Well guys, my hiatus was a brief but fair one. It was a necessary breather to help recoup from the workload and best part about all this is that people are still creating!
So yeah, that's a nice thing to come back to. That's what The Hit List is for and I've found (and have also been sent) some GREAT stuff to share this week. It's also a lot to unpack so without further ado, the stunt reels are up first as always and we begin with Amy Sturdivant's most recent Vimeo upload. I meant to share hers before going on break but YouTube parameters were a factor and Vimeo was the only option left. So, better late than never, and with a demo reel as substantive as this being all the more reason worth sharing.
Following that is a playlist ripe with awesome stunt and action demos by Francis Limoges, Drew Reade, Gaby Rodriguez, Jennifer Badger, Gene Freeman, David Van Tassell, Domenica Rossi, Brytni Lavender, and stunt/fight coordinator reels by Roberto Lopez and Airon Armstrong!
Onward now for some promotional bits and the latest comes from Keir Siewert with his fourth narrative shortfilm, Duchess, starring newly cast Black Site star, actress and martial artist Samantha Schnitzler and actor Shinji Ishigaki in a story inspired as a social reflection of precedent-setting fervor between the male and female sexes. Produced by Will Nash, Duchess also stars Alix Austin, Bola Okun and Ale Moriarty with a script by Siewert and co-scribe Austin Hayden Smidt for its forthcoming October online release. The first official trailer arrived earlier this month and you can check that out below along with teasers for Oliver Hollingdale's own John Wick-inspired fan film from Sunnymeade Films, and James Couche's Dumbass Shakedown from Gunsavior Pictures.
As far as posters go, we have two projects, one of which is on deck for a summer of festival screenings and that brings us to the latest poster for shortfilm doc, Concrete & Crashpads: Stunts In New York. The film, directed by Stephen Koepfer and Matthew Kaplowitz and which chronicles the day-in/day-out lives of stunt professionals living and working out of the big apple, will have its day at the Manhattan Independent Film Festival in July before appearing at the Iron Dragon ActionFest in Las Vegas, Nevada, and at the Action On Film Festival in Santa Monica California with dates pending.
The second poster hails from the inner workings of UK-based Decoded Theory with upcoming shortfilm survival thriller, Eden Grey, starring Mhairy Calvey as soldier-turned-fugitive on the run from a military black ops facility in the ultimate fight to expose the truth of her base's dark experiments. Writer and director Tyrone Samuels produces with R.E. Wolfe and Christopher Jolley, and with a cast that includes Marco Torrens, Keith Porter, Timothy Hofmeier, Gately Freeman, Hannah Chalmers and Al Roye.
Anyone up for a music break may be keen on the latest female-fight themed music video, Gone, directed by Jimi Dava. World-renowned underground house mogul Erick Morillo foundates the energetic music bed with Junolarc, & Chris Child along with the vocal stylings of Ora Solar, and with principle fisticuffs and bodyslams by actresses Brooke Mora and Mary Christina Brown.
Onward and forward we move with the final round of this week's Hit List playlist of badass action and DIY fight performance and film beginning with a Blue Ranger test fight performance by Kamen Ramen Studios, Ayami Sakeda and Duke Jackson, and Sean Kohnke's experimental latest, The Final Fight. Cory DeMeyers and Yoshua Sudarso cause a ruckus of their own in a brilliant, action-packed Tempur-Pedic mattress commercial, James Couche's Assassin's Fall and a new test fight piece hailing from the Canary Islands's own Brotherhood Action Design over in Las Palmas De Gran Canaria.
Rising Tiger Films's Leroy Nguyen and Edmond Shum pony up two new videos, Gang Bang in association with Team Red, and animated action comedy short, Made, while Dylan Hintz and Brian Labay battle it out at this year's AwesomeCon with a proper sign-off from noted screenwriter and Guyver: Dark Hero star David Hayter. Godefroy Ryckwaert steps back into the arena as well with a practice fight group led by Nabil Rafi and Stephanie Pham lights up the arena as fighting game favorite Tifa Lockhart at Art School Dropouts.
Breaking out this week with a bit of film fandom is a love letter fight redux inspired by Scott Mann's The Tournament with Gaby Rodriguez and Mario Sanchez, and Hayden Lam laying the smackdown in a Crows-inspired fight scene experiment for a larger project. Director Sam KJ also makes his return to the Hit List by way of April action short, Unmaksed, whose Michael Lehr and Alvin Hsing shepherded the pre-visual action earlier on as showcased in a recently-released video included in the playlist before things turn up even more with Bryan Sloyer's The Confidants.
Breaking out this week with a bit of film fandom is a love letter fight redux inspired by Scott Mann's The Tournament with Gaby Rodriguez and Mario Sanchez, and Hayden Lam laying the smackdown in a Crows-inspired fight scene experiment for a larger project. Director Sam KJ also makes his return to the Hit List by way of April action short, Unmaksed, whose Michael Lehr and Alvin Hsing shepherded the pre-visual action earlier on as showcased in a recently-released video included in the playlist before things turn up even more with Bryan Sloyer's The Confidants.
Directing duo Diego Fraga and Gaston Cha next offer martial arts fans something of a love letter to action superhero Jean-Claude Van Damme with Argentine action star Juan Manuel Olmedo (Justicia Propia) hamming it up for the Lionheart-inspired action short, Peleador Callajero. The following piece after brings Jabronie Pictures back to the Hit List once again thereafter with Fernando Huerto as he taps into his action movie-musical chops with this month's award-winning 48-Hour Film Project entry, Finest City Showdown.
Finishing off the playlist are two long-duration shorts that might be to your liking and we begin with Skeggoms Fighting Force action comedy production, Home Security. Actor and stuntman Kent Lloyd is joined by Archelus Cristian and Brad Witbeck for the story of a security agent who springs into action when a group of bumbling assailants raid his client's home.
Last and far from least is a project that returns actor and filmmaker Leroy Kincaide to the Hit List once more with non-profit fan film short, Max Payne: Retribution. Inspired by the hit game from creator Sam Lake and developers at Remedy, Rockstar Games, 3DRealms, Take Two Interactive and Gathering of Developers, the project made its online debut over the weekend following two exclusive UK audience premieres in the past few months with actor Joan James Muixi in the title role, a stoic detective whose former lover re-emerges in lieu of possible evidence that could bring down sadistic New York City underworld crimeboss Jack Lupino, played by Kincaide himself.
Gracie Tyrell and Jon Campling also star in the short which clocks in at 44 minutes and has become a hit among viewers and critics and you can learn more about the project at its official site by clicking here.
Enjoy the playlist below!
This week was pretty heavy handed but I hope you all enjoyed this week's picks. The entries from June 12 are still up and running so feel free to observes some of those goods at your own will and sub to the channels to show your support.
And, if you or someone you know has something stirring about in the world of stunts and action cinema and you feel it deserves a place in The Hit List, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!
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