Kassandra's images - 4

And there it is: new pictures from Kassandra's set.

You can also see more images here, here and here.

Actor Leandro Lefa and director Ulisses Costa in the set

Renata Stein and Blá-Blá, the doll

Improvising a curtain for a point of view shot

A ghostly image

Leandro Lefa geting into the character

Kassandra's Images - 3

New photos from Kassandra's set.

See more pictures here and here.

Shooting Renata Stein

Leandro Lefa (right) ready for action

Cinematographer Pablo Chaseraux and director Ulisses da Motta Costa

Watching the "film inside the film"

"And... Cut! More blood!"

Our thanks!

It's time to thank the people responsible for the success of our crowdfunding campaign.

More than 130 people contributed to Kassandra  through the site Catarse.me. The number of supporters who believed in our work is more important than the amount collected, because it shows that there are people who believe in the project and in us.

As the director Ulisses Costa Motta said: "IWe are men of little faith. Our friends, however, are not. They believed in us. Now, the only purpose of my life is not to disappoint them. Let's finish this stuff! "

First, a very special "thank you" to the supporters who donated the maximum value and became Kassandra's Associate Producers!

Camila Barcelos

Fábio Guizzardi

Luciane da Motta Costa

Márcia Bohn Gusson

To all who believed in us and donated to our movie - yes, "our movie"! We are eternally grateful to each one of you. :)

