distinctive light
THE HIT LIST: August 21, 2017
So…how was your weekend? I spent mine reviewing a few titles – one which apparently led people to think I was picking a fight with a martial arts expert who lives thousands of miles away from me, which is…STILL hilarious.
Anyway, I also got to look at some great shortfilm items in the past week and I’ve gladly collated them for this week’s installment of the Hit List, kicking off with another round of awesome stunt reels and other cool film bits from around the web. Stuntwoman Ellette Craddock gets a spotlight twice over this week, beginning with her new stunt reel, followed by reels from Brady Jo Merriman, Josh Schmitt, Michael Hartwick and Beni Alexander with action actor and filmmaker Jarrod Crooks, stunt players Tom Caserto, Girvan Bramble and Anton Guryanov, and 3Run Ambassador, stuntman and traceur Bogdan Pascal trekking the terrain in Bilbao, Spain.
Promotional bits are few this week, but ample enough to serve your needs and first up is a trailer from Gunsavior Pictures’s latest action comedy short, Iron Jade which made the rounds this weekend at the Action On Film Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. Angela Lynn and David Norton star while an online date remains pending.
The other is a cool, new and inventive offering from award-winning short film director Daniel Vogelmann who, after earning his acclaim with projects like Dubois (2005) and Welk (2011) makes his return to fray with Hard Way: The Action Musical. Produced by Sebastian Bandel and Florian Gengnagel, Hard Way chronicles the story of Jake, a S.W.A.T. officer bent on vengenace for the death of his partner at the hands of notorious terrorist, The Mother, and with an arsenal that isn’t the usual song and dance for an action movie venture.
The project hails from Fireapple in association with University Of Television And Film Munich and Bayrischer Rundfunk and with funding by Filmfernsehfonds Bayern. The film is now available through Vimeo On Demand with more information and goods pertaining to supporting the project at its official website.
Before we get to this week’s action bits, stuntwoman and staff professor/extraordinare Michelle Christa Smith just made her most stunningly badass appearance in the past week in a new music video featuring recording artist Jackson Harris for the new song, “All Your Love”. Links to purchase for downloading or streaming are in the description, but more importantly, for as long as I’ve been following Smith since the launch of her Facebook, it makes me proud to see her showcase herself in such high-energy and filling fashion. If nothing else, this video is three minutes and fifteen seconds of sexy and sweet!
The action is where its at this week and you’re more than welcome to pay a visit to the aforementioned Ellette Craddock’s official website where her latest judo-themed mix-up, Date Fight, can be spotted in the videos section. Also on deck are Film Combat Syndicate favorites Felix King and Tony Vittorioso in a gem of their own called New Approach, and a brief fight practice short from Ieisha Auyeung with David Van Le and Mig Buenacruz – all viewable exclusively on Vimeo before we commence with this week’s hit-loaded YouTube playlist starting with a quick minute-long fight piece by Daniel Nelson and Ebony De La Haye, and a couple of cool concepts by Team STAMA‘s own Tanguy and Anthony Guinchard.
Continuing the momentum is Mikko Löppönen with a little night time fun featuring Jessica Wolff and Judit Sziva, and a late entry I found titled Dispute with Craig Canning opposite Andy Whitmarsh, and with Ashley Beck lensing before The Beat Down commences for helmer Jennifer Li with Keanu Lam, Matt Kennedy and Oshima Haruka.
Devin Supertramp returns to the Hit List this week with freerunner Calen Chan to bring Sonic The Hedgehog to real-life in 4K before we meet up with vlogger, stuntman and filmmaker Federico Berte in a new experimental comedy bit involving rapiers for The Duel (his intro explains it all by 1:55).
Rounding off the playlist is something truly, awesomely special from actor and filmmaker Jay Kwon who puts morsels of depth, artfulness and energy into his latest piece, Fixed Cost, centered on two partying women lured by a group henchmen against their will, ensuing a deadly fight for freedom from their captors. Katie O’Donovan is another prospect re-emerging once more in the weekly Hit List and if she keeps this up, I may end up becoming a fan!
Also starring are Hester Jean Lee and Oscar Leiva along with Anisha Gibbs and Nick Krawiec.
