Once upon a time, a great many of us were drawn to OTL to participate in a reality show. In the process, we discovered the possibility for creative collaboration with other like-minded artists, all finding each other through the magic of the internet. When it became clear that OTL was not the ideal playground for the necessary exchange of ideas, KarmaCritic was created to continue to nurture those collaborations born on OTL and to draw new artists. All of us desired to make movies.

I am lucky enough to see these desires bear fruit: I recently returned from India after just such a collaboration. Dave Williams (videowilliams) and myself were invited to India to work with Shyam Madhavan Sarada (reincarnut) on the production of his film, “Onan” (this is a temp-title… a new title is being registered at this moment), an action crime drama. Shyam even pulled together the financing to fly us out and put us up for over a month. The trip was extremely successful and a marvelous adventure… never had I traveled outside the U.S. for that long and never to such an exotic land. My goodness, I flew half the globe!

The story, interweaving the personal stories of players in the unfolding of a drug deal, was tightly written and compelling, while also designed for an improvisational acting approach: Shyam was the director, producer, DP, and actor; Dave Williams both worked the camera and acted; I was brought out to act, but also contributed story and production ideas, as did Dave. We had a delightful Indian cast and crew to work with. Shyam is a true collaborator.

I must say, too, that after all the talk I’ve seen on the internet, Shyam proved, with out a doubt, that he can walk his talk. He expressed a desire for this project, and then proceeded to make it happen. This is the first time I’ve seen a project of this scale, partially derived from internet networking, come together internationally. Shyam has my deep respect.

The film is in post now and planned to be completed by June. Shyam’s distribution plan is beautifully simple: in a country with a billion TV/film-mad viewers, hungry for content, he is already lining up interested buyers (their business model is different from the Hollywood corporate commercial based system). He plans to make enough profit (the word “profit” rarely being seen in the world of American independent filmmaking) to do this all over again, continuing our collaborations, and building a body of work. Dave and I may find our passports filled with Indian stamps… how awesome. He also wants to produce films in Sydney and Hollywood… or elsewhere.

I will be uploading some vlogs, created by Dave and myself, documenting our adventure, (before, during, and after the trip)… I hope everyone at KC can enjoy it as much as we did making it. The whole experience was amazing.

This is so tremendously exciting: not only do our initial dreams and intentions for internet relationships work, they come together to meaningfully create films anywhere in the world… not just in Hollywood or with people living within a few hour radius. All we have to do is believe and then just do it! Shyam has a favorite saying: Free. Your. Mind. I agree. Believe.

Later addition:

Shyam just sent the 1st teaser for Onan. I'm so excited!!!!

Please enjoy:

ONAN (Tamil/English) Sneak Peek #1