An Industry Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Survivers
Genre: Dark comedy, Sci-fi
Length of film: 06:30
Date: October 2020
Director: Carlos Gómez-Trigo
Producer: Carlos Gómez-Trigo
Executive Producer: Carlos Gómez-Trigo
Writer: Carlos Gómez-Trigo
Cinematographer: Marino Pardo
Editor: David Castro González
Composer: Christian Azuaje
Production Company: NA
Budget: 12000
Financing: Self Production
Shooting Format: 2:35
Screening Format: DCP
World Premiere: Trieste Science+Fiction Film Festival (2020)
Awards: Cryptshow Festival, España (Third best short film), AVANCA Film Festival, Portugal (Special mention of the Jury), Festival de Cine de Comedia de Tarazona y el Moncayo, España (Best Cinematography), BuSho – Budapest Short Film Festival, Hungría (Best experimental short), and Galician Freaky Film Festival, España (Best screenplay).
The Official Trailer for Survivers
Watch The Trailer for Survivers directed by Carlos Gómez-Trigo
A Short Biography of Carlos Gómez-Trigo
Carlos Gómez-Trigo studied filmmaking in Barcelona. He made a short film in school titled Clase de baile. It won Young Artist Award from Castilla-La Mancha in 2009. In 2008 he went to India to work on two documentaries and then moved to Madrid. Where he now works as producer and commercial director. His previous short film, Maelstrøm (2017), had been selected by 165 International festivals, winning several awards for best short film, director, performance and sound.
The Carlos Gómez-Trigo Interview
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Carlos Gómez-Trigo (CGT): Survivers is a dark comedy about human stupidity, About if human race deserves a second chance to start from the scratch.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Carlos Gómez-Trigo (CGT): It’s going quite well, sometimes unexpected but honestly exciting. We have being in the Official Competition for Oscar qualifying festivals – Calgary, Edmonton, Encounters, Nashville, Show me Shorts and HollyShorts. Melies – Slash, Fantasia, Abertoir, Trieste, Screamfest…), BAFTA (Bolton, Aesthetica, Norwich) and Goya (FILMETS, Tarazona…). Also in IndieLisboa, Uppsala, PÖFF… so I am glad!
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Carlos Gómez-Trigo (CGT): Natural selection says that only those who adapt will survive. What if humans have become stupid?
Development & Financing?
Carlos Gómez-Trigo (CGT): I started the script in 2018. I wrote it quite fast, in few days, I´m not a professional screenwriter so I go direct to the point.
It was selected as finalist in a Pitch program in Madrid, but no production company wanted to produce it, so I decide to make it myself. My next step was to find some kind of financial support sending it to Spanish official institutions to get a grant, but I didn´t receive any help. Probably the script was not what they were looking at that time or simply, it was not good enough!
But again, I´m quite stubborn, so I put all my savings (and debts) into it and self produced the short.
Production?
Carlos Gómez-Trigo (CGT): I contact a producer to help me with the logistic, so finally we made the production logistic between 4 persons. Most complicated was to find the right location; it took us almost one year. I founded by chance, just 15 minutes from my home. It looks perfect, in the middle of nowhere and the City Hall of that place were super collaborative with us.
The first person to get into the project was the cinematographer, Marino Pardo. I met him and I realized he was the perfect one to make this short. We work for several weeks in the right approach during the preproduction and I´m really proud of his work.
Another difficult point was finding actors in Spain with a perfect French accent. After several months we were lucky to find Alex, Maarten and Stephanie. They were so supportive with the project, so every delay we have they never complain.
It´s complicated to make a short when you can´t afford salaries and most of the team work for almost free. It means you have to make balancing acts to schedule different times of crew and actors. Finally we can shoot in the first weekend of November 2019.
It was complicated because rain and wind appears so we have some delays. The most important shot, the one take shot of 2 minutes and a half it was supposed to have a time of preparation of 3 hours and 5 hours of rehearsals and shooting. But at the end, we didn´t shot the first take only until one hour before the sunrise, that was our deadline yes o yes. But we were lucky enough and the last take, just when the first sun rays appear at the end of the sky, was perfect.
Edition took some weeks, but the most complicated part was the music. We have to find the right elements to give the comedy tone some support, but also to change that tone 100% to a dramatic mind state, so it was a deligated work with Christian Azuaje, who finally made a great music.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
CGT: I self distribute the short, so my strategy is going first to festivals that require international or national premieres, plus Oscar, Goya and Melies qualifying festivals. I have all the materials ready (different copies, DCP, stills, posters) and put my view on the festivals I would love to be selected first. Normally, the first year of the festival run is dedicated to those more important festivals. In November 2021 will start the second year of distribution and I will send to the rest of the festivals, to see if it still works.
The Release?
CGT: My idea was to make the world premiere in Sitges, but it was not selected. After that, I had the chance to make the premiere in Trieste Science+Fiction, so it was amazing to start there. The pity is that by then most festivals were online or complicated to visit, but I´m happy to be there in spirit!
Advice from the Filmmaker?
CGT: If you have a project that you consider good, do not stop believing in it and fight to carry it out. Although it takes years from the script’s completion to its filming, that’s better than leaving it stopped and thinking sometime: “It’s a shame, I liked this story a lot but I never did it.” I am very stubborn, as I said before.
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