Today we’d like to introduce you to Karyl a.k.a. K.O. Honoré.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Karyl. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
While pursuing legal studies in Paris in 1`997, then at the University of Limoges School of Law, I met and became a close friend with Gelo Babluani who was also in law school. To my great surprise, Gelo would drop out and start an entertainment company to make films. I finished my studies and came back to the U.S. and worked at a law firm in Philadelphia. In 2005, Gelo called me to let me know that he was producing a film entitled 13 Tzameti and he needed my help. There was no pay. I went. And 13 Tzameti won the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival, then Sundance. Before I could get to my regularly scheduled life, Hollywood came calling for the remake. The budget for the American remake of 13 Tzameti was over 15 times bigger than the budget of the original. We Went to NYC to shoot the remake, that was entitled 13.
Because of Gelo’s language barrier, people would ask how he was able to write an English screenplay and he would answer that Karyl wrote the English script. People began offering me translation jobs, and before long producers were asking me not only to translate but to give the story an American feel. That ballooned into gigs for rewrites, coverages, character building, story improvement, and ghostwriting. I became a “Script Doctor.” Production companies from Los Angeles to Lagos reach out for my creative services. Every job is different and has specific needs. My pay rate has gone up as the jobs became more of a career than a hobby.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road is never smooth in the world of entertainment. When I first decided to become a ghostwriter, the jobs were few and far between. Even though most jobs paid well there weren’t enough to really call it a career. Feast or famine. Starving artist for real. But over the years, the consistency of the work has been steady allowing me to be able to afford to live.
Before I was asked to improve/write on major motion pictures, I knew that I had a voice, I had something to say. I’ve written several human interest stories, but even though production companies hire me to write for them, it’s difficult to have these same production companies read my original screenplays for production. I have found that even though people like my ghostwriting, film producers or films financiers don’t care to give my original writing a lot of consideration.
Please tell us about Full Belly Films – what should we know?
Full Belly Films in a fresh new entertainment company that has a social agenda to advocate for equality and fair treatment of all human beings alike. FBF has produced documentaries, like our Black, White, and Red All Over. We’ve produced television reality shows, like our Home Court Advantage. In 2016, we produced a stage play at Emory University entitled Scared Black.
Our goal is to produce media-related products for the mainstream that will bring awareness to our human coexistence. All our projects strive to improve the relations of individuals as they go through the social confines of our modern society. Even though we have not benefited from great exposure, we are determined to make a social difference. We aren’t afraid to grab the bulls by the horn and broach the subjects that are heavy and pensive. While others seek solely to entertain, we want to entertain, teach, and expose our audience to ideas that will make us realize that as human beings, we all strive for the same things.
We’ve been able to exist and. pursue our mission with a lack of funding and no real exposure. We are always striving for better ways of getting our stories out to the mainstream.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Determination and the deep and unshaken understanding that our stories/projects are not meant for our pleasure or our success, but for the benefit of the human soul.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fullbellyfilms.com
- Email: ko@fullbellyfilms.com
- Instagram: fullbellyfilms
- Facebook: Full Belly films
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