Film 01 · Journey to Mars · 2022
Journey to Mars
A narrative documentary about the road to Mars. Best STEM Film at the NASA CineSpace International Film Competition, selected from 169 entries across 38 countries.
Journey to Mars · full film
Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/4Zxaz1RHYwY
Recognition
Best STEM Film, NASA CineSpace International Film Competition, 2022. 169 entries, 38 countries. Screened on the NASA Space Station Channel and at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival.
Credits
- Directed by
- Rohan Chopra
- Written by
- Rohan Chopra
- Produced by
- Rohan Chopra
- Cinematography
- Rohan Chopra
- Editing
- Rohan Chopra
- Sound & mix
- Rohan Chopra
- Archival footage
- NASA
One name across every line is the point. The film was produced end to end: research, scripting, cinematography, archival sourcing, audio engineering, and all post-production.
Contact sheet
01 · Opening
02 · Archival
03 · Original
04 · Close
Director's note
Two decisions shaped this film. The first was to tell the Mars story as a narrative rather than an explainer. I wanted the viewer to feel the distance to Mars before hearing a single number about it. So the structure follows a journey, and the science arrives when the story needs it.
The second was to treat NASA's archive as source material with its own voice. NASA has decades of footage most people have never seen, shot by engineers and astronauts who had no thought of cinema. Some of it is beautiful for exactly that reason. Sourcing took weeks. I searched, logged, and graded archival material until it could sit next to my own footage without a visible seam. Every archival shot had to earn its place in the story. Spectacle alone didn't qualify.
Doing every role myself turned out to be the education. Writing taught me what the camera needed. Editing showed me what the writing should have done. Mixing taught me how much of a film lives in what you hear. I still work in that loop.