Pitchbox Interview: Silvia Lobo, producer of “Estadea”
A Sitges Pitchbox 2018 Special Mention
We talk to the producer of the horror feature film “Estadea”, Silvia Lobo. In this interview, Silvia talks to us about the challenges and obstacles they’ve had to overcome to make of this project filled with folkloric and supernatural tones, a reality. We chatted as well about the development process and the situation of the film industry at the moment.
Brief Synopsis:
Adèle just lost her only sister, Magda, who has passed away in a remote village in the Galician countryside, where she lived. Adèle travels, from Paris, where she resides, to say goodbye to Magda and to take care of her young, only son; a boy with a strange personality. At the village, her point of view on all matters differs a lot from that one of the villagers, immersed in ancestral traditions. During her stay in the village, Adèle will witness strange phenomenons. The whole place, Galicia, is very different from her everyday life and the legend of the Santa Compaña, told generation after generation, might have some truth to it: a procession of wandering spirits, which go through the surrounding woods, in search of the soul of a mortal being.
FMH: Tell us a little bit about yourself, why did you decide to become a filmmaker? Where did you study? How did you start your career in film?
Silvia: Originally, I wanted to be a journalist, but I ended up studying Communications at the Complutense University in Madrid, as almost all. Fun fact: that’s where Amenábar’s film ‘Tesis’ was born. In my last year of university, the two subjects I most enjoyed were Film Production and Law, so, when I finished my education, I decided to keep learning and studying. So, for a few years, I combined studying Law as well and working at Sony Pictures Intl. Television, specializing in Intellectual Property. Professionally, I started interning at the Spanish Public TV Broadcaster (RTVE), in production and editing, but I immediately realized something that made me become who I am today. I was more driven to the organization and management of projects and since than anything else, I have never stirred from the world of production and business development since then.
FMH: Do you have any other work in film, TV or advertisement? Can you show us/ tell us about your most noted work up until now?
Silvia: During my professional career I’ve worked in different areas of the film industry. At Sony, I learned to work with pay-TV Platforms and I lived through the first boom with fiction TV series. Of my time at CineCiutat and Piramide Films, I learned to work in the exhibition and distribution sectors, the complications of each one of them, which has helped me a lot to establish new dialogues with production and to have controlled expectations.
Without a doubt, one of the most complex, but also exciting times, were my three years working for the audiovisual innovation in VR company Future Lighthouse, where we realized around 20 projects for companies like TVE, Movistar +, Oculus, etc. Which went on to participate at International Festivals, especially our project with Robert Englund and Alex Aja at Sitges 2017.
Also, I’ve been very fortunate of having had the opportunity to be part of the Morena Films teams, working in film productions with big budgets, where I further developed my knowledge in production and marketing for films, like Champions (Javier Fesser, 2018) or Everybody Knows(Asghar Farhadi, 2018), as well as working closely with the documentary genre in various productions.
In 2017, we created Deviaje Produce, to develop our own projects, initially just short films, but parallel to that we wanted to become a place for new talents, on a national level, to thrive; that’s how we got to Borja, the director, and screenwriter of Estadea. Since 2018, within Elamedia Estudios, I’m developing a new distribution brand.
FMH: Talk to us about Estadea. How did the story come about? What is it about?
Silvia: Estadea comes from Borja Crespo’s mind. He has always wanted to direct a horror movie based on a popular tale from Galicia, the north-west of Spain, and after having a talk with fellow writer El Torres, they both coincided on their fascination, almost obsession, with the character of Santa Compaña.
Estadea is a movie where Adèle, an apparently self-made woman, has just lost her only sister, Magda. When going to say her goodbyes at her sister’s home, a village in deep Galicia, she will clash with the neighbors of the area. Apart from that, Adèle will have to take care of Magda’s little, strange boy. Little by little, and though the villagers' life is very far away from Adèle’s own lifestyle, she will become more and more attracted for all that which captivated her sister.
FMH: Seems it is an immersive story, one that asks you to go back to your roots or to the origin of it all. What was the creation of a script like this like?
The elements have been very clear from the beginning. Galicia (its woods, the fog, the mist), the Santa Compaña, the figure of the Estadea, as leader of the procession.
From generation to generation, an idea has been passed on, which is that certain inhabitants of Galician lands are capable of seeing wandering spirits. From there we extract the inspiration; in real stories, myths and legends. We believe that the audience will feel more anxious about the possibility that some of this might be true, that they genuinely doubt about what they see and hear, and that’s one of the motives for which in Estadea, even though it is a genre film, we aren’t developing the story only in that direction. In Estadea, there’s a clear interest to reflect the rural opposed to the urban, the ancestral, tradition versus modernity…giving more value to a different lifestyle, anchored in atavistic traditions, with its pros and cons. This is fundamental, as producers, in the sense of having several layers through which to read the story, starting from the genre to then get to talk about the human being, the human condition.
