An Open Letter from Oakley
From Oakley :
When I first heard I’d been selected to create a short film for the Bureau of Creative Works, I knew exactly what short film I wanted to make. I live in a pine tree outcropping in Northern Arizona, surrounded in every direction by brilliant red rocks. There are amazing vermillion cliffs surrounded by juniper, yucca, coyotes, horny toads, horny hikers, deranged climbers, and the occasional bobcat at sunset. But there are some places so hot and so dry, it’s not hard to suddenly imagine yourself on a barren, lifeless planet. You know, MARS.
My first two films had been about rock climbing in the 1960s & 1970s. Now I wanted to make something totally different – a film about rock climbing on Mars. Rocks for brains? Style is consistency! While this a departure from doc to narrative for me, I intend on telling the story by combining the wonder of the unknown with same mixture of irreverence and humor that should match my previous work, so it should not disappoint.
A very loose premise:
In the not-so-distant future, two geologists find themselves alone on the 120th Mission to Mars. When the company running the expedition goes bankrupt and her partner begins losing his mental faculties, one woman must reach great heights to escape the red planet.
If you want to support this film, I will personally choose a geologic specimen just for you, and come up with the best name for it in your honor. Hopefully this will include a pun with your name, the type of minerals in the rock, and a classic movie! The rock you see at the top was a freebie I’ve named for my producer Alexander Reinhard, and is what you can expect. I can’t guarantee it, but I will try very hard to keep these rocks in a scene in the actual film.
this is what you’ll get if you back my short film: a rock named after you!
After working for the Lowell Observatory here in Flagstaff (on Mars Hill), I have learned how Percival Lowell first set up camp with a state-of-the art 24 inch refracting Clark Telescope with the idea of observing Mars in 1897. I became interested in the red planet just when the public eye was becoming encapsulated in today’s possibility of a one-way mission to Mars.
To make a successful low-budget film, you have to be clever about using what you have at your disposal. I write for the popular filmmaking site No Film School, which champions the DIY low budget masterpiece. I have watched many excellent films where the filmmaker has defied a low budget by cleverly repurposing the resources at their disposal. I’ve know that using the red rock landscape as well as my climbing expertise would be great tools to create something on a small budget.
Thank you to The Bureau for providing me with the platform to make this film, and thank you to anyone reading for your support!
