Chase Script Finished, Ivy Investigation renamed, new dummy and new outlook on life :)

I have finished the Chase script? Or have I?  The problem with being a writer is that you seem to never finish, like a conqueror...I finished this script a couple of months ago and after getting some  feedback from some of my friends which ranged from very cliche, I'm an actor so give me more meat! to the actual actor who is playing co lead loving it and saying he loves my passion for the project, I actually want to go back and do it again....which is good, because in the meantime I am working on my webseries formerly known as Ivy investigation which was ridiculously named as I couldn't justify it so it has been renamed Parnell Rise, the blog chronicling the journey from now to its completion can be found here now! The blog will include shooting fighting scenes, shooting actors, script revisions, behind the scenes trivia and overall musings on making a series with no budget and just love.

I have did a little traveling over the last couple of months, local aquarium and road trip to Rotorua which I will share a couple pics here as well as Sydney but I will blog about that in the next blog, I just wanted to share first that I have finally gotten myself a wooden dummy now so I can practice at home, like jackie chan in wheels on meals :) Check me out :)

Having never been outside of Auckland since moving to the north Island we finally took the opportunity one fine weekend to see what the fuss about Roturua was. It was a great 3 hour trip by car, we stayed at the millennium hotel and visited buried village, hot pools, lady knox geyser and more, below are some of my fav photos from the trip there, hope you enjoy them, and you should definitely visit and experience it for yourself whenever you get the chance, It's a great small city with a ton of touristy attractions balanced with beautiful nature. Plus I bought a gps which made traveling fun, I kept thinking of Sleeping dogs (gps when driving in game too haha)

 ninja matt :)

 Rotorua behind me, gondola trip was fun :)

  Doggone fun!

 We herby declare, yellow is cool ;)

 You know what it is :)

 Obama, eat your heart out :)

 Thermal power up!

 Which way?

 Wifey kept mentioning blue lake in her sleep, must be this one :)

 So much steam, must be hot pools alright :)

Everybody deserves icecream after visiting the spa :)

Hoped you enjoyed the pics, be sure to check out my next post - Sydney and Schwazeneggar, thinking big!

What's the time? Now.

Another week gone, another chapter closed. It's been a funny week, trying to find a balance between my work goals and my own personal goals. As Chris rock would say, this is my Career not my job lol But this is what has been taxing my mind this week, like the quote I have probably mentioned heaps on this blog already says, the hunter who chases 2 rabbits catches neither one, I worry that by trying to meet and exceed my targets for my job I am losing steam in my train for my filmmaker dream. But hey, I have a job and I plan on keeping it for the time being, however I get lost in my imagination a bit...

Like for real, I always think about that and other times about how awesome it would be to actually be filming instead of behind the counter asking people what they have planned for a weekend I'll never see lol

 Melody comes back tomorrow from her overseas trip which is great, I look forward to seeing her smiling face again and already this week I have finally finished version 10.1 of Chase so feeling pretty good! 97 pages, no doubt I still have rewrites ahead but at least now I have something solid to show people, I have sent it away to a couple of parties to vex their minds and get some feedback on fleshing out their characters, In the meantime I'm hoping to start some promotional photos and early filming next week for my webseries. I've put the casting net out so let's see what curious fish we can catch :)

 Trying to eat healthy is a challenge for me, but they say the best things to do are usually the hardest, and laziness is one of my vices when it comes to preparing meals, I'd much rather order takeaway for the same cost of preparing a meal/the time it takes and have a meal straight away. But still, I made a couple efforts this week, as below, the main is served :)

Was supposed to be saving money this week, some of it 'accidentally'  slipped out of my pocket and bought the second season of nikita with it :) Guilty pleasure, reward for the hard week :) Such an awesome series! I get the same feeling watching this as I did from Alias, Prison break, burn notice, sopranos, chuck etc, Thats down to great casting, awesome writing and genuine empathy for the characters, plus the fighting scenes are good, even if they are cut way more than they needed to be but thats a hollywood thing these days :)

I finished reading one of my books I borrowd, Way of the peaceful warrior by Dan millman, really enjoyed it and definitely recommend it to you, it gave me the same feeling as 'the alchemist' and 'the last lecture' and spirtually uplifting books like that, a couple passages in the book I had heard before on my travels so I could relate alot. One of the key concepts I had been trying to grasp prior to reading this was being aware. The key to really living is to be engaged with everything, color, sight, smell, feeling, listening, everything. 

