Carlos J. Matos is the director of 2091, a futuristic sci-fi short film depicting a battle between three warrior-hackers who set to out to once and for all destroy an AI powerhouse named Control, and to take humanity back from the hands of this machine.
Matos is a Madrid-based director and photographer. He has studied in Centro Internacional de Fotografía y Cine (EFTI) with a Master’s Degree in Direction of Photography for Film. His debut short film Blink, won the Austin Micro Short Film Festival’s Best Horror Film section. In his director’s statement for 2091, Matos alludes to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner as an inspiration for him to blend fashion and narrative. Matos chats with UniversalCinema Magazine and take us through his journey.
Darida Rose, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): It was interesting to see that the battle depicted was centred towards a cyber-spiritual battle of the mind if you will. There were no guns, no artillery to speak of, but a clash of energetic waves. Mr. Matos, Can you expand on what that may be of reference to? Does it symbolize anything in particular you had in mind in the context of humankind vs. AI?
Carlos J. Matos: You know, I’m always fascinated by the way a spectator re-interprets and re-filters a piece of media through the lens of their own experience in order to find new, hidden meaning. Whether it’s being carried out by a critic or by an average observer, something I engage in myself every time I watch a film, it’s a process that I honestly never thought I’d find myself on the receiving end of. It’s only now that I’m realizing how so many of those decisions are made subconsciously, which is now pushing me to re-examine my own thought process after the fact. I genuinely appreciate that.
I think I always saw the conflict central to this film as a battle of wills between that which seeks to control, and that which seeks to liberate. You could apply that to almost any real-world equivalent, which was partly my intent, but in this case I was thinking of the way that technology can be used in subtle, often unnoticed ways to achieve either one of those goals. It’s a tool, neither good nor evil, which is exactly the way I intended to portray Control. When The Three breach its inner sanctum, it isn’t attacking them out of a desire to destroy or hurt them, it is simply reacting to external stimuli in the way that it was taught/programmed to do so. A series of cascading algorithms, without emotion or thought, all working towards a singular goal: to maintain and perpetuate the established order. How do you fight something like that? There’s really no straightforward solution, but in this case I was interested in the idea of having to change something within yourself in order to fight back. That is exactly what happens when 0019 (Ana Bokesa [1]) and 0041 (Ziyi Yang [2]) turn the tide; there is a visible change from within that allows them to push themselves beyond the limit and achieve something incredible.
That may sound a bit schmaltzy, but I think it works well within the context of a retrofuturistic narrative inspired by movies like _Tron_, and games like _Cyberpunk _or _Shadowrunner_. The kind of stuff I used to obsess over as a kid, which became so much of the basis for what this film is rooted in.
(UM): Can you please tell us more about how your background in the fashion industry influenced your process in the making of this film?
Carlos J. Matos: I wouldn’t say I have a background in the fashion industry, so much as an interest in fashion as an artform and outlet for self-expression.
I’m probably getting into some sticky territory by saying this, but the unfortunate truth about the fashion industry is that it’s both deeply entrenched and in dire need of renovation. Everything from the way that fashion is designed, produced, and distributed is deeply problematic on so many aspects, and that was exactly what captivated my attention with Zer Collection [3] in the first place.
To add a bit of background, Zer Collection is an independent fashion label based in Barcelona that incorporates 3D printing into their design and production. Their patterns blend organic and architectural design in uniquely elegant ways, creating silhouettes that manage to feel both forward-looking and classic. What’s more, they utilize recycled and repurposed materials and promote a “closed cycle” philosophy, where garments can be sent back when people don’t want them anymore to be remade into new pieces.
I came across their work sometime around 2017, and immediately fell in love with their ethos and aesthetic. About a year later I approached them with the idea of doing a narrative fashion film; Núria and Ane, the women who started and run the label, took little convincing and proposed several options from their earlier collections, which are more avant garde and futuristic, for the costume design. Stylist Barbara Portilla did an incredible job working with these garments and styling them into the finished looks you see in the film — an utilitarian, yet polished aesthetic that influenced every aspect of the production from art direction, to set design, to the look of Control itself.
(UM): The computer seems to be a prism of sorts. Usually, sci-fi tends to portray futuristic AI vs. Human battles as armed robots. You chose to have Control remain a stable prism. What does that entail?
Carlos J. Matos: I think this goes back to what I was saying earlier about subconscious decision making. Throughout this whole process, starting from the first draft of the script, I had this weird obsession with patterns of three, multiples of three, that ended up permeating the entire film. Control itself is made of twelve hexagonal plates or faces; there are three protagonists, the forward facing “eye” of Control is a triangle, the “portal” that The Three cross to access the inner sanctum is also a triangle… I could go on, but you get the idea.
A big part of what influenced that was the closed cycle philosophy of Zer Collection. This idea that there are other, more efficient and sustainable ways of creating fashion. A massive paradigm shift, if implemented on a large enough scale. If you want to talk about tearing down the obsolete old to replace it with something better, I don’t think you could ask for a better example.
Ultimately the design of Control became part of that visual motif, which production designer Miguel Iglesias brought to life with amazing detail. Funny enough, most of Control was actually 3D printed as well.
(UM): Can you tell us a bit about your thinking when it comes to the timing of making this film. Was there any personal concerns or questions you were facing when thinking about the idea?
Carlos J. Matos: Well, this was back in late 2017/early 2018 when I started working on this idea and even then there were increasingly dire signs about the rapid spread of authoritarianism across the world. Systems of governance, these weird mixtures of technocracy and autocracy that were already obsolete to begin with, expanding their use of technology in order to consolidate power. For nothing more than the sake of perpetuating and expanding their own hold, mind you, as much a mindless automaton as Control. Something that exists simply to continue existing the way it always has, sacrificing whatever it takes to maximise the growth of the system, because it cannot possibly imagine a different way of being.
