A Close Encounter with Our Director ☄️

Greetings...

"...to the inhabitants of the universe from the third planet Earth of the star Sun."

That's an actual greeting to aliens spoken in the Oriya language, burned onto the Golden Record, and sent out into space for the Voyager mission with the aspiration to make contact with extraterrestrial life. It also serves to dress a scene in the short film I just finished directing, called Out Of This World. It was a challenging, thrilling production and the team and I are very proud of what we got in the can. We can't wait to share it with you all later this year. So join me, because it's time to strap in and hold on tight as we traverse the highlights of the project across time and space through the vessel of this newsletter.

At its heart, this is a story about instant friendship. It’s about that feeling you get when you meet someone unforgettable you know you were destined to meet, how they form your own personality, and how you both quickly become a bonded pair. Friends like that, especially early in life, make you feel seen, heard, included, and unafraid to represent your true self. So the film exhibits those traits of inclusion and representation on its sleeve as well. I wanted to make an unusual love story. I wanted to make an alien space opera action adventure musical comedy. Who says you can't have it all?

There's an incredible crew on this journey on the production side, and a very talented team on the agency side. On the bridge between the two sits Marlene Lacasse, holding "Story By" credit on this space opera, and hugely influential in how this crew of tastemakers came together. Marlene serves as the film's creative director on the marketing campaign as well as the creative producer of this sizable production, playing an instrumental part in building a world for audiences to discover.

Actor and non-binary icon Bex Taylor-Klaus (The Killing, 13 Reasons Why, Deputy) was granted the challenge of bringing the sympathetic, complex, and endearing character of Nebby The Alien to life. Our DP and force of nature Kelsey Talton (Bridge of Spies, Ghost in the Shell) was tasked with expressing Nebby’s power to wield light, and was charged with the job of coupling Nebby's emotional arc with the reactions of light in the room. Power couple Elias Martian and Orchid Satellite put their signature look and applied some real costume design ingenuity to create the outfits in our world, marrying Nebby's gender neutral fashion taste with striking character makeup by Ally McGillicuddy. Together they brought this Alien protagonist from across the galaxy to life through an incredible burst of imagination and tenderness. Holding us up on our foundations, we counted on the experience of Producer Kris Wynne, the other half or this film's production team, seeing us through to safe port every step of the way. And accomplishing no easy feat was our 1st AD, Bashir Taylor, with his ability to make sure we made our days and nights without missing a step

And, oh yeah, there's music. What's a film by Elia Petridis if not to loudly remind you that music is a universal language? In addition to her layered role as the other best friend in this film, Ariana and the Rose is also responsible for the film's musical inspiration through her track "Lonely Star", a track whose stems renowned composer Ruy Folguera took apart to turn the short single into a long running cinematic score and musical number.

It's all here! If you'd like to feel childlike, as opposed to childish, please stay tuned for fresh doses of the innocence, warmth, nostalgia, and kitsch to come.

For love,
is love,
is music,
is love,
is film,
is love,
is people,
is love,
is you.