THE HIT LIST – May 11, 2015

As always, there are plenty of stunt reels online, but only a handful of them can be shared here depending on how much they stand out to me (on top of the limit I’m setting for each Hit List piece). So, I’ve chosen reels from Mallory Thompson, Michele Silvestri, Chris Bradley, Tyler Elliot, Steven Turner and director Adam Zielinski‘s latest round up from the inner-workings of the Arahat Orphan Brotherhood, all of which should help get things off to an epic start. Enjoy!

For shortfilm territory, we have at least two new trailers to start with. The first for Grindhouse-era short, Death Blender, comes from Dylan Hintz over at DC Stunt Coalition by way of his latest entry into this past weekend’s 48 Hour Film Project and it’s got a gory trailer for which he hopes to feast more eyes on with bigger platforms. The trailer beneath that is for My Brother’s Keeper, an upcoming new short from action actor and dancer Jordan Cann which aims for a neat hybrid of action and dance choreography to set the stage for a bitter rivalry between brothers over a similar love interest; this one is expected to arrive this June or July following post-production.

And now, as always and expected, we get fighting! But first, a word from actress, choreographer and martial artist Tess Kielhamer who has made somewhat of a name for herself among fans, a lot of whom may be familiar with her role in Micah Brock’s four-part indie action mini-saga, Slug Street Scrappers. She’s got her own channel nowadays where she vlogs, opinionates and often showcases her screenfighting and action design talents in their continuance, and a more recent case can be seen in quite a few pieces she’s done, including the first-part of her martial arts game-inspired series, Cosplay Combat. It’s been her labor of love and long-enduring in its wait for completion before the first episode was released, and this month, she’s looking to move her efforts forward via Kickstarter with up to excesses of $800 or more. And provided she gets her figures in, fans can expect to catch her kicking ass as anyone from Street Fighter’s Cammy to Mortal Kombat’s very own Sonya Blade, and then some.

The first episode is available on her channel where you may also view her campagn video, and you can link there to her Kickstarter page as well. In the meantime, she’s got another video up seperate from her platform with fellow indie actioner Shaun Charney you can view below as well, which, in case you’re new to Kielhamer‘s work, should serve as a nice little intro to sample with. The other short fight beneath it comes courtesy of the Z-Team’s own Dider and Laurent Buson circa 2009; it was reshared via Facebook in lieu of Dider‘s birthday a few weeks ago and just uploaded to YouTube with a different track, and as you can see, the choreography is still fresh and exciting to watch in its execution while pre-visual state for the brutality in their latest debut feature, Die Fighting – that film is currently available on VOD and various platforms.

Next up, it’s a story of five men – each of with their own reasons to fight. Into the G.O.D. (Game Of Death) is the latest piece from the folks over at Legionarius Films who first came under my radar with a lovely little Capoeira-inspired action short titled Guerrero Capoeirista back in February and it was enough to get my attention. As for Into the G.O.D. (Game Of Death), this one has been waiting to come out for a while now with post-production issues occuring earlier on, but finally it’s out now so, have at it!

The next short you’re about to see comes from director Lawrence Blyth with a small story that easily harkens back to the old saying “crime doesn’t pay”. The Countdown is the name of this little gem between actress, writer and producer Lara Heller and actor Cengiz Dervis with a fair bit of mature comedy in between the action with an explosive ending to boot. This one will put a smile on your face, guaranteed.

Next up, Wolf Sensei has returned in Martial Club’s latest to offer his opinion on the not-so-epic #MayPac fight earlier this month. It’s actor Brian Le‘s second outing as this persona following its entrance in February, and I think only good things of this. Check him out in his element!

That was a fun laugh, but now we get back to the realm of the serious. The next episode of the martial arts drama webseries, The Way: Fighters Twitch is here with actress Rachael Thompson front and center, from creators Ronny Vega and Khalil Barnett.

Up next is action actor Vaughndio Forbes‘s latest debut with Fight Factory Stunt Team in the new short, Deliver(ed), pitting agents against agents with solid action design by stuntman Narayana Cabral.

And lastly, indie action creators Vlad Rimburg and Tony Chu have a lovely little gem coming soon. Here are some vicious stills to whet the appetite, along with a separate batch of new photos ahead of Alex Chung‘s Hit Me Apocalypse later this year.