Cold Light
Vancouver, Canada | Film Short
Horror, Thriller
In the middle of the night, a beaten young woman is tied to a chair and about to be buried alive by an old big farmer. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, she seems to have no escape except for trying to talk her way out. How did she get to be in that position? Just a miracle could help her.
Cold Light
Vancouver, Canada | Film Short
Horror, Thriller
1 Campaigns | British Columbia, Canada
Green Light
This campaign raised C$17,284 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
156 supporters | followers
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In the middle of the night, a beaten young woman is tied to a chair and about to be buried alive by an old big farmer. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, she seems to have no escape except for trying to talk her way out. How did she get to be in that position? Just a miracle could help her.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
In this globalized world, we constantly keep facing the same community issues that have afflicted us throughout human history. The prejudgment we have against others. The people that don’t think like us, the people that don’t believe the same things as us and especially the people that don’t look like us. The intolerance to “The Other”.
This is an issue that I feel very passionate about, and a theme that we see throughout this story. All the characters make assumptions that end up leading them down a dark and nightmarish path. They all prejudge “The Other” just as the audience is likely to do too.
And why not! Having some fantasy intervention always adds some extra flavor.
It all takes place on an old dilapidated farm at night. Single location, with wide and open fields leading off into the darkness. Which contrasts harshly against how trapped the characters are within their own world.
MIKE, our farmer seems pretty comfortable digging a hole on his land, where our young woman LUCY will spend the last minutes of her life.
Either Mike has some good taste in the vintage times of the late ’80s or we, as an audience, are trapped in that era with them both.
On a dark moonlit night, the only light sources to be found are from the headlights of an old run-down pickup truck and a small rusted lantern that illuminates a freshly dug hole. Just the right size for a human-shaped body.
Mike and Lucy have one last conversation if you can call it that. At this moment, Mike uses it as an opportunity to tease her, and show his hatred and prejudice for her kind.
With blood dripping from her face, and no way to escape, it’s time to say goodbye to sweet Lucy.
Her imminent fate is here now. There is no way to talk herself out and it sure seems like there isn't any soul around to give her a hand.
Would you like to know the rest? It does get better... But... Wouldn't we be spoiling it? We totally would?
You can become a supporter and we can totally help out on letting you know what happens. Or better yet. We will show you on the screen how it exactly ends.
"The script takes a familiar horror trope and turns it on its head."
-Blue Cat Screenplay Contest (Feedback, 2021)
This story leans into genre and uses the audiences' expectations to mirror the prejudices each of our characters have. The short is split into three acts serving as a setup, cooking, and revelation. Each is dictated by a character's prejudice and what they're will to reveal about themselves to the others.
All three of our characters have deep beliefs and they all fight hard for them. Are any of them wrong? Are there any good guys and bad guys? We need to contemplate how everybody’s assumptions play in here, especially the audience’s.
As it was mentioned above, we might be trapped in the vintage and intoxicating textures, colors, and sounds of the late ’80s. However, it is hard to truly know what is really out there, as we are so far away from civilization, lost in the wide-open farmlands.
The late ’80s is our visual reference but the aesthetic isn't dated or technologically limited. It will just keep a pinch of nostalgia. The camera will be alive, the energy evolving with the peaks and dips of the script. We will start with simple and steady camera movements while growing into a more organic movement with limited but not absent handheld cameras. Just right before returning to a steady and calmer finale.
The cinematography will be dark, empahsizing what little light is left in the world of our characters. Playing a lot with highlights, blacks, contrasts, and colors where blue and red will mainly dominate. The use of anamorphic long lenses would give us the proper distortion, depth of field, and the bokeh needed for a nightmarish silhouetted look of imprisonment.
The sound and music will play a big part. In the middle of nowhere, in the dead of night, every slight sound sparks nightmares within our imagination. When there is too much silence present, a twig breaking could cost you your life.
As the film progresses, the music will start becoming more erratic, married with the energy of the camera movements. A peaceful melody could turn into a really dark and low frequency that will bring everybody to the edge of their seat. Frequencies that of course, can be helped out by a modern synth.
Putting together an audiovisual project, no matter if it is a video, a short film, a feature film, or a presentation, takes a lot of effort, teamwork, sweat, long hours, and heart. However, those are the things that we are always dying to jump in. We are all driven by one simple thing, passion.
However, the factor that becomes a big challenge is always having the resources to jump in.
The team has worked really hard so far on preparing a project that will end up being as exciting and fun as you could imagine, not just for the people making it, but for every spectator.
