Help Gabriel Fund his film career

Brief story of me:

My name is Gabriel Alemany and I am a young photographer and 
aspiring film maker from the Dominican Republic, living in 
Santo Domingo, its capital city.
I received a fine arts education where I learned about 
multiple art disciplines such as painting and sculpting along other more academically oriented classes such as art history and concept 
development.  

Almost immediately after graduating art school, I went on to work in
the Dominican film industry. This period of job hunting led me to 
working in all sorts of crew positions in a film set, from being a 
production assistant, fetching coffee for my beloved producers to 
handling camera equipment and eventually becoming a camera
operator. The effort I put into my work soon got me working on 
international productions as well such as Adult Swim's 
"Tropical Cop Tales" and more recently Netflix's "The I-Land". On both I was a Key Set P.A in charge of translating orders from our English 
speaking team to our local Spanish speaking team and the experiences I gained from each project were priceless. These kinds of experiences where precisely what led me to begin my scout for further studies 
abroad.

I've always wanted to study cinematography as a career but 
unfortunately, despite having a small yet booming film industry in the 
Dominican Republic, we have no proper film schools to keep up with 
the ever growing demand of crew and skilled personnel in more and 
more productions.

How I ended up here:

Last Christmas I received a very unusual invitation from the University of Liverpool to provide them with footage from the Dominican Republic
countryside for a project they had. They needed someone to film 
cocoa farmers and their way of life. This meant going to the farms and documenting how they lived, what they ate, how they commuted to the farms
and how they struggled to survive on a daily basis with the little 
gains they could get from their farms in a developing country like ours.



I assembled a small team of coworkers and friends and we went to the countryside to film as much as we could. As a result, I was invited to visit the university IN LONDON to speak about the experience and the 
project and to explain the current situation the Dominican farmers are going through today.



It was a beautiful project indeed and it helped me set foot in Europe.
I cannot stress how thankful I am for each of the team members for
having helped me out. Without them, I would have never had the time 
to put it all together like I did.

The Trip

Having said that, I used the opportunity the university had given me
(that and my savings for the past 2 years) and set out to explore a bit of the old world. I texted each of the friends I have living abroad and 
crashed every couch possible so that I could afford visiting the many 
cities I visited.  The route was London-Madrid-Barcelona-Berlin.

Finally my lifelong dream of backpacking through Europe had become 
true, all thanks to my hard work and effort (and the help of many people who believed in me).
The trip meant more than just a trip, it was a pilgrimage of sorts where I gained the confidence to not only believe in myself but in my work and 
the ability I have to make an impact in others. I learned here that there are many valuable ideas and stories I could import back home and help my local industry improve.

So I began producing as much content as I could and below is some of
it:

London
https://www.behance.net/gallery/78380375/LNDN




Madrid
https://www.behance.net/gallery/78385459/MDRD



Barcelona
https://www.behance.net/gallery/78388735/BCNA



Berlin
https://www.behance.net/gallery/78391877/BRLN


Why I Am Here


After thorough scouting and heavy research, Barcelona seemed to be the best option for many reasons.
The city speaks Spanish, which is my 
native language. The city is known for its openness towards 
international students and young people from all over the world. 
Its booming art scene means more opportunities for people with art 
oriented careers like mine. All of the right factors came into effect 
except for one thing... the price.

I did run a few evaluations with friends living in Barcelona and multiple websites that offer financial advice specific for students and the 
numbers run as follows:

Rent:
Depending on the area, the monthly rent can vary between €250 and €500 per person with utilities included (water, gas, electricity and internet). 

This means that 
€500 x 12 = €6000 (A year's avg. rent)



Food and Healthcare:
The average weekly cost for shopping per person (food and hygiene) is usually around €20 for the most careful spenders to €40 as an average spender. So then it's safe to assume that this monthly cost will be around €100/month/person at the most competitive supermarkets such as 
Mercadona, Consum, Lidl and Carrefour.


This means that
€100 x 12 = €1200 (A year's est. groceries)

Transportation:

I spent 8 days in Barcelona and not once I had to use the metro system.I was more than happy walking 50 minute walks to get places (yes, I walk alot). I don't believe I would rely so much on the public transport as I've seen its also very possible to move around with a bicycle, which 
lead me to the Bicing service, a bicycle rental scheme that for 
€47/year allows you to navigate the city on two wheels. The first 30 
minutes of each trip are free with the subscription.

This means that €200 a year for transportation.

Overall:

   €6000
+€1200
+€200
=€7400 Just for a year in Barcelona.

The two film schools I plan to apply are both 

between €7800 AND €9600.
The links to both programs I intend to attend are below:

Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya
ESCAC:

https://escac.com/formacion-universitaria/titulo-oficial-grado-y-master-integrados/ficha/

ESCOLA De Cinema Barcelona
ECIB:

https://www.ecib.es/cursos-3/diploma-en-direccion-cinematografica/#contact_form_pop




When you are a young crew member in films earning in Dominican 
pesos, it simply comprehensively not affordable. Coming from a 
country like mine, I belong to a very particular spot in my society. I 
belong to a middle class family that consumes everything it produces, 
which means I am privileged enough to have received private school 
education and I have access to private health whenever I get sick. 
However having access to these services costs me and my family most of our income, leaving very little to save up and pay for things like 
getting superior education somewhere abroad. 
I appreciate my privilege but my hunt for improvement wont allow me 
to conform with anything but growth. 

This is why I am humbly asking my friends and friends of 
friends to reach out and hear my plea. I need help to accomplish this 
goal I've set upon myself and I have optimism that this will be a 
success. 
Have faith in me and I promise to deliver only the best results.

Consider helping me in more ways than donating? 

Share this story and help me reach more people.
follow me on instagram and support my photography if you like it.
@gabsalemany 
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