Score composer Chico Pereira

Adriana Ferraz

Adriana Renata Barcelos

Alexandre Selliach

Aline Geib

Amelize Mattos

Ana Carolina Kanitz

Ana Paula Lopes

Angela Lawisch Dorfey

André Conti Silva

Andrea Vanessa Jungbluth

Andy Renmei

Bárbara Swarowsky

Bruna Klassmann

Bruna Köche

Bruno Steffen

Camila Kunkel

Caren Suzana

Carmen Pereira

Carolina Wingert

Caroline Conter

Carlos Porto

Cássio Vargas 

Catarina Corbellini Gusson

Chaiane Bitelo

Cibele Berghahn

Claudino José Etges

Clovis Oyarzabal

Cristina Salib

Producer Ramona Barcellos

Daniel Machado Pereira

Daniela Danieli

Deb Xavier

Denise Thomas

Douglas Michaelsen

Eduardo Conter

Eduardo Ferreira

Eduarda Schuastcer

Fabrizio Ridel

Farlei Heinen

Felipe Fito

Fernando De Cesero

Fernando Nabinger

Flávia Falcão

Gabriel Ferreira

Gabriel Klaser

Gerusa Wasun

Gibran Sirena

Gloria Pinto

Guilherme Benvegnu

Guilherme Cunha

Guilherme Portella

Gustavo Moreira

Henrique Abel

Henrique Scherer

Hilton Junior

Actress Suzana Witt

Iara Ungarelli  
Irení Pulla

Jamile Hallan

Janaína Ferreira

Jean Schmith e Tiago Silveira

Jéssica Pulla 

João Felício Gusson

João Ricardo Bittencourt

Jorge Feldens

Juliana Bock

Juliana Wingert

Kat Draugelis

Kátia Salib

Léia Stein 

Liege Ávila

Lili Amaral

Liziane e Vinícius Barros

Loraci Maria Wathier Kich

Luana Flôres

Lucas Bertolini Pizzo

Lucas Finkler

Lucas Luz

Lucia e Décio Berghahn

Luciano Bargmann

Luciano Lamb

Luciano Marquetto

Luciano Martins

Lucinara Linck

Sound Engeneer and Producer Roberto Coutinho

Maria Cristina Franck

Maria Toaldo Machado

Mary Sandra Carlotto

Méle Dornelas

Miguel Presser da Silva

Mônica Marques
 Neori José Gusson

Nicole Kleemann

Nilva Terezinha Gusson Etges

Oliver Reinis

Ory Laux

Priscila Mendes

Rafael Ribs

Raquel Peruzzo e Robson Barcarolo

Rica Retamal

Rogério Rodrigues

Rogério Theisen

Ronaldo Schirmer 

Art Director Ana Gusson

Sheila e Gus Antonello

Thais Fernandes

Thaís Lima e Rafael Klaser

Thiago Maciel e Jordão Maciel

Uri Blankfeld

Valmor Burdzinski

Valquíria Ritter

Vandré Brancão

Vânia Medianeira Flores Costa

Veronica Born

Verônica Ribeiro

Verônica Stein

Xaiane Pires

Xixa Kayser

And to the students from the Cinema Workshop at Sinodal High School:

Alex Souza

Amanda Garcias

Ana Copetti

Henrique Souza

Higor Rodrigues
João Pedro Boufleur

Júlio Schröder

Paulo Mezzomo

Victória Freire

Actress Renata Stein

To conclude, the words of the assistant director Victor Fiúza summarize the importance of the support from all of you:

"When Kassandra reaches it's crowdfunding goal, it is not only an alternative financial achievement  in order to make a film. It also means a shared appreciation of cinema: it's not just the film itself that becomes self-supporting, but it is a whole social and cultural environment. Basically, it's not just the team of Kassandra to win the chance to complete a job (working vital, by the way), but also gain all those who supported or even not, because there is a collective effort for the existence of a relevant movie.

"Making the movie or not, everyone is in".

You can help Kassandra!

That's it, folks! We are starting our crowdfunding campaign to complete Kassandra!

This is a cultural project conducted by a team of artists dedicated to making the best film possible. As our actress Susana Witt says: "Now is the time when we need help from friends and cinema fans."

Want to help us? It's simple: enter the site Catarse.me and choose an amount between BR $ 10,00 and BR $ 30,00 (or more). If you are from Europe or United States and to know how much it is in your currency, let me tell you: is very cheap:

 € 1,00 = R$ 2,40

US$ 1,00 = R$ 1,75

You can pay with your credit card and the system os 100% secure.

Each value means a reward: could be thanks in the credits of the film, could be DVDs, t-shirts and even some cards form Kassandra’s Tarot (see below all of them). And so you become part of this project too!

Check out our promotional video (in portuguese) and spread the project!

Thanks for everything guys! See the rewards:

- $ 10.00 or more - thanks in the credits of the movie, here on the blog and social networks.

- $ 30.00 or more - Thanks + official poster.

- $ 50.00 or more - Thanks + Poster + official DVD with extras and subtitles in English.

- $ 80.00 or more - Thanks + DVD + Poster + official set of five cards form the Kassandra’s Tarot.

- $ 120.00 or more - Thanks + DVD + Poster + Set + tarot cards movie + Official T-shirt

- $ 150.00 or more - Thanks official DVD + Poster + Set + tarot cards of the film Call + T-shirt + invitation for the premiere (only for Brazil).

- $ 300.00 or more - Credit as Associate Producer + DVD + Poster + official set of tarot cards movie + T-shirt.

Kassandra's Feelings - III - the shooting

Renata Stein's impressions during the filming of Kassandra. Her impressions about the rehearsels can be read here and here.

Day One:

It was a hard day, actually, I've got a little "soft" on the set. It seems that it took all day to get used to working with so many people in the room of Kassandra’a home. Nevertheless, I believe that I did reach the mood of the life of Kassandra quickly. But it made ​​me quiet throughout the day, which left me a little "down".

The focus helped me in the most difficult scene of the day, Scene 5, when I needed to cry, and even then it was complicated. I felt sensitive to every situation, I got involved, but the tears did not come so easy. I also know that much of this difficulty is because of the many cuts that have between one and take another. The few tears came after a look from director Ulisses. It helped me think I might be disappointing him.

