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Make Way For German Martial Arts Action With JACK WALKER

Making way for German martial arts action cinema is the auspicious return of cinematography wonder and filmmaker Tanay Ulgen for Jack Walker. Ulgen, whose exemplary work can be seen in an array of shortfilms online such as The Messenger and Repercussion, makes his feature debut.

Hailing from Broken Bone Productions and Mike Moeller Films, actor Stefan Morawietz who appears alongside Darren Shahlavi in Ip Man 2, stars from a script by Andreas and Mathias Urra. The film also rejoins him with Arena Of The Street Fighter and One Million K(l)icks star Mike Moeller who serves as fight choreographer, and in turn with Ulgen as they both share lineage with Reel Deal Action feature, Plan B: Scheiss Auf Plan A.

A trailer is on its way so feel free to tune back in should one arise, and follow the film’s progress on Facebook as well.

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THE HIT LIST: October 23, 2017

I’m actually a little upset that I came across a few of this week’s entries as late as I did, particularly having tried to been on top of it. Such is why I need at least two more of me (especially since one could use the extra sleep ?).

At any rate, tireless and forever tired as I am (a phrase coined by my friend Philippe), my quest continues to help bring notable independent content and stunt talent to the spotlight per our weekly vehicle here at the Hit List. Let’s load up on paramount stunt talent with the latest stunt and training reels from today’s talented stunt performers beginning with Dylan Rampulla, Jessica Barfoot, LeRoyal Tutt, Alina Andrei, Kage Yami, Damali Ross, Tony Vittorioso, Donny Nichols, Niko Dalman, Camran Bostanabad, Johnny Zhao Haitao and Darrell McLean. We round out this playlist with a tasty teaser reel by a fantastic group from the land down under called Dauntless Movement Crew, and a delighful and adventurous parkour mini doc by performer and filmmaker Remi Girard.

Onto a few promotional bits this week and we revert to an earlier piece I did for Stephen Vitale’s upcoming chanbara horror proof of concept, Sword Of The Dead. The teaser is available in the campaign video I wrote up on here but you’re more than welcome to view an isolated version just beneath. And, by all means, stay tuned for our forthcoming interview.

Last and far from least is the latest creative effort from Chasing The Dragon and London Has Fallen co-star, actor Bryan Larkin with Dead End, the latest entry in a series of shorts here from director and co-star Carter Ferguson. Filmed on a shoestring budget, London, Hong Kong and the U.K. serve as the backdrop for the narrative with Larkin starring as a contract killer whose latest job with a young hitman goes awry, forcing the two to question their motives.

Larkin wrote the self-funded Dead End which was also crowdfunded in an effort to help circulate through festivals, so keep an eye out for this one.

And onto the business we go of bringing hearty fight action by way of a select number shorts and action practice gems, starting with a pair of offerings via Vimeo with Ulrik Bruchholz and Andy Long having brought their six-year old test bout to my attention over the weekend with Do Not Disturb. The second comes courtesy of one of my favorite people in film and action, Tanay Genco Ulgen who harnesses his strengthening storytelling for a gripping crime thriller capped off with brutal action featuring Starlise Waschuk in One Eight Seven.

For the playlist just beneath, our good friends at Lunar Stunts warm up the crowd with an L.A.-set installment of Eric Nguyen’s The Fighting Journey while Kai Ferris and Ben Van Huis aim to please with a slick new lightsaber gem, and Gaetan Caillot trades fisticuffs and prop-knife warfare with Gabriel Senges over at Stunt-Do Fighting as the start of this week’s Fights And Films playlist. Following that is David Lavallee‘s own triskadekaphobic action short offering with The 13th Friday as one of two shorts this month reviving the Jason Voorhees fandom – the other being Flawless Films‘s newest fanfight pitting the resurrected killer against the Gingerninja himself, Aaron Gassor as Spider-Man.

