internet

Making It Happen: Onan - Sneek Peek #1

DawnAkemi — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:11:29 -0700

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 — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:44:27 -0700

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.

----------

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 — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:42:17 -0700

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.

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

India Tour: Film Locations

DawnAkemi — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:40:38 -0700

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 — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:39:20 -0700

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 — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:36:30 -0700

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.

-------------

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 — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:33:15 -0700

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 15:05:59 -0700

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

Thoughts about Webisodes, and QUARTERLIFE

FableForge — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:09:29 -0700

QUARTERLIFE is a webisodic series about some guys dealing with relationships and stuff. Slate reviewed it once as being "about a bunch of people either crying, starting to cry, or having just cried". I myself talked about it, when I lamented we "missed the boat".

Sorry to crow, but apparently I wasnt entirely crazy, it turns NBC is picking it up to become an honest-to-goodness TV series now, with one difference: the Quarterlife guys just deliver the finished episodes to NBC, NBC doesnt even read the scripts. No other TV Show ever, had enjoyed that kind of creative control.

So, it was interesting to read some thoughts by the creator of Quarterlife that got published today in Slate too: http://www.slate.com/id/2184746/page...

I'm just gonna quote some things I found interesting, but go ahead and read the full article if it strikes thy fancy:

On the state of things in Hollywood (not like I know :) ):

Marshall Herskovitz wrote:

So I went on the Internet. Took a break from television, from movies,
from a career as a highly paid writer/producer/director; took a break
from a business that isn't a business at all but rather a modern
iteration of feudalism. For here in Los Angeles, everyone exists in a
matrix, with those above and below one's own station. You can see it in
the restaurants at lunchtime, in the way the vassals and the knights
bow obsequiously to the earls and the dukes of the business. And, just
as in the days of feudalism, you owe service to the lord above you.
Service and the copyright to everything you create. In return he offers
you protection—offers but never actually gives it—and enough money to
support whatever manors and estates you can afford (an "estate" in Los
Angeles is officially half an acre).

On the coldness of the internet (and here I disagree a lot):

Marshall Herskovitz wrote:

Even the most brilliant accomplishments on the Internet are essentially
cold. Google has changed the world, but you don't snuggle up to it.
YouTube is a giant carnival, filled with freaks and mountebanks, a
place to gawk and laugh and get bored. Certainly not a place to feel
anything. And there's the rub. Because boys and geeks and
engineers—and, by the way, I've spent my life among all three and love
all three—don't naturally select for emotionality (they'd rather play
video games) or exploration of inner life (they'd rather watch porn) or
being in deep relationship with other people (they'd rather build Web
sites till all hours), the Internet is singularly devoid of these
colorations of humanity.

On the state of webisodes in general:

Marshall Herskovitz wrote:

Web series up to now have been somewhat fly-by-night affairs—cheaply
done mysteries, comedies, bikini fests. Some interesting work is out
there, for sure, like The Burg,
but not a lot, and most of it is simply incompetence and ignorance
masquerading as an "Internet style." And until now, no one had tried
anything that would actually engage the emotions of an audience.

On their "niche" market:

Marshall Herskovitz wrote:

And that's what happened. More than 100,000 that first day. We were off
and running. Not the most successful Web premiere in history, but
respectable. And our social network—with half its functionality, a very
leaky boat indeed—went live the same day, and thousands checked us out;
many of them stayed. A week later we had a small community, first in
the hundreds, then in the thousands. What amazed me was that our users
were exactly the people I'd hoped they'd be: aspirational, creative,
thoughtful. We began to see the most remarkable conversations on our
forums: "Why be a writer?" "Dealing with generalized anxiety disorder."
"Being a Christian and an artist in today's society."

On the future of webisodes:

Marshall Herskovitz wrote:

The goal all along with quarterlife has been to prove you can
independently produce high-quality content on the Internet. This is
important, because Hollywood's feudal structure is already penetrating
the digital realm: New duchies and principalities hold sway—Google,
Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft—even as the old kingdoms—TimeWarner, News
Corp., etc.—try to carve up the territory. You may think I've switched
metaphors, from sea to land, but it's the companies that are trying to
do that. No one can own the sea, but the land is easy to delineate. Our
job, all of us, if we care about freedom of information and ideas and
good story-telling, is to keep it all a big ocean where everyone is
free to roam.

