THE HIT LIST: November 14, 2016
Things didn’t turn out too well for me over the weekend during the afterevents of the UASE in New York City on Saturday evening. Opportunities got cut short which pretty much undid any writing I would have liked to do, though it wasn’t a huge waste as I got to shake hands with one of the Expo’s attendees, stuntman Donald Tucker, which you can read about here.
A minor, albeit fun memory to take with me into the years’ end wherein there will hopefully be more to discuss on the stunt and shortfilm end of things for business as usual here at Film Combat Syndicate, and with none other than The Hit List to help pick up the pace on some of the internet’s best, action packed stunt profiles, shortfilms and various projects by creative netizens alike. Revving things up for our stunt and training demo reel playlist is filmmaker and action director Leo Kei Angelos, stunt performers Remington Steele, Stephen Murdoch, Janelle Beaudry, and Andrew J. Neis. Cinematographer Tommy Trinh and actor and martial artist Noah S. Fleder follows through with a video themed Caged Hāfu: The Half Breed in support of training and sportswear company Lululemon, rounding out the playlist with stunt reels by Gabriel Caste, Caine Sinclair, veteran stunt and fight coordinator Alain Figlarz and stuntman Anthony Skrimshire.
There’s nothing present at the moment in terms of trailer or poster news that I could find – I slowed down this weekend to rest up a bit. For now though, this also leaves a little time to get just a wee bit musical through the video stylings of internet duo, Papillion Rising; the two launched over the summer, themed with a sci-fi tale brandishing themselves as futuristic time travel warriors fighting to save the future from cultural deterioration from a post-apocalyptic tyrannical organizarion.
For this and by way of The Academy’s latest Oscar induction of international superstar Jackie Chan who gave an emotional acceptance speech you can see HERE, Papillion Rising lended their own tribute to the currently-crowned film legend with their newly adapted take on “High Up On High”, the classic outro to the 1984 film, Armor Of God. The video is a dauntless, cleverly-edited nod to the hit film by way of German action auteur, stuntman and filmmaker Andy Long who also gets a few wrecks in on screen next to our title cast with Chan himself as “Asian Hawk” as seen in the film, and it’s fun to take a gander at. Do enjoy.
Now we’ve come to the fight and film segment for the Hit List, and to start things up is West Empire Productions with Lovel Johnson Jr. lensing some experimental action performed by Bruce and Jason Inaba with Ira Calilung and Rico Martinez, followed Eric Nguyen and Lunar Stunts‘s latest installment of The Fighting Journey with Irvin Nguyen and Allen Quindiagan, and an adrenaline-pumping new action concept by Walter Garcia titled The Law Of Attraction with Isaac Hughes and Dena Sodano.
Afterwards is filmmaker James Couche who sometimes frequents our site with pieces of his own. Apart from that, he’s making his own content over at Gunsavior Pictures and his latest, Art Of Violence, is now out with a thrilling short story pitting a struggling ex-assassin-turned novelist against a lurking hitman, played by Ashanti Luke. From there we get Dan Dargan Carter and his latest two-on-two bid in the new short, USB UFC with Mounir Quazzani, Justin Clarke and Brandon McClary, followed by Stunt-Do Fighting with the new fighting game-themed short, Sword Club X with Gaetan Caillot, Gabriel Senges and Andrey Bobrov.
Lastly in the playlist are two distinct and terrific pieces of sci-fi work with the first, Meta from actor and filmmaker Ricardo E. Segarra and co-star Anthony J. Alicia about a man whose supernatural abilities surface as he’s being hunted. It’s not hugely glossy in terms of action and visuals but serves an ambitious and watchable feat.
The latter comes from a channel that collects a number of sci-fi shorts that look really amazing with one of its recent additions, Federico Heller’s 3DAR produced Uncanny Valley, now here on our radar for our own enjoyment host to a fantastic tale of a future rife with virtual gaming junkies, and a hidden conspiracy that will blow your mind. The shortfilm gained headlines last year amid news that private screeenings drew the interest to expand as a feature with Carter Blanchard ready to invest time into a working on a screenplay, so hopefully we’ll learn more going into the new year about where this one is headed if anywhere.
Last and far from least is the latest official shortfilm release, Avenging Alex, a hilarious action comedy romp collaboration from Virginia-based independent film crews Rising Tiger Films and Turtle Wave that tells of an on-set mishap when a crew member presumably gets killed on set. Avenging Alex got a great reception next to one other project from the team at Rising Tiger, the upcoming feature film debut of Leroy Nguyen’s Black Scar Blues which successfully picked up awards in categories for Best Feature Film and Best Fight Sequence – all signature of the work we hope to see more of from both teams, especially Rising Tiger.
Watch Avenging Alex now, and beware of zombies. Invariably.
As always, these channels can use some love, so subscribe accordingly and feel free to hit up last week’s entries for even more enjoyment. And, if you or someone you know has some great action film content or a new demo reel that grabs eyes and beating hearts with moment to moment with thrilling feats of stuntwork, you do what you need to and send that jewel over to us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com and will be glad to take a peep for ourselves. Remember: not every entry gets shared, so always improve your craft and keep on creating no matter what!
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
