Thirsty - a student film shot earlier this year

So, after trawling across Youtube I finally found that student film I acted in earlier this year with my friend Nazim Khan for his friend who was producing the short film while she was studying at NCBT/FTI, they titled it 'Thirsty', it turned out pretty good, amazing what difference a Dolly makes, it looks better than any of my films anyway so well done to them ;)

It was fun to work on and hats off to the team behind the camera, Just thought I'd share this with you guys while I'm hunting other projects :)

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 :)

The Lighter -Nazims Student film where I play 'Adam'

Enjoy! He did an awesome job with the coloring, editing and music, check it out :)

Phonecall - Haste Edit

As I start to begin work on pre-production for Chase, I'm uploading all finished work. Time fish will be uploaded next week after i have given the DVD to the cast involved. And Phonecall I have uploaded today, which you can click on below. I might rewrite and reshoot it next year sometime as i think I can squeeze out a feature from that idea once i fill out the character's more. But in the meantime, check it out and see the product of our work last year :)

Tetris, the pieces start to fall into place :) (Shortland St & The Lighter news)

Timefish has been handed in scars and all, done more extra work on Emperor this week and have started looking for jobs/houses. Finally the Shortland St work I did in January aired, remember the post about my back? Well here I am (snapshots at end of blog) maybe The one where I talk to the girl was cut or next episode? We'll see I guess.

Nazim also gave me a copy of 'The Lighter' DVD today. It's fantastic! As soon as I get a you tube link I will share it with you guys. I'm so nerdy in this short film, watching me on screen felt foreign lol. Great directing/ editing and score by Nazim...I can't wait for you guys to see it....

Anyway in between hunting and packing I took some pics below. And until I have Timefish ready for you guys, see you when I see you ;)

Taking a pic, oblivious that my wife is a ninja ;)

Packing to move out in a couple of weeks. This is only half of my DVDs.
wow. I can see why I'm broke lol.


Tonight's Shortland Street screenshots.
(trust me, it's me, My elbow was seen by thousands lol)




to be continued (I hope :D )

Finally, it's over....

Hi Guys,

It's March now, a full year since I started with this blog. Over the year I've finished my course (graduate hopefully next month), lived and immersed myself in Auckland, Studied Jeet Kune Do and nunchuku, helped the wife move up here and settle down, filmed numerous shortfilms meeting new up and coming actors/actresses, and did some professional work in the film industry as an extra meeting local NZ film celebrities as well as getting work on emperor and meeting Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones lol! Anyway, the journey doesn't end here, life goes on! so it's time to move out of our student city apartment into the suburbs, get a real job to save for a budget and equipment and at night start working on a festival feature to try get my name/brand out there....but let's not get ahead of ourselves, let me share with you the lowdown this week.

Killer Elite!!
Finally saw it on the last day of the showing at cinemas, fantastic!!! Only a couple people in cinema so could enjoy and immerse myself in it :) Clive owen and Jason's chemistry was awesome! Dominic Purcell nailed his aussie character and the movies pacing of twists and turns was great, best action movie I seen all year, adrenaline racing at some points during the fight/chase scenes and surprise kills, also some great one liners, can't wait to watch 10/10 film again on DVD :) Hope to be like Statham one day, I've enjoyed all of his films so far :) Clive was good in this as usual, want to watch shoot em up again now :)

The Lighter.

Below are a couple screenshots from Nazim's short film 'The Lighter' which I star in, I look forward to seeing the finished project soon, he's handed it in and I hope to hand in my own project tomorrow, as you can see below night lighting is always so cool so hoping to film my next short flick at night :)

Timefish.

