Training Footage finished, Little jobs done

With the wife on holiday I have a few more minutes in the day to do stuff I have been meaning to do but haven't, I've finally cleaned out the house and my new car and put some seat covers in and it looks aLOT nicer now, check it out :)

Sporty huh? :) Been watching My Kitchen rules on TV which is simply the best cooking show out there! It's the second season I've watched and its amazing how human social interaction works, theres always backstabbers and jealously, all around nice guys and friends who seem like more than friends. Below is what I had for tea last night, hardly ala carte but I had half an hour, not 5 hours like the pros haha ;)

In order to get ahead in lfe you have be enegaged and involved otherwise you do what you always do and plateau. I Haven't been to the library in a while so I decided to make the drive down to central yesterday and these are the three books I will be reading over the next couple weeks. One for fun, one for inspiration, one for work ethic, I might make a blog about the sales stuff next time if any of you out there are into sales, it's a lot like martial arts for me, all knowledge is useless knowledge if you don't apply it. Yesterday this chinese guy was flashing buying signals all over the place and by the time I realized I had a different customer who was taking ages and he was walking out the door. Boom, no sale for you.

Another thing with goals and the law of attraction is if it isn't constantly in your mind the opportunities to fulfill it will be a lot harder to come by, this is budget but this is my vision board I have in my living room, as you can see it has my dream house, my dream car, pics relating to my goals as well as my goal list for this year.

Enjoying Football at the moment, will be playing 3 times a week, attempting or working on most of the goals on the list. Be interesting if I get them all by the end of the year, especially number One!!!

Also, having nothing to edit I finally put together the test angles I shot with Sana in December at the JKD gym, the finished video is below and cut to Yelawolf's Firestarter track off his new mixtape which is awesome, it makes a big difference to me having good music to listen to, bought Ellies album, frank ocean, didos album and the killers new album all recently and enjoying the trip to and from work haha Anyways, enjoy the video below,

Last of all, finished the outline of the Ivy Investigation series and seriously considering shooting that before Chase, that way I can do a bit of acting and have something to sell or on-sell after Chase comes out. Plus I think its good though different, I'll shoot the pilot over the coming weeks and see if people like it :)

Till then, enjoy April and may every day be full and prosperous! Always look for opportunities ;)

Ambush - New test film, more action!

Hi there, 21st of March, almost Easter, Almost lived in this house a whole year now, plus thats over a year without drinking coca cola or pepsi cola, now I can drink it again, I just dont feel like it haha, man time flies when you are trying to make things happen.....

 Bunny King demands sacrifice! kawaii lol

Got a cheap soundsystem for my car, now I can finally have a little boom in my speakers :)

Still, keeping busy and sustaining my self progress, on the Last set of my days off -sprained ankle or not- I needed to keep shooting so I recruited a couple of friends and made a day of shooting a short film. We made all our busy windows fit which meant we only 2 hours to come up with the choreography (Lee likes to offer ideas so I basically kept my big moves in and put the others down for another day I will shoot myself) and his style of fighting contrast with Steves great kicking which made a pretty awesome mix after we figured something out.

AMBUSH is the result. Starring Lee Ah Yen and Steve Heke as 2 badasses on different sides of the law, so basically, an excuse to shoot a fight scene on a beautiful day at one of my favorite locations and edit the shit out of it. Below are 4 screenshots I took during Editing. Slowly getting the hang oof Adobe Premiere but only the basics plus time stretching/colors/tracks etc, I need to learn all the other cool stuff it surely offers with technical words I will never remember ;)

 

Here is the finished edited video for your viewing pleasure on youtube :)

Turned out pretty good for on the fly shooting. Looking forward to finishing the carnage script today so I can start location scouting for that and casting it up, heaps of action in this one I promise!!!

