Etiket: Film

30Eylül2017

Transformism #indiefeature in progress!

Written By ege-maltepeLeave a comment on Transformism #indiefeature in progress!

Our independent film Transformism continues to call “action” all over New York City! Our fundraising campaign ends in only a couple of days. We are grateful to our friends and followers who believe in our work and support us. Please check it out and contribute, share, help us make some noise: www.indiegogo.com/projects/transformism-film
TR: Bağımsız film projemiz Transformism New York’ta çekimlere devam ediyor! Fon destek kampanyamızın son günlerindeyiz. Bize inanan ve destek veren dostlarımızla takipçilerimize minnettarız. Siz de destekçiler arasına katılın, çorbada tuzunuz filmde isminiz olsun: www.indiegogo.com/projects/transformism-film
Şimdiden teşekkür ederiz.
Here’s our latest teaser with footage from the film, enjoy!
Filmden görüntülerle son indiegogo fragmanımız yayında!


Snapshots from our set… // Ve setten anlar…
Ege Maltepe, filming Transformism, 2017
Ege Maltepe, filming Transformism, 2017
Ege Maltepe, filming Transformism, 2017

TRANSFORMISM

“We must cultivate our garden.”
Director: Emir Gamsızoğlu
Screenplay: Ege Maltepe & Emir Gamsızoğlu
Director of Photography: Yiğit İlke Yücesan
Cast: Ege Maltepe, Kaan Çakır, Eurydice El-Etr, Cihangir Duman, Dylan Grunn, Eva Cavadini, Elizabeth Raia, Atakan Oğuz, Carol Asch, Jeffrey Sweet, Jenny Burks, Mary Anne Holliday, Yessenia Rivas, Eamon Speer, Mason Sullivan, Amanda Jungquist, Kevin Kilcullen, Valentina Layne, Rich Layne, Ali Pınar, Emin Maltepe, Defne Maltepe, Nil Maltepe.
_______________________
What we see in the world is a collapse of culture and we had something to say! “TRANSFORMISM is about a new philosophy on our power to transform ourselves & our culture.
What we see as the savior of the future is culture. Politics and economy are only the subsets of culture. If we transform the culture, the politicians and the approach to economy will transform as well. To transform culture to a better version of itself, philosophy is essential. To create a new philosophy, we need thinkers and for people to think, we need to color their lives with arts and literature.
The story is told through Claire’s transformation from a being a blind consumer of popular culture to a philosopher with widespread views. Claire’s encounters with new people has a big role in her transformation.
We took Voltaire’s suggestion to “cultivate our garden”, mixed it with the ideas of other philosophers from Confucius to Sartre and todays social ideological needs and transformed them into a new philosophy.
This is an independent project with a very small budget. We are currently in the production process. We have a super talented and international cast and crew. New York scenes are almost finished, and now our story will take us to Istanbul and Paris.
Your contributions will be helpful in the future steps of our production and post production process. We thank you for your support!
 

11Ağustos2017

What's in the works? Transformism!

Written By ege-maltepeLeave a comment on What's in the works? Transformism!
After a looong break from my blog, it is time to announce my new big project… drumroll… a feature film!
We wrote TRANSFORMISM with my partner in crime Emir Gamsizoglu. We gathered an amazing cast, and are currently getting ready to start filming in New York. Our crowdfunding campaign is now live to support the upcoming steps of the production!
After living in New York for 10 years, I saw that we collected a lot of experience, memories and ideas on how the world is the way it is now.  From the ongoing refugee crisis, to having a shrewd business man, and a reality tv star as the president of USA; from the overwhelming flood of information that eventually blinds us all, to terrorist attacks all around- the events of our days have been reminding me my responsibility as an artist. Emir and I decided to “say something” and to have a work that is reachable and long lasting so that it finds its place in the history.
What we see in the world is a collapse of culture and we had something to say! “TRANSFORMISM is about a new philosophy on our power to transform ourselves & our culture. The story is told through Claire’s transformation from a being a blind consumer of popular culture to a philosopher with widespread views. Claire’s friendship with Selma, a Syrian emigre pianist, has a big role in her transformation. We take Voltaire’s suggestion to “cultivate our garden” to the next step and suggest a “how”.
I believe our film Transformism will make philosophy cool again!

Here’s the link for our indiegogo campaign – contribute today!

 http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/transformism-film

No matter how much you can contribute we’ll be grateful for your support.
In solidarity!

3Aralık2016

Chekhov in New York

Written By ege-maltepeLeave a comment on Chekhov in New York

It’s been a long time since my previous blog post…

Along with my work as the translator for Viola Spolin’s Improvisation For The Theater, I have been busy working on a new project, a new web-series on my favorite Russian; Anton Chekhov’s work.

Since my graduation from The New Actors Workshop, I often hear my teachers Mike Nichols and George Morrison’s voices in my head; both of them were big fans of Chekhov. One thing Mike used to repeat over and over during his masterclasses was that we should be working on materials which made us think “I know exactly what this is about!”. Finally in summer/fall of 2016 I dared to jump in and start working on Chekhov’s dark, cynical and funny characters, this time they are – yup!- New Yorkers!

“Fine. Since the tea is not forthcoming, let’s have a philosophical conversation.”

Anton Chekhov wrote about people, their hopes and dreams, failures and weaknesses, their desires and heartbreaks. He often questioned morality, common sense, social values and norms. His characters speak and act in a way that often hits too close to home. 

He lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A Russian doctor. Medicine was his wife and literature was his mistress. He believed that if you wanted to lead a good life, you needed to work. So, he devoted himself into healing people physically as well as intellectually and spiritually by holding them a mirror through his stories and plays. 

“Man will become better when you show him what he is like.” 

In this project, we asked ourselves what if Chekhov’s characters were some New Yorkers?

Dark, grumpy, selfish, stupid and quirky… Along with a love and hate relationship with the city. 

“For one sensible person there are a thousand fools, and for one sensible word there are a thousand stupid ones; the thousand overwhelms the one, and that is why cities and villages progress so slowly. The majority, the mass, always remain stupid!”

While most of us would agree with Anton on that one, we all hang on to this;

“You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.”

The series will be published in February 2017, meantime we’ll share little snippets. So please subscribe to the channel, share and comment!
Chekhov in New York
Adapted & performed by Ege Maltepe
Directed by Emir GAMSIZOGLU
Music by Emir GAMSIZOGLU