In regards to Timefish, what a wonderful (sic) week we have had! I cut, zoomed in and out, deleting, ctrl z'd, pasted special sound files and exported exported and exported again. No Final cut, vegas, avid, premier, after effects or anything with more than one audio channel, no budget, an desperate as I was, I couldn't find a crack that worked either. Time was running out so the whole project had to be edited in windows movie maker and layered in something called power director, but it's finished, it's finished! Thank god, Timefish was and is literally, the project that never ends.
I had to score it with proper music from Hanna, Legend of the fist etc when I had originally planned to compose it myself. But whatevs, Next project, I'll do it and enter into festivals. I'll share this with you and the world very soon, maybe next week sometime, ill take ages to upload with this snail interwebs we got here. Anyway, here's the Cover, cool and crude (rushed the masking cos due next day, however thanks to macs and PC hatecrimes I'm not handing in the finished DVD til tomorrow...)

Emperor

Filmed inside of a set aeroplane this week. and got to sit opposite Matthew fox and see Tommy Lee Jones do his thing, very intense professional man, great to see him work ;) During off time us extras sat in the studio next door and talked about global warming, politics, film industry, girls and relationships, etc, fun and this really is some of the highlights of working as an extra is meeting with people you normally wouldn't and chilling out for a couple hours.
Then when we got on set for shooting there were so many plane jokes by the crew when they went down the isle prepping for the next shot, eg, chiken or fish? chicken or fish? and, water? and don't forget your seatbelts etc, that and the hundred schwarzeneggar one liners everyone was doing during breaks between shooting. especially when the 2 merged and a guy would ask ,"chicken or fish?" for the hundreth time and somebody would chime in in an arnie voice, "I don't eat meat, where's the kosher meal?" "sorry, no kosher" "oh fuck. (turns to us) get to the chopper" lol. fun day.

Life..

well now (as of 10 minutes ago) The DVD is burned and I can hand it in tomorrow, I've got to get a nice 9-5 job so I can bring home the bacon while I chase my film aspirations. I talked to WINZ the other day as my course is finished so no more student allowance, they said you have to attend a seminar to go on the benefit while seeking work, one of the first thing she said when we sat down was 'congratulations, you are now employed by the New Zealand government.' my little boy dreams of being spy suddenly lit up, it was a funny moment. haha.
Anyways, aim to get a job before the end of the month anyway cos that's when emperor finishes and I don't have to commit to anything. I'm quietly confident I can get something, my history is pretty diverse. Videoshop retail work, Karate salesman, Storeman, whats next for Matt? we'll find out soon :)

P.S saw Safe house last night, very cool movie, ryan vs denzel fight was the best fight scene in that movie I think. Very cool :)

This week I can get some rest finally :)

School is politically correctly over!! (not in real life, just on paper)

What a crazy week! I feel like cape horn! ,to understand what I mean I've found a quote for you from victory-cruises.com, "There are four or five places all over the world in the presence of which man feels perturbed, surrounded as they are by a perennial mystical aura of spirituality. If, as it is the case of Cape Horn, they are the craved destination, the obliged passage, the insuperable difficulty, everything takes the aspect and the importance of the sanctuary and of the unconsciously supernatural place. After all, its positioning of 55°56' south and 67°19' west, the particular orthographic formation and the intensity of atmospheric phenomena which surround it, turn Cape Horn unique and matchless. Cape Horn, loved and hated by seamen over the last four hundred years."

Cape horn is at the bottom tip of the South America and where the oceans squeeze past the cape and Antarctica, a tremendous force of so much water at once. The waves are Hollywood-esque. Just like I felt with so many things having to be finished by the end of this week, my exam, my film, Nazim's film, juggling it with emperor duties, looking for a new place, bills etc...So many different things going on, so I just wanted to share them with you, day by day quickly :) (and remind myself in the future when I look back on this moment. :D )

