THE HIT LIST - May 18, 2015

Stunt reels, freerunning, tricking, fighting and more. The Hit List is back this week and there's at least one video you should check out here as it pertains to an upcoming televsion series arriving this Fall.

For now, the Hit List begins in the only way it should, particularly considering anyone who knows who action star Donnie Yen is knows he has a sister. Alas, Chris Yen's latest reel comes first and foremost, with others from Amy Sturdivant, Kiki Okubo, Christopher Llorca, Paul Clark and David Rodriguez, as well as a new fight choreography reel Paradox Pollack, and an absolutely fantastic stunt coordinator reel from Philippe Guegan!

Now we get to do a little bit of freerunning, and to kick things off, the folks over at Precision Parkour have a new video out which you can view right now, with other entries from Team Farang's own Pasha Petkuns, 16-year old prodigy Serafina Ferraro, and a recent video from the amazing content creators and cinephiles at SubOverHype titled Midnight Mayhem!, taking parkour and car stunts to yet another level of pure physical genius!

Alas, it's time to get punchy, kicky, stabby, shooty and all dramaticky and whatnot, as Italy's own D-Unit gets things started with a Donnie Yen-inspired test fight. Peep it.

Up next, actress Kristen Brancaccio got some mighty attention from YA bookworms and sci-fi fans last week with her stellar performance in Leo Kei Angelos's new short, Mockingjay Burn. If you've been keeping up with the updates, you likely already understand the circumstances that kept the short from airing online right away, and for very good reason.

Feast your eyes on the new post-apocalyptic sci-fi short, Day One, which lands you right smackdab in the middle of nowhere with Brancaccio as a seemingly lone survivor on Earth, fighting to live as she counts the days since she last saw human contact. The short was submitted and earned a top-10 place in a competition headlined by HBO's Project Greenlight, which is set to air its new season this September, so there's a good chance we'll see Brancaccio and Angelos on TV this year to learn more about them as aspiring filmmakers.

You can check out a director's cut of the short by clicking here. Otherwise, enjoy the video below!

Here, it's not everyday a shortfilm like this comes around, particularly with regard to subject matter as relevant as what's often seen in the news lately. Chainwheel is the name of the new short from director Sean Tambour Marshall and starring Dwight Taylor and Marisa MacFarlane, featured at several film festivals with one nomination in the past year. It's not a huge action piece aside from what little martial arts elements are added, but its male lead does show some screen acting and fighting skill. This, coupled with a comprehensive message about ancestral and global history in correlation with the systemic degradation of minorities in the face of municipal courruption in corporate America makes Chainwheel definitely worth the viewing.

Watch it right now and all the way through the end credits. Trust.

Back on point here, we now get back in action with a new short from Perry Vangoethem and Quentin Kloos titled Friendship, a story of an assassin assigned to kill his best friend, although evidently the mission ends with a twist. This is the first I've seen from Vangoethem and his team, and while some of YouTube's own editorial handling of this doesn't do it justice, this still looks pretty entertaining for any action fan if I may say so. Check it out!

Next is a fresh bit of throwback fanfare, and not too far back at that. Actor and stuntman Damien Walters was one of several professionals commissioned by Fox to help promote their February release of the theatrical spy romp, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and so what you see below is his contribution at the time. No, I haven't seen the movie yet, and it doesn't mean that I won't, and I'm certain I need to. I've written and learned about it enough to know it's a hit, so it's in my wishlist as we speak.

In the meantime, this was a real gem to find, and continues to be one in many reasons why I support independent film and online action through genuine performers and their platforms. Watch.

Take two assassins and watch as they go about their killing ways while talking about life, love and happiness in the new pilot piece, The Scuttlebutt Assassins following a trailer unveiling a few months ago. It's the latest collaboration from Wusah Productions and Usurp Productions with DY Sao and Wen Ren directing, and it bares mentioning the potential here for something truly amazing to happen, be it for a series or a movie. The acting is good, the dialogue is hilarious, and the action and fight choreography are solid between the fisticuffs, stabbings and double taps. It's the kind of R-rated martial arts action comedy with just the right amount of violence and charm, and I for one, hope the right people will board this to help provide what it needs to give it more than just merely these six-minutes. Enjoy the shit out of this one.

