A message from Sylvia

As we continue on the paths that our work as artists keep us on - Chris finishing his novel and producing music, sylvia devoting her studio time to solo projects that increasingly get attention from curators, Sapna shooting her co-starring role on NBC's 'Awake' - among other things, Keskarel seems to have ended, as successful collaborative projects are supposed to. We hope our project continued just long enough, and is not ending too soon or too late. Look for us, each of us - sylviatoyindustries, Chris Arthur-Henly Robinson, Michael Lewis, Diana Slampyak, Nidal Yousef, Nima Nejad, Steven Lewis & Sapna Gandhi - in the future. We will be there making art.

- sylvia

Keskarel, a Quicktime storyboard

Keskarel is a live-action (not an animatic!) feature-length Quicktime storyboard, directed and produced by sylviatoyindustries. The characters and the dialogue in Keskarel were entirely improvised by the actors, using a storyline written by Chris Arthur-Henly Robinson. Entirely - so much so, that 75% of what we shot was thrown out as the characters lived an ever-changing story in their fictional world. This piece will be produced in late 2011-early 2012 with full tech by sylviatoyindustries, with Michael Lewis and Chris Robinson co-directing. This movie is from San Francisco. The cast is Diana Slampyak, Nima Nejad, Nidal Yousef, Steven Lewis, Sapna Gandhi and Nena St. Louis. We thank Zatoon Records for the loan of tunes by The Neybuzz. Our movie is blogged at keskarelamovie.blogspot.com. 'Keskarel' is shot on Canon Vixias.

A message from sylviatoyindustries: Congratulations!

keskarel navapeac <keskarel@gmail.com>

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Your movie

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keskarel navapeac <keskarel@gmail.com>	Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 3:43 AM
To: Chris Arthur-Henly Robinson, Diana Slampyak, Nidal Yousef, Nima Nejad, Steve Lewis, Sapna Gandhi, Michael Lewis
with luck, it is going to the encoder today. the screening copy will of course not have a watermark - the final copy on Vimeo will. i will make copies of the master sans watermark for everyone. congratulations. job well done. sylvia -- Thanks. The Keskarel the Movie production team

Keskarel - update this weekend

First rushes from yesterday. Clips from this segment are rendering in the timeline "as we speak," and the updated storyboard will be posted before dawn.
sylvia

Keskarel - update this week: The final cut, 3rd Pass - we are almost done!

This is the final version, minus 1) the pivotal incident subplot storyline scenes, nicknamed 'Hamlet + Ophelia' and featuring Steven Lewis + Sapna Gandhi; 2) the ending, which the characters have not revealed to us yet; and 3) pickup. We will post the last pass with the real ending and all the pickup we shoot for the rest of this summer on September 18th, after the movie is screened in San Francisco for a private audience in September 2011!

A message from sylviatoyindustries

putting my photo in this post because it gets really personal for me this weekend, when i shoot the Hamlet + Ophelia scene with my youngest "sibling," brother-in-law Steven Lewis (whose first love is theatre!) and my dearest, darling Sapna (Sapna Gandhi), who gets shockingly more beautiful every year! it is so flattering that two people (who have LA agents getting them auditions and work on a regular basis) think it will be fun to work on my 'little movie.' wow!

A message from sylviatoyindustries to the Keskarel Cast: Hey Nima: But it's your birthday!

keskarel navapeac <keskarel@gmail.com>

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hey, Nima!

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keskarel navapeac <keskarel@gmail.com>	Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 3:56 AM
To: Nima Nejad Cc: diana slampyak, Christopher Robinson, Nidal
thursday the 14th is your birthday? you don't really want to shoot on your birthday, do you? especially since you're the one who'll be doing the heavy lifting in most of the scenes! we'll have a cake for you, for sure - but it's up to you. -- sylvia Thanks. The Keskarel the Movie production team

Keskarel - update this week: The final cut begins - we are almost done!

keskarel navapeac <keskarel@gmail.com>

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The new timeline

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keskarel navapeac <keskarel@gmail.com>	Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 11:29 AM
To: diana slampyak, Nima Nejad, Nidal, Christopher Robinson Cc: Sapna
guys, this is the plan for the final version, minus about 3-5 scenes - http://vimeo.com/26328535. i need nima & diana to watch the first scene - it is very different, and will change what happens, which likely involves the audience finding out right away when Nima/Mikael gets up off the floor laughing, and then waiting for K to come back - which of course doesn't happen until the end of the movie. Since Nima is available this Thursday night, Nidal, I hope we can get a short scene of him coming into Nabila's with a photo and description. Most likely, Nidal's character will lie, thinking he's protecting Keskarel. Also, as it turns out, not knowing the City, K also doesn't know that the laundromat where the taxi dropped her off at the end of the movie (more about that later this week), is only a few blocks from Nima/Mikael's apartment.   More later.