But first, there's nothing like a good book right? I'm into spies, burn notice is my favorite TV series, and during my emperor shoots I've heard many things about world war 2 which re-ignited my curiosity in the matter. I stumbled across Agent 146 by Erich Gimpel in the biography section and couldn't put it down, if you come across it, do read it :) It's a great read, one of the things I learnt was take 3 different taxi's to a destination, then walk half a K to it yourself, and the other thing I learnt is when you feel you are being tailed but don't want them to know you know by looking at them, stop in front of a storefront window, they will have to pass you, and once they do check the reflection for your stalkers face. Lots of tips like that, very cool :) also the German saying, "Speech is silver, silence is golden". :) Erich drops inside knowledge of Alcatraz and the Atomic bomb, movie material some day maybe :) Anyway, read it if you come across it. Also a manga called Jiro tanaguchi, about a 45 yr old man who time travels and gets to live his teenage life again with the knowledge he has today...really good books, makes me think what I would do in those situations, life is a product of choice after all :)

Anyway, the week :) ....

MONDAY 27 Feb
This morning we shot the second half of the footchase scene for Timefish, which was my fight on the rooftop with Nazim, there's a couple screenshots below. Then in the afternoon went to school and reviewed for Thursday's exam. Lighting, scriptwriting, and assignment details. fun-ish.

See how I'm wearing Green and the box is yellow? Yeah? Apparently so do bee's cos a bee literally chased us through the parking lot during a set up and we hid behind the stairs door. It was so funny, but scary like a survival horror film lol. I let Nazim check if the coast was clear before I went out, he didn't notice he was out by himself until he looked back lol I had work tomorrow, I have to look good ;) Also He always has a nasty habit of hurting himself when we shoot action scenes, he banged his head on the concrete shortly after the first screenshot below, but he fell behind the car so no footage to replay. He's alright, I just hope he doesn't do it again...

TUESDAY 28 Feb

11am, Nazim and I met and shot first half of chase scene for Timefish, which was the footchase through the park across my street and running towards (theoretically) the parking building we shot at yesterday. Then after this tiring 3 hours of running across the city for different takes we went to school and reviewed Ant's first day review of his part of the course. Color, audio, 3d animation, camera etc...long day but fun, he acts like a student and even played hangman with us when we had no clue what the answer was....best teacher I've ever had I guess. After school we shot some more of Nazim's 'Lighter' film with Lee Ah Yen. Looks good so far ;) The film, not me in nerdy glasses. I bought contacts for a reason :P

WEDNESDAY 29 Feb

from 11.30 am to 11.30pm I was on set to shoot my 6th day of Emperor. This time it wasn't for a convoy shot, but an interior shot of an office in Japan. Yay, I'm in an office scene :) The lighting was great, the camera movements looked awesome and the set was fantastic, down to cigarette smoke, paperwork, hand sharpened pencils, the whole legit 1940's era office deal. Like any job, you just had to look busy and for little ol me in the background, that was exactly my job, I pretended to write notes working the late shift :)

We shot some more then lunch then the next 6 hours after we spent playing cards, a game called Presidents and assholes. I was asshole once but reigned as president or vice president for most of the later games, my first time playing and I rocked it like a veteran lol. Anyway, afterwards caught a taxi home, 35 bucks from Henderson to city centre, not bad but still tough on the ol student pocket. At least home safe and no scuffles :) Exam tomorrow, went to sleep.

(REAL general MacArthur and co at airbase during Japanese
occupation on what the film is based on. The uniforms we wear are similar.)

THURSDAY 1 March

Met up with Nazim in the morning and went over the notes I missed out yesterday while I was at Henderson working, then we went to the exam. It was easier than any of us thought. What's a hardlight? C? A light that doesn't break? the 'wrong' answers in the multi-choice rxam made it virtually impossible to stuff up, still, the NZ film history ones tripped me and I ended up with a 91% pass mark out of the 100 questions. I can say it was easy but I still got 9 wrong lol.

