Saturday, March 6, 2010

Internet Superhero Kai Soremekun Talks CHICK, Part Three

Have you ever felt something important inside you?  Have you ever intuitively felt there was a higher purpose for you? Then read on and learn how Kai Soremekun's brilliant web series CHICK can help you tap into the superhero that is waiting inside you!  In Parts One and Two of our interview, the Indie Soap winner shares what led to the creation of CHICK and how we can discover all our inner superhero.  In Part Three below, Kai discusses the political relevance of CHICK, the technical aspects of putting together a web series, as well as spiritual lessons learned along the way.

We Love Soaps: I think politically this is a great time for CHICK to come out.  Many people who have been disenfranchised voted for the first time in the Presidential Elections in 2008.  This series speaks to people who are getting in touch with that power.
Kai Soremekun: I think it’s an amazing time.  I know people are freaking out because the economy went to hell and so much bad stuff has gone down.  But I go back to my belief that what we call “bad stuff”, who knows if it’s bad or good?  Human nature requires that we have funkiness in order to be moved to shift to somewhere else.  Unfortunately we don’t tend to say, “Life is great, so what can I do to grow and improve?” You kind of need that bad stuff.  I think it’s a fascinating time for the world in terms of our growth as a species.

There’s a Chinese fable about a farmer in a rural area who lives with his son.  And his son goes out and finds a wild horse and brings it back.  All the people in the village say, “This is such good luck,” but the farmer says, “Maybe so, maybe not.”  The son is training the horse, falls off, and breaks his leg.  Then the villagers say, “Such bad luck, such bad luck!” Then the army comes into town and takes all the young people, but the guy’s broken leg prevents him from having to go to war.  So you never know if something is good or bad in the sequence of events.  If you stay open to seeing everything as a part of the process, and assume the whole process is good, then you stop defining things as much as “good” or “bad,” you just see it as all part of the journey.

We Love Soaps: That has been so true in my own life too!  When I haven’t gotten a job I wanted or lost a relationship, I have judged things to be “bad,” only to learn later on that it was the best thing that could have possibly happened.
Kai Soremekun: Half the battle is getting to the point of being able to see that.  There are so many people out there who say “I don’t understand why this happened...” and they can’t get past that mourning period in order to open themselves up to the greater picture. 

We Love Soaps: This for me is where faith comes in, that things are working out for the greater good even when they don’t appear that way.  And I see that in CHICK as well, that this woman has an shakable faith that she has someone or something inside of her that is meaningful and valuable.  I can’t wait to see where she goes with this.
Kai Soremekun: Me neither!  We’ve got season one down in terms of where she is going.  When I started I had an alternate reality game that was going along with the project and it fell apart about three weeks ago.  Right when it was supposed to become more interactive, the audience was going to help Lisa to find the secret Academy.  But it all fell apart, and I had to rewrite and figure out, “What she’s going to do now to get back to the produced episodes?” It’s been an interesting journey in another sense of having to rework that.  In Season Two it’s going to get really really interesting.  There will be some darker forces showing up, and it will definitely be more interactive.  As Lisa gets closer to finding this Academy, I want to create opportunities for people to find this in their own lives. 

We Love Soaps: In Episode 8, when Lisa was running down Hollywood Blvd talking to people, how did you do that? Were these actors, or people you just found on the street?
Kai Soremekun: Well thank God I live in Hollywood.  I went down in front of the Mann’s Chinese where all those people dress up like superheroes.  Basically what we did was give them a tip, like the tourists have to do to take a picture of them, and I asked them some questions.  It was total improv!  I said, “I’m looking for a secret academy where regulary people can train to be superheroes, and they just answered based on their character.”  Cat Woman cracked me up.  She said, “Honey, it’s a gift, either you’ve got it or you don’t.”  I was like, no she didn’t!

We Love Soaps: Where is the break between season one and season two?
Kai Soremekun: We have twenty episodes scheduled for season one.  It ends with some cliffhangers.  But Lisa may be popping up every so often between season one and season two.  

We Love Soaps: Did you film season one all at once, or in different segments?
Kai Soremekun: We filmed the first seven early last year but we got kicked out of our location.  So we had to re-shoot in March and April and shot another two days.  Episodes 18 and 19 will also be fully produced.  The ones inbetween are in that video blog style.  That’s just me running around shooting a week before the episode comes up.  Usually the episode launches on Tuesday.  On Wednesday I call my producer freaking out asking, “What the hell am I doing next week?” On Thursday I’m writing and finessing an outline for what an episode is going to be, passing it off to Kimberly, getting her input.  Shooting on Friday and Saturday, thinking “Oh my God, this sucks, this isn’t going to work!” Then finishing it late Sunday or Monday morning night to get it to our distributors, then starting again on Tuesday. 

We Love Soaps: Before we finish, I want to congratulate again on your Indie Soap Award for Best Director.
Kai Soremekun: Those awards were so much fun! What’s crazy is, you know who won, but when my award came up I was sitting there nervours.  There’s something about award shows and sharing with the community, it was awesome.  We appreciate you giving light to all of us that are out here working hard. 

We Love Soaps: And it’s wonderful for Roger and I to have a chance to celebrate the work we admire so much.  It is such a gift. 
Kai Soremekun: The gift for us is to see people like you who are not just doing it, but are truly passionate about it. 

We Love Soaps: We’re going to keep doing that and keep watching CHICK. What I love about internet web shows is how we are seeing original and different characters whose stories are being told in the continuing story format, stories that networks would never touch.  I always tell our readers that if you are upset about your favorite daytime show being cancelled, then go to your computer and witness the abundance of rich story telling going on there. 
Kai Soremekun: Your timing is right on in terms of tapping into that and making people aware of that.  It’s a wild crazy exciting time.

EDITOR'S NOTE:  Okay Readers, it's your turn!  Click here to begin watching CHICK and learning how you can tap into your own potential secret powers.

Damon L. Jacobs is a Marriage Family Therapist practicing in New York City, channeling his own inner-superhero as the author of "Absolutely Should-less: The Secret to Living the Stress-Free Life You Deserve". He is re-imagining a world without "shoulds" at www.shouldless.com.

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