 He summed this perfectly when the protagonist of the story poses him the question, 

,"what time is it? He answers ""Um its 2.35."

"Wrong! The time always was, is, and always will be now! Now is the time; the time is now. Is it clear?" There are no ordinary moments. When I read this passage it reminded me of something I read a long time ago when I was into figuring out zen, lol thats a riddle for another day, anyways I learnt that having enlightenment meant that for studied monks when the bell tolls they hear it for the first time, for example, when you live near a church like I used to, at 12 each day they would ring the bell, after the first intial toll, its loudness ringing in all directions, its tone rumbling through your ears, you would fully realize the sensation but eventually by the 3rd of 4th shake it becomes nothing more than a casual sound, whereas a monk heres each and every single toll as if it were the first time. And its that awareness that I'm seeking myself, I tend to glaze over things abit. I'm quite happy I wear glasses, cos wearing contacts means I have no choice but to experience the clearness and color of life around me everytime I put them on. The trick is carrying on that awareness :)  anyways, Another passage I quite liked is quoted below 

,"Happiness = Satisfaction divided by Desires."

"You are rich if you have enough money to satisfy all your desires. So there are two ways to be rich: you earn, inherit, borrow, beg, or steal enough money to meet all your desires; or, you cultivate a simple lifestyle of few desires; that way you always have enough money."

So back from the spirit to my material goal of being an actor/filmaker :) Remember how I said I was working on that action themed ad made by a japanese company? After a quick turnaround I finally have some footage to share with you :) Check it out below, You wont see any of us in it, we were there to make it look impressive and vast in size, but its pretty cool to see how it all turned out, arrows, horses, smoke, cannons, swords, rifles and all :)

 Please click here to watch Cup Noodle - Survive Ad

Anyway, Until my next update which will probably be an Ivy Investigation casting update, take care and live life, don't just sit there for the ride, take the wheel! Til then see you....

Carnage Alley Part 1

February 20th already, time flies huh? Up to page 51 of 10th rewrite of Chase. I'm getting really restless at the moment. I really thought that I would have got my movie started by now, but each day melts into the next, and I stand no closer to my goals. Just work on my sales and keeping my job, balancing that with my home life and trying to fit in training when I can....But good things take time I know so I knwo that by the end of this year I will have concrete proof I am making some headway into this mess of a dream I have.

Here is the choreography practice footage I shot with Steve that I tried to upload to facebook last week but wouldn't let me since I chucked on the police story 4 ost in the background. Check it out below,

I Finally got myself a camera last week specifically to shoot something. YESSS! It had been ages since I had shot something myself. And I couldn't find anyone to borrow a camera off, so I spent a week looking around all sorts of models trying to find the cheapest most efficient camera for my dollar that I could find. Found this JVC HD Everio at Noel Lemming for 350. The quality is great for what it is and came with bonus memory. So excited to shoot with it. As you can tell :)

I plan to shoot a short film before I shoot my mock trailer for Chase for investors. This way I have festival credentials and an IMDB listing. I've written the first quarter of the script, the other depends on securing an empty warehouse or something to shoot the fight scenes in. I want broken tables. I want blood spray. I want intense fast paced action, something I've never really done in my standard short films so count me excited.

The short film will be called Carnage Alley. It's about Hunt (Safaa), a workaholic officer who is a step away from proving that something is going down at the docks involving nuclear arms and she takes her rookie partner Thompson (Matt) along for the ride. However, things go awry when the dealer who shows up happens to be a cop himself.

I shot the first couple scenes of Carnage Alley with Safaa last week, it was fun as I tried more creative angles and feel I've grown as a filmmaker, plus its great practice for Chase. Here are some of the screenshots while I save some cash for Adobe Premire so I can start editing.