Filmmaker and fight choreographer Lawrence Yip assembles his own throwdown with performers Sam Jaikaran and Nhan Du for hitman short, Just Another Job, before we take a Critical Coffee Break with a couple of guys named Trevor and Orion and learn their swift and applicable techniques for breaking a werewolf’s curse, Troy Sandford and Vladmir Ershov delve right into a spectacular action short with an anime twist for Said Chaou’s My Revenge, and Rooster Teeth’s latest shortfilm thereafter ties into the Volume 5 premiere of RWBY, focusing on the rising underdog, Yang, and I highly recommend watching the series now available online via YouTube or Rooster Teeth, or Crunchyroll.

Inanna Sarkis and Anwar Jibawi return with a second episode of spy comedy webseries, Secret Life (watch the first installment HERE), while Brian Lee and Matthew Sumner clown around over at Beat Down Boogie for an Epic Clown Fight that’ll slap you so hard your momma will feel it.

Brazen Action Design sets forth an impressive debut this month with Jackie Zenders’s action proof-of-concept, Providence, set in a dystopian world as we witness seeds of betrayal and family upheaval between forces of law and order, and lingering factions of chaos. Zenders directs from her own script, co-written by Veto Swarn who stars along with Jonathen Wallace, Monique Avila, Jake Moore, Daniel Masterson, Austin Durden, and Hayden Lam among the B.A.D. cast.

Last and far from least is a brand new comedy short by stuntman and filmmaker, actor Marcus Shakesheff who is never one to shy away with his love and fandom for all things comic book and DC. Here in The British Superman, he leads as mankind’s ill-gotten and unpopular savior named Neville at the center of his own documentary in which a professor puts our less-than-enthusing hero through a series of trials to prove he’s from the planet Krypton. It’s a less-action oriented affair but Shakesheff plays the role fittingly and entertains viewers from start to finish.

Enjoy the hits!

There’s plenty more where hits like these came from and you can catch them by clicking here. Share The Hit List with friends and help grant these creatives the audience they need to grow and thrive in the name of awesome cinematic action, and by all means, if you or someone you know is in the market for support as a filmmaker or a stunt performer with a kickass new demo reel or a project with Hit potential, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!

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THE HIT LIST: May 15, 2017

I had a nice little weekend. Still worked but managed to relax some in between as well as put a new forthcoming interview together which will go up very soon.

In the meantime, we have other matters to tend to turning to this week’s installment of The Hit List! Kicking off our first playlist is a new team reel by K Dynamique, based in Canada and, at current, an opportunity to sample great work done by a fine group of folks who, due to some grave, unfortunate circumstances, are now asking for your help. Click here to learn more, and SHARE, if anything.

Rounding out the stunt reel playlist for this week are Lunar Stunts’s own Mikey Arce and Irvin Nguyen, and stunt players James Hutchison, Jeff Budner, Mike Li, Meghan Koch, Serena Ly, Marc Padró and Mike Snow.

Promotional items are light this week but well worth it with the latest official poster reveal for Trent Dickens’s upcoming shortfilm, Panda, chronicling a masked man’s psychedelic night of debauchery, chaos and violence. More trailer footage is coming but feel free to sample an earlier gem just beneath the poster.

Onto the fights and films for this week and there are definitely a few favorites of my own here.

First up is a nifty little action experiment by Lloyd Pitts with performances by Jordan Salmon and Leon Ngo in Edamame, followed by Ken Dinh‘s latest action-packed commercial directing gig with fellow Icybolt Pictures cohort, actor and martial artist Peter Pham. 

Following that is a quick close quarters group test fight led by Adam Brashaw, Tanay Genco Ulgen with a spectacular practice fight of his own with Tally Rodin and Nilo Ghajar-Williams and Zac Oyama who apparently has a story to fight his way through over at College Humor regarding his sleep deprivation, with action direction by John Kreng.

Filmmaker Godefroy Ryckewaert is next in the playlist with a delightful comedic short with performances by Elise Anderson Scotto and Genévieve Doang titled Strange Encounters, centered on two women discussing two very different versions of the same thing. The project is a clever spin-off from a previous shortfilm I shared last February and hopefully you’ve stuck around since then. If not, then, well I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to clue you in.

