BLACK MOON: Help Nicholas Ortiz Crowdfund His New Microbudget Indie Action Horror Thriller
The project marks Ortiz’s second indie feature effort in fifteen years.
nicholas ortiz
JUGANDO CON FUEGO: Robert Samuels Is An Agent With A Vendetta In Nicholas Ortiz’s New Shortfilm Release
Following a brief release window through Vimeo On Demand, action thriller Jugando Con Fuego is now available to watch via YouTube in the player below. The short haila from Tambuli Media, R4 Films, and Deviant Children Productions, and sees actor, martial artist and Hong Kong stunt laureate Robert Samuels take on the role of a CIA agent on a mission of vengeance against a notorious cartel leader scorned from a tragedy of his own. The project is now one of a pair of ventures, the second of which Samuels is currently en route with alongside director Nicholas Ortiz with the current production, which already has some stills to check out through Samuels’ social media here. I’ve been especially covering Ortiz for a while, and so with any luck, these could finally at some point lead to more of at least one project he had been planning for a while prior […]
BUT FOR ME, IT WAS TUESDAY!: A Night Of Indie Kung Fu Fanfare At The Angelika
I think at least one other important lesson I must always remember is that I don’t get out enough. It’s true. I’ve lived in New York City my whole life and I’ve never explored it enough to know my bearings when I venture out anywhere other than my usual familiar places when I do end up having to take the subway. The same goes for when I arrived at the Angelika Film Center for the second time since catching Snowpiercer years earlier and crossing paths with actor Gabriel Byrne as he was crossing the street. He had company at the time and so, yeah, nah, I didn’t intrude. I’ll also add that sometimes, JUST sometimes, Google Maps can be shit. So leave it to me to find myself walking past the movie theater twice and nearly turning the wrong damn corner. It didn’t help that there were a few exterior […]
COMING ATTRACTIONS: Nicholas Ortiz’s JUGANDO CON FUEGO Heats Up With Revenge Thrills And A Touch Of Genre Nostalgia
Four years after landing on our radar with 2018’s multi-award winning short, Black Betty, up-and-coming director Nicholas Ortiz has long since stayed the course with developments on his endeavors, ultimately landing one of his more larger projects to date out of his Deviant Children Productions banner. Jettisoning out to Tijuana, Mexico last summer for the independent short production of action crime thriller, Jugando Con Fuego, Ortiz is joined by none other than R4 Films LLC, whose Robert Samuels has been a working staple in the Nothern East Coast indie film community between Pennsylvania, New Jersey and neighboring New York City. To boot, Samuels, a veteran member of the heralded Hong Kong Stuntman’s Association who’s credits are shared with the likes of Jackie Chan, Frankie Chan, Yuen Woo Ping and Sammo Hung, continues to apply his trade on both sides of the lens. He successively segues here from his previous Hong […]
JUGANDO CON FUEGO Official Trailer Sees Robert Samuels On A Mission Of Vengeance
The newest official trailer for Nicholas Ortiz’s latest short, Jugando Con Fuego, had an exclusive presentation the other evening over at The Movie Dojo on YouTube and we’re happy to share it here. The film marks yet another reunion with actor and martial arts legend Robert Samuels who stars in the project opposite actor and stunt performer Hector Soria who plays the villain, who previously shared the set with Samuels on Joey Min’s 2019 action feature debut comedy, Yes, Auntie!. Jugando Con Fuego was filmed on location in Mexico with Ortiz directing from a script produced by Samuels’ R4 Films LLC partner Robert Jefferson. It centers on Forge, a retired CIA whose past comes back in brutal fashion, leaving him beaten, bloodied, and left for dead, and waging war against the man who tried to kill him. I’m not sure if this will hit festivals or go straight to an […]
JUGANDO CON FUEGO Hails A Vengeful Showdown In The Latest Shortfilm Trailer
