The latest film from director William Sikora III takes audiences into the mind of a young boy who steps into the woods.
“I set out to bring a short story about a boy’s imagination and how fear can be so controlling that it stops you in your tracks, but at the same time I want audiences to question what is real and what is not.” Sikora said.
The film stars Sikora’s nephew and niece and it was filmed during Christmas vacation on the only snow day.
“Many of the days during my trip home to New Jersey were very cold and windy but the day we filmed was also the only day it snowed and it was not too cold. We were outside for a couple of hours and were finished just as the camera battery died.”
The Woods is inspired from Netflix’s hit series Stranger Things as well as Hitchcocks’s The Birds.
Creating the visual for Brandy’s first new music in five years was no small step. AKIxMANN enlisted William Sikora to join up with their out of this world style to film an art film for the legendary Brandy that debuted in Schon Magazine.
“They said they wanted something really edgy and slightly twisted, her style and looks on the shoot were ‘new’ Brandy, it was super fresh and different and I wanted to carry that over in the visual edit. It brought me back to my roots as an editing days when I first started editing digitally, I used to play with so many concepts and warped images. Brandy is beyond beautiful, to add that edgy/twisted vibe to it made her pop even more. I wanted to add a horror mood to it, speeding up shots, putting shots in reverse, mirror shots to give her that goddess look, it all came together as I started editing.” Sikora said.
Brandy and Ray J brought their song “Edible High” into the project which was the first new music released in years. The song itself is an edgy, smooth harmony filled jam. “I wanted to have the song before I even started editing, I wanted every beat and kick in the song to be choreographed visually, it is not your typical music video and I think that’s what people loved about it.”
AKIxMANN’s Michael & Tyler Mann crafted her out of this world style to a nature elements theme which carried over in the video with water, fire, wind, earth, sky.
“It was an incredible honor to work with such a legendary artist who was beyond humble and amazing. We were working in 110 degrees, surrounded by hordes of flies, drenched in sweat out in the middle of a desert sea surrounded by dead fish and trash; it was quite an experience, something I will never forget. We were all troopers that day.” Sikora said.
BTV received a major rebranding as part of the final move away from the “B” names the company originally started with. In 2012, B Entertainment changed to Sikora Entertainment. “BTV was thriving on YouTube at that time and a re-branding was not in the works. YouTube and our channel has changed a lot over the years, we narrowed down our audience, put shows on their own channels and really tried to solidify the experience. While we are still growing, we came across challenges that slowed us down, tried to put out our fire. It took months to figure out a good name that could replace it.” Sikora said.
BTV officially made the switch in January and is not looking back. FYRtv is not an acronym, it’s simply FIRE. “There is a passionate fire burning inside that has always been there, the past couple years have tried to put our fire out but we will not let that happen, so the name was perfect for our mindset.” FYRtv said.
“Fans will still be getting the same quality content, just a sharper focus on delivering great videos, I am excited to see where we can go.” Sikora said.
Platinum recording artist, Daya, drives pop music down a different path as an independent artist scaling the pop charts. While her arrival on the music scene has been sudden to many, this 17-year-old singer/songwriter and Pittsburgh native has always known what she wanted to do.
Sikora Entertainment was enlisted to edit her latest music video “Sit Still, Look Pretty” which features stunning visuals and effects set to a hypnotic track. Directed by Chan Andre of Voyeur Entertainment, the video has surpassed 7 MILLION views.
Get ready for the Squirrels to wreck the halls in a new animated comedy short that premiered on BTV. The Squirrels is the latest animated series from creator William Sikora III and follows a family of crazy squirrels on fun adventures for the whole family.
“We really set out to make the characters fit a wide audience, it’s not just a kids show, it’s got comedy that anyone can enjoy.” William Sikora said.
With their first debut in The Egg of Darkness to the official merchandise store, The Squirrels are planning to take over BTV in 2015 with many more animated shorts.
After months of being in the dark, the announcement of the re-release excited fans for the November release. The film was bumped up to October because production was moving much faster than planned. Finally on October 15, it debuted on BTV with new characters, new animation enhancements and more!
“We put well over 100 hours of work into this re-release, it was an exhausting amount of work and I could not be any more proud of this movie.” Sikora said.
Sikora was challenged by Tyler Parks,the voice of Red in The Egg of Darkness and he quickly rose to accept the challenge. The concept of the challenge is to dump an ice cold bucket of ice and water over your head to raise awareness of the fatal disease ALS. You are then supposed to nominate others to do the challenge themselves or donate to the cause.
I chose some great people who I believe have a good outreach and following, it’s all about doing your part to help. I donated and did the challenge, I have heard of Lou Gehrig’s Disease before but honestly never really knew what it was about or that it was even fatal. After some educating and researching, I learned that little funding was really directed toward a cure for ALS and that is a sad thing, but now things have turned around. Sikora explained.
Since the start of the #IceBucketChallenge, the ALSA has raised over 13.5 MILLION dollars in just a short period of time. Compare it to last year during the same period, they earned 1.3 MILLION in donations, that is a huge, huge spike in donations and it is all because of this viral sensation that is educating people on the disease while entertaining them seeing celebrities and public figures get drenched in freezing water.
