It’s been a big past week in film for me what with reviews and all. I’m looking forward to what summer will offer so watch this space!
As for the Hit List, get your views in this week with more entries from some of todays top and up-and-coming stunt performers and inspired creatives. Alfred Hsing kicks things off for the first playlist of the week in stunts, followed by Damian Mavis, Hayley Wright, Troy Castaneda, Cameron Early, Ryan Tarran, Sarah Laidler, Rashid Phoenix, Diandra Stoddard (turn the volume up), Branden Hunter, Gabriel Belotti, Taylor Castriota, Du Au, Lauren Pugh, Andrew Nadanyi, Ismael Abadal, Bryan McGowan, Brittania Fader, Maximillian Sturm, Jessica Bell, Danny Yang, Matt Philliben, Heather Fusari, Spencer Davis, Ariel de Ment, Angelos Poulis, Michel Quach, and action director Franz Spilhaus.
We have but a few items to promote and that all but includes two projects from two amazing groups, first of which is an inspired crossover of anime faves courtesy of Joseph Le over at Team Red Pro. If you know the look, you know the characters, and if you know Team Red Pro, you know you’re gonna be in for some serious shit.
Get a look at Robin Calvo and Tarrell Bullock in costume below:
Secondly is the teaser announcement for Unworthy Productions’ episode two rollout of their cult fan-faved webseries, Power Rangers: Unworthy, now slated for Tuesday, February 25.
Last and WAY far from least is a project close to my own heart and it comes from Art School Dropouts whose local feature debut-edit premiere of webseries, Yes Auntie!: My Asian Auntie Season 2, was met with rousing approval while screening at the Museum Of The Moving Image in January.
I had actually hoped the team would put off its release in hopes of further festival circulation and I haven’t heard much from star and director Joey Min on the matter, but his plan is to premiere the series this Thursday on YouTube and it’ll be truly something to savor after that. Watch the trailer and tune in to the channel, and if you missed my review from the screening, click here.
Before we bookend things, I just want to take the time out to recite a few things about Marvel series, Iron Fist. The show’s definitely gotten its share of flak – but only some of which is substantiated prior to showcasing its more redemptive persona well within season two, and with the action being the biggest factor above all.
An ample number of stunt performers did the fight work for this series, many of whom recurred as stunt players between shows, and for that matter, our much-favored weekly installments of The Hit List here at Film Combat Syndicate. The action on this second season is perhaps some of the best offered in bringing this show to its feet courtesy of stunt coordinator Clayton Barber running point on all the set pieces and scenes involved.
Courtesy of Emmanuel Manzares who also worked on the show, we have a side-by-side reel now online which, if nothing else, is here to showcase the staunch improvement that arose with season two starring Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick.
It’s applied art like this that make me love what I write about, and even the writing of it.
The Fights And Films section commences with a LOT of new adds to our radar this week. Film Combat Syndicate favorite Shawn Bernal is up first and putting work in with Greg Poljacik, Danielle Stahl, Chris McClure, Jessica Black, Breck Robinson and Gabby Perrea.
Continuing the hits is Dom Fred with a brief interlude titled Manhunt, and Michael Hartwig who gets in some chase/fighting time in a practice vid over at the FlowPKFR channel. Josh Fried picks up the pace from there testing Expectations V. Reality with Cameron Early and Trevor Morgan, and the gang from Aneux Studios continues their webseries rollout with part three of One Way Out (listed along with eps 1 and 2).
Innovative action auteur, stuntman and filmmaker Eric Jacobus gives netizens a one-minute glimpse into his recent efforts with fellow performer Rory Bratter to sample the latest in evolutionary action design and filming calle 3-Viz which he explains here.
Next up are Amina Materukhina and Matthew Osborne get in some kung fu fight time for a practice reel followed by actor Adam Roland offering an action snippet from John Balazs’s 2018 action-packed short outing, Night Shift, opposite Adele Elasmar, and one-woman army Nicole Marines trapped against Matt Scheib, Alexander Hashioka and Nikolay Nedyalkov in Eric Linden’s Garage over at WOLF Stunts.
Inderdeep Chahal is out for retribution in Akshay Singh: Outmatched, Reuben Langdon introduces us to some pre-viz throwback action for the third installment of the Devil May Cry game franchise with Daniel Southworth, Stephanie Cheeva and Adam Clerk, and Sam Elder debuts on the Hit List this week with his latest aptly titled Hit, and this one’s quite rough around the edges with some of the hits not stacked very well but I enjoyed the execution and the effort. Starring Asher Melton, Thomas Hezel and Sam Wigger.
Enjoy the hits!
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