The presence of my colleague Maico made ​​me feel better since he was one of the few people I knew and felt comfortable as Kassandra. I arrived on set already preparing myself for Kassandra, most of the people I knew right there and I had no opportunity to mingle with them. So it seemed that only Maico and Ulisses believed in my work, and it made ​​me more reclusive.

Talking with the director, we realize that this is one of the differences between theater and cinema. There are many people working on the set, each with a function and concentrated entirely on it, lots of breaks to change the camera and light and I, in this case, alone without other actors, trying to concentrate. In the theater we got months of preparation and testing, always with the same actors, creating a confidence relationship.

I came home exhausted and extremely sensitive.

Day Two:

Today it was lighter, in terms of concentration and sensitivity. I got more comfortable on the set and Maico came early, and Susana Witt and Leandro Lefa were there too. So I laughed and I relax more, but I did find it harder to concentrate in certain scenes later. I realized that no matter how hard it is to be Kassandra, you need a lot of concentration to be her. So I went back a little to a self seclusion.

What were heavy today were the attack scenes, escapes and other disaster. It means a lot of beating and as a result, many wounds. There were some complicated scenes with birds, after all, it seems that they all had a problem similar to that of Kassandra...

Day Three:

Behold the Great Man. Today he decided to appear. We recorded the scenes with him, ande the ones with blood.

What a strange and awkward day. I do not know, or better, we can not say why, but it was weird. I also thought the director was more impatient today (will he allow me to post this?).

Today I thought I didn’t give everything. I think it was exhaustion. Being Kassandra is not easy. And despite all the tiredness, at the end of the recordings I stayed there on set. Laziness? Farewell? Or is it just Ramona’s wonderful snacks and Maico’s massage that holded me there?

Kassandra now only in the coming months with more blood and color.

I am very grateful to all staff that is giving life to this Ulisses’ dream that now is also mine.

Music on the set

There was solid certainly even about Kassandra’s shooting even before Roger Monteiro presented the first draft of the script, and that is we would make the scenes with music.

The film has little dialogue and most of its sound will be recorded in post-production, which allowed the presence of music on the set. The idea was well received by the crew as a whole, especially by composer Chico Pereira (pic), who made a playlist to run not only as the scenes while shooting, but also in the intervals. Renata Stein also enjoyed the idea: she could choose her own music for the emotional scenes, helping her performance.

Below are two examples of the songs played during Kassandra’s filming. The first is a piece of Phillip Glass, one of the references collected by Chico, and the second is the theme from Requiem For A Dream, composed by Clint Mansell, chose by Renata to play in a few moments of the film:

Metamorphosis - Phillip Glass

Lux Aeterna - Clint Mansell

The Artist and the New Silent Films

By Ulisses da Motta Costa, Kassandra’s director, on the current trend of silent films:

It may seem somewhat surprising that this year Academy Awards decided to consecrate a black-and-white silent movie. The Artist, a Belgian-French production that pays homage to the American cinema of the early decades of the twentieth century, won five statuettes: best picture, director (Michel Hazanavicius), actor (Jean Dujardin), original score (Ludovic Bource) and costume design ( Mark Bridges). However, it is not an isolated case.

The film looks back at the cinema history to find a new benchmark, in a time of creative crisis in American cinema. To search in other times a new foundation to rebuild or renovate the arts is something that happens frequently in human culture. Thus, the apparent aesthetic audacity in The Artist is actually part of a "movement" (in the lack of a better term) to seek for visual narratives.

Or perhaps this “better term” I'm missing is "trend". In the last half decade we have seen popping examples of films based less on dialogue and more on the visual.

It is easy to remember recent examples in Hollywood: the Pixar animation Wall-E , the first 15 minutes of P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, or even crucial scenes from Rise of the Planet of the Apes. In the same France that has produced The Artist we have Sylvain Chomet, who directed two feature animation films, The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist. In the 2009 Gramado Film Festival, I saw this uruguayan comedy, Gigante, who badly needed dialogue or music to tell its story.