Recording artist Tyler Jacob, Model/Recording Artist DJ Craig, and Model/Recording Artist Camren Johnson have all accepted Sikora’s challenge and helped spread the word to their followers.
We can only hope that this money can get us one step closer to a cure from ALS, for those who think people are wasting water, think about it as if that bucket of water equals $100 or more in donations. Most people waste more water brushing their teeth or letting the sink run while cleaning the kitchen. 75% of water usage is irrigation, so a little bucket of water isn’t the problem. That little bucket of water just became worth more than ever, so raise a bucket and support the cause.
NOW WE CHALLENGE YOU! Take the #IceBucketChallenge and post your video on Instagram/Twitter and tag @iamsikora
Learn more about ALS at alsa.org and please donate.
Sikora was challenged by Tyler Parks,the voice of Red in The Egg of Darkness and he quickly rose to accept the challenge. The concept of the challenge is to dump an ice cold bucket of ice and water over your head to raise awareness of the fatal disease ALS. You are then supposed to nominate others to do the challenge themselves or donate to the cause.
I chose some great people who I believe have a good outreach and following, it’s all about doing your part to help. I donated and did the challenge, I have heard of Lou Gehrig’s Disease before but honestly never really knew what it was about or that it was even fatal. After some educating and researching, I learned that little funding was really directed toward a cure for ALS and that is a sad thing, but now things have turned around. Sikora explained.
Since the start of the #IceBucketChallenge, the ALSA has raised over 13.5 MILLION dollars in just a short period of time. Compare it to last year during the same period, they earned 1.3 MILLION in donations, that is a huge, huge spike in donations and it is all because of this viral sensation that is educating people on the disease while entertaining them seeing celebrities and public figures get drenched in freezing water.
Recording artist Tyler Jacob, Model/Recording Artist DJ Craig, and Model/Recording Artist Camren Johnson have all accepted Sikora’s challenge and helped spread the word to their followers.
We can only hope that this money can get us one step closer to a cure from ALS, for those who think people are wasting water, think about it as if that bucket of water equals $100 or more in donations. Most people waste more water brushing their teeth or letting the sink run while cleaning the kitchen. 75% of water usage is irrigation, so a little bucket of water isn’t the problem. That little bucket of water just became worth more than ever, so raise a bucket and support the cause.
NOW WE CHALLENGE YOU! Take the #IceBucketChallenge and post your video on Instagram/Twitter and tag @iamsikora
Learn more about ALS at alsa.org and please donate.
Sikora was challenged by Tyler Parks,the voice of Red in The Egg of Darkness and he quickly rose to accept the challenge. The concept of the challenge is to dump an ice cold bucket of ice and water over your head to raise awareness of the fatal disease ALS. You are then supposed to nominate others to do the challenge themselves or donate to the cause.
I chose some great people who I believe have a good outreach and following, it’s all about doing your part to help. I donated and did the challenge, I have heard of Lou Gehrig’s Disease before but honestly never really knew what it was about or that it was even fatal. After some educating and researching, I learned that little funding was really directed toward a cure for ALS and that is a sad thing, but now things have turned around. Sikora explained.
Since the start of the #IceBucketChallenge, the ALSA has raised over 13.5 MILLION dollars in just a short period of time. Compare it to last year during the same period, they earned 1.3 MILLION in donations, that is a huge, huge spike in donations and it is all because of this viral sensation that is educating people on the disease while entertaining them seeing celebrities and public figures get drenched in freezing water.
Recording artist Tyler Jacob, Model/Recording Artist DJ Craig, and Model/Recording Artist Camren Johnson have all accepted Sikora’s challenge and helped spread the word to their followers.
We can only hope that this money can get us one step closer to a cure from ALS, for those who think people are wasting water, think about it as if that bucket of water equals $100 or more in donations. Most people waste more water brushing their teeth or letting the sink run while cleaning the kitchen. 75% of water usage is irrigation, so a little bucket of water isn’t the problem. That little bucket of water just became worth more than ever, so raise a bucket and support the cause.
NOW WE CHALLENGE YOU! Take the #IceBucketChallenge and post your video on Instagram/Twitter and tag @iamsikora
Learn more about ALS at alsa.org and please donate.
In a huge surprise announcement today, director William Sikora unveiled his plans for bringing back the smash hit The Egg of Darkness to BTV.
I am beyond excited to be bringing this film I worked so hard on back to the world. Due to the cease and desist from Rovio using their characters in our fan film, we were forced to take it down, sadly they didn’t like what we created but we know the fans loved it. It took a lot of deliberation, but I am happy to say that the project is already in production being re-imagined with our lovable Squirrel characters and I am certain the fans are going to enjoy it just as much as before! We are also throwing in a few surprises for those who have seen it before. Sikora said.
The film will retain the original voice actors and keep the story the same, except for a few tweaks in animation and seeing the birds as squirrels instead. The Egg of Darkness will be globally re-released this November exclusively on BTV. The director also unveiled a new trailer which gives fan a peek into the epic adventure awaiting them.
