THE HIT LIST - August 10, 2015

It's been a busy, busy year for the blog, and I seem to notice I'm running out of outstanding stunt reels. I may have to substitute if this keeps going, although I hope this turns around. Anyway, this week has a new Hit List installment and it should be an awesome evening or morning for you, wherever you are in the world as there are plenty of shorts and bits of webserial content to share with at least one being a matter of catching up for me.

I almost wish there were two of me for this thing.

Starting things off here is the stuntreel playlist with samplers by Robert Watson and Sean Taylor's stunt highlights from work on Josh Trank's Fant4stic, as well as reels by Tony Flores, Noah Woods, Lisa LoCascio, an excellent new reel from stunt coordinator and stuntman, Arnold Chon and a fantastic action reel courtesy of Martial Club's own Daniel Mah!

Now it's time to get fighting, and kicking things off are a trio of quick little fight action jewels, and I have a favorite from these. Cinematic Fight Studio initiates this round here with a test fight starring CFS student Nhan Du and martial artist and upcoming actor Tom Caserto, followed by Jeff Centauri's latest bit of madness in Young Model Fights Back: Secrets, a nifty little video from our German entertainers within the Noobtown Monkeys as dueling roommates, Player VS. Player and the latest test fight short, Captured, from Wolf Stunts!

Taking a moment to help share a little bit of webseries, YouTube Space has proven to be quite the breeding ground of ideas for Toku creative, indie filmmaker Bueno. The latest idea to come to fruition has finally taken shape in the new webseries, Ayakashi Zamurai, with Kimura Keisaku starring as a fugitive and wandering drifter armed with a kickass...puppy. Yes, I'm calling it a puppy until you see it for yourself.

The second video comes from the kind folks over at Shuriken Films in the wake of their new webseries launch, Warigami, starring Sam Marra in the story of a warrior on a mission to protect ancient scrolls while facing an opposition with a shared, unique skillset. It's visually impressive and the story and action share as every bit of intensity as you'd hope, and if you're new to the webseries, then you're just in luck. Because you can also catch the second episode today after you've seen the first in the player below!

And lastly, though far from least, oft contributor and independent action coordinator, James Couche, has a few gems of his own now out and about. One is the latest long-awaited short Demon Hunters:  Zero Mission, now online as of last week and serving up a nice little slice of sci-fi action cheese circa the mid-90's.

The second, and final video of the Hit List this week comes by the good graces of the latest milestone success of the current Kickstarter for director Michael Neal's webseries, Swords Of Insurgency, with the unveiling of the pilot while crowdfunding continues. Couche's team, DC Stunt Coalition led by stunt coordinator Dylan Hintz, designed the action with actress Rebecca Hausman front and center of this post-apocalyptic tale of one woman's struggle to survive tyrannical usurpers of the future.

Click here for more info, otherwise, enjoy both videos below!

Swords of Insurgency - Pilot Episode from Michael Neal on Vimeo.

A few noteworthy mentions here are necessary this week, particularly for independent filmmaker Frank T. Ziede who is currently around the corner with his latest military action series, Black. In the meantime, he's also promoting the Wednesday online premiere of his latest shortfilm, Dogs Of War, and there's an event page where you can join and view the trailer as well.

As for all else, there's plenty to catch up with if you're new to the Hit List, and last week's list is full of goodies if you missed any. And, if you or someone you know have QUALITY content you would like to host in our weekly Hit List, e-mail us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com.

THE HIT LIST - May 4, 2015

Talk about down to the wire... this Hit List article was almost a no-show today as I was getting other things done in the process. Thankfully it IS here, and as alway, it's choc-filled with goods from the web. Before I begin though, if you missed the trailer for the upcoming short, Temple, then please take a look at it. It's poised for presentation to hopeful backers of a feature-length expansion and you only need to see the teaser once to be convinced why it deserves your attention and that of sales' agents...

As for the Hit List, well...let's get things started in here with a small grouping of stunt reels from folks like stuntwomen Janine Parkinson and Eileen Weisinger, and others from Omid Zader, Ogiwara Satoru, Johann Ofner, Sergei Dmitriev, John Sharpe, Jack Hansen and a fresh new, and Kombatastic reel from LBP Stunts Chicago!

As far as teasers and trailers go, there are a few more worth highlighting here, one from the Asians On Film YouTube channel for a new webseries titled Gun Girl from Asian Cinema Entertainment and In Yo Face Films featuring femme fatale character, "Diona Bran", played by actress Rebecca Grant. Gorby Shih directs and it looks like it will premiere some time in July but I advise following the channel for more info just in case. The trailer below that is for a new shortfilm from the growing workload of the folks over at Fight Factory Stunt Team titled Deliver(ed) with Vaughndio Forbes and Oscar Leiva among its cast.

