2016 - 48 hours film entry "Why Charlie doesn't order pizza anymore" and NEW web-series News

Alot has changed since my last post, my promotion at work has meant I have been more focused on the daily grind and less on my dream, so I am looking into this and am working on the following things :) That and i played a full football season, played all 21 games and scored 3, though most of it I was playing CDM, I prefer striker or number 10. Not sure about playing for Three Kings again next year, I need a team closer to home and where I can play to my strengths.

Scored a 2nd goal in 2 weeks for my outdoor 7 a side social club, last nights was a mazy run from our third, around 3 defenders and the keeper to a calm finish to the left inside post. Love football :) but wattaaaah! Need to get myself back into kicking contention!

I love making action films - brings out the kid in me for sure! 

Matt Kinsman News

-what Acting work have I done this year? I have done an acting course so learnt some basics I hope to apply in my next project (web-series mentioned below) apart from that, It's been a quiet year so far. So I have taken part in 48 hour film festival again this year :) A link to our finished project and some trivia below it :)

- new website - better layout then the current one on the godaddy basic page, check it out here at Mattkinsman.com

- NEW webseries! -After The Bulletlist I needed a new project because I wanted to make a DVD of work I can put on my website that fans can own and I have come up with a good idea I think. I'm going for an office/mockumentary vibe and a semi-biographical take of this journey, watch this space :)

- A Straight to DVD film - The Temp has been shelved unfortunately as I am working on a feature 'william knows karate',  like the page here to follow it's progress but i will be completing this web-series first before completing this one as will need to raise a small budget i hope to attain by making the web-series a success.

- Sanda Fight - I have to keep fighting Fit! and since I have taken this job at work I have done no martial arts training as gassed at the end of the day, have been meaning to get back into it and Sifu texted me a couple days ago inviting me for a sand invitational, I'm down, working out and will post training videos soon. Content Content Content :)

- Ebook - I'm working an ebook to share with people things I have learned in the sales game. What's knowledge if not shared? Keep you posted. Finished an outline at this point, Gonna be awesome! (I hope)

Basically I know the only way to go forward is build a fanbase, no use making things if its only entertaining close friends and acquaintances, there's a whole world out there so I need to raise my game and apply myself, so the world of martial arts action film can get that one film bigger :)

48 hours 2016 - Why Charlie doesn't order Pizza anymore

The one thing we hate and love about 48 hour film festival is you have 48 hours to make a film. And that includes casting but because everyone wants to know what they are going to be casted for and we can't tell them because we don't know until the launch night you have to assume everyone is unreliable. You know why? EVERY YEAR I have actors/actresses pulling out and having to scramble to find some replacements, and make a story that fits who we can get as everyone works for free (which is part of the rules as most unprofessional teams like me don't have a budget and works out as a leveller with the professional teams (honestly some teams have 20 plus people involved. I have 5. yay)

SuperSuper thanks to my team (from left) Jon Chan (Camera and story), Zoe Boyle (girlfriend), Kevin Chen (friend), Georgina Lamsam (Sarah), Me (director, Charlie, writer, editor etc)

I really wasn't planning to act in this one and you can probably see from the film I sort of tried to make the character up as we went along. I really wanted to apply what I had learnt in my acting course but Charlie still comes across as 2D. The guy who had said yes prior to shooting was going to act as the lead kept replying with smiley faces via FB and text. Meanwhile the camera and crew were all waiting around until 1pm that day from 9am for this guy to show, enough was enough and we needed to film something. He could have txted he wasn't coming and we could have started earlier. Anyway, he txted me saying he was free at 7pm. We were long done by then.

At least he replied. Others just pulled out altogether citing they were working with with other teams which is fine...I can't wait to be professional and pay peoples - reliability is one attribute I hold high and since everyone was volunteering I can't be disappointed, though I was.

Would have loved to have more time to come up with an awesome story but it is what it was and this year we finished on time, with all of the elements so we had that going for us which was nice. The heats night at the Hollywood cinemas event was good, I was a bit worried but seeing our film with the other 14 or so entrants in our heat was good, we were mid table I feel, our story needed work but the camera work and acting was good.

We'll see about next year, paying $225 to enter vs using that cash to fund a film on your terms may be more beneficial, but my argument (to my wife anyway) was that the exposure and networking that make the event worth it - Without a deadline some people never finish and you get to watch on a cinema screen with your friends. Anyway, spiel aside, Hope you enjoy the film, feel free to leave comments on the Youtube page.

It just HAD to rain on the day of filming our 48 hours film - so we filmed indoors. Check out my Umbrella ;)

And well done to Kevin and Georgina for their first time acting on camera, and to Zoe who battled a smoking car and a ride from her folks to get here, AND still managed to act in 2 other team projects that day also :)

Also I have to use my house again for my web series so will have to make it look different haha, otherwise you will be very used to it :) The joys of no budget film making ;)

2016 - Wager (short film) release and The Temp on the way!!

Hi you!

Welcome back to the blog :) I have started putting together the dream team to help make 'The Temp' a reality. I've been trying to make a self made action feature film since I moved up here to Auckland back in 2011. Who knows what reaction and repercussions it will create, but to finish a feature on local DVD shelves has been a dream of mine for what seems like forever. This year I'ma make it real :)

The Script is finished (at 104 pages) and the page is up, www.facebook.com/thetempofficial so head on over and like our page to keep up with the latest news.

As part of the audition process for new people to work (had over 80 applications for both actors and actresses so not easy to sift through as so much talent)  I've made a simple short film with Richard Knight who will be playing one of the roles in the movie, the Wager.

2 strangers meet up to spar to win the contents of the others bag.

