dawnakemi

Making It Happen: Onan - Sneek Peek #1

DawnAkemi — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:11:29 +0000

WE HAVE A SEEK PREVIEW TO ONAN!!

This is a a trailer.

I won't give away the story except to say that my character makes an important discovery!!!

Hope you enjoy it!

Eating and Drinking Indian Style in Kerala

DawnAkemi — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:44:27 +0000

After most of the principal photography was finished for Onan,
our Director, Shyam Madhaven Sarada, treated Dave Williams and myself
to a short trip to the Indian State of Kerala, located on the other
side of the Indian subcontinent from Chennai. Here is some video of
Kallanchery Island, where we stayed.

Also in India, we learned
to eat with our hands, which is done very sophisticatedly by the
Indians, and to drink properly from shared water bottles, by pouring
the water into the mouth without touching the lips, so as not to spread
our germs.

Direction and Camera by videowilliams.
Editing by reincarnut.

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What an adventure!

Submitted by cpparker on May 3, 2008 - 7:13pm.

I
watched all your movies on YouTube the other day, I felt like I was
there. Was this your first time overseas? I can't wait to see the movie
when it comes out.

new
It was an adventure!

Submitted by DawnAkemi on May 3, 2008 - 7:38pm.

Thank you for watching and for the high complement, Christine!

This was not my first time overseas as I have been to Europe. But this
was certainly my first time to Asia and my first time for such a long
journey. The most time I spent in Europe was several days. I spent
over a month travelling to and from India... plus immersing myself into
their lifestyle and working world. It was an unbelievably eye-opening
experience to say the least. I will do it again in a heartbeat!

I can't wait til it comes out too...

Driving Through India at Night!

DawnAkemi — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:42:17 +0000

The hectic traffic patterns, street views, and crowds of people
continue to amaze me! Here is a view from a taxi at night... Shyam
offers his brilliant perspective here...

Note: Indians drive on the left side of the road and the driver is on the right side of the car.

Direction and Camera by videowilliams.
Editing by reincarnut.

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India Tour: Film Locations

DawnAkemi — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:40:38 +0000

Early in the trip, Dave and I took a tour of some of the film locations... we included three of them here:

Marina Beach: At 12 kilometers, Marina Beach is one of the longest beaches in the world.

St. Thomas Church: One of only three churches in the world with an apostle buried beneath.

Chennai
Mofussil Bus Station: Spread over 37 acres, it is the largest bus
station in Asia. There I shared chai tea with the director, Shyam
Madhaven Sarada, writer/actor, Ra Ramamoorthy, sound and camera, Sony
Bhaskaran, and David Williams (who is behind the camera in this vlog).

Direction and Camera by videowilliams.
Editing by reincarnut.

Palavakkam Beach

DawnAkemi — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:39:20 +0000

Dave and I were eventually given a beautiful apartment near the beach
for our month long stay in India. It was huge and, most importantly,
air conditioned... ;-)

We immediately checkout out the beach which yielded some surprises...

Direction and Camera by videowilliams.

... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . .

Indian Traffic

DawnAkemi — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:36:30 +0000

On our first day in India, Dave and I made this little film from the
balconey at our first place of stay. It encapsulates our initial
observations. This will eventually be a part of the "Postcards from
India" playlist at Youtube.

Direction and Camera by videowilliams.

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What?

Submitted by Turzman on May 3, 2008 - 6:28pm.

No mention of Indian steakhouses?

I hear they have the best barbeques in the world!

"Baffling the critics since 1971."

Yummy Food

Submitted by DawnAkemi on May 3, 2008 - 7:06pm.

We didn't eat much BBQ. But we did eat very, very well. Indian food
is a gustatory delight!!! Spicy and yummy. In fact, I think I put on
a pound or two that I am now working off on my Griffith Park hikes. Oh
well, gotta live life!!!

Hi Dawn!

Submitted by John Meredith on May 3, 2008 - 6:57pm.

Looks like a fun trip :)

Amazing Trip

Submitted by DawnAkemi on May 3, 2008 - 7:10pm.

Hiya John!

The trip was so much more than just fun... I am still trying to find
simple ways to describe it. Stuff like "life-changing" come to mind.
We were so immersed in a different world... it was like education and
experience and enjoyment (and then some) all rolled into one.

The Movie

Submitted by John Meredith on May 3, 2008 - 7:57pm.

What is the movie you made there about?

Movie Synopsis

Submitted by DawnAkemi on May 3, 2008 - 8:10pm.

"Onan"
interweaves the personal stories of several players in a drug deal,
which we discover as the drug deal unfolds. It's an action crime
drama. It was very well written... Shyam has a friend Ra Ramamoorthy,
who makes his living as an AD in Chennai, and is an excellent writer.

Sounds...

Submitted by John Meredith on May 3, 2008 - 8:26pm.

great Dawn.

I can't wait to see it.

Oh, since Dave is in Austrailia, cant he find Angus Young for us and ask him when he and his band are touring again? ;)

I'm Going to India!!!

