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Life Cast
TYPE: Narrative Feature
GENRE: Horror
STATUS: Development
LOGLINE
When a struggling actor undergoes a life casting mold of his head, he accidentally becomes trapped inside and must fight for his life against amateur thieves.
SYNOPSIS
Mark Ford, an actor with an anxiety disorder undergoes a life casting session of his head. VISION IMPAIRED, HEARING MUFFLED, and MOUTH SEALED. He becomes caught in the middle of a heist. A simple life cast session and a simple heist intertwine creating a series of disturbances, twists, and revelations.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
Anxiety, fear, and depression have always been difficult concepts to explain because they take on many faces. One person’s fear is different from the other. Although we all share the fight or flight response, the way in which we respond to fear is different. Fear, like the rest of human emotions, is intangible and can’t clearly be defined. How do you describe a feeling that’s unique to you? I conceived this film to try to understand the intangible nuances related to fear and what it does to a person’s psyche. While we may be able to explain what happens to the body during an anxiety attack, what it feels like cannot be explained. In the past, cinema has portrayed anxiety and fear in a clichéd way like images of a person hyperventilating, crying, or looking hopeless. While that may be true, those images don’t dive deep enough into the abstract feelings of sadness and pain. This film explores the feelings of panic, dread, and emotional paralysis in a refreshing cinematic way that’s never been done before. It will push the audience to experience a panic attack and feel the complex and indescribable feelings of depression. Lastly, the film will be a journey of self-exploration in which we understand the same nuanced emotions derived from fear can also be overcome by the nuanced emotions derived from love and hope. The film portrays an internal battle between positive and negative forces and the protagonist must find the strength to infuse both these energies in order to grow, evolve, and fight for the reason that fear itself exists – to survive.
KEY CREW
Ernesto M. Sandoval - Writer/Director/Producer
Ernesto M. Sandoval is a Mexican-American film director from the San Fernando Valley. He graduated from UCLA with a BA in Theater with an emphasis in Playwriting in 2010. He graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2019 with an MFA in Film Production with a focus on Directing. At USC, Ernesto was selected to co-direct the feature film Voodoo Macbeth, funded by Warner Bros and his thesis film The Devil’s Son was an Official Selection at the Austin Film Festival 2019. Ernesto’s professional credits include Netflix’s Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story, Paramount’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and ABC’s Station 19. Ernesto believes in telling stories that best represent minorities in film and celebrate the human spirit. He has the unique ability to create compelling character study pieces while maintaining a strong plot-driven narrative.
Anastatasia Tarasova - Executive Producer
Anastasia is an entrepreneur, splitting her time between the USA and Italy. She has 15+ years of marketing experience, and since 2022, she has been working with the film industry and helping independent filmmakers access new funding and marketing avenues. Anastasia’s entrepreneurial spirit and experience in other industries allow her to see non- traditional solutions. She believes that filmmaking, like any form of art, requires a strong business strategy to gain visibility, especially nowadays when audiences are overloaded with entertainment, and it’s so accessible. As the founder of a niche product placement agency that specializes in product placement in films and TV shows, Anastasia collaborated with "Succession" S3, S4 (HBO), "And Just Like That" S1, S2 (HBO), "The Morning Show" S3 (Apple TV+), “Alto Knights'' (Warner Bros), “Wolfs” (Apple Originals) and other 20 film and TV series productions.
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The Gotham Film & Media Institute is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding, developing and celebrating the people and projects that shape the future of story.