Next to last, it's trailer time with a look into the third chapter of Lunar Stunts's indie trilogy, Pandora's Box 3. Action creator Eric Nguyen directs once more, for this latest chapter of the thrilling drama centered on secretive organization of mercenaries and its brutal and violent hiring (or firing) practices. Nguyen's been making some staunch improvement when it comes to cinematic quality and promotion of his work, and this first teaser alone is a great display of that progress. I say give him a decent feature-length movie budget and let him flex his muscles more than ever. He's more than earned it.

Also, the boys over at Rising Tiger films have a trailer out as well for a new shortfilm contributed to videogame fanfare of their own with their latest project, Shenmue (Suka High). Not that I'm at all familar with this particular game, but I wouldn't put it past this group that this turns out to be another impressive piece of work, and if you're familiar with their channel, you'll know what I'm talking about.


And finally, last night, awards were given, songs were sang, and Taylor Swift won the evening in addition to debuting her latest kick ass music video, Bad Blood with stunt coordination by Don Theerathada and Power Rangers bootleg helmer Joseph Kahn directing a music video in the only way Joseph Kahn would. Expect an array of sexy femme fatales, tons of girl on girl action, and a good share of explosions, spills, kicks and thrills. And Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar, for certain.

Subscribe to these channels above and be sure to catch last week's videos if you missed any. Moreover, if you have a QUALITY action short, stunt reel or trailer for a project you're working on, e-mail us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!

THE HIT LIST - February 18, 2015

This week's list is a few days late putting together. It should have been up on Monday night but I had every intention of sharing one video that didn't release until the following evening. On a seperate note, I did manage to find a few teasers - one I decided not to include in this article because I wanted to learn a little more about it. It's a challenge I hope to overcome so I can share it provided its not too late, but anyway, here's this week's little gathering of goods!

It was last October that up-and-coming actor Ricky Barksdale was featured in full display on a teaser poster for the upcoming shortfilm, Blade: The Chronicles Of Eric Brooks. All fandom aside for its Hollywood predecessor notwithstanding, there's plenty of reason to endorse what's happening here, particularly with some of the impressive work accomplished by its director, Lang Yip over at Cinematic Fight Studio where he instructs, as well as coordinates fight action for film, and their work reel from last year delivers a good sampling of it. Alas, the team is preparing to shoot a teaser for the upcoming production of the fan film, which has a handful of people asking some specifics about what the story will entail. Barksdale addresses this and a few other things as well regarding the project in their newest video update, which in turn also serves as a small reminder of a few other projects well on their way.


Actor, stuntman and filmmaker Eric Jacobus's adoration for Hong Kong cinema has been pivotal in his career in echoing the stylistic needs for American martial arts action - specifically when it comes to stuntwork. His continual attentiveness to detail is worth noting in this regard as many of his videos on his official YouTube channel include reels and tutorials demonstrating any number of stunts, especially the various falls that you see on screen, and this week, he has a new tutorial specifically citing all the essentials in performing various back falls. If you're an aspiring stuntman, pay attention, because it could mean the difference between a successful stunt career, and something broken (for good measure, check out Eric The Redneck's Guide To Fallin' in the player just beneath).



How bad does it hurt? Well, that all depends on how you sell yourself as an action actor, as the guys over at Just Kidding Films have been demonstrating so well for the past several months now in their video updates ahead of the production of their yet-untitled feature film debut. Check out the video below!


Now that the lesson is over, let's take a look at some of these falls and more with new stunt reels by actress and stuntwoman Alyma Dorsey, stuntmen Renan Medeiros and Grant Steven, stuntman/stunt coordinator Don Thai Theerathada, Greg Rementer and his latest video with Paul O'Connor, Alvin Chon, Jacob Kabel, and actor and choreographer Dara Ours with G-Master Stunt Team, the crew behind the newly released Cambodian vigilante action thriller, Hanuman!







