WHAT’S better than one movie poster? Two, especially if the second one is even better! OTOSOTU (pronounced “Oh-Toe-So-Two” for “On The Other Side Of The Universe”) now has two posters, the second replacing the first as the official first poster. Yep, it’s that good, or I should say better. But, hey, I still like the original first as it has my picture on it in my roles as Imperax Commander Michael Mylo AND that of his son, Captain-Major Brit Mylo; Sakura Kai as his wife, Carol Myl...

ACTOR Daniel S. Janik will play impuned Imperax Commander Michael Mylo, Imperax Captain-Major Brit Mylo and provide the voice of Captain-Major Kyle Westbrook in the upcoming JET Progress production of OTOSOTU (pronounced “Oh-Toe-So-Two” for “On The Other Side Of The Universe”). Michael, the disgraced captain of the Astership Twilon, which abruptly disappeared during the crucial battle of Tylog-Tyle, returns with an intriguing but potentially deadly proposal from the other side of the ...

THE international-multi-award-winning actress, Sakura Kai (aka Setsuko Tsuchiya) will play Carol Mylo, wife of traitorous Michael Mylo, mother to Brit Mylo, and Dominie-in-Grey to the Imperax Galactic. Sakura appeared as Edna in the movie STATIC (2021). In WINNOWING she played a complex dual role as Sakura Kai and Aika Abiko, appearing in additional roles as Army Weiss, Chiaki Svengaard, Mam Moog, Dai Johnson, Kiko Wright and Masako Pence. Sakura Kai appears in the television series and movie...

A few days ago, it was my pleasure to introduce voice actress Pam Hoffman, “The Voice of the Imperax Galactic.” Today, it’s my added pleasure to introduce renown author, screenwriter, actor, producer and director William Maltese. The recipient of four international “best screenwriter” awards for the film WINNOWING, Mr. Maltese is co-producer, co-director and co-cinematographer for the JET Progress production, OTOSOTU (pronounced “Oh-Toe-So-Two” for “On The Other Side Of The Un...

IN my fervor to share the progress of OTOSOTU (pronounced “Oh-Toe-So-Two” for “On The Other Side Of The Universe”), I’ve neglected sharing the continued success of JET Progress’ recently released drama, WINNOWING at https://winnowing.yolasite.com or, for the making of the movie check out https://janik.yolasite.com/winnowing.php or, for memorabilia the JET Progress Productions’ Cinematic Memorabilia, Gift and Collectables Shop at https://jet-progress.square.site.

WINNOWING, star...

DRAGON EGG

SORRY to be absent from social media for a while, but here at JET Progress productions – https://jet-progress.yolasite.com – we’ve been extremely busy wrapping up filming (done!) and beginning post-production of OTOSOTU (pronounced “Oh-Toe-So-Two” for “On The Other Side Of The Universe). Our current task is to transfer over a thousand takes to a single hard drive, rename them in order of movie sequence, and assemble everything into “raw segments.” Raw, many because...

JET Progress, an independent film production company in Hawaii, currently offers two multi-award-winning films: CLEAN WATER, COMMON GROUND, winner of two-Telly awards, The Indian Independent Film Festival, and Saudi Arabia International Film Festival, and WINNOWING, winner of 30+ international film awards and semi-finalist in the Hawaii International and Washington Film Awards — https://jet-progress.yolasite.com. CLEAN WATER, COMMON GROUND is a documentary on water quality, and WINNOWING is...

DANIEL S. JANIK here, director and lead actor of OTOSOTU (pronounced “Oh-Toe-So-Two” which is the acronym for ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE). I was recently asked what I thought would be the biggest challenge in filming OTOSOTU. Remember that OTOSOTU is a production of JET Progress, a small, independent production company in Hawaii — https://jet-progress.yolasite.com.

Well, the final scene will be one in which Michael Mylo will appear inside a spaceship with Brit Mylo, both roles w...

WITH the screenplay by WILLIAM MALTESE finally approved, JET Progress studios has begun preparing for production with the development of a second studio to film off-world scenes, and a new boom-based sound system for better clarity and noise suppression. Script read-throughs are anticipated to begin within the next 10 days.

“OTOSOTU presents several new challenges to us at JET Progress,” says Daniel S. Janik, director and lead actor. “We’re a micro-budget, small film production compa...

IT’S my pleasure as director of the JET Production of WINNOWING -- https://winnowing.yolasite.com -- to announce the creation of a director’s cut. This novel “soft” neo-noir film features Setsuko Tsuchiya in her debut lead actress role with actor-companion Daniel S. Janik, together playing eight roles each from a screenplay by the incomparable author/screenwriter William Maltese. Incorporating storylines from six Maltese books, WINNOWING brings diversity to a new level and, I believe,...

