Eva Longoria directs and stars in her own Short Film 'Out of the Blue' Inspired by 10 User Generated Photographs

Eva Longoria just directed and starred in her short film, “Out of the Blue” as part of Canon’s “Project Imaginat10n” – a user generated photo contest run by Ron Howard where celebrity directors, including Eva, Jamie Foxx, Biz Stone (Twitter co-founder), Georgina Chapman (designer and co-founder of Marchesa) and James Murphy (founder of LCD Soundsystem) are directing short films inspired by consumer photos. Eva Longoria partnered with Canon and Ron Howard to direct this film.

“Out of the Blue” is the story of a tough, sexy woman fighting her way through a series of unique physical challenges to stop a mad man. The female character’s mission takes a surprising turn that leaves us wondering if it was all just a game. The film co-stars Amaurey Nolasco (Prison Break) and will premiere at Canon’s “Project Imaginat10n” Film Festival in Fall 2013.

The inspiration for the film was based on 10 user generated photographs, which literally outline the principles and good execution of a good film -

-Backstory -Cleansing-

-Character - The Collector

-Discovery - Discovering Limits

-Goal - Alli's dreams

-Mood - Lost in Blue

-Obstacle - Hot Embers

-Relationship- Self Portrait of Henry Jekyll

-Setting - The Long Walk

-The Unknown -Trouble Ahead

-Time - Patch Me Through

Canon’s Project Imaginat10n is the first film festival in history where consumer photographs will inspire Hollywood films. After choosing her ten photos, Eva has now completed the next phase of Canon’s Project Imaginat10n – film production. The film title is similar to that of the winning photograph she selected in the Mood category.

Ron Howard selected the photograph “Discovering limits” in the Discovery theme which must be used as inspiration in all films; at first, the photograph was a challenge to work into the script, the story has greatly evolved since Ron picked the Discovery photo.

Eva is also the first director for this project to act in her short film. During pre-production, Eva had a call with Ron Howard to prepare her for filming; Ron said he that he admires Eva’s ambition for this and even visited her on set to check in on the process. To prepare for the role, Eva did extensive fight training and also worked with stuntmen.

Production was held in February in Los Angeles, California. “Out of the Blue” was written by Robert Leddy Jr. and Wendy West and produced by Freestyle Productions. The film was shot using the Canon C500 and co-stars Amaurey Nolasco (of Prison Break) as the villain. Many of Eva’s ten photos were taken very literally in the script and set design, especially the "Setting" photo depicted in the location of the shoot. In the film, there will be little dialogue and more action which is very stylized.