“Prelude” is the latest short film written and directed by Canarian filmmaker Roberto Chinet.

A romantic drama that travels between two eras marked by censorship and social prohibitions. The short film tells the story of a forbidden love between two Canarian women in 1955, in the midst of the Franco dictatorship, which travels back in time to the year 2020, in full confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A secret that travels in time hidden in the chorus of a song: “Prelude to a kiss”.

"Prelude" is a romantic drama in the last stage of post-production. Produced by Novilunio Music and Films with a grant from TEA - Cabildo de Tenerife.

The short film was shot in various locations in Tenerife in September 2020. After having to overcome the inconveniences of the pandemic that forced us to suspend filming in May 2020 and comply with all protocols to protect the team and guarantee a "safe"... life gave us a fantastic week of cinema, shared with an incredible human team: supportive, creative, positive and united.

Subsequently, the project had another unforeseen event: a problem with financing, caused by a controversial decision of the management committee of the subsidies for audiovisual production of the Government of the Canary Islands 2020/21 that seriously damaged our project. This unforeseen event caused a lack of liquidity to be able to finance the last post-production costs.

The short film has a total budget of €39,000. From our small production company, we have made a great effort to be able to cover 80% of the total budget. But we still have an important part to cover: 12% (final post-production phase expenses) and 8% (distribution phase expenses).

For this reason, we now turn to the crowdfunding formula to finish financing the project.

Irene has a great secret that she has kept in her memory for many years, a secret that is hidden in the chorus of a song called “Prelude to a kiss”. With the complicity of her grandson Daniel de Ella, who is in charge of taking care of her that afternoon in full confinement due to the Covid19 pandemic, Irene will meet Marcela again in the same place where she last saw her in 1955.

When I finished writing the last version of the script and started to build the technical script, the first thing I decided was that Prelude would be a movie of details, where the symbols of characters and plot would be relevant to tell the story.

My proposal as a director was to make the audience feel that they are "spying" on the reality that the characters live, as if they could look through a small rectangular hole in a wall of the house. A house that is treated as one more character in history, which yearns for the passage of time, where the walls and spaces can whisper the passing of a life. Irene's life** trapped between the aged walls with the wrinkles lining her skin.**

Another key was to situate the points of view of the story. I wanted the point of view to always be with the character who is watching or listening. And, with it, make the public feel that they are present in the action at all times. Like that reader who "lives" the story he is reading. That was a challenge that we managed to capture in the final assembly.

Telling in images the birth of a pure and delicate love, which would grow with the development of the story and endure in the retina of the characters... was another great challenge. Added to the great effort involved telling a story between two times separated by 65 years and making it believable. The great artistic work of Myriam Cruz (artistic director), Paula López (costume designer) and Dácil Hernández (makeup artist and hairdresser) with the delicate photography of J.A. Doria (director of photography) and the meticulous work Manuel López (colorist); made the story flow with the excellent sound design created by Manolo Tricás (sound engineer) and the musical brushstrokes created by Iván Capillas (composer) towards the truth that the characters live in two times so distant and close at the same time. Two times loaded with restrictions and social prohibitions that reflect that "prison" in which the characters live together.

The use of visual and narrative mirrors was another essential tool to tell this time-traveling story of secrets and memories. With visual influences from the cinema of the great director Wong Kar Wai and his inseparable cinematographer Christopher Doyle. We sought to create our own aesthetic that would represent that emotional imprisonment that the protagonist suffers on the threshold of her life that contrasts with the vividness of the memories that she manages to revive in her memory.

And finally, perhaps most importantly, the meticulous work with the actors. Making a good casting was vital to be able to tell this story of characters. We convened a massive casting online, in full confinement due to the pandemic, and after many tests and doubts, we managed to select our cast: Sonya Durango, Amanda Fuentes, Rita Rodriguez, Joel Morales and Manolo Acosta.

The work with the cast was thorough throughout the process of creating the character, in rehearsals and staging. We were able to rehearse at the central location the day before filming began and do camera tests, creating emotional anchors on the set itself. Separating each narrative period and group of characters so that emotional "privacy" existed.

I am very satisfied with the great work of the entire cast, at all times I felt that they had fully committed to the project and that is why they managed to make the characters grow on the set. Working with them and them has been a very enriching experience.