This road is the one which our main character will take and discover, a Parisian who delves into the depths of Galician mysteries, land of meigas (a famous Galician mythological creature), superstitions and magical stories.
FMH: How long have you been working on this project?
We started talking about it at the end of the winter of 2017. Borja told us the idea and we thought it was simply incredible because of how different it is.
FMH: At what stage are you with it at this moment? What do you need / are you looking for to further develop it?
Silvia: Currently, we are developing the second draft of the script, with the objective of having a final version for the spring of 2019. We have presented the project to various development forums, where we were able to count on the mentorship of screenwriters and specialized producers, as well as getting some economic support, which allowed us to keep up with the cession of script rights to develop other sales materials, thinking of the future financing of the movie.
Plus, we are working in collaboration with famed script consultant Mariana Barassi, a partner at Deviaje Produce as well, who will work with the screenwriters on future versions of the script. We also want to hire a Galician screenwriter, specialized in the genre and with whom we’d like to work in depth the character’s dialogues and nuances of the atmosphere it should breathe.
FMH: Estadea develops in Galicia with all its traditions, superstitions and habits, which are key to the story. Is it, as I understood, about mixing cultural, societal themes? Belonging to certain social strata, family relationships, death…all covered in a veil of horror. What do you want to explore, in the end, with this project?
Borja: Estadea wants the audience to shiver through different lines; through building tension and chills down the spine, noticing the different layers it has. First, a clash between tradition and present society, the presence of ancestral symbols and habits, not necessarily seen as a burden…Also, the connection to nature, very important today and also non-existent for many human beings. How do people communicate with each other, the difficulty to relate with others, the weight of family ties…Estadea established different themes of interest, apart from trying to imbue in the audience a disturbing atmosphere. And the sense of death is there, of course, as in any good horror film, the roots of fear and our inner demons.
FMH: What do you think stands out most in the project?
Silvia: I would stand out the collective imagination we are going to establish for the character of Estadea, together with the technical team with which we are working, inspiring it in the fantasy-horror of the 1980s. The co-writer of the script, el Torres, comes from the world of comic books, so, it is a very good match in terms of visuals, as we explore with art and photography the look it should have.
Content-wise, there’s an interesting subplot with Adèle’s character. Estadea is a film with a very marked feminine aspect, it has its heroines and villains, and we want to make stand out the complexities of motherhood, what happens when a woman doesn’t want to be a mother. This might come from fear, selfishness, or simply because nature doesn’t always follow the same paths.
FMH: Had you shopped it around before uploading it to Filmarket Hub? How did it go?
Silvia: No, from the beginning we established that the first deadline was Sitges Pitchbox, so, to submit it to Filmarket Hub was the logical step to comply with our goals.
FMH: What made you apply to Sitges Pitchbox?
Silvia: We are lovers of Sitges Film Festival for year snow, and as it is one of the most important genre film festivals in the world, we wanted to take the change to present the project there, as a previous step to traveling elsewhere with it to other related forums and festivals. We are very happy with the Special Mention achieved at Sitges Pitchbox, and we are aware that we are still in a very early development stage,it has certainly been a big impulse to get more trust in the project, and also to work harder to get a better version of the script, the one we want to tell, with all its subtleties and strength.
We are fortunate enough to have a great technical team, thanks to their knowledge of previous work of Borja Crespo, but as a producer, I am totally aware that a script with no cracks is the only way to get a film project going, financially wise.
FMH: At Filmarket Hub we tend to have a hard time finding projects led by women. In your experience, what’s it been like working in the film industry? Who are some of your role models?
Silvia: To work in film as a producer is a marathon. The industry in Spain is a very small sector, with a complex way of accessing financing, especially for first time producers, like myself. Nevertheless, I trust in co-production deals as a way of getting together a solid team, which can lead to getting proper public funding, which I haven’t been able to access, due to my limited trajectory in film production. I hope it’ll be a matter of time and luck.
There are many female producers in Spain, with great trajectories: Esther García, Emma Lustres, Belén Atienza, Nahikari Piña, Pilar Benito, Mercedes Gamero, etc. but also there are loads of female directors who, through their conviction are putting together their own movies, becoming producers by force, but doing a great job, which is a symptom of the great moment Spanish cinema is going through.
QUICK QUESTIONNAIRE
Silvia: I don’t have favorites, generally in nothing, I might like something and I might stop liking it, depending on the moment, but I can mention a few people and films which have influenced or moved me.
Three favorite screenwriters:
Charlie Kaufman
Ethan y Joel Coen
Woody Allen
Three favorite screenwriting books:
Story by Robert McKee
Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder
How to make a good script great by Linda Seger
Three favorite directors:
Michael Haneke
Pedro Almodóvar
Steven Spielberg
Three favorite films:
Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2017)
