Paraguay...Paraguay…? Where the f*** is that country?...

Well, unfortunately Paraguay is one of the less popular countries in Latin America, and call it chance, destiny, whatever, but this was the country where all of us, from different countries, different backgrounds, united into a single cause; making the first virtual reality series in the region.

The idea of OPUS VR came to us while we were talking about a screenplay that our director Michael was writing. It was about this group of rebel friends fighting against everything: society had forgotten them, they had to take care of their own people while figuring out a way to be happy, and then we realized that there was no better place for this story than the “Chacarita”, a disadvantaged but colorful district in the heart of Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. Plus, as millennials and innovative technology lovers, we were looking for an opportunity to develop the use of Virtual Reality in fiction and therefore we understood that we had a chance to make all of this possible through this project.

We wanted to do it with our friends and colleagues from Paraguay and the Chacarita who would know exactly the colors we were looking for in our project. We are a team of professionals but also a great family. Everybody agreed very quickly and brought in their talents, skills, and ideas into the project; and that's how OPUS grew to the point where we decided to make a full series out of it, 4 episodes of 20 minutes each.

We made the first episode, the pilot of the series, a few months ago and first we got invited to Argentina to show it, where it had a great reception with critics and the audience.  We then decided to send it to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival where it was selected into the official NEXT VR corner, which gave us even more motivation to shoot the rest of it! We had made the pilot out of nothing but now we think it is time to begin to pay everyone for all the hard work put into the project and finish the rest of the series (We're all beginning to get a bit nervous around knives when we see the producer these days).

Presently the project is very well known and recognized throughout the country where we were interviewed in various TV shows and the project has been featured in plenty of newspapers, blogs, and magazines. Here you can see all our beautiful faces:

This project is very important for us and we'll find a way to do it, but we want OPUS to be great, look beautiful, and be shown throughout the whole globe…  and that means MONEY. You'll make the difference between a good idea that could lead to a meh-film and a good idea that will lead to a fantastic film!

We want to use a top-of-the-art camera that is very expensive, virtual reality fiction present us plenty of challenges in sound, and all our material must be adapted to 360 ° storytelling techniques. We have props, costumes, and locations; there are so many things involved in making a movie (Plus for us it’s 360 times harder). And last but not least, we have to pay our great and amazing team for all the hard effort they’ve been putting and will be putting into this project.    

       MICHAEL KOVICH JR.

                DIRECTOR - WRITER

What a name eh? Is this guy a real Paraguayan? Well kind of, he’s half Paraguayan (the good half hopefully), and we can tell because one day we met his mom who was born here, and she’s got a hell of a latino character, so don’t mess with her.

So here's a young director who already has made more than seven short films, one of which got to Cannes in 2015 and won Best Drama in Spain. Currently, he’s also working on a feature as co-director: the Silence of Others. Michael has also been playing a lot with 360 in an advertising agency where he got to learn and practice everything he knows about VR. He always had a stack of dusty screenplays on his desk, but Opus was the one project that didn’t let him sleep for days, weeks, months… it really had to be done.

           JAVIER ENCISCO

                ACTOR

His piercing eyes seem to stare into your soul and yet he is the most amazing human being we know. He's so very good at being bad (just watch Luna de Cigarras, seriously) and in this series he's Luis Morales, a new Robinhood trying to change things for good in the “Chacarita” where he lives.

In real life, Javier is not only a great actor who's been bestowed with various nominations including Best Actor at the Madrid Film Festival, but he’s also a theatre teacher in the “Chacarita”, helping kids stay out of trouble by doing art, so this story means a lot to him.

          RAFAEL ALFARO

                ACTOR

You'll love him in OPUS as the cool guy (or at least that’s what he thinks) who will wear sunglasses even in the middle of the night. We know that if he appears just as an extra you will still fan yourself, wishing you could see more and more of him. So in OPUS we’ll give you the opportunity to watch him alongside with the other amazing actors for more than 80 minutes. Wow. Prepare yourselves.

In real life, Rafael is the Paraguayan actor that has appeared in the most films, national and internationally. His most recent film had him acting alongside the great Ricardo Darin (Argentina). And in his free time he operates the best pizza shop in Asuncion; and also invites people to watch game of thrones in his huge backyard on Sundays : we told you you were going to love him.

