Ahead of Melbourne WebFest 2014 we are profiling all the series in the Official Selection as well as the “Second Look” series.
Set in a future world that is under the dictatorship of Mijail I, The Graceful One. His regime imposes strict beauty standards that every citizen must follow. Everyone not fitting those esthetical standards is prosecuted and exterminated.
It is a perfect society; a world without crime, poverty and most importantly, without ugliness. But there’s an underground group of ugly rebels who hide in the mountains while planning to kill the Governor and destroy the system.
What inspired your series?
We wanted to ironically describe the world we live in. El Gran Día de los Feos is a fictionional story set in the future, but viewers will see aspects of their own society reflected in the series. We use bizarre characters and improbable situations to ironically describe aspects of real life. The extermination of the ugly ones in the series reflects the social exclusion of those who, nowadays, don´t fit the prevailing archetype.
What do you want people to take away from your series?
We hope the audience have a good laugh for ten minutes, but keep thinking for a while longer about the world we live in and the superficial values we carry out.
How do you finance your series?
We earned a public funding from the culture ministry in Spain. Also, the whole cast and crew decided to support the project by becoming associates in exchange of their salaries.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome in production?
Undoubtedly that was the lack of time, which was due to the lack of budget. It forced us to overcome extremely long shooting days to fit the schedule.
How do you reach your audience?
So far we are focusing on the distribution of the series in festivals around the world. In the meantime, our facebook fan page continues slowly growing, and we have more than 1,500 fans.
Is it an ongoing project? If so, can you give us some clues about what comes next?
Season one ends in a huge cliff-hanger, so the story is definitely set to continue in following seasons. Season two in currently in writing process.
El Gran Día de los Feos is a web series but also what the creators call an “appseries”. This means that there is an app for the series that can be downloaded on a smart device allowing audiences to watch the series from there.
El Gran Día de los Feos on the web:
Website: elgrandiadelosfeos.com/
Facebook: facebook.com/elgrandiadelosfeos
Youtube: youtube.com/user/ElGranDiaDeLosFeos
Keep up to date with Melbourne Web Fest on twitter: @MelbWebFest
La Trobe University is a festival sponsor of Melbourne WebFest.
