THE HIT LIST - June 22, 2015

This week's Hit List has some substance to it, if I may say so myself. One shortfilm finally came out in particular and it's one I've covered quite a bit lately and I'm proud to have done as much as I have on it, and you'll see more coverage on Tuesday.

Until then, it's Monday night, and it's time to show off some stunt reels to cleanse the palette with videos by Bryan Sloyer, Michaela Chernoch, Cliff Ryder, Tonya Kay, Alexander Ullrich, Tim Storms, Lou Simon, Cassie Lee Minick, Sara Holden, Brett Easton and Narayana Cabral.

Skipping brifely over to teaser territory, actor and stuntman Michael Lehr growing craft over at Fight Factory Stunt Team has amassed some impressive work in recent months; VerseS is one of those projects - a grisly implementation of violent prose with Lehr fighting his way out of captivity. It's part of a whole series and the second episode isn't too far off, and its teaser is up for your viewing pleasure.

Time to practice fighting again, and for the first two quick videos of this segment, we get to see the latest from Emmanuel Manzanares and Jim Ng with respective performances by Amy Sturdivant and Bryan Sloyer, and a slick knife fight between James Ng and Evan Daniels. The third video below features actor Nick Denbeigh in a brief short expansion of the dystopian world created by filmmaker Jela Oba Okpara for the hit 2014 short, The Last Girl - hence the title, Give Us The Girl, followed by a new motivational gem from the folks over at Cinematic Fight Studio titled Never Give Up with actor Ricky Barksdale front and center.

The video beneath comes by way of fellow fan, New York City comedian Lawson Leung whose gotten some attention by the stunt community for assembling great montage footage in the name of supporting indepenent martial arts action. That's exactly what his new video does for the work brought about in 2015.

Speaking of independent action, it's about that time again, and the first to see is the latest websode of director Tony Laudati's long-running series, Kung Fu Femmes. It's a story of one warrioress's mission to save exploited stage fighting showgirls from a nefarious underworld crimeboss, and it's a mission that no less tests our heroine in more ways than one. If you're new to this series, feel free to click here and brush up, otherwise, check out the video below!

Lunar Stunts Action Cinema is back and at it again with director and fight choreographer Eric Nguyen whose short films are quite an example of an evolution in style. Each of his projects up the antee just a little more than his predecessors and his latest, Pandora's Box 3 exemplifies this rightly so.

The film itself follows a slate of stories of hitmen conflicted with the traditions their firm is beholden to by their lottery, wherein the one who wins the black dot gets marked for death. Nguyen's work is highly worth speaking of, and I'm ever more hopeful that the right person will grant this man whatever he needs to get a lush film career going.

And finally, peer over to University Of York film graduate Andrew Kueh whose latest sci-fi thriller, Prime Contact, is slowly but surely (and hopefully) becoming a big deal. Spy co-star Julian Miller takes on the role of Sam LeBrant, a transconciousness in a race against time to reunite with his wife and his vegetative body against the will of the courrpt tech corporation that expended him.

It's taken a couple of years for this project to finally go public since its crowdfunding and subsequent production and festival run, and this newly-released pre-viz clip by Leeds-based SG Action lends a tasty morsel worth the eyes. Beyond that, I got to interview Miller last week and it's going up on Tuesday, so check him out in action below with the short in full.

Last week's Hit List wasn't as light as I thought it was, but is still worth your time if you have any left to kill. For now, subscribe to the channels above and yes, if you make QUALITY content yourself, send us something at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!

PRIME CONTACT: A Word With Producer Harry Woodman

From L to R: Producer Harry Woodman, lead actor Julian Miller, stuntmen Martin Wan, Lawrence Nicklin and Jim Key, director Andrew Kueh and director of photography Robert Frost.