Next we have Jason Cavalier LeBeouf, Dark Knight and classic circumstantial victim in the latest pisstake against Zack Snyder in Jonathan Bedard’s Batman: Son Of Gotham. The action here is a plus for the comedy that ensues.. and just in time for Mothers’ Day too!

Czech Republic-based fencing and stunt troupe, Balestra, follows through with gory new action short, The Revenge. Actor and filmmaker Juan Bofill takes the podium thereafter with Christopher Llorca in Bofill’s newest action short, Tatakai, and I have to say this one has some of the best action beats I’ve seen in a Karate-oriented fight setting since Vlad Rimburg’s Osu and Osu 2, and Nagasaki Shunichi’s enthralling 2007 action period drama, Kuro Obi.

Winding down, we have actor and martial artist Hayden Lam who, while we await the hard-hitting action of Crows, grants a purely relatable, hilarious new action comedy piece with Marquis Williams in Phone Wars.

Last and farthest from the least is a great inspired fan film from director Jason Satterlund, and with all the knowledge in the world that any Star Wars fan film has to have a sense of cohesive intensity in ita narrative. He peppers it quite a bit in both action and dialogue with actor Aris Juson and actress Deborah Smith in Star Wars: The Force And The Fury, which actually came out last month but I finally found it via Twitter over at Live For Films, and I’m more than pleased to include it as an exciting finale in this week’s Hit List.

Hit PLAY and enjoy, folks!

Last week’s entries should be ample enough to fill you up some. Check it out and be sure to subscribe to the channels, and if you or someone you know has a terrific new shortfilm, action or stunt demo or project that needs promoting in our weekly Hit List, don’t hestitate to hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!

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THE HIT LIST – September 26, 2016

Well, as much as I wanted my weekend to be an eventful one, I can’t say it was or I’d have more to discuss this week and share with you all. Hopefully the rest of the year will pan out much better, but it is still bustling in the world of stunts, action and independent content, and if you don’t believe me, well…

…you needn’t look further than this week’s installment of The Hit List for some of the latest action-packed demo reels, trailers and short-form action jewels to keep you in good company! For this, the latest round of stunt and training reels starts off with the newest action reel from former UFC prospect Cung Le whose longstanding career in film continues onward going into the new year, and you can learn a little more about it here. In the meantime, Le has an action reel now available on his YouTube channel with highlights including The Grandmaster, Bodyguards And Assassins, Dragon Eyes, and many more.

Rounding out the playlist stunt demo reels by PeiPei Alena Yuan, Keil Zepernick, Alesha Forche, Nik Pelekai, Kate Angus, Collin Hynes, Helen Steinway Bailey, and montage servings of epic parkour highlights by Alexandr Zhurkov and Ann Grjukach.

Making the promotional rounds this week are two teasers and the first comes courtesy of maverick martial arts action filmmaker Eric Nguyen who has made a killing for himself and fans online over at his indie banner, Lunar Stunts Action Cinema. He’s since taken a hiatus due to working responsibilities as of late, though it appears now that good fortune has taken a turn with Nguyen getting back into the director’s chair very soon for some more Lunar Stunts Action cinema content, further signified by a newly cut teaser for his long-running action experiment series, The Fighting Journey.

Following that is actress, stuntwoman, fight coordinator and filmmaker Cassie Lee Minick who has been a proud mention of the Hit List for a time or several in the last few years. Click here and watch her in a recent epic sci-fi action experiment from CristinaGianinni Films and you’ll see what I mean, while at any rate you would be wise to spot the latest trailer for Marvel Warfare from Fighting Liger Productions and Vagrant Films. Behind the lens is fellow stuntman Jawed El Berni, with Minnick joining a raft of stunt talent (a good portion of whom have been Hit List mentions as well) that includes Max Bojorquez, Lee Chesley, Joel Coryell, Brooks Crouse, Sergei Dmitriev, Yarett Harper, Justice Hedenberg, Duffy McManus, Tim Neff, Josh Rasile and Scott Rosen for what looks to be yet another spectacular shortfilm you can expect to be featured within the next few months or so.