After the exam we finished shooting Nazim's film at the Auckland art galley, we literally had one more shot to do when security came over chests puffed out like flashy peacocks with badges and said we couldn't film there. Because a flower in the background was copyrighted. Yet every tourist behind him was taking photos of the very same thing. SMH, A little power goes to big heads quickly, then again, they might have just wanted to look busy, security work sucks (I can say it cos I been there...). Anyway, we finished up and a wrap's a wrap :) I'll link here as soon as it's on you tube, but he might hit up festivals first if it turns out good :)

FRIDAY 2 March

Handed in logo assignment. Even though when I got the student counter the supervisor said he'll be right back but then shows up 40 minutes later like nothing happened. But 1 more day of that ish so I'm over it, it's been a long year but it's all done!!!

SATURDAY 3 March
Today I shot the last shots of Timefish (screenshots below) Me, the 'surprise' ending and some pick up shots. (shots I missed earlier in the year). Camera returned. Shooting is a wrap!!!

I've completed a rough cut of the film in windows movie maker until I get hold of a legit copy of Vegas or premiere so I know the pacing, idea and spacing. I will cut a quick trailer for this tomorrow, the student film is roughly 17 min's and a half, showcases my action choreography and film style and is a definite step up from 'credibility' all those years ago lol :) Check out the screenshots below :)

My last night at SAE studios tonight, said my goodbyes. Just my film assignment is due (next week or) when I get time, but apart from that, no more school, yay :) Now, the fun begins with Chase and test films, new equipment, house, job and training routines..... ;) ;)

If I look tired that's because I am, this has been a tiring month man. 3-4hours sleep one night, 7 the next, and that pattern last 2 weeks, only from last night have I been getting a regular 7-8 again. Phew, ready to sleep in Sunday :) Thanks for reading, hope you had fun, see you next time with a teaser trailer :) Don't forget to do at least one thing today that makes you happy. I know I do :)

Kind regards, your pal, Matt ;)

Ninja Knives and scrapyards -Timefish and Emperor News

TimeFish

Now that the Nunchaku climax scene (feat Chris above) has been edited I had time to move on to attempt to fill the gaps of my short film, I shot some interiors on Friday with the 'fish' and the first fight scene with Knifegirl played by Izzy on Saturday, she looks the part, no?

She did great for he second time acting and I feel you guys will really enjoy her scene once you see it :) Nazim was the cameraman for the day and as with all my shoots, here's a couple snaps to commemorate a wrap. Guarantee all of us get famous one day, so some good pics to keep ;)

The Lighter

Nazims end of year school project stars 2 characters who bump into each other late at night and all is not what it first appears to be. I play adam and again I feel it's shot nice and shows something a little different from the normal action scenes I enjoy. We shot a small scene at his place Saturday night and the final image of the film is my favorite, when it's released I'm sure you'll agree :)

Emperor, Day 5
And today, Sunday I had a 5.30am call time down south in Otahuhu to shoot another convoy scene for Emperor. Today we shot it in a metal scrapyard and it was really exciting, seeing all the claw monsters pick up scraps of steel, swing it to the next pile and drop it.

A fun 10 hour day which is much better than the 14 we did last time. On Thursday at our Manakau shoot we wrapped with a 11.15pm finish and with no public transport (last train 9.38) I was forced to walk home through Mangere at 3am where I ran into a guy with a bottle in his hand, some islander about the same size as me but thicker, 21, paul/bolo whatever he called himself. Anyway, we talked then he asked me for shit (whatchu got?) and I said all i had was my phone (even though I had a camera, wallet full of cash, and other valuables in my bag). I knew it had taken a turn for the worse (I've been in this situation before in Hornby back home but got out of it without the need for violence - always seems to be the low socio-economic areas that have foolish guys like this) and I was thinking of how I should handle it. I know martial arts but it doesn't mean I can strike people if I feel threatened.