A message from sylviatoyindustries: update, this month

Hamlet is like a box of chocolates ...

keskarel navapeac <keskarel@gmail.com>

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The Keskarel Quicktime movie Hamlet + Ophelia scene

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keskarel navapeac <keskarel@gmail.com>	Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 10:14 PM
To: Sapna Gandhi, Steven Lewis Cc: Christopher Robinson , diana slampyak
Thanks for your patience. One of my old writing teachers used say, when you have a good draft, put it in a drawer for 6 weeks and let it sit - or "take," is more like it. A new piece of work is a new thing in your life that you have to get used to. When I first reread these scenes, just a month or so after seeing Hamlet performed on Alcatraz, I knew this section (below) is what the movie needs - an argument when people are saying mean nasty things to each other, that could get loud, and if distorted by wall and airspace and accompanied by actors' business, could really sound like a domestic dispute, especially to a second language English newlywed who is so green she ran away from home because she really believed bopping her husband on the head with a frozen Cornish game hen could kill him. But I had 1) just seen Hamlet live and 2) we didn't know yet why Keskarel ran away from home. We have a few guidelines that seem to work for us: the writer (usually Chris, but in this case Shakespeare) writes a script and provides it to the actors. Diana and I improvise, and so did our natural, Nidal at the store downstairs. Nima followed the script without having specific lines. The guidelines for this scene are you are two actors who are rehearsing together to play H + O in your own Shakespeare theatre company. Your fellow troupers don't think you're a fit, and you have to prove to them that you can make it work: you have decided that you will try to surprise each other at rehearsals to keep things fresh. I don't think it's necessary for you to be off book - it just needs to be clear immediately to the audience once they see you, that your characters are actors. Please remember that the only rule besides show up at sylviatoyindustries is have fun - life is short. We already have a woman attacking her husband with a chicken in the first scene, so knock yourselves out. HAMLET     Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a     breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest;     but yet I could accuse me of such things that it     were better my mother had not borne me: I am very     proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at     my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,     imagination to give them shape, or time to act them     in. What should such fellows as I do crawling     between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,     all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.     Where's your father? OPHELIA     At home, my lord. HAMLET     Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the     fool no where but in's own house. Farewell. OPHELIA     O, help him, you sweet heavens! HAMLET     If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for     thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as     snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a     nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs     marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough     what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,     and quickly too. Farewell. OPHELIA     O heavenly powers, restore him! HAMLET     I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God     has given you one face, and you make yourselves     another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and     nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness     your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath     made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages:     those that are married already, all but one, shall     live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a     nunnery, go. I have a shotlist in my head - there are about four or five. This isn't specific yet, but One in Sapna's living room One from outside an open window (with you inside/camera outside, peeping tom style) One in the front yard a prop of your choosing - the only rule is that it has to be big enough for the camera to show an object One with the two of you from behind walking up the sidewalk, vigorous business/action of your choosing - big enough for the camera to show (it could be tag, skipping, beating each other with plastic baseball bats - you just have to surprise each other) One with you passing the Videographer on the sidewalk, running your lines however you like Thanks, and see you soon. sylvia -- Thanks. The Keskarel the Movie production team

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Keskarel and her neighbor this weekend: Improv + rehearsal

sorry for the delay - we have been quiet but cogitating, and finally are reworking scenes about the development of Keskarel's and The Videographer's relationship. it had to be done due to our movie developing a plot!

more new core conflicts scenes to be posted later in the week.
sylvia

Keskarel, a Quicktime storyboard

With 4 new scenes added, the plot is plumping up and the story is starting to make sense. sylvia will continue to add to our new pickup list (http://keskarelamovie.blogspot.com/2011/06/pick-up.html). Hopefully, we'll shoot two new scenes with Nidal at Nabila's this coming Thursday the 9th. On July 23, we'll shoot the Hamlet + Ophelia scenes (http://keskarelamovie.blogspot.com/2011/02/keep-it-simple-sylvia.html, and preceeding) with Steve Lewis and Sapna Gandhi down South in Los Angeles. AD Chris is working on a new Keskarel + husband scene for the climax of the movie in fidelity with end-your-story-where-it-started. We are almost done!

sylvia