And now, we get fighting, and the first of our action finale in this chapter of our Hit List begins with Mathew Lorenceau's most recent working of the lends for a skeletal pre-viz lightsaber battle concept. The second is a good old-fashioned test fight to initiate performer Daniel Sim into the ranks with Leroy Nguyen over at Rising Tiger Films; both starred in Nguyen's recently-celebrated short, Black Scar Blues which is still making the festival rounds so feel free to check out their channel for more info as well. Beneath that is the latest video from the fellas over at Beat Down Boogie titled Kung Fu Avengers, released days beforehand in celebration of the weekend U.S. premiere of Avengers: Age Of Ultron, while the other three come from Mikko Lopponen, Germany-based Noobtown Monkeys and Aracade Killers Cape Town, respectively, with Samurait Kalassatamassa, Girlfriend VS Boyfriend, and Mission Staircase.

And to finish, some slightly longer content, beginning with the usual comedic action styling of Fernando Jay Huerto in Tim And Michael Go To Canada, performing with Anthony Noceda, DL MacDonald and Alex Chung among others. The remaining two include a fresh new episode from the darkly-lit, comprehensive martial arts webseries drama, The Way: Fighters Twitch, and Joshua Zacharias's latest Donnie Yen-flavored action short, Deception!

But before I go though...

The 'Apocalypse' is NEAR, so CLICK HERE to catch up!

Subscribe to these channels above and click here for last week's entries. More importantly though, if you have a QUALITY demo reel, trailer or short you would like featured on our site, email us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!

THE HIT LIST - April 13, 2015

The past week has been full of stunts, but not without a dash of drama - particularly over the haphazard-yet-brazen attempt of one particular person's attempt at stealing glory she didn't deserve. It happens often and it ALWAYS deserves calling out. In lieu of this, however, it also presents an opportunity to show some appreciation to one other aspect of the stunt community worth commending: The Stunt Drivers.

Alas, kicking off this week's Hit List is a small handful of reels of talented stunt drivers, namely Furious Seven stuntwoman Debbie Evans in her 2011 motorcycle stunt reel, along with reels from Laura Lee Connery, Matt Covert, Marcos Garcia, Danny Bopp and Bastian Kern, showing us how it's done!

Now, let's get some more reels going featuring the recent feats of Marlee Barber, Jeremy Marinas, Morgan Benoit, Alex Duong, Gabriel Caste, Zoltan Hodi, Kendall Wells, Jake Eavey, Max Calder and actor Jason Statham handing over a thrashin' to stuntman Kenny Waymack Jr.! Afterwards, Get Off The Ground with Tempest Freerunning's own Gabe Nuñez, and watch Kung Fu Heroes's own Wes Scarpias as he busts out some sharp moves of his own!

New short film content is also coming, and for this, we have a few new trailers - the first comes from director Florian Metzner's new crime short, Aslan, about young Turkish martial arts fighter who travels to Germany to rescue his long lost, wayward brother from Berlin's criminal underworld; Germany's own Movie-Do desihned the action, and while the project initially had a teaser back in 2011, it now appears to be resurging with a pending release. Erkan Acar, Alexander Schubert and Lilian Viegas star. Beneath that, you'll also find a trailer for the new 20-minute martial arts sports drama short, Eye To Eye starting Martin Chan and Darren Holmquist which sees two Tae Kwon Do instructors settling their differences for the sake of their dojang.

And of course, the fighting continues with several new online gems - the first two come directly from the Noobtown Monkeys channel with one spoofing competition over noodles, and the other pitting tricking against b-boy prowess. Also following are a new freerunning action short from Umewaka Naotomo titled Parkour Ninja Assassins, Sami Huhtala and Arman Ansari's newest performances in Albania with action design by Ramin Sohrab, the first of a three part MMA action endeavor between Team Alpha Male and Glass Pixel Studios featuring Justin Buchholz and Dustin Akbari, Ashley Beck's latest gem, Conflict with performances by Adam Smith and Craig Canning, and Jeff Lunzaga's latest sci-fi action comedy short, Hetja 2, continuing the longstanding reign of hyper-reality filmmaking where all the women are hot, everyone knows kung fu and shoots lasers, pork buns are awesome and no one has any idea!

Feel free to subscribe to these channels and click here if you missed last week's Hit List. If you have a QUALITY project you would like presented on here in the form of a short, trailer or a reel, hit us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com