IRENE (1955)

In the midst of Franco's dictatorship, Irene is a sensitive and delicate young woman with many concerns who struggles not to be another invisible woman in a matriarchal society. Trapped by her fears and her insecurities, she feels unable to achieve her wishes in a Catholic family rooted in Francoist customs.

Actress: Amanda Fuentes IMDb

MARCELA (1955)

Marcela is a brave, non-conformist and passionate young woman who wants to be what society does not allow her to be. She has always dreamed of being like those free and independent women she sees in the American cinema of the fifties... In Irene she will find a forbidden refuge.

Actress: Sonya Durango IMDb

DANIEL (2020)

Daniel is a shy and sensitive young man with many artistic interests. But his life is loaded with responsibilities too heavy for his youth. His grandmother Irene has always been his accomplice and confidant. In her, and in her house, Daniel has found a refuge.

Actor: Joel Morales

LUIS (2020)

Luis is Irene's son and Daniel's uncle. His relationship with his mother is complicated. He has always been a rude and temperamental man, a policeman by profession as his father disclosed. Luis feels overwhelmed by the responsibilities that he has to assume in his life.

Actor: Manolo Acosta

IRENE (2020)

Irene is a woman who has reached the epilogue of her life plunged by a chronic lung disease and a feeling of permanent loneliness. Widowed for years, she longs to somehow reach the secrets that she still hides in her memories.

Actress: Rita Rodríguez IMDb

This beautiful song composed in 1938 by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Irving Gordon and Irving Mills, is another of the "protagonists" of the short film. The version sung by * Sarah Vaughan * recorded in 1954 is the song that connects Irene with the memory of the old love she felt for Marcela.

NOVILUNIO MUSIC AND FILMS is a Canarian audiovisual production company founded by Minia Díaz and Roberto Chinet in 2016. During these six years we have professionally produced three fiction short films and developed two fiction feature films, a documentary and a TV series. .

Our motto "we look at the sky to listen to the stars" defines the essence of our work. From the beginning we committed ourselves to making a sustainable and committed cinema from the Canary Islands, to create a local audiovisual industry and for our productions to address issues that move us such as the dignity of the human being, the capacity of the imagination to transform reality, love as a creative engine or the thin line that separates life from death...

In Prelude, many of these themes are merged in a short film that will certainly not leave the general public indifferent.

In these years, our productions have obtained awards and recognition at national and international festivals. In addition to obtaining different grants and aid to produce them. As a previous experience in crowdfunding, our short film The Giant and the Mermaid (2017) was co-financed through a crowdfunding campaign on Verkami. A short that reached more than 25 selections at international festivals and received several awards.
www.novilunio.es/films

You don't have to be a Hollywood businessman. We are looking for small contributions from people like you. It's not a secret, making movies is very expensive and it almost always becomes a difficult adventure, even more so for small production companies like ours. But we believe a lot in this project and we want this story to go as far as possible with your help.

FIRST OBJECTIVE: €5,000

As first objective we set ourselves the amount of €5,000 which is the item that we still have to finance from the production.

All the money we raise in the campaign will go to finance the last phase of post-production of the short film (sound post-production, vfx, color correction, master copy, original music composition and master and author rights of the song "Prelude to a kiss") and the expenses generated by the campaign itself (marketing/rewards and Verkami expenses)

SECOND OBJETIVE: €3,500

If your response exceeds all our expectations and we reach the goal before April 10 (end of the campaign), we set ourselves a second goal to finance the expenses of the distribution of the short film and be able to show it to the world with the best conditions. .

This second phase will have a second objective of €3,500 to finance the expenses of one year of international distribution of the short film with Selected Films Distribution (web) and the expenses that generates the creation of subtitling in four languages (English, French, Italian and Portuguese). Our idea is that Prelude can travel far to reach audiences in other countries. We would love for this story about Irene and Marcela's love to resonate in many parts of the world.

Title: Prelude

Cast: Sonya Durango, Amanda Fuentes, Joel Morales, Manolo Acosta and the special participation of Rita Rodríguez.

Director: Roberto Chinet

Country: Spain

Year: 2022

Duration: 25 min.