Directed and co-written by Andrew Kueh, the story takes off in the dark of night with actor Julian Miller in the role of Sam LeBrant, a lost conscience forced to use his ability to jump between bodies to find and infiltrate Cognitech, the notorious scientific research facility secretly holding his live body prisoner for experimentation. Caught in the middle of it all is wife and company employee, Jane LeBrant (Zara Plessard) unknowing of what happened to her husband in the time since his mysterious disappearance, and an inquisitive journalist (Katharine Mangold) whose own suspicions bring her closer than she's ever been. Using any and all resources available, Sam intends to rescue his body and bring Cognitech down, while trying to avoid being otherwise discovered by the ever-vigilant head of security, Logan (Johnny Fleming). But, it's the eve of the big company announcement, Logan is out for blood, and time is running out.

I got to speak about the project with producer Harry Woodman at the time of its film festival preparation and circulation. Among other things, he explained the peculiar process by which he and his team cast the lead actors. "We found them online and asked them to do a video audition as we were unable to travel to see them in person." he said. "It was a risky approach but we were incredibly lucky as everyone was perfect for their roles and they all got on well with each other on set."

Woodman continued, "Zara's audition was perfect, she had this strong quality about her but also keeping a sense of vulnerability, which we were looking for. For Sam we were wanting to go for a classic hollywood leading man, however when we saw Julian we saw him bring an authenticity to the role as you could really believe he was a scientist forced with this power. The fact that he was a fantastic actor and incredibly patient on some very long days was more than we could wish for."

Andrew Kueh & Dominic Lehany
The shortfilm lasts about a good half hour, and for a student project, Prime Contact looked very rich and solid with a lot of potential I can definitely see why the crowdfunding was necessary. Kueh's script, co-written by Dominic Lehany carries a lot of weight that definitely offers some potential for a bigger, more expansive story, with some portions that could have augmented the film provided it would have worked, editorially, and Woodman agreed. "There were certain things we would have liked to have added." he says. "It would have been good to explore some backstory for the film, developing the relationships between the characters. However we wanted this short film to feel like the last thirty minutes of a feature, and therefore the backstory can be left for the viewers imagination, at least for now. And we also wanted to have a car chase, but that was more for us wanting to film a car chase than it being editorially justified."

Woodman also complemented SG Action for its contribution to the project. Notably, there aren't that many stunt teams like SG in the United Kingdom (so I'm told), so I personally reckon he, Kueh and the crew felt very fortunate to have came across them when they did. "They were great." says Woodman. "Really could not have wanted anything better. In pre-production we were worried about finding quality stunt performers, as the fight scene is quite complicated. However we struck gold when we found SG Action, because not only are they great at what they do, but they have helped across all parts of production, from promotion to post sound work. They are fantastic guys and hopefully they will be going places soon!"

The same sentiments were shared for Prime Contact, whose director began shopping the project in film festival circuit  in the past year or so hoping to expand the story into a possible feature film. "Andrew is very passionate about this project and has been from the moment he came up with the concept." Woodman said, while acknowledging Lehany, as well as the film's director of photography. "This passion has helped drive the whole film forward. He wrote, along with Dominic Lehany, a great script that we all got behind and he was incredibly motivating on set."

Needless to say, it's taken this long for Prime Contact to finally release online as it just so happens to be advanced by Miller's current role in Paul Feig's new movie, Spy. As for a feature film, Woodman expressed his hopes to see its continuation through audience approval, should possible funding ever welcome the story of Sam Lebrant to a more epic, longer production scale.

"The aim for this film was to create an exciting thirty minute film that leaves audiences wanting more." said Woodman. "We wanted a film that has both action and an engaging story that requires people to pay attention. If people engage with the film's concept and believes in the characters, we would know that we have been successful. If anything, we encourage audiences to imagine the backstory to the film, how Sam got this power, and how he used it to get to this party."

Personally, I say shut up and take my money. If more were allowed on the table, I could definitely see Prime Contact as a full feature-length quality project with action, sci-fi, fantasy, espionage, intrigue and romance. It's exemplary of the creative richness and vision that an up-and-coming filmmaker like Kueh shares, like many independent projects I have seen and I hope the team continue to grow themselves in their craft.

