She was born in Turkey, and that was a shiny springtime of 1986.
When she grew up a little, she started to draw - like every other kid of that age. And one evening, she finally managed to draw a simple human body without any tricks. This happened to be one of the jolliest memories of her childhood. She had always wanted to be a painter, especially after that great achievement (Although there are some rumors about her wanting to be a belly dancer, still, they're just rumors.).
At the age of 7, she started school (and this turned out to be a habit). In high school, she started to dream about becoming an animator. But when it was time for university, she decided to study film and television - which was also a great choice.
And just like that, she moved from Izmir to Istanbul. She spent her first year in Istanbul with getting and quitting a bunch of strange jobs, and changing apartments. The following years went by working in various positions for student films and looking after cats in her flat. In the third year of university, she wanted to choose Japanese language as an elective course but the school told her that it was impossible for some reason and she was offered to take stop-motion animation -which was a new course, starting that very year- instead. That was the opportunity for the animation dreams to come back, and they did. They did indeed. After meeting stop-motion in-person, she loved it so much that she just couldn't leave behind. And eventually, in 2008, she shot her first actual short film gemeinschaft as her graduation project, and started to draw again in the meantime -just to stay sane. Gladly, it worked.
As soon as she finished the film, she packed her things, left Istanbul and moved to Czech Republic -for the sake of puppet animation. Her first few months were all about getting used to the cold. And right after that, she started to make puppets and continued making films. In the second half of 2009, she finished her second film loutky and went back to her puppets and miniatures again.
Nowadays, she's trying to finish her third film everland.
Credits:
Script, directing, animation, editing, production, camera, set design and set building, character designs: Ozlem Akin
Adapted from: Franz Kafka
Producers: Hulya Akin, Erol Akin
Production assistant: Savas Ramazanoglu
Project advisor: Feride Cicekoglu
Sound: Oguzcan Sehiralti
School: Istanbul Bilgi University
Script, directing, animation, editing, camera, set design, character designs, puppets: Ozlem Akin
Production: Petra Ptackova, Katerina Matejickova
Director of Photography: Drahoslav Lysak, Ozlem Akin
Set building: Ozlem Akin, Milan Ondruch
Project advisor: Michael Carrington
Sound and music: Oguzcan Sehiralti
School: Filmova Skola Zlin
loutky - main character, 2009
wire armature
loutky - main character and side characters, 2009
wire armatures
stiny vzpominek - main character (young), 2009
constructed on a ready-made armature
stiny vzpominek - main character (old), 2009
everland - main character, 2010
everland - main character & "li", 2010
constructed on a ready-made and wire armatures
everland - "li", 2010
everland - "june" (young), 2010
everland - "june" (old), 2010
everland - "shopkeeper", 2010
everland - "cafe girl", 2010
everland - "mr. kafka", 2010
everland - "little girl", 2010
everland - "pino", 2010
everland - "pepa", 2010
Examples of the custom made puppets and art dolls I've been making upon request.
Bakunin
figurine, 2009
Melting ice cream and the crybaby
puppet/art doll, 2009
Corpse widow
13th fairy
Rapunzel's mother
Fairy of the starless nights
Little Pinky
Little Pumpkinhead
Little "wicked witch" to be
Femme fatale
The dark fairy
Time traveller: Hippie chic
Miss snob
Tunusian gypsie singer
Easter bunny
Examples of the puppets, art dolls and figurines I've been making.
puppet/art doll, 2011
puppets/art dolls, 2009
puppets/art dolls, 2010
made by ozlem akin
a blog about the puppets, miniatures, jewelry and whatnots i'm making.
daily illustrations
an illustrated diary.
zlin diaries
a turkish blog about the curiosities i've stumbled upon in zlin and in czech republic.
everland: the blog
the making-of progress of the film, in the form of a blog.
e-mail
ozlem_ozlemakin.com
mobile
(420) 776 609 507
address
Donská 14/245
10100 Praha 10-Vršovice
Czech Republic
ozlemakin 2011