I took those concerns and boiled them down to the simplest narrative terms, a literal fight between Liberation and Control. Of course things are never quite that simple in the real world, but the first step in any revolution is accepting, and truly believing, that things can indeed change. That we hold our future in our own hands, but the choice for what that future becomes is neither passive nor inevitable. And that is pretty much where the film ends, The Three having liberated their city from Control’s hold at great cost and sacrifice, knowing that whatever comes next is where the real work begins. There are no guarantees.
(UM): Mr. Matos, Can you please take us through the journey? How long did this film take from its inception to fruition? What was the major challenge and how were you able to overcome it? What were some of the inspirations and why?
Carlos J. Matos: I’m admittedly a bit fuzzy on the timeline, but I believe the entire process from conception all the way to the finished film took about a year and a half. At that point I had just started working on a masters degree in direction of photography for film at EFTI [4] in Madrid, and utilized every single resource the school made available for this project. I spent several months going back and forth with two of my professors in particular, Nacho Clemente and Mikel Bastida, working out the finer details of the story. The other person who came onboard early on in the process was cinematographer Adonis Macias [5], a fellow classmate, who played a very important role in helping guide the look and feel of the film.
Once we got the pre-production to a viable state, I brought the project to the school’s production company Trampoline [6]. From there we continued assembling the team in preparation to shoot in fall of 2019.
The biggest challenge was, without a doubt, the production design. This was split between two teams; Miguel Iglesias [7] and Marcelo Renieblas [8] who were in charge of designing and creating Control, and the set design team whom I will refrain from naming directly. On the Control side things went about as good as you could hope for; their design and construction was simply impecable and I couldn’t be more grateful for the work they put into it. On the set design side, however, the story was quite the opposite.
Originally there were supposed to be two physical sets; the hallway that The Three walk down and Control’s inner sanctum. All the lighting and everything was going to be incorporated into these sets, which were going to resemble the interior of a retrofuturistic computer. The set design team had budgeted three days for construction, which in restrospect should have been the first red flag, and after those three days they had completed maybe 10% of the work. Producer Ana Hernando Reyes and myself began raising concerns about the pace of work from the get-go, but by that point it was too late. Most of the early warning signs I ignored out of naïveté and inexperience.
We got to the first day of shooting, and a decision had to be made. At that point I got together with my producer Ana, 1st AD Irene Montes, and DOP Adonis Macias and proposed the idea of scrapping the sets altogether and recreating those structures using lighting. That entire idea, the hallway and the inner sanctum with the floating tubes of light, was a last-minute creation that ended up saving the entire production. 99.9% of the credit for that one goes to Adonis, gaffer Farid Myal, and the entire lighting and grip department who managed to somehow pull it all together on basically zero time. It was exhausting, gruelling work, a lot of ideas had to either be cut or re-adapted, but in the end we managed to pull it together.
Everything that you see in our final “sets” is all practical, it’s all there. All those tubes of light, and the structures they were arranged in, were physically present when we were shooting. The VFX team later went in and created the “floating light” effect you see in the final film. That’s how we ended up with this more impressionistic, dreamlike atmosphere which in the end worked better than we all expected.
(UM): How do you personally see our future when it comes to AI?
Carlos J. Matos: Well, it’s like I said earlier about technology being neither good nor evil. You can’t point at AI and call it strictly a threat, the same way that you can’t point at a hammer and call it evil because it can be used as a weapon. Ultimately it all depends on who wields it and how, and that’s where I start to get a bit more worried. There are people who are already implementing these tools in ways that are actively damaging, like what you see with automated facial recognition and the way that discrimination is effectively baked into the algorithm. On the flip-side there are others who are finding ways to apply AI towards more noble endeavours, like finding solutions to climate change for example.
In the end, I think the evolution of AI will depend a lot on what society as a whole is willing to accept and stand for. It’s going to require a lot of effort, and growth, from everyone’s part. On that front I have days were I’m a little more hopeful, and days were I’m a little less.
(UM): What advice would you have for young filmmakers looking to establish a repertoire and name for themselves?
Carlos J. Matos: That’s always a tough one, because the individual journey in really any creative field varies so much from person to person. I will say two things that I’ve learned, or rather continue to learn, that have helped me.
The first is, put yourself in a position where you can make connections. What that looks like is up to you; it can mean going to school, joining online communities, reaching out to people from your country or city who could become mentors, etc. Try to keep it local, to the extent that you can, because those are the people who are going to help you realize your ideas. It really is a team sport, cliche or not. You can’t make movies on your own forever, even if you’re a complete wunderkind like Robert Rodriguez who taught himself everything from editing to how to operate a steadicam in order to shoot _El Mariachi_. Sooner or later you’re going to need friends, a network, and they’re going to need you as
well. Always be willing to lend a helping hand when needed.
The second, is accepting that failure is the default. I know that sounds grim, but bear with me. Most of what you’re going to hear in any creative field, especially when you’re starting out, is the word no. Or worse yet, and perhaps more discouraging, no answer at all. Even when you put the work in, even when you slave over a script or a treatment for weeks or months or years, the possibility of it not paying off is ever present. Nobody owes you anything, no matter how hard you’ve worked to earn it. That is both normal and ok. You have to accept that it’s a natural part of the process, learn whatever lesson you can when things don’t go the way you wanted, and move forward.
Discouragement and disappointment may be inevitable, but they don’t have to be permanent. Remind yourself that regardless of how many no’s you get, all you need is one yes. That one yes is what you play for, and behind that yes will be every single thing you learned, every single experience accumulated throughout the entire journey.
By: Darida Rose
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