I'm going to sleep now, Got up early to take the wife to the airport as she went overseas this morning, So jealous, I want a holiday too haha, will have to wait til my sydney trip in June I think. Can't wait til Im rich and can travel anywhere, that would be awesome, anyway thats my bit for this week, leave you with a couple of feel good pics, one is why I wanted to be an actor, Johnny is living it!!! and the other is about keeping positive, It can make all things that seem impossible possible :)

 

 

 

I'm gonna be 27 this year so I want a feature film by the end of the year, no more 3 minute test films, so lets see if we can make it happen :)

Thoughts on my martial arts journey

My journey into martial arts has been one prewritten for me. I joined karate when I was way younger maybe 7 or so? Only for maybe 4 months maybe as dad pulled us out cos he didn't think we were getting anything from it. They would joke about years later when I began promoting that during the bow in process one class when I was a kid with my head down thinking about the class ahead I actually fell asleep lol. Then again, thinking back, I can understand why. I joined the same club again in 2009 except this time it was as one its self defence consultants, selling karate memberships as well as training in the art with the aim of teaching it later. After that fell through, I stopped training.....as I found my self training not because I enjoyed it anymore but because I felt obligated to continue, seeing the path before me I quit.

It was also during this time I had been reading up and rewatching alot of Bruce Lee Movies and documentaries. I got my hands on as many books as possible and through his work I realised what it was that I was missing. No holds barred, free expression martial arts based on the science of using what works for you and discarding what doesn't work for you. I knew I couldn't learn from books alone but there were no JKD schools around me in Christchurch. So I kept fit in my backyard and by playing indoor football. And thought one day I could travel to America.

Then Last year March 2011 I moved to Auckland to pursue my dream of being an actionstar. And it was during my first time walking around the city centre that I discovered the martialarts shop, and that shop, thank god, I found a flyer about NZ's first JKD school opening up. I texted him right away, we got conversing and I was invited to his house as he and a couple of his students were training, Chris was his assitant instructor and those 2 taught me heaps. Sifu showed me some things and some nunchaku and I was hooked. I finally found the missing pieces to my expression. There is a bhudist saying, that when the student is ready, the master appears. I think this was happily, the case here :)

Anyway over a year or so later with a life full of ups and downs training and not training I am back in the gym. After my sanda fight a couple weekends ago I am back to prove to myself not let myself down again. True to form, on the thrusday after I returned to training and got back into spar, I won 6-1 sanda rules and didn't get taken down once. If I just don't think, relax and attack in broken rhythm I have all I need! The Wushu tournament showed me that I don't need to do anything but be myself and let my body do the work instead of overthinking things. I read book where Bruce lee once said when somebody asked him how come he can kick so fast, he said one day a ladybug asked a centipede how was it that the centipede could walk with all of those hundred legs? when the centipede tried to think about how he did it he stumbled and fell over. The moral being just be. Your eye blinks before you see the speck of dust in the air, alot of us speak before we think lol I just need to let my fist find the opponents target instead of taking that second to think how I'm going to throw this punch, because it's that second that the opponent uses to duck my punch and take me down.

So yeah, learning some Dummy stuff at the moment and more wrestling take down techniques, and the more I'm learning the more I feel I've found my calling. Just wanting to share this with you all because it feels good to find a home away from home. Sifu took his JKD class from his house to a memorial hall then to a school hall, and now he owns a fully customised gym with punching bags, a ring, weights equipment, dummies and wallbags. I'm happy I was there near the start and can see how big the club has grown, I also feel I'm a more complete martial artist then I once was. I hope to one day teach it. Because though sometimes the sweat and energy burnt on that gym floor can seem crazy, the rush you feel when walking away with a smile makes it all worth it :)

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 ;)

2010 Showreel and latest Sparring Video vs a Kickboxer

Hi Team :)

Things have been quiet lately on the film front, my wife's finally here in Auckland living with me so been spending alot of time with her lately (movies, monopoly, dates, walks, planning, jobhunting etc) but back to filming stuff late this month. In the mean time I have cut some videos for you.

2010 Showreel.

This is basically all the best bits of my actionwork in 2010 cut together into one file using windows movie maker. Also, a good reference to use against my current work to see how far I've improved :)

Latest Sparring Video

I sparred with a kickboxer who was looking at maybe joining the club, I lost a contact at the start of the fight so I didn't give 100 percent and I hadn't trained in the last week so was unfit as, so excuses aside I thought I did alright, still, as Sifu said I have to stop being nice and kill it. Next time. On a side note I have thumb-nailed a pic from the first round below, he was going to kick me and I was in mid air yet somehow my force (no gravity though) knocked him down. Thought it was pretty cool.

