On the precipice of my second film festival coverage-loaded summer, The Hit List will be taking a brief hiatus until further notice. Alas, I’m happy to be able to put together this tentatively last hoorah while I get things in order on the writing end.
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.
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!
I’m still in recovery mode and will likely be so for the next several days. I forgot that’s what happens when you have as much fun as I did for two nights in a row.
Well, at least for me the bad news is that I relapsed again and now I have another cold. That makes two this summer.
The good news is I had stuff to do so I got in some time to write two reviews, one of which you can check out on your own time. As for all else, I had people sending me stuff for the Hit List and there was no way I could pass up sharing it. Some of you know me as much.
Kicking it off this week is a brand new block of jam-packed stunt and action reels starting with the latest from Black Site star, actress and martial artist Samantha Schnitzler via Vimeo. The playlist beneath cues onward from there beginning with legendary stunt coordinator Bruce Law followed by reels from Alyma Dorsey, David Conk, Tyler Witte, Jonathan Pang, Marissa Labog, Lee Gifford, Jyo “Six” Carolino, Leonard Zhang, Ryan Carr, Mami Spéede Ito, Yavuz Topuz and Martial Club’s own Andy Le.
Samantha Schnitzler : Action Reel from Samantha Schnitzler on Vimeo.
As far as promotion goes, some of this is pretty large scale and I only have mostly Vimeo uploads to work with, so my apologies ahead of time. The stuff here is pretty intense and especially with what lies ahead from Felix King and Eric Van Arsdale in the upcoming short, Broken Wing. Stunt and action sequences respectively from Elizabeth Davidovich and choreographer Gui DaSilva aren’t much to sample from here in this teaser but we have Spencer Mulligan engulfed in flames and looking several degrees of pissed. I smell vengeance coming.
Following that is a project I’ve had the pleasure to screen among the workstash of actor, martial artist and budding filmmaker Peter Jang with the new crime thriller, Nothing Is Sacred. Jang and actor Christian Howard present a grim tale of betrayal and redemption where a gang enforcer’s only means of protecting his sister and niece from his adopted mother’s sex trafficking ring is to follow her instructions and kill his brother in-law. After winning Best Action Thriller at the Hollywood International Moving Pictures Film Festival and Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards in addition to Best Producer(s) and Best First Time Filmmaker, its next stop will be the Shortz! Film Festival in Chico, CA on July 16th.
Last and far from least is a trailer for Shelagh Rowan-Legg’s second shortfilm, Flow, following a crowdfunding campaign for a dystopian action comedy set in a post-Brexit UK amid an epic battle wherein two female soldiers, Taylor and Smith, are tenaciously fighting a war of their own. Flow stars Jamie Birkett and Lucy Clements and is set to screen on July 29 at Fantasia Festival in accordance with the premiere of Lowell Dean’s action horror sequel, Another Wolfcop.
Of course, there’s also the matter of a newly released photo from the past week if you’re a fan of online action hero, actor and martial artist Eric Jacobus. Blindsided 2 is well underway from director and noted Hollywood stunt professional Clayton Barber with his star currently seen squaring off with fellow actor and martial artist David William No who produced the first short as he does the new installment.
There’s more action to come, but it’s time for a bit of a music break and I tip my hat to stunt coordinator Cory DeMeyers for pointing into the direction of Bad Royale’s latest music video premiere with Silver, All I Can Do. Actor Deangelo Harding leads the way as the hero of his own video game-themed tale as he fights to reunite with his date, actress Bree Essrig, against a horde of bouncers, a wrestler, a kickass tailor, and actor Jarrett Sleeper armed with delicious lemonbars and some deadly moves of his own. Enjoy!
Time to get into the action this week and the first comes courtesy of Vimeo with a late entry from stunt performer Lee Gifford. You’ll find his latest reel in the initial playlist while his own shortfilm contribution here leads the way for this segment of the Hit List with Waheed AlQawasmi’s 2016 action comedy short, Delta Goldfish.
Beneath that is this week’s playlist ripe with a batch of test fight action pieces and shortfilm projects including one that just released today. Dardrex Production‘s own Martin Chan and Leonard Zhang get things started along with the latest test fight collab with Arman Ansari and Douglas Dapaah-Agyemang over in Finland, and YouTube comedic personality, Tiburcio teaching Darren Holmquist and Rustic B. a thing or two in Black Belt vs. Mexican Belt.
We then head off to Marcus Shakesheff and Ashley Beck as they settle their own score at Leavesden Studios in a Star Wars-inspired lightsaber battle to the death before panning over to Wilder Herms 2017 My Rode Reel entry, The Block with Mark Poletti and Julie Zhan. Following that are performers Tatiana DeKhytar and Nicole Mae clashing fisticuffs and cold steel for Dragon Phoenix Entertainment in Weapon Fighter while Matt Philliben and Joe Kras take their pound-for-pound haze to the next level with Bushido Dream.
Continuing the action is filmmaker Danny Leysner whose most recent get-together in Amsterdam with high-caliber action talent and choreographer Joey Ansah saw the Spring release of Leynser’s revenge thriller debut, Cible, starring Geoffrey Thompson as a man afflicted with a near-fatal brain injury that nulls pain, bolstering his vengeful bloodlust against his former crimeboss who murdered the woman he loved. We featured this project back in May, but we’re more than proud to host it again as part of Hit List history and further hope that Danny and Joey will continue to bring even more magic in the months to come.
