 and was later shut down on April 28, 2022. Designed as an offshoot of the CN ...
and
Cuatro Cuatro, Spanish (and other Romance languages) for the 4, number 4, may refer to: * Cuatro (instrument), a family of Latin American string instruments, including: ** Cuatro (Venezuela) ** Puerto Rican cuatro * Cuatro (TV channel), a Spanish free-to ...
, and in a divulgative program of La 2. 0 as well as in different newspapers, magazines and radios: El País, El Mundo, ABC, Público, AND, La Gaceta, Fotogramas, Cadena Ser, los 40 Principales. We can also find among these the Spanish edition of Cahiers du Cinéma. The main coverage of the project, however, came through the Internet. A great quantity of
blogs A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
and web based media dedicated articles to the film, between them some of the most influential blogs of Spain. Some examples of this include the digital version of
El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...
, the daily newspaper with the biggest print run in the country, or Microsiervos, one of the most visited blogs in
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
. The media reaction wasn't limited to Spain: some English-speaking blogs wrote about the project as well.


CosmoNauts concert

Most of the media attention towards the project was generated after a two-day music festival. The festival, named "CosmoNauts", was announced in The Cosmonaut blog on 9 June 2009. It was organized as a mass event to promote the film; during two days (29 and 30 June), nine bands belonging to the
indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Independent media, media free of influence by government or corporate interests *Indie art, fine arts made by artists independent of commer ...
scene of
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
played in front of an audience that, according to the organization, reached 400 people between the two days, with the emerging filmmaker
Nacho Vigalondo Ignacio "Nacho" Vigalondo Palacios (born 6 April 1977) is a Spanish filmmaker. Career Vigalondo's first film was the 2003 Spanish-language short film '' 7:35 in the Morning'', about a suicide bomber who terrorizes a cafe, which was only eight m ...
as the master of ceremonies. The concert, held in Madrid in the Sala Heineken, wasn't able to fill the seating capacity of the concert hall, mainly due to schedule hardships (the concert was held in the middle of a working week, and at the end of the month), and the organization's inexperience. While it was a mild economic failure, the organizers of the concert ascribe the subsequent promotional success of the movie and the later peak of sales in the online store to the festival, and, therefore, consider it a success.


Travelling at zero gravity

The Cosmonaut team, in collaboration with Improba Spain (the collective of followers of
Improv Everywhere Improv Everywhere (often abbreviated IE) is a comedic performance art group based in New York City, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd. Its slogan is "We Cause Scenes". The group carries out pranks, which they call "missions", in public places. The s ...
in Spain), carried out a promotional flashmob on 29 January 2010, in
Puerta del Sol The Puerta del Sol (, English: "Gate of the Sun") is a public square in Madrid, one of the best known and busiest places in the city. This is the centre ('' Km 0'') of the radial network of Spanish roads. The square also contains the famous ...
, Madrid. The object of the event was to simulate a Moon landing in downtown Madrid, and it had a remarkable attendance, even some of the passers-by joined the performance.


Controversy

The crowdfunding movie project ''The Cosmonaut'' has suffered a serious PR drawback due to a public relationship problem related to the director and writer, Nicolás Alcalá. In his response (which he made public) to a resume from a man named "Carlos", Alcalá made some very peculiar remarks about the structure of the email and its purpose. Thus, with the intention of humiliating this man, he made comments, such as: "''If you are a fishmonger, tell us, we have a job for you.''" (It can be read in Spanish here.) Spanish social media responded very harshly to the public comment, with multiple reactions across the web, and thousands of angry responses on their blogs, leading to a public declaration from the director where he made a public apology for his comments.


See also

*
Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...


References


Further reading

*"The Creative Crowd's Greatest Hits". ''
Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...
''. April 2010


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cosmonaut, The 2013 science fiction films Spanish science fiction films English-language Spanish films Moon in film Films about astronauts 2013 films Space program of the Soviet Union 2010s English-language films English-language science fiction films