The Cosmonaut - 20 Minutes - 2014
The film follows Masha and Kit, both a little lost in life. Strangers meeting outside a costume party, they decide to take a walk together. Over the next few hours, they share their desires, fears and and what it's really like to be late twenties in Melbourne and discovering their lives are not at all what they'd thought they would be.
The Cosmonaut is set over the course of one night, and follows Masha and Kit as they leave a costume party and decided to spend the evening together wondering the streets of Melbourne. Both feeling lost in their own lives, they take comfort in knowing they're not the only ones struggling to make sense of their worlds. Written from research, completely ad-libbed, and filmed over just a few hours, The Cosmonaut contemplates what it's like to be in your late twenties and wondering, what am I doing?
This film came about rather quickly, we had an opportunity to make something with our DoP Cam who was only in the country for a couple of weeks, and in some ways was an experiment in a different style of filmmaking I hadn't tried before. The script was based on pretty personal questionnaires we sent out to a range of people aged between 25-35. The two actors rehearsed separately, and only met on the first night of filming. We used the script only as a guide, and the film was ad-libbed. Shooting very much on the fly, our two actors were miked and sent off down Smith Street with the crew following from a distance. We filmed over the course of a couple of nights, working quickly to prolong the 'magic hour', and shot chronologically. From inception to completion, we were done in less than 7 weeks.
Staring Tegan Crowley and Joshua Hine
Written and Directed by Sophie Hayward
Concept by Melanie Koomen and Sophie Hayward
Cinematography by Cam Matheson
Production Design by Melanie Koomen
Edited by Ariel M Shaw
Colour Grade and Online by Kali Bateman
Sound Design and Score by Sean Crowley
