THE HIT LIST: February 24, 2020
I can honestly say that one thing I wasn’t looking forward to doing this weekend, among other things, was fighting a nasty cold and fever. Alas, here we are.
lauren mary kim
THE HIT LIST: April 29, 2019
I’m not even halfway done with the stuff I need to get finished with but it’s been two weeks and so it’s definite time for another installment of the Hit List to help keep things kinetic and moving for our devoted stunt talents out there.
THE HIT LIST: March 19, 2018
Enjoy!
THE HIT LIST: January 8, 2018
Frankly, I was getting used to being away for so long that I thought about foregoing The Hit List another week into the new year. Then I realized all these reels, practice fights and shorts that were emerging as I was collecting them were piling up on me and…well… I guess now its time to relieve myself some ?.
Top: Tanja Keller, Eric Watson, Sherry Rene, Tanguy Guinchard, Acei Martin
Bottom: Arman Ansari, Ryan Carr, Nathan Peoples, Samantha J. MacDonald, Stephen Koepfer
Alas, it’s 2018 on the evening of Monday, January 8 as of this post, thus, signaling the return of our aforementioned weekly column of said contents giving way to an audience for some of today’s top stunt performers and creatives.
First up is a prime offering of two Vimeo uploads by stunt professionals, actress Tanja Keller and stuntman Paul Varacchi. The stunt hits continue via YouTube playlist starting with Jackie Chan Stunt Team member and founder of his own stunt and film unit, actor and martial artist Andy Long who debuted last year in Vietnam with the action comedy, Luc Van Tien: Tuyet Dinh KungFu.
Stuntman and podcast host Ryan Carr continues this week’s full scale attack followed by reels courtesy of Sherry Rene, Jared Losano, John Nania, Acei Martin, Kent Lloyd, Jared Beaulieu, Taylor Castriota, Jonathan Mercedes, Bridgette Bentley, Stephen Koepfer, Lovel Johnson Jr. and Samantha MacDonald. Closing out the playlist are reels by Australia’s own Bluesanyu Films, Michael Yadvish’s New Jersey-based Yad-Fu Films, Art School Dropouts with a delightful, musical highlight reel of their previous year and Kamen Ramen Studios with an energizing wrap up of their own as well!
Actor and stuntman Aidan Pringle proved quite the hurdle in title form for the protagonist in Sean Kohnke’s 2017 action short, I’m Out Johnny. Not to be outdone by a one-and-done scenario though, Kohnke and writer/producer and cinematographer extraordinare Tanay Genco Ulgen have since already gotten the band back together for a second outing now titled I’m Out Johnny: Volume 2.0, for which he’s granted us a teaser brimming with Yakuza brutality to come.
Following that is an announcement teaser for upcoming action short, Omega Unit: The Last Option, from producing duo, actor and stuntman Jae Greene and director Mark Cheng who previously helped manifest Cheng’s featute debut, Ghost Source Zero. Also on deck is a trailer for Rising Tiger Films’s hotly anticipated Sony game adaptation shortfilm collaboration with Team Red’s Joseph Le for Shenmue: Yokozuka Blues, as well as a gripping teaser for Vanessa Wenzel’s Indiegogo-funded revenge drama, Auryon, from Prairie Kitten Productions, and Anthony Javier over in Winnipeg with a trailer for Kuya from
The Auryon poster is pretty fierce too!
And… at long last, we’ve reached the bottom of the hour with the first of this year’s weekly serving of stunt fights and shorts. FYI: I scrapped up a LOT of these between last month and now, and so I will be rolling them out as steady as I can with each week as the playlists accumulate. Quiet Flame Productions is the first to tune us in with a few seconds of fun from Chuck Johnson and a fellow by the name of Yutaka, followed by I AM WATER Stunts over in Texas with Robert Steven Brown and Benjamin Redic II trading a few blows of their own.
Rustic B. and Eric Shamm Watson keep the pace going with Assassin followed by a montage of fight practice clips hosted by LBP Stunts Chicago, and a pair of Kali-based packages first at Matt Philliben‘s YouTube channel, and second from Lauren Mary Kim’s fourth and newest entry this month in The Kali Diaries this time going head-to-head with Guro Marie Sia. Selwyn Huqueriza and Ed Mecate sharpen and heat things even further with a little knife action just before Spencer Mulligan cools it all off with a stormy new group piece featuring a cameo performance by that miserable bastard over the past week in the Northeastern U.S. known as Snowstorm Grayson.
Rapier Wit Studio is host this week to two practice fight clips out of Toronto before we pivot over to David Conk at Wolf Stunts for The Endangered with some elite performances by Eric Mbanda and Nik Pelekai, and then onto snow-covered scenery in Georgia for some more fight action by Lloyd Pitts and Ruben Maldonado. Following that is the continued work of someone who constantly continues to impress with his work, now adding Hand Over Fist to Bryan Sloyer’s stellar cinematic fight content with Kodaline providing the thematic, emotive musical backdrop.
Capping it all off is a slick, quality half-hour action comedy thriller from Team STAMA in the form of USB Protocol, a story centered on one man’s neck-deep troubles after finding himself in possession of sensitive material. Swiss action actor and stuntman Tanguy Guinchard leads the narrative for this one and you’re definitely going to want to dig into this bit of Swedish badassery.
Enjoy the hits!
