Posted by Hector Alfaro Dobles

I began my adventure in the world of cinema and television in 2000. As the readers of this Blog will understand, it has been a carousel of emotions, with ups and downs that little by little, through hard work and gaining experience, have turned the balance to more successes than failures.

This would not have been possible if I had not understood the importance of my own constant evolution and that of my teams. So, little by little, we became more seasoned and professional until our first company, Café Televisión, was born in 2014. Within a couple of more years, we had established ourselves in Costa Rica as Café Cinema, a film and television production company focused on achieving the highest quality content possible, with very modest budgets. But, of course, we wanted to continue to grow and move up to bigger budgets and productions.

Last year, in 2023, our efforts were recognized by the government of my country, with the nomenclature of "Essential Costa Rica" for our productions. This acknowledgment and support began a new phase in our company which included internationalization – positioning ourselves to work on international co-productions, which is a huge part of the Costa Rica production industry. It was through this recognition by the Costa Rica government and the relationship between our government and Stage 32, that we managed to be selected to take the Stage 32 Certification courses.

Feature Film in PreProduction after Completing Stage 32 Certification  Now Casting

Stage 32 Certification Changed Everything...

It has been extremely gratifying learning from the incredible industry professionals who teach the Stage 32 Certification courses. They are full of knowledge, and real-world experience and share successful techniques that we immediately started incorporating into our business process. We even received personal advice from several of the educators who became true consultants of ours as we took on this very complex industry. Through Stage 32 Certification, we found this community full of people willing to share their experiences. It feels like now, our true adventure as producers has really begun.

We even had an incredible experience talking with so many professionals and like-minded creatives during the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where Stage 32 prepared a nice networking event for all of us who had the opportunity to be at this prestigious event.

So, What's Next?

Cut to now… all of this motivated us to make our first feature film applying all the techniques that the Stage 32 Certification courses taught us.

We know that you never stop learning in this creative world, but today we feel more confident than ever in our skills and abilities and are ready to make our best production thus far.

We want to share this initiative with the Stage 32 Community by opening the possibility for people interested in joining our production to come forward. We especially want to invite actors and actresses to join the cast of our new feature film project!

Our production is called “Paradise Falls: A Christmas Story” and as its name says it is a Christmas movie, but not just any Christmas movie, one that will be filmed in Costa Rica completely in English. It is a drama with overtones of comedy and romance and includes some fantastic elements that we all love about Christmas, such as a wishing tree and the magic of miracles. “Paradise Falls: A Christmas Story” is a story full of contrasts that mixes the best of the emotions and cultures of the United States and Costa Rica.

Feature Film in PreProduction after Completing Stage 32 Certification  Now Casting

How Can You Get Involved?

We are looking for several cast members including an actress to play Luci, a stunning young woman between 19 and 23 years old with clear eyes on the world, Rosa, a sweet-on-the-surface grandmother between 58-62 years old who possesses a deeply strong character, and Marco, a dashing young man between 20 and 24 years old with a positive and carefree energy. These are but 3 of the characters who give life to our story.

If you are interested in joining our production and accompanying us on this journey, knowing that it is an ultra-low budget project, you can submit yourself through the Stage 32 Job Board posting listed below or reach out to me here on Stage 32!

Click HERE to submit yourself for this casting opportunity!


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