 

Anyway, I'm off to go to a car sales yard, either to look for my dream car (BMW 328i) or my child dream car (FTO) as my car is threatening to cause me trouble again. I really should have done research on Rover's before I bought it but at the time it was the right choice and even when I sell it, I will still have good memories of it :) No doubt the car will end up in one of my videos, the joys of budget filmmaking :) Until next update, take care and thanks for your support :)

2013 - Film progress

December/January didn't hold much careerwise, just focusing on learning the job, now that I know how to do it I've started work on the Chase rewrite. I sat down with an Indian Actor who is making moves at the moment and he is keen on the film providing he gets more screen time, so I've had to change a few things so now it's back to the original buddy film idea. Here's his IMDB profile anyway. He's professional and easy to get on with so if all goes well (our schedules, financing etc) He will be the co-lead of Chase. I'm also looking at Lee Ah Yen who I worked with back in a couple of student films Last year at being the villian but again, thats subject to his availability as he's been mad busy recently which I congratulate him on :)

Unti then I'm chilling like this guy and working on the script :)

In December I was looking at testing out the canon 5D with a friend, Sana, who I had worked with before on a student project. We ran out of time to shoot everything but after seeing the footage, I'm pretty impressed and will add that to my 'to buy' list. In the meantime though I will just buy a cheap camera to shoot some quick test films before my mock trailer for Chase. Below are some of the pics, what do you think? (tomorrow I will add the edited video of what we finished)

Also in December I traded punches with a TKD guy as I searched for an actor to play the part of the enforcer in Chase. We shot some choreogrpahy I had written and got his neice to film it so we have a record of it, It turned out nice, the video is available to check out on my facebook page, but here's a couple snapshots to entice you until we get top film the real gritty short film sometime next month :)

I'm back to regular training now, my aim is to train at least 3 times a week, which will improve my fitness, keep my technique sharp and also let me fufill my 'do one thing for me' promise I wrote in my resolutions for this year. Here I am below with Chris after a light sparring session :)

 So yeah, onward and upward! See you next post =) with some good news ;)

End of 2012. Beginning of the future. New job. First Film. Great life!

So 2012 draws to a close. End of the world or not, we had a good run this year. Learnt heaps, Experienced more, Lived my life to it's pinnacle :) At the end of November I started my new full time job at ASB, a pretty cool bank, and to be working in one of the top branches in the country really makes me want to step my game up, cos now its not playing for keeps anymore, it's playing for fun and success. No more living day to day for me. Seems like yesterday I was sitting in the interview stage with my new bosses and now I'm doing the work (today was awesome). 

This opportunity felt like a culmination of all my life experience, like Slumdog millionaire. My Video shop job, My storeman job, My karate sales job and those odd jobs as temps, PT cleaner, power company salesperson, wine caser, market researcher....They all taught me a valuable skill or something about myself that made me the driven man that I am today. 

The Wife's happy with her circle and job and our new set up, I've sorted out our finances, and should have most of the equipment to get started on working towards CHASE by mid Jan 2013. I have a couple of short film ideas I want to execute first to get back into my rhythm  Then it's onwards with my first feature which will have to be shot  couple days a week for several months I think. I just want to thank those who keep up with my blog for your support and well wishes and in return I hope you have a great holidays and New Year break!!! Like Fiddy says, Get Rich or Die Tryin' :P

Still Waiting...

Hello boys and girls.

I am still on a somewhat tropical island in the middle of nowhere, having deep conversations about the universe with a palm tree. A romantic way of saying still unemployed surrounded by swimming cash sharks cows with their jaws out waiting for cash I don't have." Time is ticking, and when it gets to 0:01 there is no hero to snip the wire, no beefcake to push me out of the way saving my bacon and no way you'll see me coolly walk away as if the impact will leave me unscathed. No, I'm stuffed like roast chicken. Boy, I'm sick of sending out CV's, I may as well blow SOS smoke signals and get the same results. But negativity only brings more rainclouds so I try and stay on the bright side, work on making my script tighter, watch movies I hadn't got around to seeing, keep our house tidy, workout a little - try get that lean action figure I need for Chase, learn guitar finally and try learn little bits of my wife's language and annoy her with my perfect pronunciation. So far so good, she's a frown away from throwing me off the balcony ;)

I just finished watching Another Earth which is a good simple sci fi/drama film and I love how it tackles the question of a theoretical Multiverse - What if there was another you? right now? would this doppelganger be exactly the same? maybe fitter? not as fit? smarter? richer? Put simply when you made a decision, you chose A and they chose B? Where did they end up? Should I have chased this insanity dream? Should I have instead stayed at school, did some boring degree and end up better off?  Should I have not bothered with the music and joined the army instead? Am I crazy for wanting to do acting/directing for a career when the other me is a real estate agent starting to build his nest egg? Sometimes I think like that, I'm happy others do too. You know, 2 words I learnt when I was young I learnt from my boy Stallone in 'Over the top'. Regret and Obligation. There I go, I've fallen off the rainbow again. The words should have been, Perseverance and Determination.

