La Loba

Team Members (Name, Role, Major)

Jeff Sillemon- Lead - Writer & Director 
Full-Time FITV/College of Arts and Media Student at CU Denver 

Kelsey Buneta- Production Designer
Full-Time FITV/College of Arts and Media Student at CU Denver 

Eric Sobek- Sound Design
Full-Time MEIS/College of Arts and Media Student at CU Denver 

Link to Trailer - https://youtu.be/f8KgWVQYGHg

"La Loba" is a recipient of the 2021–2022 Dean's Future of Creativity Student Innovation Award for Collaborative Research and Creative and Scholarly Work. 

"La Loba" (Sillemon, 2022) is a short horror film that explores and breaks gender roles in relation to biblical text and examines the systemic nature of misogyny, toxic masculinity, and what impact cultural and societal influences have upon them. For example, the characters within La Loba (Lily, Eve, and Adam) are based on stories that date back to the Quran and Bible. The original legend of our main character Lily states that she was created by God from dust and placed to live in the Garden of Eden with Adam. However, problems quickly arose between the two when Adam tried to exercise dominance over Lily during sex. Lily refused to lay beneath Adam because she believed they were created equally; Thus, she did not have to lay beneath him. After Adam disagreed, Lily fled the Garden of Eden to gain her independence. In her absence, God then created Eve. The story of La Loba will pick up with Lily in modern times, as she runs her bar "The Den." With "La Loba," we will flip the original narrative of women being obedient to men and instead showcase independent women rising to power and terrorizing men who pose misogynistic traits. We will justify this terror by incorporating the Latin urban legend of "La Loba ." The superstitious call her the soul stealer. She is beautiful at first, but her true form is that of a half-woman and half-wolf. They say her only purpose is to drain the life force of her lovers. We feel the film's premise of toxic masculinity and the systemic nature of misogyny is a current social issue that needs to be addressed. We intend to do that through the lens of Horror. 

Throughout the process of our project, our team has faced many challenges. The first was the bar we originally planned to film in canceled our shoot dates at the last minute. Having our central location cancel on us was devastating to our production because we had to cancel our equipment rentals, reschedule three days of filming, and communicate this issue to our team and professor with little to no notice. However, we did not let this defeat us. Our team quickly regrouped, scouted, and secured a new location that fits our story's treatment. With Miller and Rossi, Kayli has kindly agreed to let us film at their site on Sunday, January 23rd and 30th from 10 am - 8 pm, and February 6th from 10 am - 8 pm. Our award money will pay Kayli for allowing us to film at Miller and Rossi when they are closed to the public. A Location release and agreement have been signed.

Another challenge our team faced was having our Director step away from the project. We have brought on Mary Amoroso to take my place as Producer to solve this problem. I will, in turn, step up as Director and continue Writing for La Loba. 

Our Make-Up artist has also chosen to pursue other opportunities. However, we have found incredible Special Effects Artists to fill the positions. We will be paying them two thousand dollars for their time and materials.

The last challenge we are facing is planning filming around COVID. The spike in COVID cases has left us with many questions regarding filming and pick up-dates. However, our passionate, diverse cast and crew are determined to keep contributing our skills and knowledge to create a project that the University of Colorado Denver can be proud of.

Facing these challenges has forced our team to come together and support each other's creativity even more. Specifically, our collaboration with Special Effects Artist Kevon Ward and Melinda Wolfe. Kevon and Melinda are incredibly knowledgeable. They bring more than ten years of work experience to our production. When creating our monster, Jeff, Kevon and Melinda were constantly communicating. To begin the process, Jeff sent over examples of how he envisioned La Loba to Kevon and Melinda. Kevon then took those images and used them as inspiration to sculpt a one-of-a-kind mask for our monster. Kevon then duplicated these masks, and he and Melinda painted them. On the days of filming, Melinda will come to set and apply the prosthetics and make-up to our actors. Through collaboration, we created a one-of-a-kind monster that incorporates the ideas of everyone working on it. This collaboration is the perfect example of how our team has come together to support each other's creativity. We are more than thrilled to see La Loba come to life, and we are grateful to have Kevon and Melinda walking us through this process. 

Our collaboration with Eric Sobek and Jacob Sillemon on creating a sound design and soundtrack for the film has also been going smoothly. For example, Eric and I have begun discussing and drafting sound design ideas, and Jacob and I have written a few songs for the film's soundtrack. Through this collaboration, we are approaching a solid sound plan that fits the film's treatment and immerses the audience.

Our diverse team has collaborated to create a film that includes insight from multiple cultures and generations. We look forward to wrapping principal cinematography and delivering a visually stunning film.