             KARAI VICTOR

                ACTOR

Karai is the most paraguayan man you’ll ever meet. Don't believe me? Just look at him : never far from his Terere (typical Paraguayan drink), he always looks like he's on a holiday, even in the middle of the set and he has the warmest smile. He's able to deliver an incredible performance while wearing flip-flops and a loose soccer shirt but since he is also a producer, we understand it must be cool to put the suit aside sometimes!

In OPUS VR his character, Carlitos, is good living and would do anything for his friends (and for some money too, to be fair). His trust in Luis Morales will lead to him into joining the team and participating in the robbery.

          JUAN PABLO VERA

                ACTOR​

In the series Eladio is a novice who's been living in the shadow of his big brother, Luis, his whole life, but who now wants to be part of the Team for the big hit. It's his one chance to prove himself...

This young actor was one of Javier Enciso's theater students in the "Chacarita" and he's been living in this district since he was born, so “Juan Pa” as we call him, really knows what OPUS VR is about. It's his first time appearing on screen (though he's been appearing on stage in the last years in Asuncion) and he's doing an amazing job as portraying Eladio.

         NICOLAS MERENS

                PRODUCER

This guy is clearly an alien or an x-men because he hasn’t the same need of sleep as you and I. He cannot sit down and rest, even for an hour. He calls you in the middle of the night to know if you’re done working and the only reason why we haven’t stabbed him out of anxiety yet is because he’s one hell of a friend and a great producer. He’s the one who makes it all possible, and if that means receiving his calls any time of the day and night well… we can do it.

         MARTIN DE LEMOS

               SOUND DIRECTOR

Martin is french and we can truly say it’s almost his only flaw (with his lateness but hey, nobody’s perfect)! He studied sound engineering in Canada and has traveled all around the world from his birth to the day he met Nicolas in Asuncion and they decided to start a film company, Al Mango, to give life to all their projects. He’s super creative and resourceful and his dream is to buy a bus to start an errant studio, so that tells you all you need to know about him.

He also creates original musics, is a folley artist and has worked for advertising agencies and short movies. Now he gets to do all the sound work for one of his own projects, OPUS, and he’s super excited about it!

There are two main reasons why we chose VR for our series.

• The first one is IMMERSION: a place like the Chacarita is so full of details and colours that the Virtual Reality is the best way to bring justice to it. The spectator only has to turn his head to see all the children run and disappear in the narrow streets, to feel lost in this great labyrinth.

The events unfold all around the viewer who’s now part of the story, almost a fifth character. It’s the ultimate experience as a watcher!

• The second reason is INNOVATION : it’s often difficult to think of something new to show to viewers. There are so many movies already existing, so many series, so many ideas! But here’s a new field almost untouched, everything’s left to discover and to make and while shooting the series we felt like explorers! It’s such a great opportunity to create and to innovate, to see the look on the viewer’s face when they’ve seen something truly new, something they never had experienced before!

We love it and we know we’ve made the right choice every time we show our work to new spectators, old or young, and they gasp in surprise from the sensations!

We know it's always difficult to give money you've earned to someone you don't know. How can you be sure that the project will make it to its term? That's only one of the many questions you may ask yourself.

Well, here you have all the reasons to be confident: the project has already started, we already presented it to the Cannes Film Festival and have commitments with our sponsors, so OPUS VR will come out.

We'll keep you updated every two weeks with the newsletter and if you still have questions or doubts feel free to reach out to us on social media or through our e-mail and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

After the making of OPUS VR we have two following projects that mean a lot to us.

First, we wish to make the series accessible to the largest public and to do that, we’ll make a 2D version of it. We wish everybody could see it in VR but we know that the technology today doesn’t allow it : it’s expensive  and not fully developed yet so we’ll make it accessible to everyone. You’ll be able to watch OPUS on your television, your computer, even your phone.

The second project we have is to make the first Virtual Reality movie theater of Latin America in Asuncion to give to everyone the possibility to live the experience of watching 360 films, series, and documentaries from all over the globe!

If you can't contribute by giving but you still want to help, you can share our project with other people so they can see it and help us too!

So please tell your auntie, your nephew, your brother, everybody who could be interested, share it on social media!

If that's not enough for you and you want to help concretely, you can send us cake, any kind of cake really, though the producer tells me right now he prefers chocolate.

Or.... any kind of pastries, we have like, a whole freaking budget for this here. Or a carrot because we have a bunny and his appetite is just as big as ours. He'll be very thankful!

THANK YOU FOR MAKING ALL OF THIS POSSIBLE! YOU'RE AWESOME!