No, I wasn't going to hit him, I'd talk him out of this situation and not risk going to court because I had 'attacked' him. He told me 'This is south side bitch' I told him, 'I don't give a f*** if it's southside or m****f***** Northshore, my phone is worth 40 bucks and he's better off stealing someone else's, I got nothing, why else would I be walking from Manukau to Auckland at 3am if I had cash for otherwise? Did he want to get arrested for something as cheap as that? I told him I had met people released from prison who were saying how bad it was and the worse it gets and that he should think twice before going down this road, he's young, get a job, save some cash and do everything right. He wasn't budging. I looked around to see if anyone was around and and as soon as I started to look back at him the coward swung a bottle into my cheek and by the time i got up he had taken my phone and run off. No blood, just a swollen cheek and a shock. I looked around but of course the blow knocked my glasses off and I couldn't see anything in the the pitch black darkness. I searched for my glasses for 10 minutes than gave up the hopeless search. Coward never came back. I was hoping he would so we could fight fair if that's what he really wanted but he didn't, so I carried on up the road, glassesless and phoneless.

So no phone or glasses in the middle of night. Over half a city away from Home with No map, and wow. What a mission to get home! Anyway got stuck on the motorway, got a lift from a nice islander and then got a taxi from Hillsborough to home from another Samoan who's son was going to go to SAE too this year.as if it's god's way of telling me they aren't all like that and they're not. I've met heaps of smart Samoans who aren't into gang culture.

Anyway, that no hoper aside, I enjoyed my work this week on Emperor. Talked to many people during the waiting period, other extras who share what work and experience they've had on Spartacus, shorty and ads etc and talked other martial artists about the stunt game, MMA and my aspirations. I've talked to prop makers and spent time munching on the food! Today at the scrapyard we had homemade burgers of our choice and Neapolitan ice cream with lollies on top for lunch. Eggs, bacon, tomato, mushrooms, and toast for breakfast with Ribena. Yum :)

My favorite part of today was driving through the yard during a crane shot. I love crane shots, I look forward to seeing the finished film and fingers crossed for more next week.

Weekend conclusion.
Well, since I finished the shoot late today I didn't have a chance to film the middle action chunk which is basically a foot chase through city centre ended with a small fight on the roof of a tall building, I'll be shooting that tomorrow morning. Next week is all revision for our big exam on Thursday and of course. All our assignments are due on Saturday. I'm hoping to get new glasses on Saturday because I'm dying to watch Killer elite still, because I can't yet cos I can't see!

Also saw Game at Henderson Burger King, so cool but sucked cos my vision sucks without glasses, but no mistake it was him rollign with a crew that size and th LA star tattoo on his face. Gutted i missed the concert this year cos of cash issues but happy that since I moved to Auckland I been bumping into local or foreign celebrities more often. Surround yourself with likeminded people is the key to success, which is why I spend time with up and coming filmmakers/ actors/actresses and martial artists. Keeping the inspiration flowing.

Oh Time fish, what a mission. I might ask my course co-coordinator for an extension. Because there is no way I can make the deadline with these challenges. I'd rather hand it in a week late with points deducted with a decent effort then a half assed flick hastily edited together because of a deadline.

Bring on starting Chase and the end of my school year :)

Timefish -Climax fight BTS

OK, Timefish. Time is ticking but I managed to shoot a scene over the weekend. So now I have nailed my opening scenes and my final scene. Below is a screenshot of what I'm up to in editing the climax fight. We rushed the shoot a bit but I think it looks good. (Can't wait to shoot Chase now with all this nunchuk experience. :) haha) I'm thinking about sharing a quick teaser for Timefish next week so stay tuned for that :)

And below is a pic we took after the shoot to commemorate the day :)
(from left) Chris Zhang, me, Nazim Kahn :)

It was a hot day which made it difficult to choreograph a fight in a hot humid hoodie but me and Chris managed a somewhat comprehensive fight scene. Lots of continuity errors to do with paperwork lying around and a pen disappearing from my project but it's only a school assignment so when I do Chase at least I know to keep an eye on that sort of thing.

I'm hoping to shoot the Parkour Chase on Friday and the Knifegirl break in on Saturday, and fit all this in with acting in Nazim's film 'The lighter', My emperor shoots (this Thursday and Sunday), plugging holes in my script and trying to stay fit (i keep skipping training cos of school and work), it's not easy to follow your dream but as long as you do one thing at a time you can't go wrong :)

Phonecall - Teaser 1

Check out the teaser!!

