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'ZERO BUDGET MOVIE-MAKING' COSMOS was made by a core crew of just three and a main cast of three, over a period of 5 years with no financial backing. All gear and locations were pre-owned or borrowed. COSMOS was made to demonstrate our potential as directors and the talent involved... and well, we're incredibly proud of it. Find out how we went from a friend's garage in Birmingham, UK to a Premiere in the heart of Hollywood... it was quite the journey.
WHY MAKE COSMOS?
Cosmos came into existence because my brother, Elliot, and I wanted to take back control over our filmmaking career. All filmmakers need to make their first feature and we’d spent between 2010 and 2013 in development on a 120 minute sci-fi-thriller called Encounter. We’d written the script, attached a list of industry talent and developed an investment strategy with a corporate finance company.
But despite the strength of the story, the team and the plan, we were then just 22 and 24 seeking a seven-figure budget with no feature experience and, understandably, we faced skepticism from potential investors.
Our growing frustration with this impasse was the feeling that our deep emotional need to tell stories and express ourselves through film was being held up by the financial business of the industry.
So in 2013, after almost three years in development, we decided that instead of pushing ahead trying to secure an unrealistic level of finance for two young untested directors, we’d detour and make a new film at the opposite end of the indie spectrum.
This “no-budget” feature, although much smaller in scale, would be no less ambitious in story or creativity and with it, we could prove to the industry we had the talent, drive and vision as feature directors. We could then leverage this smaller film to secure funding for more ambitious projects.
Enter, Cosmos.
ZERO BUDGET: HOW & WHY?
Having spent so long trying to secure finance for Encounter, the last place Elliot and I wanted to find ourselves was with yet another project needing the support of other parties for a budget. This time we would follow the golden rules of indie filmmaking; Cosmos would be a simple contemporary story, set in a single location over one night with minimal characters, under 100 pages long and utilise resources we had to hand.
To self-produce this film completely independently, not needing any production or financial support, we’d have to be savvy and meticulous, but if we could pull it off, it would give us the complete creative control to express our storytelling tastes and sensibilities.
Technology has democratised filmmaking like never before and inspired by the independent spirit of filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez and Gareth Edwards, we’d undertake every crew role throughout production except composing the soundtrack.