Watch the trailers and subscribe!

Now it’s off to some amazing online fight action, and for this, we get things started with a quick “Firestorm” fight practice interlude from Lunar Stunts, followed b Reel Deal Action’s Tanay Genco Ulgen -currently playing the field in Canada with the local talent, including Keanu Lam and Dimitri Tsoy. Up thereafter are K Dynamique and their poolside antics with Brandon Joseph and Andy Le, Art School Dropouts with their latest nostalgia gaming nod in Punched Out with Joey Min and Gee “Lil Bomb” Jay, Rustic B.’s latest Tekken-themed episode of Cheat Code with action actor Mason Sharrow, Deviant Child Production‘s latest martial arts epic short, Horangi starring Orlando Cruz and director/choreographer Hector Soria, Force Storm Entertainment‘s own Noah Fleder with a rambunctious grouping of children cosplaying another epic battle over influence of The Force in Return Of The Kids, and Dragon Phoenix Entertainment returning once again with the nimble performances of Shaun Charney opposite the ever-talented and graceful PeiPei Alena Yuan once more.

Click the play button and let the hits roll!

Time to wrap this up with a small grouping of some great cinematic shortform content, starting with multi-faceted actress and director Kristine Gerolaga in one of several entries from competing artists of YOMYOMF Interpretations 2.0. The project in question, Hit Or Miss, lands Gerolaga in the role of a female boxer whose training session immerses her deep into an internal battle of wills while mourning the death of her mother.

Voting expires on October 6, 2016 at 11:59pm PST following its open three weeks ago, so enjoy the shortfilm and be sure to head to the page and make your choice among those selected for the top 15 semi-finals.

Next up is a project that took me by delightful surprise from director Derek Pueblo for his latest short, Queens Part IV: Girls Just Wanna Have Fight. Social Media personality IISuperwomanII (a.k.a. Lily Singh) stars alongside the screenfighting prowess of actress and stuntfighter Jade Chynoweth for a little comedic action endeavor about a day in the life of two girls doing girl stuff…including fighting off a small army of sinister men in black.

McAllisterAction pair Braxton & Michaela McAllister (Riot, You May Now Kill The Bride) are the minds behind the brutal and dynamic arsenal that Chynoweth whips out on full display. More epsiodes may come through support of the channel while this Part IV installment marks possibly the first of a series as Michaela informed me last week, so we’ll see, and I’ll definitely be one to keep an eye out until then.

Last and far from least is a project that has long been kept off radar in the years since its 2013 Action On Film Festival. For this, we turn to director Robert Yahnke, hopefully not too far from his own feature debut while we pan over to Sport Karate Hall of Famer, martial artist, actor and stuntman Jessen Noviello in the new action comedy, Blowback, which follows a spy whose relationship woes expose him to an illegal arms dealer who wants him dead.

Also starring are Megan Brotherton and Alexandra Bromstad with action sequences by Steve Lambert (Revenge Of The Ninja, Ninja III: The Domination, Blind Fury).

Press play and enjoy the hits!

The Hit List is a weekly periodical we at Film Combat Syndicate host every Monday evening. You’ll find more like it in the subsequent links like here and therein and discover all you may have missed in the world of stellar independent action and martial arts on film. Check it all out and support the creators on their channels, and for all intents and purposes, if you or someone you know is a creator and performer equally as skilled or better, and has content you think deserves a spot in The Hit List, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!

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WHERE FANTASY MEETS REALITY: An Interview With Tanay Genco Ulgen

Interestingly enough, neither has fight choreographer and filmmaker Tanay Genco Ulgen, although it didn’t stop him from contributing to one of Sony’s forthcoming major feature film releases tying into the game franchise, Nozue Takeshi’s Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV. I learned of this in a Facebook post a few months ago and so I found myself at an opportune moment to interview yet another aspiring film professional in the course of my own work in covering independent action as well.

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