"Paula, a thirteen year old girl, starts to experience certain complications in the relationships with her family and friends. In order to be with her ill grandmother, which she barely knows, she spends the summer in Ojos negros. There she will meet Alicia, a girl her age, who also stays in town for the summer. Together they will venture into the adult world through a stifling summer that never ends."

Ojos Negros is a feature film with a sense of naturalism that takes place in the desert-like scenery of Aragón. It was born as the final thesis project of four Bachelor’s degree students in Media and Communication at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and will be continued as a personal project as we are going to finish the film after we have already completed our studies.

Our film talks about the acceptance of life cycles, hence, about the end. About how we suddenly become aware of the course of time when we grow up. It is an individual process, unique for each person, but at the same time universal and known to everyone. We aim to express a true portrait of these moments, which is why we use our own experiences and sensations and combine them with those of our young actresses. The script is personal and intimate, but only comes to life during the shooting, when its real meaning and sense will be understood.

The main characters

Julia Lallana is Paula

Julia is a 14 year old from Zaragoza. Even though she never took acting classes, she has a very photogenic face and her gestures are natural in front of the camera. As Paula, she is in a moment of transition towards adulthood but she maintains a more childish personality than the rest of her colleagues. Additionally, she shares with her character that her family comes from Ojos Negros, a town that she has basically no relation with and which will be a complete new discovery for her.

Paula is a reserved person. Altough she is usually calm and quiet, sometimes she cannot control her suppressed anger and acts rudely, but without malice. Given her dislike towards the adult world, she doesn’t accept the changes that are going on around her that are breaking the relationships with her family and friends back in the city. So she shields herself with a judgemental attitude towards others which makes her feel superior to the situation.

Alba Alcaine is Alicia

Alba is a 13 year old girl, also from Zaragoza and with family from Ojos Negros. Unlike Julia and according to Alicia’s character, Alba spends the summers in the town and she feels really close to it. Even that she looks rather introverted, together with Paula she is really natural and confident.

Alicia is very impulsive, she doesn’t judge or overthinks before acting. She lets her body and the circumstances guide her intuitively. She is open and active, because she accepts herself and has no need to pretend or to shut up.

What we need your donations for

The money that we will raise with your donations it is going to be used in different stages of the film, from the pre production to the shooting, including also to a small part to start the post production. Also, we need to include a small percentage for the management costs of Verkami’s platform. Below you can see how are we going to distribute your contributions:

About the rewards

Thanks to your donations we can make Ojos Negros possible. As a sign of gratitude from all the team, we want to compensate every donation with different gifts related with the film. Here are some of them:

• Online link and appearance in the credits. Every sponsor, even if the donation is only small, will receive an online link to watch the film an unlimited number of times, and their name will appear in the acknowledgments of the film.

• Tote bag of Ojos Negros. Inspired by the poster of the film, with a simple design made with lines and earthy colours.

• Poster of the film, in a digital print or in an exclusive edition made with serigraphy. Designed and illustrated by Luis Mazón, young Basque illustrator with a longstanding artistic and professional career. His designs have been published in such prestigious media as The New York Times or The New Yorker. You can check his web and more about his work here

• Hand painted mural inspired in the scenery of Ojos Negros: some of the sponsors can obtain a unique mural inspired in the locations of the film. You will be able to choose between seven different paintings, all of them hand painted with plaster technique.

• 2 nights for a couple at Hotel Fidalgo de Calamocha. The weekend will be followed by a guided tour around the lagoon of Gallocanta, a signature location of the film, where also the last scene will be shot.

• 2 nights for a group of 7 people at the rural house La Casa Añil, in Ojos Negros.

• Other rewards include originals related to the films such as the Original Soundtrack, extracts with a dedicated scene in the clapperboard or the appearance in a minor role in the film.

Choose your favorite reward and help as to make this project real!

How does Verkami work

Verkami is an alternative funding platform that works with small donations. For us it is an ideal tool to develop our project and to make it popular among a larger audience. This is how it works:

1. Know the project and its rewards.

2. Select the amount you want to give. Remember that your donation it’s not going to be charged until the projects gets to the 100% of its goal, if it doesn’t get to the 100% the charge its not going to be done.

3. If we get to the 100% of our goal, the rewards will be delivered once we finish the film, presumably 2018.

Thanks to your cooperation we will make this movie!

Planned schedule

This project has been in development for over a year. Below we present the calendar that has been followed until now and our plan for the future if we can achieve our funding goal:

• **May 2016 - January 2017: **Writting the script + mentoring of the project + shooting of the first scenes.

• February 2017 - July de 2017: Pre production.

• August 2017: Shooting during 30 days.

• October 2017 - December 2017: Post production.

• January 2018: Deliver of the rewards and start of distribution.

Who we are

Ojos Negros was born on May 2016 as a Bachelor thesis written by four students from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Iván, Marta, Ivet y Sandra, cuatro estudiantes de cine de la Pompeu Fabra. The enthusiasm we felt for an idea that is really close to us and had the urge to tell, together with the friendship that bounds us since we started college and the commitment to cinema, are pushing us to keep working on this feature film day and night.

Luckily, we are not alone anymore in this adventure because we were able to build a solid and energetic team with whom we work side by side to release this film. Our team is completed by: Carme Fuentes, assistant director; Lucía Andrés and Nacho Fidalgo, head of production and first assistant of production; Victor Xavier and Adriana Cuenca, our editors; Álvaro Pérez and Roger Navarro who work in the sound team, Juan Castillo is our gaffer, and lastly Francisca Torres who manages the design and graphic image of our film.

If you want to know more about us check our web!

Who is helping us

• Universidad Pompeu Fabra

Institution that supported us from the beginning of the project, guarantees the quality of the film and promotes its development by putting us in contact with film directors and scriptwriters with outstanding careers:

Gonzalo de Lucas: film programmer at the CCCB, professor on Media and Communication undergraduate studies and in the Editing graduate studies from the UPF. He is the supervisor of our thesis project and has guided us from the beginning of the film, overseeing its development.

Clara Roquet: winner of a Gaudí for best script and the prize of Best Novel Scriptwriter at Festival de Málaga for 10.000 Km, as well as for a Gaudí and a Espiga de Oro for best shortfilm by El adiós. She supervised the first stage of our script.

Mar Coll: winner of a Gaudí and a Goya for best novel direction for Tres días con la familia and nominated at different categories on the Gaudí by Todos queremos lo mejor para ella. She supervised the second stage of the film.

Jonás Trueba: Has directed Todas las canciones hablan de mi, La reconquista and Los exiliados románticos, that won the Special Jury Prize at Festival de Málaga. He helped us with the direction of the film.

• Nanouk Films

Is an independent producing company based in Barcelona. Its team combines the artistic and creative knowledge with a rigorous professionalism. They’ve done films like Dead Slow Ahead (Special Jury Prize at Locarno Film Festival) and Alcaldessa (Best Direction at Festival de Málaga).

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