The founder
Carlos Ferrer
Carlos Ferrer started CGF Films in New York in 1999. He had been making short films since he was ten, and wanted the work finished and released properly instead of staying a pile of student projects.
At sixteen he directed a cast and crew of more than a hundred on his first feature, Scallop Pond. It won Best Student Feature at the Long Island Film Festival. At SUNY Purchase College he wrote and directed shorts that won awards, recorded a thirty-six-minute interview with Mary Tyler Moore, and graduated in 2008 with a BFA in Theatre Arts & Film.
Every film on this site is a CGF Films production, and Carlos directed most of them. More about CGF Films.
Feature film · 2017
Making Retina
On Retina, Carlos was writer, director, cinematographer, composer, sound designer and visual effects artist. The budget made him do it at the start. By the end he didn’t want it any other way.
The shoot took a year and post took five. He made the set extensions, composites and effects shots himself, and presented the work at SIGGRAPH in 2016. The Los Angeles Times profiled him in 2015, and Studio Daily wrote about how a VFX-heavy feature got finished for $200,000.
It was still a lot of people’s film. Lindsay Goranson led a fifteen-person cast, Joshua Jenks and Jared Goldman worked the shoot, and the film was shot on location across New York.
Writing
Where the stories come from
Carlos wrote Retina, the short films, and the trilogy he’s working on now.
Each story starts with something specific. Retina came out of September 11th in New York City, when he was in high school. The film is a thriller about a woman in a medical study who is conditioned to carry out an act of terror.
That day really affected me, and I wanted to tell a story on multiple levels that gets at that feeling I remember – that something could happen again.
The form follows the story. America’s Nightmare is about school shootings from a teenager’s point of view. Tomorrow is six minutes with no dialogue. The Popcorn Man, a twenty-five-minute drama, won Best Student Short at the Long Island Film Festival. Retina runs ninety-two minutes. In most of them, the lead is a woman.
He came to writing through directing. His first feature, Scallop Pond, was written by Sabrina Ferrer and Chris Bird. Directing someone else’s script at sixteen, with a crew of more than a hundred, taught him what his own scripts need to do: answer the production’s questions before the shoot starts.
Now in development: a trilogy of connected features, one story told across three films, and two shorts. See what’s in development.
Career
Timeline
1995
Starts making movies
Begins shooting films at the age of ten.
1999
CGF Films founded
The company is established in New York to make and finish original motion pictures.
2002
America’s Nightmare
A psychological short about school shootings, told from a teenager’s perspective. Screens at the Deep Ellum Film Festival.
2004
First feature, at sixteen
Directs Scallop Pond – a ninety-minute mystery thriller – with a cast and crew of more than a hundred, while still in high school.
2005
Best Student Feature
Scallop Pond wins at the Long Island Film Festival. The short Tomorrow screens there the same year.
2006
Mary Tyler Moore
Records a thirty-six-minute interview with Mary Tyler Moore while studying at SUNY Purchase.
2008
BFA, and a second festival win
Graduates from SUNY Purchase College with a BFA in Theatre Arts & Film. The Popcorn Man wins Best Student Short at the Long Island Film Festival.
2009–2015
Retina
Writes, directs, shoots, scores, mixes and builds the visual effects for a single feature: one year of shooting, five of post-production.
2015
Press coverage
The Los Angeles Times profiles him; Studio Daily details how a VFX-heavy feature got made for $200,000.
2016
SIGGRAPH
Presents the visual effects and set-extension work from Retina to the computer-graphics industry.
2017–2018
Retina released
Screen Media Films releases the picture in 2017. Gargoyles: Fan Film, shot in 2.35:1 on the streets of New York, follows in 2018.
Now
A trilogy, and two shorts
Writing and directing a trilogy of three connected feature films, alongside two shorts – Zoey, a fantasy, and Sound of Obsession, a horror short.
Details
For the record
- Born
- 16 July 1985, New York City
- Also credited as
- Carlos Gil Ferrer
- Education
- BFA Theatre Arts & Film, SUNY Purchase College (2008)
- Company
- CGF Films, founded 1999 – President
- Features
- Retina (2017) · Scallop Pond (2004)
- In development
- A feature trilogy (three films) · two shorts
- The two shorts
- Zoey · Sound of Obsession
- Awards
- Best Student Feature and Best Student Short, Long Island Film Festival
- Trademark
- The protagonists in his films are usually women
- Credits
- IMDb · carlosferrer.com
Let’s talk
Making something?
A short, a feature, a music video, or just a note about one of the films – tell us what you’re working on.
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