TigerXCobra: Prologue - The Videos are online :)

Like I said a couple blogs ago, i have finished editing all my projects i had shot previous to my Christchurch Trip. TigerXCobra Prologue is now online, with the intention of maybe doing a short film or feature film in the late future. The whole purpose of shooting it was testing out action comedy timing in terms of musical stings, cuts, story etc, so in the end it turned out good for what it was, what do you think? Check out the videos below :)

TigerXCobra: Prologue

Making of And Out takes

The Christchurch Trip and shooting my first drama :)

The whole purpose of my late July trip was to visit family, catch up with my nieces who are growing up fast, get my King style footage (which now thankfully is uploaded) and spend time with wifey. The Snow was a bonus :) All in all A fun, eventful trip :)

Having stayed an extra week in Christchurch I missed a lot of school work, which thankfully, didn't affect me too much. However, I made it back to Auckland in time to help Nazim shooting the rest of his SAE short film 'Pass it Down the line' of which he has finally relented and uploaded onto you tube for your viewing. How did I do? Not my script so i worked with what i had but for something non action i thought It was a pretty good effort. I guess you could say that I'm looking forward to my next acting experience now :)

Pass it down the line - video.

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! :)

Streetfighter: Ryu vs Fei long - Week 1 and 2 Recap

VS

Streetfighter: Ryu vs Fei-long is my new short film project in the works. We are aiming for a late August Shoot. Lee Ah yen will be playing Ryu and I will be playing Fei Long.

I had written maybe 4 different scripts, some involving a cross with Jin in tekken, Chun Li and Jann Lee (Which is from a dead or alive pitch i had been planning to do later this year once i find the right actresses to play Hitomi and Lei Fang), One script with Ryu vs Sagat and One script with Ryu taking on Guile in a warehouse. It was quite hard to find actors to match the physiques of some of these characters so i decided we would shoot a film first to show prospective actors/actresses what the finished idea looks like and hopefully we can do maybe a web series of Streetfighter like Mortal Combat (and i don't mean the SF series College humor did either, i mean serious action not comedy).

I know of 2 very well made and received Fan Films of Streetfighter (Legacy and beginnings end respectively) And though i will be nowhere near their equivalent regarding equipment, cast or budget (read; no budget :P) Our enthusiasm for Streetfighter as well as the choreography and script i have written should win us some fans and maybe some name recogniton for future works, original or made for fans.

So Its been a week since Lee has agreed to the script and since Lee and I have decided a rough shooting date I spent yesterday shooting myself as both characters (not in costume though) doing some test choreography for the SF project in order to test after effects effects regarding Hadokens and hits and Powered moves. However all the footage is uploaded on the school computer so i wont be able to share with you guys the results for a couple weeks as i cut it up and add the effects, in the blog that follows i will go over the project.

Anyways thats the news. This past week i have been editing Everyones a Loser When It Comes to Love and TigerXCobra as well as our school project with flying cars aka Michael Bay haha. Always editing, now if i had final cut at home these would be long finished by now but i don't, so don't expect Ivy Investigation for a wee while yet.

In other news got to spar again on Wednesday, however the safety equipment is quite restricitve in terms of ducking and eyesight, i got hit by so many punches simply because i couldn't use my peripheral version, but in good news we were allowed to do front or sidekicks which is my middlename! so as you can see in the video of the spar that Chris uploaded i exploit that, hope to do more combos and punching overall next time out, i was far too passive in this one and quite disappointed in myself. Anyway, Christchurch next weekend, I'll blog again then :) Have a good week.

Coming Soon :)

Tiger X Cobra - My first Aux Action/Comedy Short

That is a picture from Friday on which we shot some scenes for Nazim Khan's (a Classmate who shares similar interests and is funny too) SAE project 'Pass the line' in which he has cast me as the lead character 'Bill.' This was an awesome opportunity as you know from my films i only ever do action roles without much dialogue so if i am to be taken seriously the more drama pieces i can get and practice with the better i will be. In Theory anyway :) Anyway i talked to him about doing a short film on sunday if he and his friend who used to go to SAE as well Ruchir and they were both keen so that night i wrote a script for an intended web series called TigerXcobra.