DawnAkemi — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:33:15 +0000

Before going to India, I posted this little vlog announcing my trip to
the Youtube community: it talks about how "Onan" eventually came
together from that which was started on OTL. This film, along with
those created in India, will be made into a playlist called "Postcards
from India" on Youtube.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Making It Happen: We Made a Movie in India!

DawnAkemi — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:05:59 +0000

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

Dawn Drives Hollywood

videowilliams — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:45:01 +0000

The day before I flew home to Australia, Dawn took me on a driving tour of her stomping grounds on Hollywood Boulevard. I photographed the passing parade while we reflected on its history, traded wisecracks and reminisced about the good times we'd enjoyed.

The glamour of those famous intersections may have faded somewhat since their golden days, becoming overgrown with shops and tourist traps, but you can still feel "the fever" if you try...

This is the penultimate section of my US travelogue, and runs directly into the LOOP After Party.

Filmmaker's Notes: Another edited home movie, in the "holiday videos shot out the side of a moving car" style.

POLITICS: Truthers In Our Midst

videowilliams — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:30:10 +0000

If you go to KarmaCritic's latest Radio Broadcast blog (http://www.karmacritic.com/node/2339), you'll see a heck of a debate brewing down in the comments. It's one of the most politically charged questions of our time: "September 11th- Attack or Conspiracy?" Dawn and I could keep on going blow for blow on the subject there, but I'm going to lay my cards on the table here, because my answer just outgrew the comment box.

I really believe that all you 9/11 "truthers" have it wrong. It's not a question of what conspiracy theory you believe, but of WHY you feel the need to believe in a conspiracy at all. Do you really find it easier to believe that your own government perpetrated this atrocity than a bunch of hate-filled terrorists? If so, why? I'm trying to get my head around it.

September 11th shook up many people's world views- certainly mine. And one of the commonest questions going around America in the traumatised days afterwards was a plaintive "Why do they hate us so much?" Yet many people- particularly those on the left of politics- don't want to believe in hate as a force. They want to believe in a world where all of humanity can talk it through, embrace our differences and go wandering into the sunset holding hands and singing kum-ba-ya. The idea of fundamentalist Muslims who hate the West and all we stand for, who want to see us destroyed for no better reason than because their religion says so, just doesn't fit. Hence, 9/11 must have been an inside job.

Appropriately enough, this whole debate grew out of a thread concerning Nazis. There, a similar thinking comes up. Why did so many Jews (including several of the branches of my mother's family tree) allow themselves to be herded up like so much cattle and carted off to the concentration camps to be killed? Why weren't there more uprisings in the ghettoes? Why did so many intelligent people buy the transparent cover story that they were being "resettled" in the east? Well, for many Jews in Europe, the very idea that they were going to be exterminated as a people was preposterous. They couldn't believe they were hated that much- it simply didn't fit their world view. There must have been something else going on...

Oh, there are none so blind as those who will not see.

One commentator I've seen has likened those on the left who claim "America did this to itself" to a guy who's always bitching about his wife. He's always complaining, but you figure that deep down he really loves her. One day you're having coffee in a restaurant with this guy, when suddenly outside the window you see a gang of thugs grabbing his wife and beating her up. You jump up and say "They're beating the shit out of your wife! Aren't you going to help her?" And he says "Naaah, she probably deserves it" and continues with his coffee. At that moment you realise "Wow, you really do hate your wife." Substitute "truthers" for "guy" and "America" for "wife" and you get the analogy. You guys really do hate your own country.

Certainly I agree with EvilDirector that the Bush administration used this attack in later years to justify their own nefarious neocon agenda, spy on people, suspend legal protections, torture prisoners, re-invade Iraq, and various other creepy stuff. But they were hardly smart enough- or evil enough- to plot the death of over 3,000 of their own people in advance, then cover it up and make it look like terrorism, just to get America fearful and compliant. This is fantasy. The attack itself was just that- an attack.

Like Dan Gadberry, I believe what happened that day is basically what we've been told happened. A highly organised group of fanatical Muslim terrorists, backed and trained by Al Qaeda, took control of four aircraft on September 11th, 2001- the anniversary, correct me if I'm wrong, of some particularly hated Middle Eastern peace agreement that had been brokered at Camp David years before. Two of them slammed into the World Trade Center towers, whose resulting collapse caused destruction beyond even Osama Bin Laden's wildest dreams. Another plane went into the Pentagon, then word got out through mobile phones about what was happening, and the passengers on United Flight 93 retook the controls of their hijacked plane and turned it away from the White House or Camp David where it was headed, bringing it down instead in a Pennsylvania field. There were no government agents on those planes, no controlled demolition of the towers, no secret white house master plan.

It should be noted that conspiracy theories about September 11th are more popular in the Muslim world than anywhere else on earth. Typically, they feel a need to evade responsibility and paint themselves as victims rather than aggressors. "It's America's own fault." I'm sorry- that doesn't wash with me.

I don't watch Fox. I don't like Bush. Heck, I don't even live in America. But you truthers are kidding yourselves.

The terrorists did it.