Stay tuned for more where these hits came from and look for FCSyndicate on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Also, SHARE the Hit List with friends who love great action and stuntwork, and if you’re a creative or performer with something up your sleeve that deserves an audience, contact us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!
Top: Jared Losano, Bridgette Bentley, Lloyd Pitts, Taylor Castriota, Eric Mbanda
Bottom: Ruben Maldonado, Joseph V. Oreste, Lauren Mary Kim, Nik Pelekai, Sean Kohnke
Happy New Year everyone!
THE DEFENDERS: A Word With Chris Brewster On The Usung Heroes Behind The Heroes
Chris Brewster: Oh man! My wife and I have been given the most amazing gift in the world. Our daughter, Cayden, is absolutely amazing. Talk about a life-changer! She was born right in the middle of shooting The Defenders. She was actually due the week that we filmed the huge episode-three action sequence, but decided to wait until the first day of the Holiday break. I was able to spend the first 3 or 4 weeks with Isabelle and Cayden. It was perfect! I could literally write a book on how amazing parenthood has been for us. We are so happy.
THE HIT LIST: August 14, 2017
My weekend was pretty huge for movies. My thoughts on Wolf Warrior 2 are up on my Instagram as well as posts about S.S. Rajamouli’s Bahubali saga so feel free to skim those through and follow me as well as I also cross post news there.
The news also includes the latest on what’s what in the weekly Hit List and we begin with a new round of stunt and training reels from around the web. Anna Akimova gets things going this week with her latest reel followed by Jake Teel, D.L. MacDonald, Tyler Street, Jessica Stafford, Graham Hooper, Andy Whitmarsh, Samuel Horowitz, Monica Lopez, Noel Martinez, Casey Michaels, Bronson Cameron, Yessenia Cossio, Aaron D. Alexander, Antjuan Rhames, Donovan Law, Ai Ikeda, Justin Mane, Lukaz Leong and Cassie Lee Minnick, along with Benjamin J. Redic III and the crew at Ballistic Blade, multifaceted stuntmen and fight choreographers Fernando Jay Huerto and Geo Corvera, and Australia’s own Asaya Yasushi with a newly launched team reel for Team Yas!
As for promotional gems, there’s plenty to gush over and especially if you have an UltraFlix subscriber – Even moreso if you’ve been keeping up with Iron Dragon TV whose founder, actress and martial artist Janell Smith just hosted this year’s debut IDTV Action Fest in Texas, now ripe with a raft of featured shorts and selected ‘Bests’ ranging from Clayton Barber’s Eric Jacobus headliner, Blindsided, to Holy Bastards’s proof-of-concept, You Can’t Hear Me – You Can’t See Me, Samuel Smith’s Tengu: Birdmen Of The Mountains, and many, many more now available on Iron Dragon TV for subscribers.
Head over to the official IDTV website with links to the listed entries and subscription access!
Time to finish things on a fantastic, fight-filled high-note, and as a small matter of trivia, at least three of the people in the following projects have their stunt reels listed, so feel free to try and spot them! ?
Beyond that, we begin with the return of a nifty “tasting” this summer from Bronson Cameron and Joshua Zacharias, and a parkour-packed action skit from the UrbanAmadei channel with Amadei Weiland and Niklas Kinzel, and Victoria Simone and Al James getting in some fight time with Lawrence Yip behind the moves and the lensing.
Next up is an impromptu video from Lunar Stunts cutting loose with some training featuring Mickey Arce, and brothers Irvin and Eric Nguyen among the bunch, along with cosplay powerhouse, actor and martial artist Ben Bergmann killin’ some ninjas in a piece inspired by The Witcher 4, actress Josie Renault in a sexy cat and mouse game with Kamy Bruder in the sleek, brutal, musical action short, Jacked, Vlad Rimburg’s latest pre-viz entry with stunt players on Batman: The Telltale Series, and Lauren Mary Kim host to another filmic, kinetic, third entry into the Kali Diaries now with actress Amy Johnston.
Rounding it all out are the latest stylings from the rabble rousers at Art School Dropouts in Samurai Gunman with Joey Min and DL MacDonald, Wolf Warrior 2 badass Aaron Toney consuming the JAM gym facility in Reseda behind the camera for an ensemble action previz dubbed The Nightbreed, Adeola Alao throwing Wadi Jones, Ricky Barksdale and Andrew Mihalko in the mix for Supply Drop, Donald Brooks and Aaron D. Alexander doin’ it old-school in Leather Jacket Jive Turkeys, and Indian film fan and YouTube personality Anthony Alba in comedic short, Raging Bullish – this one was purely delightful and I couldn’t NOT share it.
Enjoy the hits!
Feast your eyes on last week’s Hit List if you’re pining for more action, and don’t hesitate to subscribe to the channels as your show of support. And, as always, if you or someone you know has a kickass demo reel or a project in the works, or something they think deserves presenting, send it to us at for a closer look at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!
THE CLEANER AND THE DEADMAN Goes Ballistic In The First Trailer For Jess Bryden’s Ultra-Low Budget Indie Action Thriller
Two contract killers are hired by competing cartels to hunt down an elusive drug scientist in London. After failing to intercept the scientist as he is smuggled across the Pacific, the two hit men find themselves on the run and fighting for their own survival, in what can be described as “one of the most insane action-packed finales in independent cinema history”.
You must be logged in to post a comment.