My final thoughts..... I see him as competition, never underestimate, learning what I can :)

The Importance of Attendance

frightymcgee — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:20:17 -0700

I'd never been to a convention of any kind until last weekend. I went to the Fright Night Film Festival and Horror Convention simply to check out the event and see A Thousand Words: Bloodline screened. We've played in 4 locations so far (festivals and conventions included) and I've never gotten to sit in on a screening yet. I also got to at The Indie Gathering but I was asked to sit in on a couple panels and one of them was during the screening of my movie.

Anyway, I learned a lot about conventions and festivals this past weekend just in attending the event. I ran into a few filmmakers and learned that the promotion we do online does in fact make a difference. A guy out of Chicago and one from Detroit both knew who Tempered Zealot Productions was and they knew about A Thousand Words: Bloodline. This is great confirmation that our efforts are not in vane. Web traffic is a good indicator, but that just says someone hit your site, it doesn't tell you what they looked at or how long they were there. Though there are stats for those things you really don't know if they got to actually look around or just loaded up and moved on.

The other great thing I learned was that though the Internet is a great place to do promotion that it's not the only place that you NEED to work in. When we showed up the windows, doors, toilets, phones, walls, and anything and any place you can imagine were covered in posters, post cards, advertisements of all kinds meant to get people interested in seeing people's movies.

I said before I ran into a couple filmmakers there and they were passing out fliers, posters, matchbooks, and all kinds of stuff advertising their website, company, movies, and more. I picked up a lot of cool ideas for promoting our stuff in the future because of these people. One filmmaker dressed up as a candy striper and passed out simple goodies with their website on them. Good thing someone I went with spoke up before we went down so that I could make up that little card to advertise my movie screening.

When I finally got to check out my screening the room had maybe 15 people sitting in. Because of a scheduling issue all the shorts in the room we were playing in got pushed back by 2 hours, so ATW: Bloodline ended up playing against a local (Kentucky) feature that had a TON of advertising there. But the fact that we had anyone was great for me because I saw a lot of the people I had handed cards to in the room. Who knows who would have shown up if anyone had I not gone and advertised the movie.

So, I've always been a believer that supporting a movie you made or a movie you worked on as crew or an actor doesn't stop when the final cut is called. I've always held that if you want to make a career in professional movies then you need to present yourself in a comparable way. A new movie comes out of Hollywood and you see the actors and filmmakers all over television on Jay Leno and doing interviews and so on. Why can't it be the same with indie film? Low/no budget film?

Well, it can be the same way and we have tons of outlets. There are bunches of sites online that will review your movies and even interview you or your cast. There are festivals and conventions to go to and support your movie, cast members can go and help out, crew can go and help out. Heck this one guy had his parents helping him out and they were like in their 60's.

Next time I hit a convention or festival I'm very much going to print a bunch of posters and fliers and maybe bring some other interesting things to promote the movie. One table there had props from the movie on display. Other tables had trailers running for their movie or other movies they had done running on 13" televisions. I also took a stack of DVDs of ATW: Bloodline with me, I got to pass DVDs to people, to press, to celebs, and that all helps to get the exposure filmmakers might be looking for.

But now I know the importance of showing up to these things. It goes beyond the fun and just supporting the movie, but you need to show up to get the word out about your flick and to get people to see it and to take advantage of opportunities that might pop up. You need to go to put a face and name with your work. You never know who might show up and if you can get them a business card, a DVD of your movie, maybe get advice from them or even get invited to catch up at a bar or party after the day is done, this stuff could help you and your movie.

I think it's a valuable lesson in the Internet age. Promotion online isn't enough. So many people rely heavily on the Internet for getting their stuff out there, it's more of a crutch almost and has limited some people's work. There is really no way to tell what enough is, but you at least need to have a presence online and in public. Posters and advertisements, one-sheets, and other promotional stuff are important to put time into. Getting out there with the others is important if you want to get known, if you want exposure, if you want people to see your movie.

I love my community to death but the most disappointing thing here is that the majority of the people make movies and just let them go or post them online, maybe screening them locally at meetings or something, and that's it. I'm guessing that's not just here. The part that is disappointing is that the potential these people have goes to waste sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust. And just as much as they might say well I screened it locally, it's important to go outside that local shell and grab up exposure regionally and nationally if you can. After all the actors and crew put their work into your movie, getting it out there is one more way of paying them back.