Mexican students to make short film using shots of space!

Ground Control is a short film of an astronaut about to retire with feelings of guilt. It will be filmed by students at the Monterrey campus and will feature professional actors and real shots of space.

As part of their degree course’s multi-disciplinary project, students studying for bachelor’s degrees in Communications and Music Technology and Production have partnered with BXPACE to take shots which are important for the short film.

“It’s our first big project and the first piece of work that we feel is more professional than academic,” remarked Diego Miranda, director of the short film.

The group, made up of 17 students and 4 Tec graduates, is currently in the pre-production stage; they’ll record in March and April and will present the short film in July.

How Ground Control was born

The idea for the project began to take shape when students from the team were taking film classes, during the February-June 2023 semester, and decided to make a short film about an astronaut.

As they couldn’t make it at that time, instead they made one about unfulfilled dreams, but the team began thinking about the project in 2023.

“We put the idea of an astronaut and a person with unfulfilled dreams together, and that’s where the idea for this short film came from.

“We spent the entirety of 2023, almost a year, planning the film; we presented the project idea to our colleagues Mauricio Ramos and Hugo Montes de Oca, and they wrote it,” Miranda explained.

Francisco de Luna, a renowned theater actor with a career spanning more than 30 years, will participate alongside Mónica Huarte, who recently starred in the film “Miss Influencer,” Andrea Villagrán, and Aurora Eleonor.

Camera into space

After agreeing on the idea of the short film, they decided to partner with BXPACE, a company that makes commercial launches to the edge of space, in order to send a camera to take the specific shots required for the film.

“Mauricio contacted BXPACE. He’d seen one of their advertisements online and asked us, ‘Why don’t we try to contact them? Why don’t we try to collaborate?’

“They liked the idea of being able to send a film camera. We spent several months analyzing what kind of camera would be best for us to use and best for them to adapt,” explained the Communications student.

The camera chosen was a DJI Osmo 4, which is cinema specification and can withstand extreme temperatures and an elevation of up to 40 kilometers.

“We’re going to send an object into space and this object is going to be very important for the story and for the character,” Miranda highlighted.

“We’re going to send an object into space and this object is going to be very important for the story.” - Diego Miranda.

The shots in space are expected to take place on April 23.

This would be the first university short film to use real shots of space, shared René Rodríguez, Director of the Undergraduate Communications program.

“No other student-produced short film created as part of our degree course has ever attempted to film any type of scene in space. Even though the rest of the film won’t be filmed in space, that particular scene, although brief, represents a milestone worthy of recognition for both the group of students involved and their creative ambition,” he said.

The film will be recorded at the Monterrey campus studio and other spaces in the city.

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