I had 2 interviews for a sales position at Whitcoull's Sylvia Park. The first one went well, me and the guy clicked and talked for over an hour. I was a little surprised the job would be minimum wage but I said if they offered opportunities to rise through ranks through hard work and results I would be keen. I was pretty confident about getting the job, I didn't really want it to be honest but that shouldn't have cracked the surface. So of course I was happy when I got the call to come in for a Second Interview. Both times I turned up for these interviews and the interviewer was late, maybe a warning sign, or an excuse to flee. I stayed. 

The set up to this one was totally different, similar questions but different environment. I wasn't seated across from my questioner, instead I sat in a chair in the middle of the room facing a wall, while one assistant talked and took notes from my left side and the manager asked her questions from the right. She was attractive too which made me a bit speechless (as in Raj from Big Bang theory) but I got my bearings back and even with my attention divided I tried to stay cool but a couple times I was left blank. When have you gone over and beyond  for customer service? Uh..talked about my GKR days working with kids and grandparents...Whats something in the workplace that displays your creativity? I said most jobs didn't allow me freedom to break protocol. So she said what about at home? I told her about when we moved in we had no mattress and all the shops were closed, So i put all our clothes on the floor and plumped them up and slept on that for the night, I was doing DIY at home and didn't have a hammer for the little nails so I used the nunchuks which worked for the main ones (bought a hammer the next day to finish them off), using cardboard boxes for tables etc

Long story short. She emailed me I didn't get the job. I would have preferred a phonecall like the Secure parking guy did but OK. It's a little like a break up over a text, but that was a fun waste of a week anyway. I've applied for another 10-15 jobs this week so hoping something sizzles. speaking of sizzles, Fancy a hotdog? Funny costume huh

Worked on Shortland Street today as a friend mentioned he had been on the show in an armed defenders squad role. Thought I'm available, may as well put my name down, so got something from my agent, just a walk on role, but then I remembered why I don't really like doing shorty. The people are nice (one of the actors said hi) but being referred to as 'Hey, green hoody, come over here' instead of being asked my name sort of gets under my skin the 4th or 5th time I do this thing. But hey, take the crumbs build a cake. Soon as I get a bloody job I can put this plan into action, get my camera, get casting, shoot this damn Chase film and have a ticket to wave around and open some doors. The film game's like the job game, all catch 22. No job, no experience, but if you have no experience how do you get a job?

In terms of Chase news, I added a new character, Alice, the camera-woman following around Chase has officially replaced 'Paul' so now the script has got more of a buddy feel. Also Nazim won't be directing as I originally planned as he had some family affairs to take care of back home, so it's a one man show for now, but I have a couple acquaintances whose services I plan on acquiring prior to shooting.

Anyway, keep out of the sunburn and play safe ( I know its winter, but the UV still gets you, you should check out my sunglasses. I look like a one man goodcopbadcop, they call me the babyfaced badass. I'm going to bed now before I do any more damage to the interwebs, good night, that's all folks!)

(the recent eclipse as seen in Philippines, supposed to be a Venus thing happening in June too- space is pretty cool, why didn't I become an astronaut? maybe we all are and don't know it? cool film premise ;) haha)

Work on my debut feature 'Chase' begins!

Ok so for all news Here is the link to the official Facebook Page for = Chase Movie

 

Finally, printed and bound (not in the pic but trust me) at 71 pages without the action scenes (a comfy 20-30 minutes I reckon) This film should be a nice ride. A fun NZ action film. We don't make em so I'm sure I can market the hell out of this here in NZ/AUS. So now with the script all finished we move on to the next step, locations :) (as you can see on my plan sheet below which is stuck on my fridge)

Seeing as My place will double as chase's most of the locations are quite close, here's a couple pics.

Looks nice huh? Money Shots! 

Me (producer, writer, lead etc) and Nazim (director, editor, fx) had a small meeting and discussing of ideas about the film yesterday. I'm pretty excited to start work on shooting it, but I got to make sure everyone involved is available for the shooting times and schedule it all accordingly. So till next post, Our first step begins the journey of a million miles :)

Life after SAE and Emperor.

