The real world creatively staged for an immersive motion picture experience. Realismo Fantástico cinema leads to one objective truth of the human factual condition throughout the experiences of a staged account of events. A new proposal for the recording of reality within a cinematographic representation.
The Realismo Fantástico is a cinema genre rooted on honest narratives from real-cast characters that engage the audience as in classical cinematic experiences like fiction. The Realismo Fantástico will continue evolving without clear boundaries yet, finding its asymptote with the roots of Cinéma Vérité and Faction novels. The Realismo Fantástico explores the usage of innovative technologies and creative technics to produce an augmented reality experience for the audience. What most significantly differentiates The Realismo Fantástico from other film genres, sub-genres and hybrids, is that it works exclusively with real characters in real experiences on real places, while respecting the icon of aesthetics and narrative from classical cinema (standard fiction) in order to act as an iconoclast to the audience perception towards the exiting cinematic realities.
The experience and practice of The Realismo Fantástico is a psychological journey for everyone engaged in its conception, from the real cast, to its entire crew, manifesting all the way to the audience.
The Realismo Fantástico opens a window to explore new points of view and new ways to tell a story. An very intimate yet entertaining experience, which in turn provides a therapeutic result. The power of sincere emotions is the key ingredient to this approach, a new alternative to the metaphysical worlds of cinema.
The Creative Director carefully chooses intentions and creates potential narrative pretexts (MacGuffins) that will eventually push the storytelling forward. In the first Realismo Fantástico feature film made: A SON of MAN, the most obvious MacGuffin lives within the pretext of pursuing a lost gold family treasure. The journey is actually a coming-of-age story, the protagonist grows through the movie, coming to understand and accept his father. A son’s loving understanding becomes the new treasure of the plot and the main purpose for the classic: "hero's journey" - proposed by Joseph Campbell. The creator of the thesis to Realismo Fantástico was also Creative Director of A SON of MAN, to conceive his vision he experimented the thesis on his own inner circle. His partner in life, -Lily- embodies the intermediate and abstract tension of a disconnection between a father and son. Her character acts as a MacGuffin towards the protagonist’s -Son of the creator- growth and realization by triggering envy, desire, and frustration in the boy, thus universalizing his individual conflict. The creator planned the events that lead to the protagonist’s transformative and often unpleasant journey.
In the preparation work of a Realismo Fantástico movie, the narrative pretexts (MacGuffin’s) must be clear only to the Creative and/or technical Director; its intentions are withheld from the rest of the team and the real-cast. This allows for the manipulation of the experience to all members by the Creative and/or technical Director only. The key to a successful Realismo Fantástico movie lies in its conception and preparation work. The story relies on capturing a real experience with its possible and unpredictable consequences. As in Documentary films, The Realismo Fantástico allows the use of related stock footage as well. Unlike Classic Cinema (Fiction), where the quality of the story relies on the quality of the script, The Realismo Fantástico relies on the objective choice of a real cast and the narrative pretexts (MacGuffin’s) for its effects on their environment, in states of mind, in its scenic aesthetics, in the objective plot, in its conflicts and in the purpose of the story confronted on camera, to be a mirror of a factual reality.
In a Realismo Fantástico movie, as there is no script credit, and the story credit goes to the narrator or to whoever has the point of view in the story. The one which has been curated creatively by the Story Editors, Story Doctors and / or image Editors during and / or after the events. The Story Editor, Story Doctors and Editors are our narrative editors and unique creative writers to The Realismo Fantástico movies. These are non-standardized terms for a writer working on the reproduction of reality content, who could be involved in any stage of the process, from preparation works, exploratory works and pre-editing, including stick footage post-works in order to find and the final story. Other duties may include writing dialogue intentions, voice-overs, and other action/pick-up lines during the filming for connective tissues. During the post- work process, they should collaborate directly with the imagine editors or provide detailed paper edits for the image editors to work from.
Capturing a powerful real story portrayed under the classic cinema aesthetics strongly relies on the quality of work of the technical team. Although The Realismo Fantástico could rely on the use of mixed media, the 21st century technological advances in cinema equipment have crucially shaped the distinct visual characteristics of this film genre. Remote-controlled film cameras can be taken to more places with less logistical effort, allowing the filmmaker to interact more intimately with the real world and the real people who live in it. In this way, adopting the technological evolution of the cameras has granted us a connection with that very intimate truth found in the Documentaries, while at the same time it has allowed us to capture our images within the aesthetic and narrative line of classic cinema (fiction). The narrative achieved by The Realismo Fantástico camera prototypes, inspired by drone technology, will allow filmmakers today, great flexibility in creating fantastic views at low cost, without sacrificing an immersive narrative nor the aesthetic quality of their photography.
From a unique narrative point of view, using sequel scenes where the same character can reappear at different real-world sets in one single camera shot, grants a magical view to our fashion of storytelling. By establishing a distinctive style on the narrative of this genre, The Realismo Fantástico movies acquire a unique perspective giving a recognizable signature to the audience.