Have finished and handed in my definitive Film script for the end of course assignment. 12 minutes long (which was the max) and it's tentatively called 'Maria'. It's best to describe it as a cross between Drive and Unleashed with a female hit man as the main lead. The problem won't be the violence/drama/casting. It's gonna be the fake blood!! because I have written LOTS into the script. Though I have still got to wait and see if it gets approved first. Will keep you posted ;) Until next post, smell the roses, enjoy life and chase your own dreams :P

Make your magic :)

Sparring Video: Matt K vs Lee Ah Yen Oct 12th

This is the sparring Video from the October 12th spar between Me and Lee Ah Yen ('Everyones a loser when it comes to love' and the upcoming SF project) Which was a fun bout and good for when we choreograph the SF project in late November.

An example of his reach advantage due to his massive height lol, he can punch in the face before I reach his. Below are other screenshots during the match, anyway looking forward to shooting our first fight scene together in November :) Til then, news assignment, All blacks final, Bring Wife to Auckland and News Show production to go ;)

JCP - 2nd JKD test film :)

JCP (Jie's cigarette pack) is our 2nd test film, the weather was great which meant we could film in more space, plus I'm in this one too, anyway give it a watch and let me know what you think ;) Inspired to start shooting 'Chase' soon, getting better at shooting the action the way i want - considering none of these last 2 test films were choreographed or storyboard, turning into something natural :) See you with the sparring video Monday night :)

'Max' - JKD test film #1 and Almighty Johnsons Shoot

Hi. Have you watched the film? 'Max' was created and shot in 3 hours during a Sunday practice to show off some JKD techniques and also so I could get some practice shooting martial arts scenes as I get closer to filming 'Chase'. Check it out, they don't do nunchuk fights much these days in films but I love nunchuks and my club mate and sifu are awesome at them so why not give it a try myself? :)

Also finally got my copy of Blitz DVD and poster today, celebrated with a Matt special -obligatory pizza and coke :)

And on monday I was an extra again which was awesome, the more I do the more chance I have of climbing the ladder. This time for Almighty Johnsons, as they shot their first episode for the new second Season. It was the first time that I had been on something professional that was shot on location. (all others have been in sets in warehouses) They had booked out a Pool bar on K road for the day and we shot some scenes in there. When I first arrived I wasn't sure where to go then I found all the buses and trailers were parked down the street. So I got there, introduced myself, met up with the other extra's and then got costumed up, which was good, as I've pretty much worn all the good 'bar clothes' i have in all the Shortland St shoots. In this role I was just one of the pool players playing in the background. Which meant remembering when and how I took my shot in time with the other guy I would be playing with, Once we figured out a pattern it was easy. Also not actually hitting the other balls so as not to disrupt the sound from the main action :) i thought today would be the day I would be able to drink some real beer since it was real bar, but na, still non alcoholic beer lol

After We shot through some takes we had lunch. Lunch! I hadn't been offered lunch on a film set before so this was new, the other extras were mostly from the same agency as me so we all got along fine, so many jokes (restaurant jokes, date jokes etc lol) as we ended up eating our lunch in the service driveway under the building, the catering crew had laid down 10-15 tables and the 50-60 of us had the healthy meal down there. It was a help yourself to roast chicken, yams, pumpkin, salads, breads, pudding, and it was really nice. Afterwards we chilled upstairs as they shot some close ups of the actors and then we finished our scenes and wrapped. Overall, a fun day and I'm hanging out for power rangers or something new next :)

More news in a couple days when I upload the club's Second test film and some Info on Chase :)

King Style, Silent Shadow is here! :)

Long time no see :) Been to Christchurch 2 weeks ago, came back last week and spent the last week catching up with finishing assignments, finishing editing TigerXCobra and Finishing King Style, Silent Shadow now that i had the footage, So finally after much more taxing work It's here for your viewing pleasure. Special Thanks to Sam Vine, Matt Palmer, Lydia Zhong, Rosina West, and Melody Kinsman, without you guys it wouldnt have been as fun as a shoot as it was, good works! :)

Click the image below to watch the intended cut of King Style, Silent Shadow. Our Superhero genre entry for 48 hr film festival 2011.

