THE HIT LIST - June 15, 2015

This week is going to be just a little light on content as I've managed to successfully cover a lot in previous weeks. Honestly though, I wouldn't be surprised if there were more quality stuff out there I may have missed, and mainly because, well...I don't have immediate access to everything out there. But I am working on it.

As such, this week's Hit List is here and with another wave of cool new stunt reels and shorts. The new stunt reel playlist below features respective stunt and coordination work from Justin Yu and Donald Brooks Jr., along with a temp reel from Daniel Graham, actress and stuntwoman Kristina Baskett, freerunner Antoine Giri, and stuntmen Dan Pelchat, Peter Jang, Mykola Galagan, Lee-Moultan Davies, Eddie Perez and Brady Romberg. The playlist caps off with a showreel highlighting the career of actor and martial artist Ernie Reyes Jr. in lieu of current crowdfunding efforts to advance his much-needed kidney transplant, and you would be advised to take a look at it and share it with friends and family.

As far as pictorals go, there are several up now on the official Facebook page for the current Kickstarter crowdfunding of Amaranth Films's latest Chaplin/Shaw/Woo-attributed hybrid short, Mime Games. Mary Poppins Bonnevay and Sam DeSurra are currently in training with The Stunt People's own fight coordinator Lucas Hisashi Okuma for story that pits two different types of mimes in an epic mime fight to the finish. You can learn more about the project at its Facebook page where you may also link to its Kickstarter to contribute in exchange for your share of perks.

For some behind-the-scenes goods, you may now turn your attention to the latest featurette for Nguyen Anh Nguyen's latest sci-fi action laboring, Temple. Osric Chau takes center stage in the late 21-century dystopian action short where he must survive a deadly virus and killer cyborgs in a desolate metropolis. With the shortfilm coming soon, the goal is to turn it into a feature and judging by the teaser back in May, I hope it happens!

Hopefully you've been following action actor, film producer and Star Wars fanboy Noah Fleder's latest adventures through his newly launched channel, Force Storm Entertainment. He already has a variety of videos up and hosting an interesting array of shorts and pre-viz clips dabbling with lightsaber. This month though, it appears he's ready to teach a new generation of Jedi with series of short lightsaber instructionals, and do take note of these - because you never know when the force will awaken within you. And it could mean the difference between having two working arms and losing your head against a Sith!

Getting musical for just a few minutes, actor and stuntman Martin Wan debuted his first article here at Film Combat Syndicate and hopefully you've gotten a chance to skim through it. In the meantime, much of his life is spent doing martial arts and stunts for a living and his most recent stint can now be seen in Piss Off, the newest music video from Glaswegian indie rock band FFS and full of anime tropes, ninjas and an array of oddities amidst its spectacle. You can also catch Tony Diaz's latest directorial offering in Freefall featuring the music of English/Canadian dance music duo, Koishii & Hush, with key action-packed performances by a talented line-up of stuntmen led by actress Amber Marie Bollinger, and fight coordination by James Hutchison.



Some good old-fashioned cosplay went a long way for the folks involved in the next two videos - the first comes from the gang over at WTFLOL in their latest offering with legendary fantastic genre characters, now pitting Scorpion with Jason Voorhees. The second is the latest collaboration with actor and martial artist, YouTube personality Aaron "Gingerninja" Gassor and the guys at Flawless Films in bringing DC Comics heroics to life with Batman taking on Green Arrow in the ultimate fight for justice!

Here, we have a mix of test fights and webseries content - four videos in total, and the first two come from the Music Man maestro himself, filmmaker Bryan Sloyer featuring Martin Grassberger opposite Alex Meglei, and Talia Dillingham opposite Cassie Lee Minick. For the latter two, Minick herself partook as the title character this year for the latter two videos in an independent webseries directed and coordinated by stuntman Anthony Nanakornpanom (Three Bullets, Broken Path) called Pineapple. Be advised, it does get wickedly gruesome in the first video.

Cue the sweets!

And lastly, what happens when you stick Martial Club into a basketball court? Well...


Provided that you're not losing sleep or being kept from anything, there is plenty more where that came from as per last week's Hit List which you can check out as well. Beyond that, if you're a QUALITY content creator or stuntman working on something fun and entertaining and you want it hosted here, send us an e-mail at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!

Help Crowdfund The New Star Wars Fan-Film, OUTER RIM SLAVE For Force Storm Entertainment!

This year's Star Wars Celebration begins its four-day weekend event this Thursday on April 16, and it's all the rage right now as fans prepare to feel the Force awaken once more this December with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This, coupled with last week's digital re-release of all six previous films so far makes things even more exciting as fans and content creators gather just in time to share their own projects, fandom and more, and actor and Force Storm Entertainment founder Noah Fleder's latest debut effort with the J.J. Abrams-approved online fan short, The Betrayal, is no exception.