Dealing with the real world while seeking the aesthetics and narrative of classic cinema (fiction), eminently means additional challenges for the filmmaking team. Similar to the creation of visual effects (VFX), a Realismo Fantástico shot requires detailed critical thinking, like planning in advance the piloting route of the camera and according to the availability of natural light, also plan the angles and movements of the gimbal. The final movements, framings and definitive visual storytelling will be creatively recreated in the post stage, pursuing to elevate the preconception of fantasy.
Neither Fiction nor Documentary, nor Realismo Fantástico movies are, strictly speaking, reality. Film genres are real only in our perception, in fact, they are only cinematic realities behind a frame, representations that only differentiate between them by their combinations of "aesthetic" and "narrative" styles.
Since I was a child, I daydreamed after watching movies, in my imagination the magical illusion of cinema continued. This dream was shattered when I was reminded that the illusion was largely a farce. At the same time, I have always been fascinated with learning about history. This is why I was attracted by the authenticity that Documentary movies offered, even though the aesthetic and narrative decision of the Documentaries did not seduce me. I asked myself: could there be a new approach to movies that encompasses both of my passions; the integrity and sincerity of the documentaries along with the magical immersive experience of fiction movie? The love for my father and the passion I felt for our family legacy of a Conquistador’s quest, combined with the weak connection I had with my own son, marked me with a perfect purpose to realize the dream of "a new narrative form".
Although other film genres can represent the real world, they really only exist as a representation in the metaphysical film world. The Realismo Fantástico works with the intimacy of its real characters and their real events by complementing them with dramaturgical methods of modern cinema, which together through the big screen, provide the audience a very intimate and unique immersive experience. The audience can feel a different sympathy and depth in their emotions, connecting more intensely with the truth of their own world. The principles of filming and editing a Realismo Fantástico movie seek the idealization of a world grander than the one we know, for the audience will forget that they are watching a movie, losing themselves in a new world. By employing real characters that play themselves, The Realismo Fantástico holds a mirror to the audience to cause personal growth and enrichment. The filmmaker positions the audience within the personal space of real characters, at the same time that it frees them from the restrictive laws of gravity, time and space. The Realismo Fantástico filmmakers can lead the audience to develop a certain understanding of themself, shedding light on the emotions and behaviors they may not have previously been aware of. Practitioners of this genre focus on assisting the self-discovery of their real cast, respecting their relationships, their behaviors, ways of speaking and their natural gestures, similar to the construction of a Faction novel (non- fiction novel).
• The equivalent of a “Director”, “Producer” and “Writer” MUST be considered as Creative Director and/or Technical Director, Reproducer, Story Editor. The principle of these roles is fundamentally based on engraving and telling real human experiences. The reproduction team assists their real cast members to develop an immersive narrative out of their experiences, immortalizing those events within the metaphysical world of a movie.
• The personalities and true qualities of the real-cast MUST remain faithful to the foundation of its original story to inspire the creation of one or more narrative pretexts (MacGuffins). This keeps a real-life connection in the films and avoids the temptation to create situations that might be entertaining but that are not truthful, nor useful, to the real-cast development.
• The story / treatment MUST be limited initially to a general outline only. Plot point beats or scene intentions must be the only source for story progression and should be in continuous evolution as the events progress till the end, where history will be found. This allows the real-cast to develop and respond to the evolution of situations, instead of forcing them to react to a series of dictatorial events.
• Real-cast MUST play themselves as they are, fictitious personality traits are not allowed. Secondary characters can be used as narrative pretexts (MacGuffin's) as long as they help in the transformation of the characters and in the global narrative evolution. This allows the real cast members to be themselves, find conflicts and provoke reactions. The audience sympathizes with real people, experiencing real emotions stimulates in the audience a special connection with the real cast members.
• The film MUST be shot in real locations relevant to the real-cast or narrative pretexts (MacGuffin’s). The production cannot insert articles or objects foreign to the reality of the characters, unless due to narrative pretexts (MacGuffin's) these become fundamental to the story of the real characters. Honesty, even in the setup and locations, is key.
• The structure, including definitive narrative, tone, voice, and visual aesthetic of the story MUST be discovered after an exploratory filming to identify the three acts (if it is a feature film). Additional shots can be made later to encourage catharsis or to accommodate reenactments for connective tissues and recreations for more camera angles, as long as the experiences are assisted only by essential guides, and not by a dictatorial script.
• The Realismo Fantástico principles fundamentally represent the idealization of the real world into a cinematic reality of high aesthetics. It is mandatory that the editor MUST adjust the final cut of the movie to 2.35:1 as a minimum requirement since this is the standard of classic cinema.
• Documentary narrative and style MUST be broken, the real-cast should not acknowledge the presence of the camera and cannot communicate with the viewer in an assumed way. In short, the fourth wall should not be broken in the narrative.
• As an iconoclast artistic statement, if the film is to be presented at a festival or competition that requires to specify its category, the film MUST be classified and accepted as fiction at least once as a requirement to validate its existence in the Realismo Fantástico genre.
“Using filmmaking as a MacGuffin itself which inspires to live the un-lived, either by confronting personal fears, family conflicts or just taking action on the unspoken; A real-cast is to explore themselves and ultimately to prize the present, driven by immortalizing such personal virgin experience through an idealized view of the real world that compresses facts and emotions into a story line that will allow them to taste the experience twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”