This is what it's all about.
We, the Future Arts Association, created a story about four Astronaut Artists going to Mars. The idea started with musician Rykka who wrote a concept album outlining the story. Corinne and Tren got involved directing and co-producing and it snowballed from there into a broad story universe. Eventually, it became this: a cross-media project and growing artistic community with lovely people of various disciplines.
We work and grow together and question the way artistic projects in our society are produced. More than 70% of our team is genderqueer and nonconforming, which is why we are creating our own version of a queer futurity.
As artists and professionals in the field we grow our skills over time along with the story. Our project is not just a film or a series published online, it is an ongoing interactive storyworld that we build together with our viewers piece by piece.
Now, in order to be able to continue our journey to Mars, we need your help!
What is Para//e/s & what makes it unique
There are a total of 15 people who are regularly involved in the Para//e/s journey to Mars. We are a team of filmmakers, artists, actors, activists, friends and professionals from several different fields. We are so grateful to have production partners, friends and acquaintances helping out - without them, the Para//e/s storyuniverse and this space for artistic development for queer creatives wouldn’t be possible. (If you want to know in detail who we are, check out our Future Arts website!)
Why we want to go to Mars in this project is simple: We want to think about what we want and need in a future society - as people living on Earth today. For this, we have created ourselves a safe space, where our different gender identities, views on the world and topics such as family, love and friendship, can be discussed and evolved.
It was important to us that the many viewpoints we have in our group about space travel and a Mars Journey and also opinions that are present in society are shown to the audience. This is why we have decided to release the Para//e/s Mars Journey on Social Media. Our 4 main characters - the Astronaut Artists - each have their own Instagram account. The space agency Olympus Mons has its own website. Some profiles join the story once it’s developing - so you might also encounter other people on Instagram who belong to the Para//e/s Universe ;) You as an active audience member can follow each profile, see different perspectives of the story and interact with the characters.
Not only is our story told through Social Media which makes is easily available and very up-to-date. It is also filmed week by week. This way, the story is always evolving. And as most of the content is not preproduced far in advance, we can react to your inputs on Social Media, which sometimes feels almost realtime as a viewer.
Where are we now
Over the last 2 years we continuously wrote, filmed, edited and put many, many videos and photos out - including captions, emojis and other content according to the moodboards for the storyworld.
Until now, we have
- produced over 40 videos
- spent over 200 hours rehearsing and filming
- spent more than 10’000 hours in production, planning and editing
The 4 astronaut artists have just launched into space and are now traveling in the Orca ship, enroute to Mars. What will they experience in Space? How does everyone react to the travel? Will the team arrive safely? And then, of course: what do we want a future society on Mars to look like?
For these next stages we need your support. Based on our experience over the last 2 years we can give a very good estimate about the costs of props, costumes, equipment rental and gear.
This is an overview of what we can do with our set goal:
- Rent our rehearsal/storage space in Altstetten for 2 more years (very important!)
- Rent proper equipment, film amazing space scenes as well as Mars environments.
- Provide our crew with meals and snacks at shoots and offer a team party once a year!
- Buy and/or rent the necessary gear, software and hardware for filming as well as for music production and painting.
- Pay for online classes and necessary books (examples would be Munoz’ Queer Futurity concept [«Cruising Utopia»] or a Master Class in color grading) to acquire new & necessary skills for this project!
Costs for Travel to Mars Filming & Song Producing
- Rentals (rehearsal space, filming locations, equipment for film and music production, costumes): 4530
- Material to buy (props, set elements, 3D package with assets for the virtual mars landscape, music & film software, transport, travel, recherche, team retreat, food): 2390
- Office (insurance, banking things, promo): 580
We have come together to create this project with time, dedication and care on our own terms. We give ourselves a lot of space to make mistakes. People on this project want to be in it because they want to evolve artistically and in their craft and find a playground and support in the Para//e/s storyuniverse and their peers. Everyone is volunteering their work. This wemakeit campaign money will go toward supporting the infrastructure for us to ensure that we are able to create the content we want and need to complete the stroryworld.