The project is the first of many to come for the channel with the hopes of creating a variety of content. Of course, some of these videos still require funding to some degree, and to that extent, Fleder is back with a brand new Indiegogo campaign to help present another action-packed venture, Outer Rim Slave, a story centered on the Jedi council's mission to investigate and take down an intergalactic slave trafficking ring. Fleder will perform with online action favorite and star of Chris Nahon's upcoming thriller, Lady Bloodfight, actress Amy Johnston and a cast soon to be announced as production commences, and surely those details could preferably come a lot sooner provided that donations come through.

Rest assured, if you enjoyed The Betrayal, you will definitely want to help make Outer Rim Slave happen. So if you're interested, head over to the Indiegogo campaign page for all the details and more!

J.J. Approved! Watch The New Trailer For Force Storm Entertainment's Debut Short, THE BETRAYAL!

If you were around about a year ago or so, you may recall previous reports on the announcement of actor, martial artist, writer, producer and stuntman Noah Fleder's inspired production base, Force Storm Entertainment. Built on the brewing reinvigoration of impending Star Wars fandom, with thanks in large part to the facilitators at Crestec Studios in Torrance, California, Fleder and the folks behind the scenes have been working toward developing a substantive platform for the shared vision at Force Storm Entertainment to accomodate fans with a variety of shortfilms and skits ranging from mockumentary-style comedy and laughs to impeccable drama, action and stuntwork.

Having previously worked with independent martial arts action cinema favorite, Unlucky Stars co-star and action director, filmmaker Vlad Rimburg on several online action shorts in the past including The Flow channel webseries, The Hunt, Force Storm Entertainment will debut its channel with the long-awaited action shortfilm release, The Betrayal on April 5, featuring Fleder and Rimburg with principle performances by Mickey Facchinello, Brendon Huor, Gui DaSilva, Jimmy Chhiu, Tony Chu, and Power Rangers: Dino Charge star Yoshua Sudarso. The Betrayal will mark the first of a slate of videos kicking off an eight week production cycle following the channel's launch on Sunday, March 29, 2015 with an announcement video by Fleder that now includes a fresh new teaser trailer for The Betrayal following the first teaser which aired on March 8.

The launch of the channel comes with great timing just as the surge among fans is rising with passioned awareness of director J.J. Abrams's forthcoming December release, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and other films that will follow suit. The next major star-studded Star Wars event is set to take place for the tenth Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim for four days on the weekend of April 16, and in lieu of this, Force Storm Entertainment has already caught the attention of quite a few important people within the leading ranks of the Star Wars community, and in no way do I imply this as an understatement. To say the least, 2015 is a damn good year to be a Star Wars fan, and the momentum and potential is surely resonant for Force Storm Entertainment with the approval they're getting and are continuing to acquire, particularly from a certain director of certain film coming this year.

"Really fun short film. Fighting is very well done. Now I really need to up my game!!!"

~JJ Abrams

As a noteworthy mention, Force Storm Entertainment is one of two channels Fleder is hosting this month with his upcoming martial arts tutorial channel, Martial Way, which will launch on the same day. That makes two reasons to pay close attention to what Fleder is doing this year while he maintains his place on the radar for fans and netizens alike who love martial arts, science fiction and all things comic-con.

If you fell asleep on this since my last report, now is as good a time as any to wake up and subscribe to Force Storm Entertainment. Watch Fleder's announcement video below and follow the Storm on Facebook and Twitter!

THE HIT LIST - March 9, 2015

There are a LOT of videos this week, but the very last one will undoubtedly keep you here for more news in the weeks ahead...

...On that note, let's get some reels going with new footage from the folks at Eclipse Stunts, as well as Tyson Arner, Alexa Marcigliano, Leah Petersen and Kyle Thomas Schmidt, along with a new fight reel from Wolf Stunts's own David Conk who also released two cool test fights thos past week featuring Adam Lytle, Ben Aycrigg and Shane Ferrell.

Now that that's done, let's take a break and get to know a few martial artists. It was late last year that the folks over at Kung Fu Heroes took a trip to see the sights in China, including various kung fu schools. While there, they've introduced two videos for their current interview series introducing members Rachel Ott and Sebastian Castellanos. You can learn more about Kung Fu Heroes and their adventures in martial arts by visiting their official website.

The next two videos you're about to see I felt deserved pairing considering how contemplative they were. The first comes from actress and stuntwoman Amy Johnston whose latest debut editing contribution, Expressions, comes with great tribute to legendary action director Hung Yan Yan following their work on Johnston's forthcoming acting debut in Chris Nahon's Lady Bloodfight which wrapped in February. The second takes you into a stunning and contemplative and artful view of what it means to be in movement, titled Flux from directors Patrick Ryder and Alex Brock.