Enjoy the hits!
Last week’s treats still a blast. If this is your first stop via the Hit List, take a gander and get an even greater whiff of what we collect every week and then subscribe to the channels for your show of support. And, if you or someone you know is an equally talented filmmaker or stunt performer with a solid new reel or a project they’d like to either promote or present, run it by us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com and let us be the judge!
THE HIT LIST: January 30, 2017
Filmmaker and actor/stuntman Eric Jacobus gets in touch with video game personas, Tekken’s Devil Jin and Street Fighter’s Balrog for two cool character movelist videos. Following that are stunt reels by stuntwoman Brianna Goldie, stuntman and filmmaker Fernando Jay Huerto, and fellow stunt players Morgan Benoit, C.J. Padera, Thanh An Nguyen, Devin Regan, Cody Robinson, Timothy Johnson and the stunt canucks over at the newly established Action 88.
THE HIT LIST: January 16, 2017
I did something a little different this weekend while I was putting the Hit List together – at five reels, I decided to watch it all the way through and it was pretty refreshing since normally I watch mostly snippets in the course of browsing just to get a good feel of how it all plays out so I can work faster. I may change my approach there. ☺
Anyway, onward and forward we go for this week’s installment of The Hit List with the latest round of amazing stunt reels and various shortfilm projects, promotional or otherwise full in release. As always, the stunts come first because without the players and their committment, the Hit List wouldn’t exist. Stellar b-girl and exceptional stuntwoman Lee Chesley kicks the first playlist off to an energizing start followed by the high-flying feats of dayjob superhero, Ross Kohnstam. Pam Wellington has some fresh gems in her new reel as does the high-flying and flipping Chad Crumley who we’ll get to much later in the Hit List.
Peep it all below and more with solid stunt performance and training action by Amanda Cook, Adam Chase, Linda Kessler, James Ortiz, the Baton twirling stylings of avowed catwoman, Michelle C. Smith, Mason Sharrow, Ashley Short, Stephen White, Adam Carson, Brett Easton, traceur Nick Provost and tricking impressario Beren D’Amico. Enjoy!
The promotional assets come next and we’re first off to peep a new poster for an upcoming project, hailing from Finnish filmmaker and actor Ramin Sohrab who first made noise a few years back with a slick trailer conceptualizing action and drama for previous project, Malek. This time it’s the new thriller, Viulu which takes on its Finnish translation for the centerpiece here of our new tale focused on a man forced to fight his way through some salty villainy in order to get back his stolen violin and play it for his wife one last time.
There’s no release date as of yet but there are photos and more available on its recently-launched fanpage where you can also catch the official poster as seen below.
With trailers, the first in the three-part playlist beneath comes by way of SubOverHype, the super-talented movement troupe behind the first two installments of shortfilm series, Two Bellmen, hailing from luxury hotel franchise chain JW Marriot’s content creation shingle. Both shorts, directed by Daniel “Malakai” Cabrera, service the interests of showcasing the hotel chain’s illuminating qualities central to the story of two very different bellmen as they literally go through leaps and bounds to save the day for their residents.
Cabrera launched a new promo last week to announced Two Bellmen 3 installation which takes place in Seoul, Korea, and also stars Ki-Hong Lee and actress and singer Jessica Jung. It’s readied for a release this week while the promo starting the playlist highlights last year’s high-speed sequel set in Dubai is online.
The second trailer arrives from the amazing folks from U.K.-based Eastern Heroes whose reels you might have spotted in recent weeks. They’ve been making quite a splash with accumulating talents listing filmmaker Leif Johnston behind the lens and action actors Jean-Paul Ly of Jailbreak fame, and Tien Hoang who takes center stage for the new martial arts thriller, Resolve, which goes live on January 21.
Finishing things off on this end is the final blow from actor and multi-skilled martial artist and instructor Jon Alagoa who buzzed us late last year about a project long in production with a hopeful Spring release. The 3rd Eye is the name and with Alagoa joined by Shinji Ishigaki, Wai Ku Lam and Vitas LeBas for a story telling of two friends who, thirsty for the fight and ill-fated in joining a underworld crime organization for more opportunities, are violently betrayed by its leader, leaving one of them to seek vengeance.