Thanks to you, this funding will allow us to get the crew experts in their field what they always deserve. This involves the Talent, Art department, Make-up Department, Customs Department, Camera Crew, Sound Department, and other Production people.
We are looking to raise CAD$20,000, but we also have stretch goals!
We have created a great selection of gifts for any contribution level you may want to go for. This is in order to show our appreciation for your help and support. When you pledge to back our project, you become more than just a donor. You become a part of the team… another member of the “Cold Light Family”! We know these tokens don't truly reflect how thankful we are with you, but we will try to show it the best way we know how: by making Cold Light the best it can be.
We will be sharing as much as possible throughout the whole production process. You could even have access to the script if you really can’t wait to know what happens at the end.
Other ways to help would be to share, forward, retweet, and spread the message to your community, your friends, your family about this exciting and fun project. Help the project to see the light!!
We have three main characters in the story and we start learning how they got interrelated to each other, all based on violence. They will be taking the audience on a trip of figuring out where we are, why are we here, and where everything is heading.
Mike is an old, big White farmer that has lived all his life on this land. This is his family's land as far as he knows and he has no intention of leaving any time soon or accepting any guests around at all.
Lucy, a young and strong Hispanic woman is detached from her family. She starts to look for some refuge during chaotic times. She can't wait to get back to her family when destiny takes her by surprise.
Gabe is a young, educated man from a well-accommodated family. He loves to hunt and is skilled with the rifle.
The story is mainly a Thriller… it is… it's a Thriller, period.
That is how it will be treated and everything would be down to Earth, with human feelings, human relations, and human craziness. This of course will bring us horrific accents and details that won’t let us escape from a bit of blood… well, a lot of blood. The story would be embraced by the simplicity of human terror.
Whaaaat!!!! .... What is happening in here!!! I guess you would need to wait and see what we will be cooking. With your support, you are completely entitled to know what is going on in this blurry image. However, we promise you it will be worth waiting to see it on the screen.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Camera and Optics
Costs C$4,000
The camera and lenses are just our eyes to see this project come to light.
Makeup and Wardrobe
Costs C$1,000
We will need blood, dirty clothes, backpacks, and more blood.
Picture Car
Costs C$1
We need an old pickup truck from the 80s. More like one of our locations in reality.
Share this update!
About This Team
Rogelio Rodríguez “Roger” - Writer/Director
He started his career collaborating on the development of advertising campaigns in Mexico, moving later to the Set as an Assistant Director.
He transitions later to the animation and VFX industry, having more than 10 years under his belt in Full CG animated features and Live action blockbuster films like The Jungle Book (2016), Pirates of the Caribbean (2017), and The Lion King (2019), among others.
Always interested in storytelling, character development, and composition, Roger likes to combine reality with dreams and fantasy in his stories.
Richard Cook - Producer
Originally from Wales, UK. Where he studied a degree in filmmaking and scriptwriting. He has worked on a variety of small productions, ranging from student films, indie films and a tv project on ITV, before moving to Canada in 2015.
He is currently working in post as a VFX Production Manager. Where he has been collaborating with extraordinary teams to deliver some of the industries leading visual effects, on budget and on time.
Some of the most recent projects he has worked on are: Star Trek Beyond 2016, Fast and Furious (2017), The Meg (2017), X-men New Mutants Growing Pains (2018), Godzilla King of Monsters (2018), Dark Crystal (TV) (2019), Jungle Cruise (2020), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), among others.
Christopher Stern - 1st AD
Trained in Engineering, filmmaking has always been a passion for Christopher. Early in his career, he would volunteer his time to produce promotional videos for his school and workplace.
He soon entered VFX to work on set as a Data Wrangler and Motion Capture Technician. Here he captures and processes reference data to ensure artist teams can create pixel-perfect effects. He has worked on a range of projects ranging from indie shorts to Hollywood blockbusters including Star Trek Discovery (TV) (2020), Jungle Cruise (2021), and Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
He loves collaborating with passionate people and is dedicated to bringing their visions to life.
Cristian Solano - Director of Photography
In his early years, Cristian started working as a production assistant, having the camera always as his main goal.
He later jumps closer to it as a camera assistant, moving his way up through different Films and TV commercials.
Cristian gains the trust of some producers and directors and starts participating in some projects as Director of Photography. His great interest is in Fashion Films and the way to exploit the colors in the environment, the clothing, and the visual effects that the light itself can create with its own aberrations of color.
