For the meal to be complete, we invited filmmaker Nicolás Alcalá from Riot Cinema Collective. We talked about the film industry, the difficult times it’s going through (both in Spain and outside), the democratization of film, how now anyone can do a short but not everyone can do a good short, the limits (or lack of) and differences between cinema and narrative branded content, the problems with distribution and monetization. It’s tough out there. Lots of questions, very few answers.

Check out Álvaro’s vimeo: the man’s an artist. Special mention to his work with GQ Spain and the first two minutes of his short Marrakech.

We have the impression that there are very few filmmakers with daring and innovative ideas of using web tools to sustain profitable business models around their movies. Would you agree?

Why do you think this is? Or even better: What do you think innovation in films should look like?

yuuuuhuuuuuu… Where are you filmmakers? We need you. Films need you.

Just call. It’ll be easier.

He’s holding a copy of The Illuminatus Trilogy, a weird hybrid of sci-fi, conspiracy theories and parody. He assures us it has nothing to do with Tom Hanks (absolutely not).

He’s a funny and imaginative person, and sometimes he resembles a late-night stand-up comedian with a red brick wall and a mic as backdrop. We had a good laugh at his prediction concerning the Microsoft’s Surface: its future awaits on the streets, with a goat dancing on it while playing the multitouch piano.

Check out his photoblog, we are all big fans of his photos.

But don’t let the geekiness deceive you: when not whiplashing servers, daemons, and minions; JJ navigates death-defying rallies in a 1982 Porsche 911 SC Targa. He also has an incisive sense of humor, saying that we all have faults when he found out I’m vegetarian. We also suspect he eats rocks and shits gunpowder, but this is not confirmed (yet).

Being such a badass and all, we decided to organize together next year’s Yuri’s Night, an annual worldwide party celebrating Yuri Gagarin’s ascent into space. Music, rockets and gunpowder, a winning combination.

Mr. Calavera told us about his recent trip to the US, where he spoke at Google’s Test Automation Conference 08 in Seattle (you can find Calavera’s presentation here), and then the ApacheCon in New Orleans, where he spoke about Abdera in the Fast Feather track.

Tomorrow Mr. Calavera is invading Edinburgh with Vostok’s own Sam Lown and the rest of Madrid’s RoR Gang. Make us proud at the Scotland on Rails Conference guys!

Maki is—without a doubt—the person who carries the coolest gadgets around, casually pulling out an iRex iLiad (an Amazon Kindle-like device) and an ultra-portable Dell projector.

We enjoyed chatting about infodesign and other stuff, some highlights to linkable content:

• Hans Rosling’s spectacular presentation at TED, whoever says statistics are boring deserves a punch in the face.
• Paul Mijksenaar’s great work at Schiphol, Amsterdam; and his short but tasty book, “An Introduction to Information Design”.
• What the heck happened to Second Life? And why people still keep trying to replicate reality in 3D environments? It has all the cons and none of the benefits. At least WoW allows you to run around slashing innocent creatures.
• The difference between the “showing all the data” approach by Edward Tufte, and R.S. Wurman’s “selecting a presenting only what is important to the reader”.
• Myth debunked: Nasa spent millions developing a pen that would work in space
• We also debunked the mentos myth, however, after reading the article, I withdraw my offer to atempt it. Hey, stop calling me chicken!

Thanks for visiting our headquarters Maki!

Today was Alberto ‘denegro‘ Romero’s turn. He’s an interaction designer at dnx, one of unvlog.com‘s founders, and a huge Sopranos‘ fan. Lunch seemed almost thematic: we ended up at our favorite Sicilian restaurant sipping mirto (cranberry liquor) and Alberto took home some great cannoli to enjoy while watching the fourth season tonight (departing on a Italian Vespa bike, as if it was not enough).

Past guests to Vostok’s spaceship:

• Jacobo ‘The Robot’ García
• Marcela Machuca
• Agustín Jiménez