Watch the Making Of King Style, Silent Shadow

Watch the King Style,Silent Shadow Out Takes

So The process in a nutshell, 48hr weekend shot it-->tried to edit in windows movie maker, then had to convert it to .mov (competition rule which sucked cos thats macs default, not pc, especially moviemaker) which took us overtime by half an hour so project handed in at 7.30pm, footage to large to take back to Auckland so could only retrieve it next visit which was at the end of July. Once in Aux tried opening movie maker file, failed, as was XP version and not 7 which is what i have, so redited it using a free program called Pinnacle Videospin (which doesn't allow zooms, any more than 1 track for audio, video, or remapping and loading time was slow) Finished editing it, took it to school and put on the macs and used final cut to add the soundtrack and fix the zoom on one shot (where a script is in shot etc) and remapping [which sucks compared to Vegas, i miss Vegas (I used to have a cracked version which was by now obsolete and usable and i'm trying to be legit about every project now anyway) lol will buy premiere when i can...]

All this while Juggling the last stages of EWALWICTL (which was due today and duly handed in) and TigerXCobra (finished today but will post next week) and my training for and taking my JKD Level test, which are all things I will talk about next post when i buy batteries to show you guys the pics i had taken of my trip :) In the mean time, I hope you enjoy King Style, Silent Shadow! :)

Sparring, Writing and Chris Tucker

Thats me in black, Nelson in red and sifu in traditional clothes. Awesome session. (EDIT: The link to this video is now online, click HERE to view )

Watched Rush hour 1 and 2 for like the hundredth time this weekend. Every line that Chris Tucker speaks is comedy gold :) i also have been researching alot of action movies in my quest of making my feature film as entertaining, exciting and "holy shit did they just do that?" as possible.

Also sparred again on Wednesday night which was fun, Nelson was pretty good and gave me a run for my money, once i make the file smaller i might upload the 2 rounds to youtube, depends if i can can get this weeks video beforehand. As you can see from the above photo of the side kick the back guard needs to be up so been working on that since Monday, I didn't realize til Chris showed me the photo so that was awesome of him.

Finished writing 5 of the 10 episodes for Ivy Investigation. That's 5 episodes away from organizing a camera, locations and cast :) That's also 60 some pages, so many late nights this week. Even had a nightmare a ghost was watching me while i slept, not cool, not cool at all.

Handed in my digital assignment this weekend as well, I remixed showbiz by muse, wish i hadn't - there had to have been easier songs in my collection to choose from lol.

Photocopied my storyboard for my short film for SAE, ill probably take pictures of it sometimes this week since i don't have a scanner, but its good to know i can still draw, ever since martial arts and film aspirations have taken over my life i don't have the patience nor raw motivation to do some art. but priorities right?

Anyways, til the next update, thumbs up and fight on :)

PS. I've been living here for 3 months now and have 3 light-bulbs blown up on me, maybe there's too much positive energy in here for one room :P

I am the captain of my ship

So my short film entry for 48 hours showed last week and here is all 3 reviews by people who saw it in the theater. An average of one stars but hey it was a rough rough cut, at least they mentioned they liked the fighting which is all i can ask for really.

Like i said, i entered it a)to show my actresses and actors something for their time, and b)out of pride, i mean i missed out by half an hour which was great considering the family drama and technical divas involved. When i get the footage in late june i can finish editing it and post it online as well as give my team a copy of the dvd for their great work and input.

I finished writing my SAE script in about 2 hours, not bad for a 3 minute film lol. Its entitled "Everyone's a loser when it comes to love" and its about a guy seeking redemption from a girl over a breakup, it took me ages to finish it over the last 2 weeks because i have been busy working on my webseries project I've assigned myself.

The Webseries i'm working on is going to be called "Ivy Investigation" cos the detective team is on it like a rash lol. It will be a rom com action series of 10 episodes. I'm writing the episodes now as i post this and i have finished 4 in random order out of the 10 in the complete series. My plan for this series of mine is to sell it and raise my profile, enter some competitions, and have a body of work to show people when i pitch them my movie idea later in the year.

Apart from my filmcourse work and finishing Burn notice (i always suffer from withdrawl after a great series) i have been hard at work on my martial arts. Here is a pic Chris took of me at JKD class and the team put it on their website too. I look tired as (cos i was) but i was hoping it would turn out cool, what do you think?

Anyways until i have more news keep up whatever work you are doing to follow your own dreams and you will inspire others in your lives to do the same, I'm chasing mine in my leaky boat, but a leaky boat still floats. :) Peace.