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Swordplay, Freerunning, BTS Fun And Much More In This Week's Batch Of Action Shorts!

From L to R: Jeremy Tristan, Jerry Quill and Jay Kwon in ONE RULE by Bryan Sloyer

Lots of great shorts continue to make way through the internet, and hopefully you’re out there finding some yourself. As always, if you missed out on any, you can find a batch of the most recent ones right here, and don’t forget to check out Siren, Whipping Boy and the most recent Lobo fan trailer from action director favorite Jesse V. Johnson (The Package). In the meantime, let’s get started, and be sure to check out last week’s line-up in one of the links toward the end…

First in line is a short from Cinematic Fight Studio with actress Kadia Saraf and actor/fight trainer Adam Lee titled Duel: Katana vs. Dao. There’s a lot of slo-motion edits here that get in the way of the action, but still serves up a nice little gem to whet the appetite for experimental action. The project is also the second in weapons-based choreo with Saraf and Lee following her performace in a conceptual X-Men-inspired piece as Psylocke a few months ago, and its also a nice change of pace from seeing the usual hand-to-hand work online. It’s a great trend as of late and I hope to see plenty more sword action where this came from!

Did you see Eat. Pray. Ninja. at any point in the past few months? If so, good. If not, click here and make that your introduction to Lunar Stunts Action Cinema, whose founder, resident filmmaker and actor Eric Nguyen is still doing what he does, and you needn’t look further than his upcoming short, El Guerrero (The Warrior) – a follow-up from an earlier short he directed. Kindly check out the new teaser below, and do watch this space.

This next video is as rare as it is also dated. It’s a glimpse of an unreleased third installment to independent filmmaker Fernando Jay Huerto‘s Gunpoint shortfilm saga with Huerto in his second appearance (that I know of) with fellow man of action, actor Eric Jacobus since appearing in Gunpoint 2. Unfortunately the Gunpoint shorts are MIA while Huerto moves onward and upward with the future of his Jabronie Pictures platform, although one thing is certain: I’ve watched these guys for a long, long time, and for such a short clip, I still consider it a real treat to see these two on screen. Call it an oldie-but-goodie if you will.

The next one comes from independent filmmaker and actor Darren Holmquist in a new project tilted Fading Light with newcomer Arthur Lam who has already been making a few moves this year on the indie scene. The short was shot several months ago just as Holmquist migrated to Los Angeles to help get things started with his career amidst keeping a steady job among other things, so he’s been a busy body while unable to focus a lot on the projects he already has in his lab that need finishing. Fortunately this one just made its way out, and you can view it below.

Switching things up for just a moment is a video that doesn’t necessarily deal in fight action, while I have shared parkour videos before as they are some of the most extravagant videos ever shared online. This week, meet Italian freerunning and filmmaking quartet, Team Jestion, who have a lovely new team trailer for the new year, illustrating the vast scenery and obstacles highlighting some of the locales within Malaysia. The members include Luigi Lorenzi, Riccardo Chemello, Massimiliano Takacs and Gian Marco Oddo, all of whom have Instagram pages you can follow in addition to other social media links in the description.


It will be a while before we learn anything new on the upcoming Hollywood film adaptation for Ubisoft’s popular game franchise, Splinter Cell, based on the work of late author Tom Clancy. For this, we are treated to the latest of fan-driven projects from filmmaking duo Ben and Andrew Adams in the form of a new eight-minute shortfilm now available online. Actor and action director John Redlinger stands in the title role of former U.S. Navy SEAL and Persian Gulf War veteran, Sam Fisher in this, a conceptualized prequel short that highlights the events before the original story sets in motion. It’s already picked up a lot of steam since its online release in late November and with any luck, maybe Atomic Productions will be the next craze in online serial content. Check it out below in addition to the project’s Facebook page as well! (H/T: Attack Of The Fanboy)


The name, Mark G. Elefane came up twice for me this past week in the course of spotting two recently-released action comedy shorts, Elefane‘s latest directorial work, Bravo Squad 86 Romeo, and Jason S. Williams‘s latest piece Ratchet Point. Both shorts provide some entertaining silliness and humor along with some watchable action, although I have to say I loved the latter, and mainly because I’m a proud fan of Ishida-san, and I make no apologies for that.



About three weeks ago, the folks over at Just Kidding Films posted this awesome featurette showcasing actors Joe Jo and Bart Kwan some of their most recent efforts in training for their newly announced feature film debut. I’ve written about their work a few times before and they’ve grown quite a significant social media following, having proven their platform to be one of the funniest and most substantive to date, often poking fun at various Asian stereotypes and lending audiences a unique, witty and hilarious perspective of what it means to be an Asian on film, and funny. And on that note, it’ll be interesting to see where Jo and Kwan go with this ambitious new movie.

The new video features both actors discussing their experience in training for the new movie, reuniting once more under the tutelage of martial artist, stuntman and fight trainer Noah Fleder. Check it out below, and I dare you to keep a straight face.



As for another bit of behind-the-scenes action, the folks over at Z-Team Films unveiled the second of three featurettes as part of a slow and steady roll out leading up to the forthcoming DVD/Blu-Ray release of their long-awaited martial arts suspense thriller, Die Fighting. The film is one of the best martial arts action features of 2014, and because these guys love you so much, they’ve proudly made the film available through multiple digital platforms.

Check out the video below where you can link directly to the Facebook page and purchase or rent your own digital copy of the film at your website of choice!

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Did you enjoy this year’s webseries debut of Nightwing: The Series? If so, then you’ve probably been wanting to learn more about the project’s amazing stunt and fight choreography team, Arahat Orphan Brotherhood. Hence, meet Aaron and Ezechiel Ortega, and action actor Lance Brazil who share their stories of working on the set of the ambitious series attributed to the titular DC Comics property in a fresh new featurette below.

DISCLAIMER: There are some spoilers, so if you haven’t seen all five webisodes yet, then clicking here would be a wise move!


And lastly, we have at least two videos offering some cool footage from independent filmmakers Alex Chung and Bryan Sloyer. Their recent projects, Hit Me Twice and One Rule are available online and both have a new behind-the-scenes look at their respective works. 
They’re great for a laugh if you need it…I know I did.



Subscribe to these channels, and if you’re a filmmaker or a martial artist with a good quality action short or a test fight you would like to share, feel free to shoot me an email at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com
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