Now, let's get to some fight action, and for this I'd like to share this particular conceptual test fight from a while back featuring Tai Chi Zero and Tai Chi Hero co-star, actress Jade Xu. The video is part of an effort for an upcoming feature film titled The Inner District from independent filmmaker Julianne Block which is set in an alternative future Berlin with the wall still standing, ensuing in its fair share of drama and intrigue. The project's Facebook page has been up for a few years now so it still seems to be active and worth looking into. In the meantime, enjoy this little test glimpse into what life is like in...The Inner District!


Actress and martial artist Sascha Raeburn is currently making the rounds online with her hit webseries, Lost In L.A. with her own brand of comedic delivery. It's entertaining and worth looking up, although for me, doing so evidently brought me to this little gem she put together with choreographer Gary Quay in the 2013 short, Dragon Master, about a young girl's obsession to become a ninja with the help of a master, with a twist that packs quite a kick at the end. Enjoy!


This next video is a rough piece of work, but shows a nice little set of arramgements with Prateek Parmar and his team showcasing some dynamic kicking choreography practice. Hopefully they sharpen up and put something more solid together in due time. Baby steps! (H/T: Eric Jacobus)


As often as fight concepts make their way online from time to time, it's always cool to see such videos stemming from pre-viz work on feature films. Guillermo Del Toro's 2013 monster mech epic, Pacific Rim had a few good fisticuffs mixed in among its human cast with pre-viz work by veteran stunt coordinator Brad Allan, and this week we have a second one highlighting the one other fight scene with stand-in performances by Alain Moussi, Chris Mark and Eli Martyr. Check it out, and if you haven't seen Pacific Rim yet, it's available right now wherever movies are sold.


Did you enjoy your Valentine's Day? Clearly the folks over at EMC Monkeys and K&K Productions did, and to show for it, we have two other new videos from both respective groups - the first featuring this week's happy couple, Mickey Facchinello and Brendon Huor as they take playing footies to a whole new level, and the latest live-action short, Batman: The Bloody Valentine, which puts a pretty...well....creepy spin on the caped-crusader's longstanding battle against the Joker and his wave of criminal mayhem.

I kinda think K&K are onto something!



Speaking of Huor, whenever he's not acting or performing, he's choreographing and directing some of the biggest and best action sequences ever to hit the web, all lending marks of accomplishment with a notable A-list appeal. His craft can regularly be seen depicted in the work of directing duo, Thousand Pounds's own Chris Cowan and Haile Lee at their newly established production firm Epic Rival who have finally unleashed their hyper-kinetic live-action follow-up to their 2012 fan installment of Naruto Shippuden: Dreamer's Fight. This time, the battle takes audiences to the forefront of an epic scale test between two comrades, Tenten and Neji ahead of the forthcoming 4th great war between the Allied Shinobi Forces and the Akatsuki. Can Tenten's high-clasd marksmanship and bladed weaponry outmatch Neji's prowess and nearly all-seeing Byakugan? Find out and watch Naruto: Dance Of War in the player below!


The next two videos you're about to see come courtesy of independent filmmakers Bryan Sloyer and Nathan Quattrini with the first featuring action actors Jay Kwon and Manny Ayala - the latter who apparently did something very personal for the second one just beneath. Funny! Listen for it.



And finally, this is probably the best, most important video you'll see today...or this week, or month... or ever, depending on your preference. It comes from video essayist, filmmaker and critic, Chris Stuckmann whose newest video analyzes all that one needs to know about the current state of action movies from both an artistic as well as an ecomomic point of view. There are a lot of discussions online about what makes a good action movie and it's quite obvious that there are a lot of filmmakers who have absolutely know idea with what they are doing. From cameras to choreography and storytelling and more, Stuckmann breaks it all down to a cinematic science. If you want to direct movies, you may want to include watching this video in your repetoire of how-to's.


CLICK HERE to view last week's Hit List in case you missed it. Otherwise, subscribe to the channels above stay tuned in for next week's Hit List. If you or someone you know has QUALITY content you would like to share on Film Combat Syndicate, e-mail me at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com