We can ask why the makers of these films have toke this decision. But most important is the fact that films form diverse genres, origins and intentions have worked so well with the proposal of not using dialogues to drive the narrative. The Artist, of course, go further: don’t even have noise or sound effects of any kind (except for two scenes). All you hear is the music. After all, the intention was to recreate a cinema of the past and so the process had to be more intense, including a characteristic black-and-white cinematography.

The film caught my attention when we were in preproduction of Kassandra. Our little film is also in black-and-white, virtually dispenses the dialogues and has a mute protagonist. Of course, these choices do not intend to recreate the past, but are based on what we believe that work’s for the story.  But the "blame" for a lack of creativity never hit me. On the contrary: it made me feel inside and "belonging" to something bigger and more powerful.

It’s a feeling that the path we choose seems to be more certain than we might suppose.

Making of Kassandra - 7 - The Slider Saga

Do you remember the Jackson Ritter’s Production Lists? One of his tasks was to elaborate a slider, equipment used to make small camera movements. According to him, the task was accomplished. Is it?

Jackson and Roberto Coutinho (producer and sound engineer) united forces to this job, using some wood, a bit of rubber, a plenty of junk and a lot of cluelessness.

The result of this amazing saga can be seen in the video below (in portuguse), from it’s conception to the climax, where the slider is tested by cinematographer Pablo Chasseraux.

The Women in Kassandra

Ramona Barcellos, the mother godess

In the role of productor, Ramona treated the team like a large family who should have confort. Besides the hours devoted to organization, as soon as the filming began she was started to cook, right there in the location, in order to lower the film’s cost.

By Roberto Coutinho (producer and sound engineer): "It is great to work with a woman like Ramona! She’s efficient, responsible, helpful and organized. She can keep a straight face while being extremely nice and sweet."
By Victor Fiuza (assistant director): "A producer I would love to work with many times. She has the attributes necessary for the production management and at the same time maintains a calm control."
By Ulysses da Motta Costa (Director): "When Ramona looks you with those eyes infinitely blue and asks you 'but will it work?', all you want is to do your job right so you’ll not disappoint the 'boss' ".

Ana Gusson, the amazon warrior

Ana never got tired whatever was the task. When she had finished her work, would immediately help someone else. Besides, of course, the additional aesthetic that she gave to the scenery and film visual as a whole.

By Roberto: "If you do not know Ana, your wasting time! Even tired and stressed, she always had a smile on her face. She’s never in a bad mood or bored. And to complete, she is the best art director I ever worked with! "
By Ulysses: "She has that cut way that only people no fear have: Anna is not afraid to hug you tight when sees you - and also not afraid to raise her voice up even to the director when needed ..."
By Maico Silveira (actor): "A sweet girl who is frightened by any ‘hi’".

Suzana Witt, our psyche

Susana always put the soul in work, even when it’s fast. She doesn’t mid the status of being an actress and involves rapidly in the middle of the crew, exercising the tranquility she expressed on the screen.

By Leandro Lefa (actor): "Susana has a enviable naturally, she seems to have years of experience with the camera. Best: It seems that neither had a camera there, only Susana doing her thing."
By Daniel Coutinho (film publicist): "Susana is an actress of great talent and also is a very dear person. It is a pleasure to work beside her. She’s competent in the set and a great company for a good chat and laugh behind the scenes ".

Marina Cardozo, all the muses in one

Kassandra’s script supervisor (who served as assistant director when needed) can do anything of artistic character. During breaks from filming, it was easy to see Marina painting in an Ipad or singing. She’s always making art – and always keeping the enthusiasm.

By Roberto: "Besides being a great partner to whatever silly plans (boring, stupid and clueless as they can be), Marina is the most versatile girl I know. Each time I discover a new talent: writer, dancer, painter, musician, director, actress, gourmet ... Is there anything that Marina do not know? "
By Daniel: "A girl committed to work and who is always in good humor. Marina is very spontaneous and fun. A company very dear in and off the movie set."

