WE HAVE REACHED OUR FUNDING GOAL!!!!
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us.
We still have a few days to go, and any further support means more life for the film after it's completed, to festival and publicity funding.
Thank you so much!
Sophie and Mel.

The Cosmonaut & The Hunter is the most recent work of Sophie Hayward and Melanie Koomen. Having worked together production designing shorts and music videos for the last year, they have been itching to make a film of their own together.

The film follows Masha and Kit, both a little lost in life. Strangers meeting outside a costume party, they decide to take a walk together. Over the next few hours, they share their desires, fears and and what it's really like to be late twenties in Melbourne and discovering their lives are not at all what they'd thought they would be.

The film stars Tegan Crowley as Masha and Joshua Hine as Kit. This is Sophie and Tegan's third collaboration having previously worked together on Kaleidoscope, Sophie's graduate film, and Exhibit A: Theatre's first production Sight Unseen in 2012. It has been a complete delight to collaborate with both of these wonderful actors and human beings.




We were interested to know what friends and people aged 25-30 were doing in Melbourne. Are they living the lives they had hoped for at 20? Have they managed to work in the field they studied? Do they still live in a shitty share house and eat tuna for dinner or have their achievements far surpassed what they'd dared hoped for?
What do they really think about being our age in this generation, in the world, Australia, Melbourne?
What's happening in their lives right now? What do they really think about themselves and their friends?



To find this out, we conducted some research. We sent out questionnaire's to people in this age bracket, and the answers then formed the basis of our characters, story and script.
I then worked closely with the actors to develop their characters and their backstories, and form authentic research based story elements to work into the film and the script.
We then put the script aside, and shot each scene through improvisation and ad lib. What emerged from this was a truly authentic performance from both actors, completely natural conversation emotionally complex and relatable to our age group and beyond.

We wanted to make a film that discussed this strange age. No longer the student and reckless youth, but not yet financially tied down with families and mortgages, it's a somewhat unexplored era in modern film and TV culture.

We have already shot the film on a shoe string budget, relying on many kind favours from friends.
The film is now being edited, and will shortly be graded and mixed.



We were lucky enough to shoot on RED and the Alexa, and have some strong visuals that will benefit from a creative and innovative grade. We have teamed up with an exceptional young Melbourne colourist, who will be applying her talents to the film. We are hoping to raise enough money to complete the post production of this film as professionally as we can, to match and enhance the incredible work so far from our cast and crew.

Money raised will go towards the grade and soundmix, and towards festival submissions.



All images you see here, including the video, are ungraded rushes and screen grabs from the film.

Having shot the film in February, we have already overcome a lot of pre and production hurdles, stresses and obstacles, as well as having an enormous amount of fun.
We do however need to finish the film now! We self financed the project to production but need your help to get it to it's magical completion. Despite pulling some generous favours, we still have people and things we need to pay for.
We hope that our previous work and the ungraded images will help us gain support to reach the end. We are so proud of the film so far, and are very thankful for all the help from friends, but we now need just a little more help.
Our biggest challenge and obstacle right now is money. We have come this far on a budget of less than $500, but can't go any further until we raise more funds. We are hoping to complete the film by a major festival deadline and we would love and endlessly appreciate your support to get there! Thank you!