AS films progress through the usual year or so of post-production, the work involved in editing, scoring, captioning, creating distribution formats (like DVDs, BluRays and streaming) and making plans for the “official” release, is often so intense, this period often becomes one of relative public silence. Not so with WINNNOWING. I regularly post about the film’s progress on my personal blog, WordPress, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram accounts, summarized at https://janik.yolasite.com/w...

FIRST, let me explain that living in Hawaii, we’re always alert to tropical hurricanes, like Calvin, that like to visit our islands this time of year through Christmas. Calvin is about halfway here and so far has been growing in intensity achieving Category Two status yesterday.

WINNOWING — https://winnowing.yolasite.com — on the other hand is a JET Progress film production, currently in post-production. What they have in common is that as WINNOWING progresses through the film festival...

MY opinions expressed are typically those of but one of 336 million individual Americans spanning an increasingly disparate spectrum of opinions. But being a SAG actor, the SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike, in fact, affects me not only as an inveterate film enthusiast, but also as an actor AND filmmaker.

As an actor — https://janik.yolasite.com/actor.php — it means a cessation of work in a field of endeavor not only my livelihood but my passion. Acting opportunities are rarely tightly consecut...

WINNOWING is a JET Progress production about an actress – Sakura Kai played by Setsuko Tsuchiya – and actor – Richard Andrews played by Daniel S. Janik – persevering together through a final audition for a part in an undisclosed “really big film,” currently in post-production with an anticipated release in later 2023 or early 2024. Based on a screenplay by pre-eminent author and screenwriter William Maltese, WINNOWING requires reading excerpts from six published Maltese works, inc...

WHAT, I’m not so sure though. Just kidding. I can say from personal experience that doing anything all yourself is more challenging, constructive and instructive. For example, I’ve recently taken up acting, and having starred in STATIC — https://ksmediagroupinc.com/the-static-movie — supported by an outstandingly professional team of cast and crew, movie making seemed amazingly easy. That’s what you get when working with a great team.

More recently, I decided to try my hand at movi...

OKAY, let’s start at the beginning. “Noir” (masculine) or “Noire” (feminine) simply means “black.” According to a popular online thesaurus, it can be used in a variety of shades of meaning such as dark, absence of light or illumination, obscure, cynical, fatalistic, edgy, bleak, to which I would add in contemporary terms minimalistic. According to Filmlifestyle.com, “During the 40s and 50s, film noir was at its height. The world had just come out of a brutal war and there was ...

IT’S always a moment for celebration when a film reaches the point where it is ready to be listed on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) — IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online, including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. [Sounds of Celebration in Background!] I’m pleased to announce that the JET Progress pr...

WHEN JET Progress agreed to produce William Maltese's screenplay, WINNOWING, I was pleased to be offered not one, but TWO Lead roles, those of Jeff Candleston, Draqual Media's Casting Director, and Richard Andrews, auditioning actor. I'd never played two roles, much less two lead roles, in a movie. Still, one of my personal favorite actors, Peter Sellers, was known for such, so I immediately felt a sense of excitement in the challenge, and, now that WINNOWING is almost finished filming, accom...

AS many of you reading this know, Raymond Gaynor is the pen name of actor Daniel S. Janik. It all depends on which muse grabs my shoulder and holds onto it most tightly for the moment. In terms of acting, I’ve been doing less background acting these days, my acting interests focusing on the immanent release of THE PERFECT ILLUSION — https://janik.yolasite.com/theperfectillusion.php — and moving from pre-production to filming of WINNOWING — https://janik.yolasite.com/winnowing.php.

Th...

HAVING left San Francisco for the paradisiacal climes of the Hawaiian Islands, I suddenly find myself hunkering down today and supposedly tomorrow for a tropical storm alert replete with 60 mph wind gusts, intermittent 45 degree pelting rain, thunder, lightening and hail. Yes, hail! Can you believe it? Well don’t. It may be coming our way, but it hasn’t arrived en mass, yet. The operative word being “yet.” In the meantime I busier than I’ve ever been with acting and authoring.

I’...

WINNOWING, a 15 to 20-minute screenplay written by world-renown author and playwright, William Maltese — https://www.facebook.com/williammaltese, for me, actor Daniel S. Janik — https://janik.yolasite.com/actor.php — and my partner and actress Setsuko Tsuchiya — https://setsukotsuchiya.com — is (hooray!) currently in planning, thank you, William Maltese! This discrete, four-character screenplay, in my mind, is perfectly designed for actor/studio publicity purposes as an entertainmen...