Isabela Boessio and Giulia De Cesero, the nymphs

If there was laughter echoing through the set (and sometimes outside it), everyone knew: it was the costume designers and makeup artists Isabela and Giulia. But beyond the laughter, there was dedication.

By Ulysses: "To have those two girls on the team made us all quite tranquil. We knew that we will not worry about the costumes. They do their job no matter if the world is falling. Besides, of course, they are beautiful and enjoy this crazy process that is to make a movie. "

By Chico Pereira (composer): "They give lots of laughter. That alone would be enough for everyone to like them. But, moreover, they are talented." 

Renata Stein, the persephone

Like the goddess of greek mythology, Renata lived in two worlds. Despite her cheerful disposition and sweetness, she was not afraid to dive into darkness to be able to give life (and fear and anxiety and anger) to Kassandra.

By Leandro Lefa: "Renata makes us feel small. You look at her and realize that she is thinking a million things and it seems that a whole universe will be created to complement her performance when one says ‘action’. I think it actually happens. "
By Victor: "Young actress, but with professionalism and devotion to the craft dormant, revealing an early maturity development, which therefore opens great expectations for her work."
By Chico: "A precious stone. She’s a little monster as a person and a huge monster as an actress. By ‘monster” I mean the best sense of the word. And these two Renatas do not seem to be the same person, which proves her talent for acting”.
By Maico: "A girl of few words when working. Because when she's not ..."

Of Terror and Horror - Part 2

(Read part 1 here)

Jean Cocteau's
The Beauty and the Beast 

The Beauty against the Beast

We can say that most of the horror movies are readings of the tale of Beauty and the Beast (without the romatic emphasis).There are countless movies in which women face evil creatures (from Alien to The Silence of the Lambs). The sexual connotations are inherent several degrees of subtlety and somehow represents the purity that some monstrosity (of a male kind) wants to destroy. Since horror movies tend to be moral tales, the purity of women in these stories inevitably overcome the evil.

That's what happens in the Nosferatu, the German Expressionism classic: a young girl attracts the scary vampire to her own room and offers her neck. Drunk with blood, the monster does not notice the sun rising and dies. In her ultimate sacrifice, the martyr gave his love to kill evil. So, the opposite of fear is not courage: this is a typical element of the Epic. Here, the opposite of fear is love. The Beast can be redeemed (or released) by Bela. Therefore, under certain perspective, the horror tales are storioes of famale triumph: only women qualities that can thwart evil.

If we want to go deep in the differences between the Epic and the Terror as representatives of a "war of the sexes", we can dabete how blood fulfills an important role, however diverse, in both narratives.The Epic is also bloody, but as a celebration of men: heroes taking the lives of heroes in battle. In the terrifying narrative, blood is something more vital, to be preserved or to be sought at all costs, indicating more life than death - taking a closer relationship with menstruation, for example.

Sea monster reported
in Brazil's shore
in 1564

The Man vs. Evil

This kind of story is a reinforcement to the feminine construction of the "Beauty against the Beast", and not it's counterpart. It's a subversion of the myth of the hero who descends to a lair of an evil creature and destroys it, symbolizing the victory of light over darkness. It is an important issue for mythologies, from David and Goliath to Batman and the Joker. But when reread by horror, such stories receive other treatment. To hunt down the beast is a nightmare, not an act of heroism (in Jaws, is the lair is the sea). And it is tragic or, even worse, useless heroism and often evil will prevail (as in The Omen).

Another way to classify this subject is "Man against the Demons": a journey against various evil forces, usually a descent into hell (as Dante does in the Comedy), where the actions are beyond the protagonist's control . Its most common contemporary counterpart is the zombie movie. No matter how the hero is resolute and prepared, it will never prevent the undead invasion.

