Where to start… well… back in Feb 2022 I produced an album (“Among the Stars”) and brought my school friend Dean De Barros onboard to animate a track from it and make it an audio visual album! We settled on animating “Terra Firma” as it told a story we both resonated with.. the story of acceptance and finding your place of belonging. For me personally this represented me getting ready to leave my university course and step out into the creative industry which, let’s be honest, can be very scary if you know anything about it! I wanted to find my sense of belonging within this creative industry and this album and short film was the start of this self discovery journey to do this!
So, when “Terra Firma” was produced into a short film, we assumed it would only ever be played on YouTube and that was as far as it would go… this was a rather stupid assumption! It was submitted to the 2023 Fantasy Film Festival which was due to take place in Paris in June! It was a big shock, but also a VERY pleasant surprise, when it got selected to be of the 75 films on show across the weekend… our little film we produced, whilst doing our uni degrees was going to be shown on a real life cinema screen…. WHAT?! The more we found out the more we got excited and when we were told it would premiere in the Club de l’Etoile cinema (pictured below), our excitement peaked!
(Above: The Club de l’Etoile cinema in Paris, photo: https://clubdeletoile.fr/presentation/)
When me and Dean arrived into Paris for the film festival, we did the classic bit of sight seeing (of course we had to… its Paris!!!) and I even picked up the Louvre!
(Sight Seeing in Paris was fun!)
Then… it was time for the film festival!
Whilst we were there we met some incredible people from across the industry and spoke about our films, our love for films and for anything creative! It was an inspiring moment to see so many innovative film makers in one room and certainly gave me a drive to push more into this sector!
I loved all the films we watched and seeing how people are pushing the envelope when it comes to how we shoot and produce films in today’s climate. The musical choices also contained some really groundbreaking sound design which I was super excited to listen to!
Our film was then shown and, I speak for me and Dean when I say that we were overwhelmed by the experience of seeing our own production on a real life cinema screen! I think our exact reaction (using only emojis….!) looked a little like this “😱😭😱😮🤯😁”It was massive moment for the both of us and I will literally remember this until the day I die! It is burnt into my brain… core memory created!
Not only was this a crazy part of it… but… when the awards ceremony happened we were sure that, since our film was on a lower budget and was a thing we did just the two of us as a passion project, that we would not win an award. However, I am SOOOOO happy to say that “Terra Firma” got awarded the “A Night of Misfit Films 2023 Choice Award” by the Jury!
(Yay!)
I know I’ve said this already a million times but… I am SOOO grateful to the jury for watching our film and thinking that it deserved an award! We will be eternally thankful for this opportunity and will never forget it!
To have our little passion project become an international award winning film, is the craziest and most bonkers thing I think that has ever happened to me or Dean!
What a WILD weekend that was!
Also, congratulations (if any of you see this) to the other film makers who not only won awards, but to those who had anything selected for this weekend to be shown!
Thank you to the Fantasy Film Festival, the Jury, the film makers and Dean!
(“Terra Firma” – A Night of Misfit Films 2023 Choice Award)
You might be wondering…. what next… this went well so, what’s coming up for you and Dean? Well… we spent time in Paris talking about the next steps and I can’t say much yet but I can say that we have some plans and to keep them eyes of yours peeled! Keep up to date with our socials and you’ll see!
One more side note… if youre interested here are some videos linked to this weekend you can watch:
https://youtu.be/U_YlejPBh3Y – Mine and Dean’s interviews
https://youtu.be/5zvYMJnu5FY – Closing ceremony
That’s it everyone, thanks for reading this chaotically crazy blog post!
Ethan, over and out!