I haven't finished any films since moving up here to Auckland so I was looking forward to shooting this. After watching Wu Xia on Saturday i spent most of the night changing the script and story boarding it for the Sunday shoot. I also spent it swearing at the Streetfighter IV boss 'Seth' all night but that's a different story and in the coming month you will figure out why i'm playing it so much right now. Anyway, Sunday came around and I met up with Nazim and Ruchir outside Nazim's place. We shot it over about 4 hours due to much joking around at the locations and stuffing up our lines but the footage we walked away with was awesome and we will digitize them tomorrow, so god willing the film should be on my youtube channel at the end of the week. Some pics from our Exploits are below :) next time i hope to be able to get my hands on some fake guns so i can play with some after effects, but for now enjoy the buddy action/comedy i have written... see you next week :)

TIGER (above) as played by Ruchir Joshi, is the brawn of the team, He is forever doing the legwork and was up for a promotion when COBRA joined the team, The position of Chief of police is open again, he just prays his new partner doesn't screw it up, cos the pay sucks and he really can't be stuffed running after crooks all the time....A desk job is his main goal....

COBRA played by Nazim, is a new detective on the streets of Auckland, The Brains of the team he uses his skills to get out of work wherever possible, slacker is what most people call him, Hero is what he prefers...

X is the Main villain played by me, A Good guy by nature and a Bad guy by choice, X (his real name isn't known) is wanted on various crime sprees and for breaking the law. Somehow he always escapes from crown custody and the team is always stuck with the short straw of getting him back. The Police are thinking of using him as a source for information on key players in the local black market but they need to bring him in to see if they can get him to bend to their will.

STAY TUNED til next week when i should have a link to the finished video :) below are some fun shots we took while filming....

The new A-team :) TigerXcobra

Wu Xia was an Awesome film :)

I had been looking forward to this since it was first announced that Peter chan would be directed a film with a leading cast of Donnie Yen, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tang wei, a cast which i had seen as much of their past works as i could (eg DY-Spl, flashpoint etc, TK-House of Daggers, Returner, TW Lust,caution then government banned her from acting in films for a while etc).

When i bought my ticket to see my boy donnie on the bigscreen it was an awesome feeling, one of excitement and anticipation and one i hope to evoke in people when i myself can grace the big screen one day.

The Movie was great and played to a half full cinema which was great considering it was a chinese film with subtitles. Wu Xia had many twists and turns, with each character having a different perspective of the happenings in the village. The direction and acting in this piece was very good and i loved donnies character, the detective as well as the characters wife. The little kids almost stole the show with some amusing scenes.

But though i enjoyed the drama and ever changing plot that kept me engaged til the end, principally i watched this for the fight scenes, ( i haven't been to cinema since hangover 2 so i don't go unless its a really good movie at the moment like i knew wu xia was gonna be but just like the lost bladesman, it exceeded expectations) And the fighting choreography and the action direction was awesome, i wasnt sure at first but as the story goes by you can see some awesome work, the soundtrack in particular when donnie yen decides its badass time is golden and you cant help but feel excited by whats gonna happen next. Anyway if you get the opportunity do see it, i can't wait to add it to my DVD collection myself :)

Now I Have shot my first Short Film in Auckland :)

I directed my student film project this weekend, 'Everyone's a Loser When It Comes to Love'.

DAY 1- Drama Scenes at the Auckland Domain. Where the Detective begs for Julia's forgiveness.

My Actor (Lee Ah Yen, an actor who is definately going places) and Actress (Safaa Humadi, an actress who though it was her first time really impressed me with her skills and manner) were both really talented and it didn't help that i had been nervous all week but we managed to get all the scenes done on the day which was great. From the moment we all met and went through the script there was some real chemistry and its to their credit that the footage i walked away with looked fantastic. Saf was very emotional ( i dont know how she pulled that off i felt guilty even though she wasnt really crying, it was just acting lol) and Lee responded with the same intensity which really made the scenes dramatic and work, then after i said cut! they would both crack up laughing and joke around, man, professionals, i find it hard keeping a straight face and i'm BEHIND the camera!