Prime Contact is a pure start for something fresh and new, and I hope the right people are paying attention to give this group the support it needs. In the meantime, catch the most recent trailer below from March and stay tuned for its subsequent release this Friday.

THE HIT LIST - April 6, 2015

My weekend was huge, and the week before it was pretty busy. Still, hell bent on maintaining new content as with every week, I've returned once more with the Hit List with all the usual bits of action gems you can enjoy.

Let's kick things off with a new fight reel from The Challenge Letter co-star, aussie actress Maria Tran followed by reels from Travis Wong, Duy Panouvic of Arcade Killers, Ryan Hunter, Maria Sova, Jerome Teague, Nnamdi Nwosa, Andrea Ross and the latest fight reel from Cinematic Fight Studio, with some more stuntin' from freerunners Vlad Height and Lennon Shannon!

Now let's get fighting, and for this, we can thank creator and actor Noah Fleder upon the launch of his new channel, Force Storm Entertainment and the debut of its first project, Vlad Rimburg's new Star Wars fan short, The Betrayal!

Kicking this next portion is the latest test choreography video led by stuntman and screenfighter Kai Fung Rieck. Beneath that is a 70's style action comedy from the folks over at Lunar Stunts, Tough Street - a story of love, betrayal, greed, cool action and shameless overacting, and a lot of fun to catch. Take a look at it below as well as two other test fight shorts: Kevin Barile's latest Bourne-style action gem with bladed weaponry and deadly hand-to-hand choreography in The Bourne Elimination with Bryan Sloyer, and Sloyer's latest cerebral action-packed regal throwdown, Queen led by Amy Sturdivant opposite Jay Kwon, Michael Lehr and others.

More on Lehr below as we cap off this Hit List with some shortfilm trailers: VerseS kicks things off with its own teaser as its well on the way, followed by a trailer for UK filmmaker Andrew Kueh's student short, Prime Contact, and the latest trailer for Henry Kim's long-awaited short, All Men Are Thieves which is currently debuting later this month in San Francisco at the Roxie theater on April 23 and 24 - Tickets are available at Sparxo.

This next one comes from German stunt fighter, actor Andy Long Nguyen and his latest experimental homage to 80's Hong Kong action cinema, currently still underway as of 2013 and made with all the tropes and attributes of a dated Hong Kong action flick. Notably, these aren't the only folks to take this approach to shortfilm content lately, which says a lot about how much appreciation there still is for the golden era of Hong Kong cinema. And clearly, there's a ton of it here.

new Hong Kong 80s tribute video "teaser"

This is a little teaser for another HK 80s tribute project that I’ve started in 2013 in Hong Kong. Unfortunately I couldn’t continue shooting since than and it still might take a while, because there’s no other way to finish it than returning to hong kong^^ but in the final version you will hopefully enjoy special appearances like Vi-Dan Tran, Mike Leeder and Maria Tran (who also did her own HK 80s style video recently) and many other surprising special guests ;) Check out my other HK80tribute video with Can Aydin Abida and Khoi Chau if you haven’t seen it yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqY4KbV7plw special thanks John Youk Markus Rec Armin Schnürle Alex Bross Konstantin Korovilas Rodney Wong Fatih Ugurlu Corn Kit Pui Man Ho Robert Reiskorn Craig Miller Natalie McKnight Yamil Ray Mania Pictures Mag-Fighters TeamBay rec Sefa Demirbas Zheng Tai Việt Nam Huỳnh

Posted by Andy Long Nguyen on Thursday, April 2, 2015

And last but not least, a testimony courtesy of actor and stuntman Adam Lytle with an important, dramatic message about how ideas are rooted, and the struggles of growing them. The title says it all.

Subscribe to these channels above and click here to view last week's Hit List entries. If you have QUALITY content you would like shared in a Hit List piece whether it's a trailer, shortfilm or reel, email us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com