The fighting continues with three new short film and webseries teasers from three distinct filmmakers I've come to appreciate in the past few years since I began blogging. The first is a teaser for an upcoming test fight short titled One Cold Night from director Nathan Quattrini, filmed earlier this year between Anthony Hoang and David Lavallee Jr. Ironically, it was filmed in an abandoned warehouse on one night that just happened to be very cold...perfect huh?

The second is a teaser from Lunar Stunts' own Eric Nguyen that pays homage to the 70's in the upcoming retro crime action comedy, Tough Street, which will share limited screenings starting March 27 -- The end of the trailer gave me a small chuckle. The third is a teaser for Kiai Kick Films' webseries debut, Cornered from filmmaker Michael S. Moore which has since debuted its poster a few weeks ago Donald Brooks stars with fight choreography by Aaron Alexander, both who can also be seen in their own test fight short, Showdown Part 2 from the folks at Faux Fighting!

Last month's airing of filmmaker Bryan Sloyer's Looper: Part One was an impressive experiment in a style of fight-based storytelling that almost borders on Inception, and he now returns to us this week with Looper: Part Two which adds even more layers and wrecks to the silent conceptual drama. PeiPei Yuan stars with Jerry Quill, Alex Duong and Jay Kwon - the latter who can also be seen in the latest LBP fight gem with Sloyer titled Third Protocol just beneath.

At the rate which filmmaking continues to take shape in the past several years, it's become quite admirable how the idea of retro-revival has become so influential in that process. It's become a cult phenomenon for many moviegoers around the world and now the folks behind the official Facebook page of Scytron Entertainment are heeding the call this year.

Two new shortfilms are available on their channel as of January - the first propels you into a 16-bit dystopian neon-lit city where one man must use his own supernatual abilities to avenge his own death and rescue the woman he loves from a notorious crimeboss. Rage is name of the short with Dylan Grunn starring from a script by Ben Boyle and debut director Ryan Boosel.

The second takes you into a gritty contemporary crime story from director Russell Hasenauer in part two of his Bible Belt short film series, Angel Of The City, starring Larry Mihlon as a mysterious vigilante in the fictional crime-ridden town of Fremont where providence will him against the city's most dangerous drug peddler. Also starring are Jennifer Zefutie and Don Sweet.

Enjoy!

This next batch comes from filmmaker, actor and martial artist Taejoon Lee. Newly uploaded on his channel as of late is a dated three-part miniseries titled The K-Town Chronicles, a crime story centered on the tragic bond between two surrogate brothers with an introspective look at Korean culture and tradition, and a glimpse into what it means to be a warrior. Lee's own martial arts lineage comes from a highly respected family - the first family of Hwa Rang Do, a style wherein he earned his 8th and final Dan back in 2009 under series co-star master, Dr. DoJooNim, making him one of few in the world to reach that level in his years of training, and you can learn more about his story at this website.

Check out all three parts below (and yes, that's Mickey Rourke you see in Episode 2).

Four dudes in a fight over some emperial gold and somehow they all end up as buddies? How did that happen. Find out in Kazu Patrick Tang's latest short, Oh My Gold, an experimental homage to Jackie Chan's 1984 classic, Wheels On Meals.

The next one offers a much more fair bit of high drama than anything. Following Hisonni Johnson's 2013 short, Grayson: Earth One, the director recently unveiled his latest inspired take on the alternate DC universe in Grayson: Earth One 1.5: The Boy and The Bullet, a centered on Jason Todd, a character who takes several shapes in the DC Universe of Robin/Nightwing. I'm not too familiar with comic book lore here so those in the know probably already have an idea what's happening. It's a great effort on Johnson's end considering these projects are hard to keep consistent due to the need for funds. Johnson's a terrific filmmaker and deserves every bit of support he asks for when the time arises. See for yourself!

By the way, I wouldn't fall asleep on that Power teaser at the start. Just sayin.

Ninjas, ninja farts and ninja flip farts for the win! YouTube host Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval kicks off the week in Add A Ninja, with performances by Steve Terada and Gemma Nguyen, the gang from Martial Club and many more.

And last but FAR from least, I told you at the top of last year that there would be some amazing surprises to come from online martial arts action favorite, Vlad Rimburg, and if you thought me to be a liar, you couldn't be anymore wrong as his latest, The Betrayal is but one of several to slowly pour out from his current work pile of stunning action pieces. This one comes directly from the innerworkings of Force Storm Entertainment and its executive overseer and founder, Noah Fleder as it now marks a huge step forward his upcoming production base. Expect an exclusive official announcement real soon from Film Combat Syndicate.

Subscribe to these channels above and click here in case you missed last week's entries. If you have a QUALITY project in the form of a shortfilm/teaser/reel you would like featured on Film Combat Syndicate, send your inquiries to filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com