Last and far from least is a project that turns us once again to actor and martial artist Fabien Garcia (Die Fighting, Drained World, Dragon Ball Z: Light Of Hope) who plays antagonist and fight choreographer to director Anthony Pietromonaco’s newly released and smartly choreographed Star Wars fan film, Dark Legacy, starring Erin Wu as an imprisoned Sith apprentice in training. The shortfilm was exclusively released in the Creators column at Vice.com but we’ve included it as a meaty and supercharged, exciting finale to this week’s Hit List.
The players below are yours forh the taking. You know what to do!…
Delta Goldfish | Action Stunt Film from WAFILMS on Vimeo.
Feel free to check out last week’s entries and endulge to your heart’s content, and sub to the channels for your show of support! Also, if you or someone you know has a project or a reel that deserves an audience or a signal boost of some kind, email us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com and run it by us so we can have a stab at it.
My weekend was pretty good. I finally managed to relax a little on Saturday and Sunday with some obligatory movie viewing before commencing putting together tonight’s Hit List.
Speaking of which, there is a LOT to cover so, let’s get onto it with the latest updated stunt reel by Jazzy Ellis, and other new stunt and training reels by some of today’s top and up-and-coming stunt performers, including Nik Pelekai (more on him later), Kristina Baskett, Kevin Rogers, Kyla Hymas, Cris Fonseca, Christina Howe, Bryan Vigier, Eric C. Sun, Kent Lloyd, Brandon McClary, Robert Steven Brown (more on him later) and Kefi Abrikh.
Two extensive reels round out the stunt reels of the week in the playlist, first of which carries a bit of a story theme to it for stuntman Jordan Scott as he invokes a journey of trial over tribulation through imagery and his contribution to the field. It’s more of a personal feat than one he showcases for work (you can view that one here), but it’s available to the public, nonetheless. The playlist finishes with a five-minute montage of actor, martial artist and filmmaker Darren Holmquist and his journey as a stuntman and up-and coming film professional through consistent training.
Twelve reels in total. Enjoy!
This week’s matters of promotion are of a loaded batch and we begin with a poster debut for U.K. filmmaker Leif Johnson’s upcoming short, Kowloon Killers. The ambitious new turn on Asian action martial arts thrills is still a ways from its completion while you can also view a behind-the-scenes look featuring actor and martial artist Tien Hoang (artwork by Art Of Supershinobi).
The playlist continues with a fight scene highlight reel which actor, stuntman and filmmaker Ryan Monolopolous released last summer for his upcoming action sci-fi short, Alpha. I’m presenting it again here for coherence in wake of his most recent poster unveiling of the shortfilm thriller now poised as one of three Atlanta-made shorts premering at the Plaza Theater in Atlanta, Georgia on June 24. Tickets are available so if you’re in the area by then and wanna be around some great film festival fare, click here and get yours today. (Artwork by Maddy Booth).
Following that are teaser trailers for writer, editor and director Tanja Keller’s starring role in Beyond Return with Ron Smoorenburg, 48 Hour Film Project entry Finest City Showdown from Jabronie Pictures (and yes, it is a musical), the most recent teaser for the second installment of Darkan Entertainment’s Black Lightining fan film project with actor and director Choice Skinner – the first of which you can view HERE, the latest trailer for Matthew Kohler’s inspired new fanfilm, Batman: Master Of Fear from Red Fist Productions, a teaser for the early June premiere of Jordan Cann’s inspired visual martial arts/musical mix, DeTour, and the final trailer for actor, martial artist and filmmaker Leroy Kincaide’s Max Payne: Retribution ahead of its June 24 release!
Time to wind things down with an equally awesome array of action and film fight work, the first two of which are practice vids beginning with James Harris‘s lensing of stunt players Ashley Beck and Cali Nelle, and Kenny Wong‘s own DP work with Ben Hinnant and Jamal Warren.
Gui DaSilva gets to take out the trash in Chores in his latest collaboration with Felix King before things get Relentless with I AM WATER Stunt Team’s own Robert Steven Brown and performers Meghan Whitfield and Bri Marie Korin, and even moreso with Nik Pelekai in British Assassin from Wolf Stunts.
Rounding out the playlist up first are a trio of brief action comedy skits from the good folks at 6 Brothers Productions titled ReLoad. The first part was released in April and there’s no specific plot while all three range anywhere from a minute-plus to over three minutes. Thus, expect action, carnage, and a good dose of slapstick or several with Nathan Bender front and center, and more episodes to come.
Last and far from least is the latest shortfilm directing debut from Martial Club’s own Daniel Mah in Challenge Of The Fruit Ninja. Mah plays a martial artist who spends is every moment training as he strenuously tries to solve a clue that could ultimately increase his power. Andy Le plays our titular ninja burdening our hero in this latest array of kung fu and laughs from a fine group of people that now finds itself among the likes of Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan. True story. And good on them!
Enjoy the hits!
Last week’s Hit List has more of what you crave if you need it. Click on over and make sure you subscribe to the channels for more awesome content. And, as always, if you or someone you know has a demo reel or a project of worthy caliber and you feel it deserves a place in our weekly Hit List, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!
From there, Stanton Chong – by way of this weekend’s festivities at the Film Fu Fight Festival – makes his return to the Hit List this week representing Eunoia Creations with a ‘Game‘ of his own and with none other than stunt player Sean Kohnke beating up a LOT of Canadians…and all for a good cause!
A full on trailer is said to be coming in December while we have a pair of action clips from the upcoming short which will hopefully arrive before long as it looks all kinds of awesome.
The description states this won’t be their last collaboration and for what it’s worth, I’m counting on it. I’ve been writing about these guys for close to three years now and they have yet to let their audience down. Enjoy!
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