Was a very fun afternoon. I could have done without the helicopters chilling overhead and the slow drivers going through the shot but it is a public place so thats the risk. After this shoot i said to myself i will secure closed locations as i believe it would be easier, however look at all those free extras in the scene lol. Set Photo is below and was taken by a kind mother who sat with her 2 kids in the park having a picnic while i had my actors have a domestic fight in public haha awkward but this is the career i want right?

DAY 2- Action Scene at an Abandoned area with awesome look for our drug dealer and detective fight.

I had 2 Locations in mind, 1) A rooftop which i knew was empty on sundays though i couldn't ask for permission and 2) an abandoned area close to my house, i knew it looked cool but i was worried if it was safe to shoot there as i knew homeless people might be around due to alcohol dirty beds and grafitti everywhere. I thought hell, its the day time and it looks good plus theres 3 martial artists on set so i didnt think there would be any trouble if any one wanted to make trouble, here are a couple pics i had Lee take of me and Sam below in the location.

So Today was Fight Day, My cameraman bailed on me last night and my back up camera man couldnt say yes or no. I originally planned to fight Lee as the character Kevin however i changed to plan C and went to a friend of mine, Sam Jing and asked if he could play my character and i would shoot the scene as well as choreographing it, thank fully he said yes and after you see the footage in a month's time you will agree.

For his first time he was awesome and Lee helped alot with bringing that out, This was definately Lee's time to shine since I had choreographed some cool scenes and they pulled them off which was great (punch combos etc). Lee helped with bringing my drawings and ideas to life and showed me some cool ideas of his own which we chucked in there, The emotion and Intensity of this scene was incredible and probably the best fight scene I've directed yet! (i say that which each action film i do though lol, wait til you see King Style ;) haha) Below are photos we took after the scene was finished.

This scene also had the most pressure when it came to shooting, turns out there were homeless people living upstairs and our noise sort of rattled them out, but like i said we were friendly anyway so they just did their thing, A couple stood around and watched which was nervewracking. I was hoping they wouldnt get it confused for a real fight and start something but most got bored and left. The first one showed up out of nowwhere like 'he wasn't there before!' (turns out there was a side door we didnt see that everyone came down from upstairs from). Lee even gave the first one his lunch- what a nice guy man.

The other incident was that not only did we wake whoever was hiding upstairs but somebody called the Police on us! The cops showed up in the middle of one of the fight scenes when i had my back turned to them, i turned around and saw them and the one in charge smiled to his partner then to us and said "You're lucky, I almost tasered you". I said "Sorry I tried to get permission to shoot here but couldnt figure out who to ask" and then the cop said "You know there is some rough people around here right?" and I'm like "Yeah but we talked to a couple and they didnt mind, (Lee chipped in saying he gave someone his lunch lol) did someone complain?" then he's like "Yeah somebody called up and heard lots of shouting and fighting sounds so called us in" "They can hear us?" "We can hear you from the street" so i finished off with "Ok, whoops sorry, we'll keep it down, we'll just finish up" then they left. And we finished so a special thanks to Lee and Sam, sorry to put you through all that haha but the footage we walked away with was worth it. Promise :) All in all when it comes to my series or next short film I'll be sure to cast them, and this time hope to act with them too :)

In other news currently bumping on my sound radar is Eminem and Royce's Bad meets evil project, years after they started with classic tracks like scary movies, Nuttin to do etc the time is right again for them to collab after Royce and his group of super emcees Slaughterhouse were signed to shady records. This Album is Awesome, loving all the tracks! The weakest of them is lighters, hardout hiphop with the top lyricists in the game and then to hear his Bruno Mars pop voice show up? kinda takes you out the zone for a minute but yeah, 9.5 out of 10, this album is a definate must have :) anyway til the next entry, have a good week :)