The reason for the hero's failure  is explained in The Beauty against the Beast theme: courage is not enough; to fight evil, only love has real strength.

Original Frankenstein's
cover (1831)

The Monster in Us All

Characters like Frankenstein's creature are essentially tragic. They are typical anti-heroes from tragedies, with the difference that the treatment given to their march is darker and has more garish colors.The legends of Oedipus approach of horror tales: murder of the father, mother's abuse, self-mutilation. 

It is customary to use the term "monster" to describe something gruesome, abhorrent and representative of evil. It would be a synonym for "beast". However, the latin origins of the word can mean both "show" and "warning". That is, the monster is someone or something who reveals and gives a warning. Its difference from the tragic hero is his deformed look - which reminds us of our own twisted psychological constructs. The Monster externalizes what we hide in ourselves - and, by definition, he is in a state of helplessness before the world.

Unlike the previous examples, the Monster Within is a male kind of scary stories, in which the monster is nothing more than a representation of a man who does not find its place in society and seeks only love. King Kong, despite its power and strength, "surrenders" to love only to be torn from his habitat and taken to a place infinitely more hostile than his jungle full of dinosaurs.

_________________________________________________________________

In short: for repulsive that they seems, the Terror / Horror stories are a counterpoint to a idealized world that we see in the epic tales. They are not stories to be told in public, in daylight, but in the dark of night, at home, to teach moral and ethical behavior. It would be the horror story a female resistance to a man's world? It is an interesting hypothesis. 

Written by Kassandra's director Ulisses da Motta Costa

Of Terror and Horror - Part 1

Hi! Ulisses da Motta Costa here again. During the preparations for the filming of Kassandra, I wrote this text for cast and crew about the horror genre. I decided to share it with you. The text has two parts:

________________________________________________________________

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,
the first horror movie

In Portuguese, we usually do not differentiate the meaning of the terms "terror" and "horror". Roughly speaking, they are considered as synonyms. We use "terror" to define when a person has an uncontrollable behavior ("this guy is a terror"), and "horror" to say that a situation was catastrophic ("the accident was a horror"). But when applied to a narrative genre, whatever: they mean the same thing.

Not so in english speaker cultures. Terror and Horror have different meanings when applied to movies, books, comic books and so on. In narrative terms and without much theoretical checks, Terror is the feeling that precedes a frightening experience; Horror is the feeling one gets after such experience. That is, the first is connected to fear and the second is connected to shock.

H.P. Lovecraft

Terror is considered the most "noble" because it relies on a gradual development of anxiety and discomfort. There is a need to establish firmly the feeling of fear. On the other hand, when this construction reaches its climax and we witness the dread promised along the narrative, we feel shocked. So, a good scary story, we can tell, invests on the Terror during its course and leave the Horror to the viewer how when the story ends.

Why Terror and Horror works as a narrative, for more disgusting that sounds? According to HP Lovecraft, american writer noted for his short scary stories, "man’s oldest and strongest emotion is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is the fear of the unknown". When one enjoys a story that creates fear, one notes this feeling. And the "role" of the arts is to remember that we have certain feelings - that is, that we are truly alive.

Blackbeard 

by Gustave Doré

No wonder that the scary elements permeate our culture: the mythologies of ancient civilizations are full of nasty creatures and situations; fairy tales are bloody and cruel. In the Odyssey, fear is the feeling that prevails in the cave of the Cyclops. In Macbeth, the terror of the Three Witches is established already in the prologue. That’s why perhaps that Orson Welles, in his version of the play, gave the movie a gothic clothing more likened to a horror movie than to an epic.

Thus, Terror and Horror have an ancestral origin, although it’s specificity as a genre. For all intents and purposes, they are both tragedies that go deep into the dark side of anti-heroes. Within the field tragic, we can say that there are three themes dear to Terror, which we will call here: Beauty against the Beast, The Monster in Us All and The Man vs. Evil. A bit about them:

(To be continued)