He has photographed commercials for brands like Adidas, Tecate, L'Oréal, Coca Cola, Chevrolet, among others.
Damon Fraietta - Fine Art Photographer and Designer
https://www.lifelightlens.com/
Was hooked into the Cold Light project when Roger's script began to translate as “...a visual code for my brain” and he could not refuse the opportunity to be part of it.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
In this globalized world, we constantly keep facing the same community issues that have afflicted us throughout human history. The prejudgment we have against others. The people that don’t think like us, the people that don’t believe the same things as us and especially the people that don’t look like us. The intolerance to “The Other”.
This is an issue that I feel very passionate about, and a theme that we see throughout this story. All the characters make assumptions that end up leading them down a dark and nightmarish path. They all prejudge “The Other” just as the audience is likely to do too.
And why not! Having some fantasy intervention always adds some extra flavor.
It all takes place on an old dilapidated farm at night. Single location, with wide and open fields leading off into the darkness. Which contrasts harshly against how trapped the characters are within their own world.
MIKE, our farmer seems pretty comfortable digging a hole on his land, where our young woman LUCY will spend the last minutes of her life.
Either Mike has some good taste in the vintage times of the late ’80s or we, as an audience, are trapped in that era with them both.
On a dark moonlit night, the only light sources to be found are from the headlights of an old run-down pickup truck and a small rusted lantern that illuminates a freshly dug hole. Just the right size for a human-shaped body.
Mike and Lucy have one last conversation if you can call it that. At this moment, Mike uses it as an opportunity to tease her, and show his hatred and prejudice for her kind.
With blood dripping from her face, and no way to escape, it’s time to say goodbye to sweet Lucy.
Her imminent fate is here now. There is no way to talk herself out and it sure seems like there isn't any soul around to give her a hand.
Would you like to know the rest? It does get better... But... Wouldn't we be spoiling it? We totally would?
You can become a supporter and we can totally help out on letting you know what happens. Or better yet. We will show you on the screen how it exactly ends.
"The script takes a familiar horror trope and turns it on its head."
-Blue Cat Screenplay Contest (Feedback, 2021)
This story leans into genre and uses the audiences' expectations to mirror the prejudices each of our characters have. The short is split into three acts serving as a setup, cooking, and revelation. Each is dictated by a character's prejudice and what they're will to reveal about themselves to the others.
All three of our characters have deep beliefs and they all fight hard for them. Are any of them wrong? Are there any good guys and bad guys? We need to contemplate how everybody’s assumptions play in here, especially the audience’s.
As it was mentioned above, we might be trapped in the vintage and intoxicating textures, colors, and sounds of the late ’80s. However, it is hard to truly know what is really out there, as we are so far away from civilization, lost in the wide-open farmlands.
The late ’80s is our visual reference but the aesthetic isn't dated or technologically limited. It will just keep a pinch of nostalgia. The camera will be alive, the energy evolving with the peaks and dips of the script. We will start with simple and steady camera movements while growing into a more organic movement with limited but not absent handheld cameras. Just right before returning to a steady and calmer finale.
The cinematography will be dark, empahsizing what little light is left in the world of our characters. Playing a lot with highlights, blacks, contrasts, and colors where blue and red will mainly dominate. The use of anamorphic long lenses would give us the proper distortion, depth of field, and the bokeh needed for a nightmarish silhouetted look of imprisonment.
The sound and music will play a big part. In the middle of nowhere, in the dead of night, every slight sound sparks nightmares within our imagination. When there is too much silence present, a twig breaking could cost you your life.
As the film progresses, the music will start becoming more erratic, married with the energy of the camera movements. A peaceful melody could turn into a really dark and low frequency that will bring everybody to the edge of their seat. Frequencies that of course, can be helped out by a modern synth.
Putting together an audiovisual project, no matter if it is a video, a short film, a feature film, or a presentation, takes a lot of effort, teamwork, sweat, long hours, and heart. However, those are the things that we are always dying to jump in. We are all driven by one simple thing, passion.
However, the factor that becomes a big challenge is always having the resources to jump in.
The team has worked really hard so far on preparing a project that will end up being as exciting and fun as you could imagine, not just for the people making it, but for every spectator.
Thanks to you, this funding will allow us to get the crew experts in their field what they always deserve. This involves the Talent, Art department, Make-up Department, Customs Department, Camera Crew, Sound Department, and other Production people.
We are looking to raise CAD$20,000, but we also have stretch goals!