Yes, The latest project I am working on is a short film I've written which is titled 'Phonecall' and is about 2 cops on different sides of the law settling their differences. It stars Nazim and myself. I wanted to keep testing my knowledge/creativity and see if I could create films like my favorite Hong Kong and Korean directors. Below are some photos from location scouting for the final fight scene.




It's forecasted to rain tomorrow so will have to try film the fight scene sometime this week, in the meantime i hope you enjoyed the little bits of behind the scene pics and the teaser above ;)

My SAE News item and A Glimpse in Shortland St

Above is my news piece I did for our school news show assignment, I had to cut an interview out that I had in the original piece with an EB sales chick as she didn't want her views on you tube, which was OK, I'm in it for the marks but I interviewed some friends so I posted their bits here on my blog for them, and for you guys of course so when you see a fake news thing in one of my films you can say you've seen my very first one ;)

I been watching Shortland St on demand to see which scenes they ended up using from the days I turned up, after much heartbreak finally managed to find a scene, Episode 4867 which aired on Nov 1 :) Took some screenshots to share with you all ;) Proof I'm not bullshitting I have done extra work :P
They have 3 cameras running at the same time, so what they end up using is at the mercy of the editors in the editing room, the other 2 shots i recognized this week I wasn't seen in. But I'm happy I can finally say I was on NZ TV in some capacity.....here's to more opportunities :)

cheers!

Batman: "Freeze! " MF: "that's 'Mister' Freeze!"

Hey guys/girls :)

Been watching batman cartoons lately, The Bruce Timm ones, not all these new age ones -the true dark original ones, really awesome, miss this sort of cartoon, ahead of it's time really. Growing up it influenced me alot so now that I'm older and can appreciate it more I tracked down a copy of the DVD and am reliving the claps, laughs and good times :) Batman's voice (bruce timm) and The Joker and his voice haven't been equaled since, in either cartoons or the movies. Just throwing that out there. I been a big batman film since I could talk lol. And still am, Bring on The Dark Knight rises next year :) Also Expendables 2 is gathering momentum, Jason Statham vs Scott adkins? (Fantastic, big fans of both)and Donnie yen vs Jetl i? (again, always cool -OATIC2 and Hero) Just hope they shoot the fights so you can see all the techniques and drama clearly, looks great, and since Chuck norris is in there, I wonder if there will be any chuck norris jokes? lol Love action movies soo much :)

In other news that probably relates more to this blog, This is the latest Sparring video from August when we tried out wrestling in the ring for the first time. Considering there is no 'give' in the floor, I think me and Richard were just running on adrenaline, needless to say, lots of bumps and bruises the next day :) Sort of damaged my confidence a bit, but I fought Matt last week and by second round back to my mobile ghosting self, will post that video when i get Wednesday night if Sifu remembers ;) Also shot a short film for the club, testing out some techniques, I just have to add sound effects for punches/kicks/nunchuks etc and i will upload that too :)

Above is the finished music Video that Nazim and I shot for a school assessment. For the 2 hour shoot time and edited during the week before the due date, I think we did pretty well. Anyway, i will blog more next time, about the long lasting Street fighter project (school work and our schedules making getting together and shooting this more difficult than we anticipated), Go girls, and your first look at Chase (the script I will finish tonight, then i get to play dress up to test out different looks for the main character ;) haha)

Anyway, Life is going good and all sorts of opportunities and challenges await :) Keep following, I'm sharing my Blue print :) Yeah, good or bad, smile and enjoy it, live for the moment. There's a reason for everything if you widen your perspectives....a couple favorite quotes....

"A smile confuses an approaching frown." and "So many languages in the world, and a smile speaks them all" and lastly ;

"A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give." ~Author Unknown

World Cup, Music Video, Bday. What a Weekend :)

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