I'm surviving. Its been great so far with finishing my course (grades mailed tomorrow :) yay) and Some film work (student films, Emperor, Shortland st and a Japanese TV commercial) But it's back to real life. Rolling in the mud, trying to grow the bacon :P

I have spent the last week looking for jobs and houses, and time is ticking. (at least the house is tidy :) haha) I have a week to find a house before our lease runs out. Calm and collected, but maybe the panic hasn't set in yet? I saw a house in Onehunga on Tuesday which was nice and reminded me of our old place in Avonhead back in the day, I applied there but I think getting the bond money to them a couple days late might have been a sticking point. (We can't get it till we move out of here as the bond moneys is tied up with unilodge) Back to the drawing board...

I did a job interview yesterday for a CSO in a parking building but I got a call today saying It wasn't to be. I had that feeling yesterday when I saw another 20 CV's before mine upside down on his desk. As well as the 3 belonging to the 3 who were already working there before the takeover reapplying for their jobs...Also a wooden elevator, creaking on its slow rise to the 3rd floor? *chills* I had bad signs from the get go but the interview went well in my opinion and he did ask me if he could keep my file for some casual work in the coming weeks. But my hearts still set on something officey that I can get time off for in the evenings for my training/film endeavors. Because,

"The ultimate cost of something is the amount of life you will exchange for it".

Just finished watching Chuck season 4. Love that show, looking forward to the last and final season coming out on DVD this year sometime I pray.... And I am also using this 'inbetween' time to work on my Chase script. I did a 5 page outline that i shared with Nazim, we're still deciding on duties and even if we will pick this film to do first. I know I can sell the shit out of it but maybe we want something more generic first up? I'm racking my brain for ideas right now.

Trained on Sunday. Just nunchaku. Looking forward to sparring again though, hungry. No more Mr Nice Guy ;)

Then later on Sunday Night I went to the wrap party for Emperor, one of only 5 extras who got to go!! special thanks to those higher up who fought for our invitation, I appreciate it and was great to work with you :) The free Heineken's and food was great and catching up with the other extras and crew while I was there was pitch perfect :) Will be one of my cherished memories as I haven't been shouting over club bass in a long time and so many jokes and reminiscences were shared, cheers to the future, I'm counting on a bright one :)

Blog next week from hopefully a new place. My Internet's cancelled in 2 days. Byebye facebook ;) which is a good thing, spent far too long on it this week, and looking up funny pictures :) Even if I'm a little down on the dollar right now, "The worst bankruptcy is the person who has lost all enthusiasm". Don't be slippin now ;)

New Year, New opportunities :)

Happy New Year Everyone! Time to eat last year's challenges :)

2012 Promises to be a defining year for me as I create more opportunities and finish projects that have long been gestating. So let me share with you all what to look forward to;

1) I graduate from SAE (knock on wood) March 2012 and then I can start work on my Indy no-budget feature, Chase. (completely rewritten from the original sci-fi action thriller I mentioned months ago which is now retitled Hunter).

Chase will be a 80 minute feature film and I aim to start shooting April 2012, hopefully to be edited and available off my website Dec 2012/Jan 2013. It's the story of a wannabe action-star (yes, loosely based on an exaggerated version of me) and his road to honesty. I've written 5 fights into it and plenty of comedic gags as well as some heavy drama to give my first feature some heart and soul.

2) Also in March I hope to have also finished Phonecall, the action/thriller staring Nazim Khan and myself. I hope to enter this in some low key festivals and spread the word about my style of film. All i have left to shoot are the 2 fight scenes, a flashback and some pick up shots.

3)Also in March I will also enter JOB 23 into film festivals too, this drama/action film is what I have decided to turn in for my SAE definitive project, though I had wrestled with shooting Bouncer or Maria, I have decided that budget and cast/time frame wise this is the safest and easiest option.

4)In order to become the film star I am aiming to be I need to work on my acting as well as getting exposure on national television and more views on YouTube. I will be chasing as much extra work as possible as well as trying for ads, student films etc, but I am hoping working on my own films will give me the exposure I seek. I don't want to start my website without something to sell to a fanbase I can grow, so I'm working hard on my Actionstar webseries....

5)I aim on learning Nunchuku and Parkour properly this year so I can feature them with my Jeet Kune Do in my movies, as all 3 very exciting to watch onscreen in my personal view, I want to be able to execute them as perfectly as possible.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope to have some more videos or photo's to share with you over the coming year as I chase my dream of becoming New Zealand's first action star :)

Thanks for your support even though as an action hero I'm only in the beginner stages :)