Production has taken a few stumbles following a minor on-set injury and scheduling conflicts, but nonetheless remains with more updates ahead.
And finally, we meet filmmaker Lee Whitaker, whose 2015 debut fantasy short drama, Catching Fireflies, has already decorated him greatly in the festival circuit. Thus, with an eye for continued social awareness and an adherance toward focusing on real problems that plague American society, the new trailer for Aimee finally arrived this month following a successful crowdfunding effort launched at the bottom of last year.
Actress and stuntwoman Amanda Hall leads the story scripted by Whittaker and co-scribe Kara Myers which focuses on Jesisca, a Spec-Ops Marine homebound from Afghanistan, and the new war she’s forced to fight at home when the trail of her missing 13-year old sister puts her face-to-face with suburban America’s underworld auspices of underage sex trafficking.
You can learn more about the project at its official website with links to social media, contact info and more. For now, check out the playlist and the Vimeo player just beneath for all of your trailer content!
Time to wind down with a playlist packed with great samplers and morsels of action on film, and up first is Lovel Johnson Jr. working out some experimental fight choreography with a group of pupils for Johnson Jr.’s West Empire Productions label. Following that is our aforementioned team over at Eastern Heroes with three of their latest fight pieces as well, along with 3run‘s newest bit of swordplay by Sam Parham and Adam Bradshaw, some test fight action led by Califf Guzman with Suo Liu and fight choreographer and performer Jason Ng, and our earlier-promised mention of stunt player Chad Crumley as the invulnerable target of a group of thugs led by Felix King in Distinctive Light’s latest, Inhuman.
Jared Kirby continues on with a little rough and tumble action in Grab Bag, followed by Eunoia Creations with Brahim Achabbakhe front and center for Bangkok Bridge Fight, Lekir Stunt Action with Trapped performed by Hasibahrain and Izzaz Mohd Sani, a recent upload on the Dardrex channel of a tag-team audition piece for Frank Fernandez’s 2014 action drama project, Heart, a cool new montage of sword-and-shield fight choreography training by Balestra, and the latest upload of TeamBay action drama short, Addicted with Yasin Kamat and Vi-Dan Tran.
Rounding off the playlist is a sensational action short that comes just a few years since I greeted actor, dancer, choreographer and filmmaker Jordan Cann who himself is no stranger to martial arts on film. Like most, he’s a student committed to the craft and he is well on his way to prove it with the release of his forthcoming feature film debut, From Paris To Rome, while the business of creating exemplary action and storytelling in short form continues with the new musical/action drama hybrid, Reclamation, about two brothers who take on a notorious crimelord who has drained the town of its resources. Aaron Thompson and Mel Brian Patron also star.
Enjoy below or click here!
That’s it for this week, and if you want more, you can always take a gander at last week’s Hit List entries to satisfy your cravings. Sub to the channels for your support, and by all means, if you or someone you know has a kick ass stunt and action demo, trailer or other promo material, proof or shortfilm that you would like to see possibly entered in our weekly Hit List, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!
THE HIT LIST: October 3, 2016
Kicking off the Hit List is another round of demo reel jewels from around the web by way of stunt players such as Natalie Diaz, Chris Romrell, Bryan Cartago, Tally Rodin, Elizabeth Carpenter, Nate Mitchell, Tyler Street, Delyan Dimitrov, Chris Schmidt Jr., Niahlah Hope, Nik Pelekai, Justin Craigen, Adair Moran, Eric Cullet, Travis Statton-Marrero, James S. Gonzalez, David Cheung, and King Of Kung Fu‘s latest tribute reel to the legendary and death-defying feats of one of old school Hong Kong action cinema’s finest, actress and icon Moon Lee.
THE HIT LIST – March 21, 2016
The last entry is a teaser clip from Jyo Carolino’s upcoming indie action short, I Am Spartan with a full fight scene that initally premiered at MidSouthCon in Tennessee last week. The shortfilm, in whole will premiere on April 27, starring Carolino as a traumatized soldier forced to fight a new war at home in order to redeem himself. Jai Tanghal, and Drew Russom are also featured in the clip.