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Films | Franco Esteve

Throughout his entire career, Franco Esteve has been involved in film. From acting in commercials and on television to the production side of both. He loves the medium and its all encompassing artistic aspects and collaborative nature. He’s written, produced, and directed the award-winning The Doll Chronicles Series of experimental short films, which has received accolades for the films and their music. He’s currently working on an upcoming series, Fragments of Madness. Find our more about both, below.

 

Fragments of Madness

Fragments of Madness is an upcoming short film series currently in production. More information soon. You can get or listen to the theme music, A Moment of Madness, here.

 

The Doll Chronicles Series of Short Films

The Doll Chronicles Series has its own, dedicated website, which you can visit here.

The Doll Chronicles is an award-winning, anthological series of short films written, directed, and produced by Franco Esteve, that explores some social issues, expectations of beauty and other life situations, an attempt to express a feeling about something occurring in society and to women. What began as a conversation over a couple of beers with friends, Franco Esteve has turned into something socially relevant and beautiful, taking the idea of a doll and our social views and using the human “doll” to express a series of thoughts, stories, and emotions.

Origin

The series was born, as many things are, from beers with friends. Out of a random comment by Núria Garcia about throwing a barbie doll off the balcony and having it be a real girl when she landed, Franco Esteve was inspired to develop a story about the birth of a serial killer. Emma Saura Woods and Franco thought it would be cool to film it and what was initially called “The Barbie Chronicles” was born. That first film, truly experimental and shot as a musical art piece and through the eyes of the child/serial killer, was called Reaction, and included a scene with Núria Garcia’s fascinating comment.

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Emma Saura Woods in a scene from
Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles

But Franco wasn’t satisfied with just that story, and together with Emma Saura Woods, decided to develop a new series, something lowfi, but that captured proper stories, using the best elements of that original “Barbie Chronicle” and that’s how The Doll Chronicles was born. The first was Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles, a story about the paranoia one feels after reading a horror book. The film starred Emma Saura Woods and included cameos by both Franco Esteve and Núria Garcia in the roles of creatures.

With Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles, Franco felt he had developed a proper art piece, with his music driving the story. It was the film that truly defined what the series could become, and led to the next story, Consequence, and beyond.

Producciones Tecatas

“Tecato” is a Puerto Rican word for drug addict that has evolved and is also used to describe things of low quality or low production value, cheap. That second definition is the main reason why Franco Esteve chose to call the production company for the Doll Chronicles, “Producciones Tecatas” (literally “Crappy Productions” in Puerto Rican Spanish), because he wanted to do something with the team’s unsophisticated tools, something that was cheap and of low quality, but still beautiful and fun: the “Tecato” way. It was a way to show that, with little to no resources, something beautiful and significant could be created. The Doll Chronicles are written, directed, and produced by Franco Esteve and like any anthological series, includes different stories and actors with each entry.

The latest entry in the series is the award-winning, Apocalypse, The Doll Chronicles, which is currently screening at festivals this year, 2021. You can watch it on YouTube here (must be 18 or older). It’s trailer can be seen on YouTube below or here:

The Films

Reaction – Defining a concept

Reaction was the unofficial “first” of The Doll Chronicles short films (originally conceived as The Barbie Chronicles) and was made as an art piece inspired upon Nùria Garcia’s random comment about how interesting it would be to throw a Barbie doll out a window and find that when it hit the ground, it was a real woman. With that comment in mind, Franco Esteve got to work on a story that could capture that, writing a short story about how a boy becomes a serial killer from that random event and with the idea of using Tristan and Isolde in mind for the music. He decided to simplify it and turn it into an abstract statement on beauty in our society. It’s left a bit open to interpretation, so that each viewer can apply their own experience to the experimental piece.

The film served to inspire what would later become The Doll Chronicles series, setting a tone and establishing certain rules that Franco Esteve would follow in later films (mostly silent and experimental, music driven stories). Despite evolving the base concepts and rules for the series, they still maintain much of what Franco Esteve defined in this earlier work.

Paranoia – The Experiment

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Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles is officially the first in The Doll Chronicles series of short films. After defining a concept and direction for what he wanted to create, it was time to do a proper, silent, experimental short film as an experiment of the idea’s viability. It had to be episodic so that, using a doll as a symbol, all kinds of stories could be told. Franco Esteve wrote a new story that would be the true beginning of The Doll Chronicles, maintaining some of the concepts he defined in Reaction, The Barbie Chronicles, like the use of a doll as both the metaphorical main character and at times literally, as it would fit symbolically within the story. The human “doll” would drive the story, and the toy doll would appear as a visual element that expressed that moment’s message or symbol as necessary.

We’ve all had some scary experiences sleeping in old houses, with their creaks and crevices, their weird, winter noises, their unprotected gardens, and the irrational paranoia that ensues, playing horrible scenarios in our minds and disturbing our sleep. For “the experiment”, Franco thought it would be fun to film a story about a paranoid doll in an old house, and so Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles was born. It would follow the Doll as she became paranoid while living in an old house after reading the horror novel “Dark Places” by Gillian Flynn. If you haven’t read it, it’s quite disturbing.

Watch the film in the embed below or head over to Vimeo or YouTube to watch it:

Emma Saura Woods plays the main character as her mind dives deeply into the paranoid thoughts that scary houses and books draw out. As this is a silent film, Franco Esteve composed the music and a series of sounds to evoke those feelings and drive the paranoid discomfort that one feels during these situations of fear and sleeplessness, that way, the viewer could feel what Doll was experiencing. The soundtrack is available at most online music stores and streaming services and you can get it through the service links here:

Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles Soundtrack Image

 Listen to Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles soundtrack on Spotify Get or Listen to the Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles soundtrack on iTunes Apple Music Get or listen to the Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles Soundtrack on Amazon.com Get the Paranoia: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on Bandcamp Get Franco Esteve's Paranoia: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on Gumroad Listen to the Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles soundtrack on Deezer Buy or listen to the Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles Soundtrack on Tidal

It includes the full film audio track, so that you can experience listening to the film audio as it was intended, as a full musical piece.