Screenplay: Roberto Chinet

Direction of photography: J.A. Doria

Sound Design: Manolo Tricás

Original music: Iván Capillas

Art Director: Myriam Cruz

Makeup and hairdressing: Dácil Hernández

Costume: Paula Lopez

Editor: Roberto Chinet

VFX and colorist: Manuel López

Executive Producers: Minia Díaz and Roberto Chinet

Production Manager: Ayoze Negron

Assistant Director: Fernando Hardisson

Script: Gara Delgado

Gaffer: Daniel Darias "Latino"

Making of: Georgina Gelos

Producers: YOU

Your contribution will have a double reward: for you and for us. By supporting the financing of this short film you will be contributing so that this story of love and dignity can be seen on a cinema screen.

1) Special thanks in the credits and personalized digital letter of thanks: we will include your name in the credits. You can choose any name you want. Have you thought that you could give it to someone? In addition, you will receive a digital letter of thanks.

2) Exclusive Digital Viewing: We'll send you a link so you can watch the short film before anyone else.

3) Dossier of the project with the literary script: we will send you an exclusive dossier of the project with some photos of the shooting, mood art, wardrobe tests, storyboard and the latest version of the literary script.

4) Exclusive bag and signed poster: decorate your wall with an exclusive poster or go shopping with our exclusive short film bag.

*Shipping costs to Spain included (Peninsula, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla). For budget reasons we will not be able to assume shipping costs outside this territory.

5) Exclusive Pack: receive an exclusive Prelude mug and t-shirt.

6) Tickets to the premiere: You can go with a companion to the premiere of the short film in Tenerife with the participation of the production team.

7) Singing "Prelude to a kiss": You will receive two singing classes (face-to-face or online) at the NOVILUNIO MUSIC AND FILMS academy so you can learn to sing Irene and Marcela's favorite song.

8) Meeting with the film crew: is a unique opportunity to meet the filmmakers after attending the premiere (for two people).

9) Exclusive collector's gifts: You will receive unique gifts of several original items from the filming of Preludio (original vinyl EP, original clapperboard, different exclusive garments from the costumes of the protagonists and an exclusive painting created for the short film donated by artist Harry Hmura).

10) Associate Producer: Do you want to be credited as an associate producer of the short film? Contact us to know the conditions and incentives.

• End of post-production phase: February 28, 2022

• Verkami Campaign Start: March 2, 2022

• Master Copy: March 7, 2022

• Start distribution of the short: April 1, 2022

• Verkami Campaign End: April 10, 2022

• Delivery of rewards: April/May 2022

• Premier: May/June 2022

At the head of the project is Roberto Chinet, a filmmaker and audiovisual teacher with more than fifteen years of experience. In 2007 he directed his first 35 mm short film entitled "Novilunio" (RTVE-Radio3 2009 award), since then he has developed a prolific career with more than twenty projects that have toured international festivals obtaining dozens of awards and distinctions. . Prelude is his latest short film as producer, editor, screenwriter and director.
IMDb-Roberto Chinet

The direction of photography is the work of J.A. Doria a Canarian artist with a lot of talent and experience.
IMDb JA Doria

The sound design is the work of Manolo Tricás an excellent Canarian technician with a lot of experience in cinema.
IMDb Manolo Tricás

The original music is created by the award-winning Catalan composer Iván Capillas, a regular collaborator with Roberto Chinet in his latest works.
IMDb Iván Capillas

The artistic direction was signed by the designer from Tenerife Myriam Cruz, who did an excellent job together with the costume designer Paula López and the make-up artist Dácil Hernández.
IMDb Paula López

In addition to having the talent and effort of other regular collaborators such as the assistant director Fernando Arriaga, the gaffer and electrician Daniel Darias or the script Gara Delgado

A technical and artistic team made up of 20 professionals with a lot of experience in cinema, all residents of the Canary Islands, shared a wonderful professional and personal experience shooting the short film in September 2020. That week the desire to return to the shooting set and the enthusiasm to tell a story that moved the entire team, helped a lot to cope with the special health restrictions due to the covid'19 protocol in full de-escalation. We enjoyed the shoot very much and it was a success.

We share the video of the making of created by Georgina Gelos that summarizes the beautiful experience that the whole team lived in the intense week of filming.

To keep up to date with the project, we propose the following channels:

• Facebook

• www.preludiocortometraje.com

• Instagram

Don't forget to spread all the good news that is happening around the project. Without your help and collaboration, this short film could not be finished.

If you need more information or want to contact us with any questions, you can talk to us through Verkami, in the Questions and Answers section, or write to our email address:

• Contact: [email protected]