We have created a great selection of gifts for any contribution level you may want to go for. This is in order to show our appreciation for your help and support. When you pledge to back our project, you become more than just a donor. You become a part of the team… another member of the “Cold Light Family”! We know these tokens don't truly reflect how thankful we are with you, but we will try to show it the best way we know how: by making Cold Light the best it can be.
We will be sharing as much as possible throughout the whole production process. You could even have access to the script if you really can’t wait to know what happens at the end.
Other ways to help would be to share, forward, retweet, and spread the message to your community, your friends, your family about this exciting and fun project. Help the project to see the light!!
We have three main characters in the story and we start learning how they got interrelated to each other, all based on violence. They will be taking the audience on a trip of figuring out where we are, why are we here, and where everything is heading.
Mike is an old, big White farmer that has lived all his life on this land. This is his family's land as far as he knows and he has no intention of leaving any time soon or accepting any guests around at all.
Lucy, a young and strong Hispanic woman is detached from her family. She starts to look for some refuge during chaotic times. She can't wait to get back to her family when destiny takes her by surprise.
Gabe is a young, educated man from a well-accommodated family. He loves to hunt and is skilled with the rifle.
The story is mainly a Thriller… it is… it's a Thriller, period.
That is how it will be treated and everything would be down to Earth, with human feelings, human relations, and human craziness. This of course will bring us horrific accents and details that won’t let us escape from a bit of blood… well, a lot of blood. The story would be embraced by the simplicity of human terror.
Whaaaat!!!! .... What is happening in here!!! I guess you would need to wait and see what we will be cooking. With your support, you are completely entitled to know what is going on in this blurry image. However, we promise you it will be worth waiting to see it on the screen.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Camera and Optics
Costs C$4,000
The camera and lenses are just our eyes to see this project come to light.
Makeup and Wardrobe
Costs C$1,000
We will need blood, dirty clothes, backpacks, and more blood.
Picture Car
Costs C$1
We need an old pickup truck from the 80s. More like one of our locations in reality.
Share this update!
About This Team
Rogelio Rodríguez “Roger” - Writer/Director
He started his career collaborating on the development of advertising campaigns in Mexico, moving later to the Set as an Assistant Director.
He transitions later to the animation and VFX industry, having more than 10 years under his belt in Full CG animated features and Live action blockbuster films like The Jungle Book (2016), Pirates of the Caribbean (2017), and The Lion King (2019), among others.
Always interested in storytelling, character development, and composition, Roger likes to combine reality with dreams and fantasy in his stories.
Richard Cook - Producer
Originally from Wales, UK. Where he studied a degree in filmmaking and scriptwriting. He has worked on a variety of small productions, ranging from student films, indie films and a tv project on ITV, before moving to Canada in 2015.
He is currently working in post as a VFX Production Manager. Where he has been collaborating with extraordinary teams to deliver some of the industries leading visual effects, on budget and on time.
Some of the most recent projects he has worked on are: Star Trek Beyond 2016, Fast and Furious (2017), The Meg (2017), X-men New Mutants Growing Pains (2018), Godzilla King of Monsters (2018), Dark Crystal (TV) (2019), Jungle Cruise (2020), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), among others.
Christopher Stern - 1st AD
Trained in Engineering, filmmaking has always been a passion for Christopher. Early in his career, he would volunteer his time to produce promotional videos for his school and workplace.
He soon entered VFX to work on set as a Data Wrangler and Motion Capture Technician. Here he captures and processes reference data to ensure artist teams can create pixel-perfect effects. He has worked on a range of projects ranging from indie shorts to Hollywood blockbusters including Star Trek Discovery (TV) (2020), Jungle Cruise (2021), and Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
He loves collaborating with passionate people and is dedicated to bringing their visions to life.
Cristian Solano - Director of Photography
In his early years, Cristian started working as a production assistant, having the camera always as his main goal.
He later jumps closer to it as a camera assistant, moving his way up through different Films and TV commercials.
Cristian gains the trust of some producers and directors and starts participating in some projects as Director of Photography. His great interest is in Fashion Films and the way to exploit the colors in the environment, the clothing, and the visual effects that the light itself can create with its own aberrations of color.
He has photographed commercials for brands like Adidas, Tecate, L'Oréal, Coca Cola, Chevrolet, among others.
Damon Fraietta - Fine Art Photographer and Designer
https://www.lifelightlens.com/
Was hooked into the Cold Light project when Roger's script began to translate as “...a visual code for my brain” and he could not refuse the opportunity to be part of it.