Actor
Atari Dakota is an actor and film-maker specializing in anamorphic photography and practical set engineering. Atari began as a theater actor, trained in the Stanislavsky and Meisner methods, but later moved into screen acting; exclusively working in independent, underground movies. Atari has also trained in 35mm film lighting techniques, working initially with tungsten and now with modern LED systems.
Writer
Atari Dakota is a screenwriter specializing in science fiction. Atari is also the author of two major non-fiction books on the topic of design, distributed worldwide. Currently, Atari is working on the screenplay for a motion-picture that explores the challenges of deep-space flight and the distortions in reality that may psychologically challenge astronauts during a mission to distant galaxies.
Illustrator
Self-taught, using the Andrew Loomis method, Atari Dakota is a storyboard and concept illustrator. He also illustrates graphic novels. Atari is currently working on a series of stories that describe a path of vengeance taken by a Los Angeles renegade who goes on a trail of retribution across the city, visiting old acquaintances to deliver a powerful message of hope, fear, and karmic re-balancing.
Anamorphics
Anamorphic lenses are Atari Dakota's specialty. He shoots, almost exclusively, open-gate at Academy-35 ratios using 2x anamorphic glass. This is the same compression ratio used by most of the greatest movies of the 1980s. Anamorphics offer a unique field of view that differs across the lens axis; giving a perspective that audiences can luxuriate in.
Practical Sets
Audiences are sick of computer graphics and yearn for the real thing. For this reason, Atari Dakota designs and builds practical-sets for realistic film-making. Everybody of taste agrees that the practical sets of the 1980s were a high-point of cinema. Not only do practical effects and sets look better on screen, but they ground the actors in a spatial context.
Storyboarding
The best movies of cinema history were all elaborately story-boarded prior to shooting. Each scene was meticulously planned and studied in drawing-form before a single light was set up or an actor cast. To re-establish excellence in movie production, we must return to the foundations of the craft: Atari Dakota is a story-board artist for stage and screen.