THE HIT LIST: May 13, 2019
At long last, it’s been another two weeks since then and so it’s time to present the latest finds from around the web for another installment of The Hit List.
At long last, it’s been another two weeks since then and so it’s time to present the latest finds from around the web for another installment of The Hit List.
JLP Pictures Mystery Pilot Project – STILLS
Last week’s Hit List is a fully loaded one in case you’re new to this site, so feel free to endulge, as well as subscribe to the channels for own enjoyment. As always, if you or someone you know works in the stunt or screenfighting profession, has a fanatstic new reel or film project worthy of support or presentation online, talk to us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com and we’ll be happy to weigh in!
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!
All I’ll say is to click here to get a glimpse of how a part of my weekend went. Needless to say, it was fantastic and I’m glad to share it with you all, and I certainly hope to have more moments like it with even more people within my purview.
For now, It’s Monday, and that means it’s time for The Hit List, and kicking things off is, by far, one of the best and most impressive tricking reels you’ll see, here and now from Westminister-based martial artist and stuntman, Martial Club member Brian Le who has been very busy in the past few years building his prolife as a bodybuilder. And so, while not all trickers can perform these feats with the same hefty frame, it’s thrilling to know there are a few who have the caliber to do so, and Le’s reel is a proven hit among viewers alike. Following that is a new reel from actress Jennifer Linch who has also catapulted into her year for the development of several films, a few of which includes Flowers Of The Night, and Violet, the latter which has since launched a Facebook fan page you can subscribe to here.
Rounding out the playlist are stunt, parkour and action reels by Sydney Olson, Brandon Shaw, Tony Vo, Mark Chin, Jesse Turner, Aaron Jones Beck, Michael Matthews, Sam Durani, and actor, stuntman, choreographer and co-star of director Frank Figueroa’s Room 237, Anthony Giovanni Elias.
Moving on a bit, we now have a few promotional gems to share and first up comes courtesy of Vimeo a la Indiegogo where film festival programmer and filmmaker Shelagh Rowan-Legg is currently working toward her second short film, now in the form of action comedy, Flow. Inspired by the directorial visions of folks like Gareth Evans, Lexi Alexander and Joss Whedon, the project centers on a group of women soldiers amid a war already in progress while they ultimately end up fighting each other over bodily functions that are pretty hard to avoid (and we can rule out farting since Swiss Army Man already covered that).
Check out the Indiegogo campaign page with a month left to get your dollars in and help see this interesting little concept bloom into something we can escape into and enjoy! (H/T: ScreenAnarchy)
The YouTube playlist just beneath contains two trailers for upcoming projects, including Envizion Films’s first of two vigilante action horror concepts, Santos, and the new trailer for Victory Magic Films’s latest long-awaited shortfilm festival favorite, Warriors, which you can read more about in Joey Min’s latest review ahead of its July 10 release.
Now it’s off to the action and here we start things up a bit for the Marvel fans, specifically with those who share an affinity for X-Men character Psylocke in the wake of Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse. Actress and martial artist Janice Hung has her own take this week which you can check out below with director Louise Viola at the helm.
Rounding out the playlist is another entry from the gang at Orlando-based Distinctive Light Entertainment for their dramatic Self-Defense series – an ample title to give room for some great cinematic fight material, an exhilarating practice piece by lensman and action choreographer Tanay Genco Ulgen with Nilo Ghajar-Williams and Iesha Auyeung with a special appearance by Ulgen’s fellow Reel Deal Action-man, Cha-Lee Yoon, and Jeff Centauri‘s new fan-inspired action short with villain, Crossbones.
And last and far from least is another hit action short I’m ressurecting. It’s a bit recent and it probably won’t be the last time I’m sharing it as it mostly pertains to my awesome Saturday evening this past weekend with some friends, along with actor David Sakurai. He stars in Shaky Gonzalez’s 2015 hit revenge action short, Echoes Of A Ronin, a story told through the perspective of a young girl whose father sets out to redeem his father’s legacy and avenge his wife at the hands of his greedy brother.
The project is currently in good hands as it awaits further development on possible future prospects and with any luck, we’ll be seeing more of Sakurai wielding some badass sword action in the months and years ahead. If this is your first time viewing it and if you love thrilling martial arts action, Echoes Of A Ronin will suit you nicely.
Check out last week’s entries and support all the channels, and if you’ve got something for us that you think deserves a place in our weekly Hit List, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!
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