It’s been the long time since we’ve heard from indie filmmaker Nicholas Ortiz who’s presence on here was noted much more for his work on shortfilm thriller, Black Betty, a project whose webseries/feature prospects were long since shelved by the pandemic as well as other factors. Instead however, Ortiz took to the streets of Mexico several months ago for the production of original short action thriller, Jugando Con Fuego, filmed safely under Covid guidelines and has since stayed the course with a trailer now online, which premiered firstly over the weekend via Jeof Vita’s Kung Fu Drive-In Podcast. Ortiz directs a cast led by Hong Kong cinema and stunt legend Robert Samuels (Red Wolf, ASDO’s Yes, Auntie!). Follow one man’s blood soaked pursuit of revenge through the dark underbelly of Mexico. Sometimes Justice… is Revenge. Jugando Con Fuego hails from Deviant Children Productions, R4FILMS and TeamOneTake Action Design, and also […]
BLACK BETTY: Deviant Children’s Webseries Pre-Production Is Back On Track
It looks as if things are back in full swing with Nicholas Ortiz and his independent production company Deviant Children for forthcoming webseries, Black Betty. The company took to Instagram on Thursday to share the following update: View this post on Instagram A post shared by @deviantchildren Pre-production commenced earlier this year with meetings that followed but left off this summer with a tentative hiatus. As of this report, rewrites are currently underway with rehearsals expected to take off early 2020. Black Betty took off last Spring as a shortform action thriller released on YouTube with Krystal “Honey” Pizaro. Betty is a black leather-clad vigilante with a mysterious past who fights her way out of a nightclub through a gauntlet of henchmen. The original short scored three awards in two categories at the sixth Urban Action Showcase Film Festival last year. The webseries will be woven as a simultaneous series […]
BLACK BETTY: Writer/Director Nicholas Ortiz To Expand Short For Independent Webseries/Feature Film
Independent filmmaker Nicholas Ortiz has begun pre-production this week on Black Betty, a female-fronted action thriller webseries now in production via his NYC-based Deviant Children Productions banner. The project will be spun from his original Spring 2018 proof pilot which snagged three awards in two categories at the sixth Urban Action Showcase Film Festival. “Nick is on his bullshit!” jokes dancer/choreographer and actress Krystal Pizarro who led the narrative in the title role, earing Best Actor in the Angels Of Action category at the UASE. “There’s a reason why his company is called Deviant Children Productions – that man always has something up his sleeve and he knows what the hell he’s doing.” In the proof pilot, Betty is a black leather-clad vigilante heading through a gauntlet of henchmen as she fights her way from captivity out of a nightclub. The webseries, which will be tethered as a workable feature […]
DEVIANT PERSPECTIVES: If Looks Could Kill…
“Well, pumpkins, looks like it’s the age-old dilemma. Style… or substance.” – VIDA BOHEME Peter Lawton In my time, I’ve watched quite few indie action projects, hundreds if not thousands by now and there is always something that sticks out about most of them, something that just didn’t sit well with me. It’s only in the last year that I finally was able to pinpoint this flaw as it were, as I continued to expand my own skillset as a filmmaker. That flaw is a lack of Visual Theme. As an Indie filmmaker, having a visual style, a particular way of creating a film, is really important because style is visual information and we as artists work in a visual medium. This is known as “Mise En Scene” or “Visual Theme” in traditional filmmaking and it’s something I wish more indie action filmmakers took seriously. Too often, indie action films […]
THE BLACKER THE ‘BETTY’, THE SWEETER THE ‘HONEY’: A Word With Filmmaker Nicholas Ortiz And Dance Wunderkind, Actress Krystal “Honey” Pizarro
L to R: Luis Candelario, Krystal “Honey” Pizarro, Nicholas Ortiz, Christopher Montague, Grace Rivera, Hector Soria Deep in the deluge of all the online action shortfilms you can find, there’s a ample number of beginners who are either just starting or have quite a ways to go. At the end of the day though, its desired effect upon delivery rests on a handful of key factors – most prolifically being a director who knows and understands the genre, as well as the mechanics that entail. Nicholas Ortiz, born and raised in the Bronx in New York City, comes from that very comprehensive DNA, instilled long before Blockbuster outlets became a thing, and engrained with an inherent interest in household movie favorites – bookended by an action horror comedy classic. “My cousin Jeppy walked into her living room with a tape in her hand and said ‘You guys need to see […]