Private Project

Prototype

Afrofuturist Sci-Fi: A reluctant black woman scientist trapped in her mother's lab seeks to program an android with human-like empathy.

  • Christopher Ortega
    Director
    Rico's Last Fight, The Night Terror
  • Christopher Ortega
    Writer
    Rico's Last Fight, The Night Terror
  • Christopher Ortega
    Producer
    Rico's Last Fight, The Night Terror
  • Mark R. Wright
    Producer
  • Martina Lee
    Producer
  • Adrian Snow
    Key Cast
    "Sol"
  • Melina Philips
    Key Cast
    "Annette"
  • Preston Butler III
    Key Cast
    "Android 500"
  • Kali Racquel
    Key Cast
    "Android 499"
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Sci-Fi, Afrofuturism, Thriller, drama
  • Runtime:
    18 minutes 59 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 1, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    30,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:33:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - USC School of Cinematic Arts
Director Biography - Christopher Ortega

CHRISTOPHER ORTEGA is a writer-director born in Queens, New York and raised in Ocala, Florida. He attributes his love for the arts to his father who exposed him to music and cinema classics as a child. He is an alumnus of Morehouse College where he studied business finance and minored in the newly founded film studies program funded by Spike Lee. In his senior year, he directed Sympathy, his first short film that won second place in the nationally held HerStoryFilm Competition. Ortega was the first student from Morehouse College film studies program to be accepted to a masters level film school. Graduating Cum Laude in 2013, Ortega began his matriculation at USC School of Cinematic Arts class of 2017. In his first year, he earned the Edward Troutner award for Cinematography. He also has had internship experiences at Disney ABC Television Group and Universal Pictures. In 2014 after losing his father to leukemia, Ortega wrote and directed Rico's Last Fight, in dedication to him, a film which was chosen as exemplary work to be used in advanced editing courses at USC. Ortega is currently in touring his thesis film Prototype, which explores the world of Afrofuturism and science fiction. Ortega attributes his largest artistic influences to Rod Serling, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Stanley Kubrick.

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Director Statement

The film Prototype a USC thesis film is a story that deals with empathy, identity and the oppression experienced by class levels told through a sub genre of science fiction called Afrofuturism. Afrofuturism deals with issues in the black community's past and present through futuristic stories. Some Afrofuturist artists include: Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delaney. It's style is also featured in the 2018 film Black Panther.