Ulisses da Motta Costa here, director of the short film Kassandra.
A movie is like a child with several fathers and mothers. One of these genitors need to produce the original zygote, so to speak, need to light the first flame that begins the project. In this case, this blame is mine to bear.
Kassandra came up to my mind in the last winter, in a rainy period, when I was taking a few days off. That’s when three long-time different ideas blended in a surprising amalgam. The ideas were:
1 – I’ve always wanted to make a film based only in the visual narrative, a film with very few dialogs. I’m a silent movies big fan, but all of my other films were quite verborragic. So, for me, the best character for a visual narrative is one that could’t speak.
2 – On the other hand, I’ve always wanted to shot a film in black-and-white, to think not in colors, but in light with a primitive state of constrasts between darkness and brightness.
3 – At last, the third idea was born in a conversation with score composer Chico Pereira. We’re talking about how difficult is to listen a non-cliché music for horror films. We’re sort of decide that one day we would make a flick with a soundtrack different from what one’s used to hear.
Those three concepts were sparked togheter one night, probably inspired by Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness (the book I was reading at that time). Like three twisted creatures, they gathered in an indissociable maner. From this primordial mix, new ideas breeded: a charecter, her name, tarot cards, family photos, a scary shadow, a bathtube filled with blood.
Finally, the confusion founded an order when the face of actress Renata Stein appeared in Kassandra’s silhouette. She was the first invited for the Project. She told me: “I’m in, but movie had to be made”.
Her wish is an order. Through this blog, we will tell you how the production is going.
Be welcome.