Be sure to like The Doll Chronicles and Franco Esteve on Facebook and follow @FrancoEsteve and @bnowhereblog on Twitter for the latest updates about the Doll Chronicles. Patrons get more content from The Doll Chronicles, pre-releases, extras, and behind the scenes, so become a patron today: https://patreon.com/FrancoEsteve.

Consequence – The Execution

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Before “Paranoia, The Doll Chronicles“, one of the first stories Franco Esteve wrote was the award-winning Consequence, The Doll Chronicles. As he wrote out the different ideas and concepts he wanted to develop, this one was at the very top of the list. It explores a consequence of love, drugs, and sex and is in large part inspired by an untitled, Larry Clark photo from his 1971 Tulsa series which you can see here. In the photo, Franco Esteve saw surrender, trust, pleasure, intensity, willingness. The woman was happily giving in to her lover’s drug injection. Many women have fallen prey to the wrong partner, that partner who leads them down a dark path of destruction. Consequence goes further in defining a path to a story that sadly, happens too often in this dark world we live in.


Consequence, The Doll Chronicles from Franco Esteve on Vimeo.

The film is the execution of Franco’s original concept in full, with its story being driven by Franco Esteve’s award-winning soundtrack and the images and music together working to communicate and express Doll’s story to its consequential end. The film was shown at a number of film festivals around the world, receiving accolades along the way. Especially notable was the award-winning soundtrack, which you can acquire or listen to at most online music stores and streaming services using the links below:

Consequence, The Doll Chronicles award-winning soundtrack for this entry in the series of short films

 Listen to Consequence, The Doll Chronicles soundtrack on Spotify Get or Listen to the Consequence, The Doll Chronicles soundtrack on iTunes Apple Music Get or listen to the Consequence, The Doll Chronicles Soundtrack on Amazon.com Get the Consequence: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on BandcampGet Franco Esteve's Consequence: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on GumroadListen to the Consequence, The Doll Chronicles soundtrack on Deezer Buy or listen to the Consequence, The Doll Chronicles Soundtrack on Tidal

It includes the full film audio track, so that you can experience listening to the film audio as it was intended, as a full musical piece.

You can find out more about the film, read the director’s and actor’s notes and more on the The Doll Chronicles website here (in a new window).

Be sure to like The Doll Chronicles and Franco Esteve on Facebook and follow @FrancoEsteve and @bnowhereblog on Twitter for the latest updates about the Doll Chronicles. Patrons get more content from The Doll Chronicles, pre-releases, extras, and behind the scenes, so become a patron today: https://patreon.com/FrancoEsteve.

Apocalypse – The Film

Watch the experimental short film on YouTube here.

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The next film in the series, the award-winning, Apocalypse, The Doll Chronicles is currently screening in festivals around the world throughout 2021. You can watch the film on YouTube here (must be at least 18 years old), or the trailer on YouTube here or in the embedded version near the top of this page or below. After the success of Consequence, The Doll Chronicles, the experimental concept was well solidified and it was time to explore it further and in different directions. Franco Esteve and Emma Saura Woods had spoken about doing a story within a post-apocalyptic environment and the story of Apocalypse was born. In it, Doll faces a darkness from her past as she explores a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but nothing is as it seems.

The film ended up becoming the film that never was, as most of the shot footage was lost to dead hard drives, but years later, some of the content reappeared and after a process of reconstruction, Franco Esteve has rebuilt and refocused the story and the film into a wonderful experimental and conceptual narrative that is music driven, but includes some dialog and explores trauma and child abuse. A lot of the original musical concepts developed for the film were in limbo but some have made it into the final version of the film, and the others have been included in the soundtrack for people to experience some of the ideas and concepts that the original planned version was meant to have explored. Find out more about the soundtrack here. The soundtrack is now available on most, popular streaming services and online stores.

Apocalypse: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) Album Cover

Apocalypse: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on Spotify Apocalypse: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on iTunes / Apple Music Order the Apocalypse: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on Amazon  Get the Apocalypse: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on Bandcamp Get Franco Esteve's Apocalypse: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on Gumroad Listen to the Apocalypse: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on Deezer Buy or listen to the Apocalypse: The Doll Chronicles (Original Soundtrack) on Tidal

Be sure to like The Doll Chronicles and Franco Esteve on Facebook and follow @FrancoEsteve and @bnowhereblog on Twitter for the latest updates about the Doll Chronicles. Patrons get more content from The Doll Chronicles, pre-releases, extras, and behind the scenes, so become a patron today: https://patreon.com/FrancoEsteve.

 

Future Films

I’m currently working on an upcoming series called Fragments of Madness. Its theme song, A Moment of Madness, will be released on April 14th, 2022 and films in the series, later this year.

There will be more The Doll Chronicles short films and others in the future. For the moment, Franco Esteve is promoting Apocalypse, which is currently screening at festivals. Its music is out NOW and you can find out more here.

Be the first to get at present and future content. Become a patron on Patreon to receive exclusive content, behind the scenes, music, films, pre-release content, and more: https://patreon.com/FrancoEsteve. Also, don’t forget to follow The Doll Chronicles and Franco Esteve on Facebook, Twitter (@dollchronicles, @FrancoEsteve), and Instagram (@thedollchronicles, @seefrancoesteve).

Thank you for watching! 🙂

Patrons get access to music previews, films, art and behind the scenes content, rewards and more.
Become a patron on Patreon here.


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Dimensional Drift music single cover art image

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