Hope you like what you can see, if this is the product of 3 hours work, wait til you see what we have planned for the film. This project also gave me a chance to try out the new Assistant director/ DOP Laura Tait. So all in all it was a great creative afternoon, my only regret is not wearing sunblock (been sunburnt all week sigh). Video link at the bottom of this blog entry :)

WAGER - Short Film below

Also, in other news, I have got a promotion at work (after 3 years so I'm pretty stoked). This also means from March on I will have EVERY weekend off!!!! Means heaps in terms of this blog and the acting side of things as most projects are on weekends, not to mention I can finally play 11 aside Saturday soccer :)

Anyway, Thanks for following the blog and lets keep focused so we can make these big things happen :)

Blackwater - My latest short film

Hi guys! 2015 is coming to a close and I thought I would squeeze one last small project in before the year was over. I present to you Blackwater.

"When a hitman is found out by his protege, only one of them can leave alive. A short test film by Matt kinsman, featuring Troy Angove, its another test film as I prepare for 2016 feature film project. This one was to try out nunchaku and nunchaku fights with martial arts action, a bit time constrained but I liked what we came up with :) feel free to leave comments or suggestions for other shorts :) Some stills below;

 Video embedded below for your enjoyment; :)


 notes;
I wish we had longer to film this as we had great chemistry and we had fun making this short. But those who have worked with me know we usually shoot for three hours and that's it, and 2/3 of us were running late as it was ;)

We got to the location and it was empty (much to my relief, gambling on my part). We started shooting and then realised the tide was coming in so each shot we were slowly making our way up the hill, which keen observers will notice :)

I was running late as I had to buy black shoes and black pants on the way and couldnt find my size, or the pants with the right material as I needed to be able to kick. The first pair I fit no problem but fit so close I couldnt kick so had to stop at another store on the way over haha.

I wrote the script the night before as was still wrestling with different ideas of things I'd like to try. I want to try something with blood and a knife fight. (you can see a knife here but was going to be extended originally). So no blood again in this one as was pressed for time but my first project next year will have some fake blood in it. I need to master it!! This short film experimented with weapons which was nice. However adding sound fx in post was time consuming, wow, way too many nunchaku twirls!

When I do a proper film though will have these safety ones painted to look either like gunmetal or hardwood. Used this as both had work in following days, and last thing we need is a nunchaku marked across our faces! Any other weapons you'd like to see?

Anyway, Hoped you enjoy the short film and I wish you and your family a happy holidays and happy new year! 2016 should bring me my first feature film and a couple of good quality fan films, so see you in the new year and hope to entertain you further!!!! :)

The Bulletlist - Finished and Uploaded!!!

Hi! Happy to announce to everyone that the 'webisodes' are up online now on my Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/themattkinsman) for my project, THE BULLETLIST. :)

Check it out below! :) I really hope you enjoy it. I learnt alot (emphasize ALOT) on this journey and now turn my attention to shooting a feature film. Thanks again for your patience, juggling real life with my dream has been a 'challenge' but I'm happy there is something to show for it, enjoy :)

Also, a special thanks to those that made this possible - First and foremost, Steve! You rocked playing Gabriel and helped out heaps with most of the fightscenes, your attitude to work was inspiring especially since you were juggling this with your job as well and thanks for sticking through with it until the end. Hope this looks good on the resume ;)

 Kat, thanks so much, ever the professional, you impressed us and inspired us to step up our acting game plus had fun on set, I hope you enjoyed your time creating with us. 

Tui, Kamy, Toutai, Walter and Amber, thanks for taking part in our project with your various roles, hope your happy with the result :) 

and last but not least, LJ, thanks for helping us film the last episode and for your cameo in ep5, I'm looking forward to making some more magic on camera :) 

and to YOU - Thank you all for your support and I hope you'll be here for the next project/s :)

Day 11 and 12 of The BulletList - Finished!! and 48hrs 'Why won't you love me? Uploaded!

Day 11 and 12 of The BulletList - The final shoots.

Locations. I was running out of locations. My house was shot to bits as well as local parks and such...When I wrote the script for this webseries I envisioned an apartment or hotel room where the main character would have been staying. Since this was a 'no budget' shoot and our character was supposed to be on the downlow- I ended up hiring a motel room. Seedy I know, but cost effective, private and spacey -surprisingly it turned out well. We shot on Friday night and Sunday night as we were all working during the day.

Day 11 was shooting all the remaining scenes between Suzy and Gabriel and Day 12 was shooting the action scene. I wont share any screenshots from that so it doesn't spoil anything for the story. But It was one of my more interesting shoots in a while, first for everything they say.

Anyway here are a couple non-spoilery screenshots in the meantime;

48hour Short film - Why won't she Love me - Now online!

I have uploaded the short film to my youtube channel now we got the ADR done for the first line of the film. It's about a first date not going the way the main character was hoping. Shooting this was a great experience and we learnt alot from it. Having backup actors/actresses, PLAN B's, Post Edit time management etc... 

If you haven't seen it yet, now's your chance! Hope you enjoy it :)

So now what?

As I mentioned in earlier blogs I've returned to Karate training (after how many years? 4?) and it's been a great blessing, my technique is getting much sharper again, It's a great time out from the routine of work/home and I am going to work towards getting that Black belt one day.

I entered the Sanda tournament this past weekend for the NZ nationals but was heart broken when I was all geared up for the 7th and final fight, sitting on the opponent chair with my team, waiting for an opponent who would never appear ( he got injured during one of the first fights they tell me and no one wanted to fight me, I was 71k and everyone was bigger or had already fought or was from my club) 

It was one of the biggest disappointments in my life. I had been training the last month and a half at home/in my garage and had already fixed my mindset, as well as taken a leave day off work. The next invitational is in September. I might be out of town then but would love to try again. I feel I have unfinished business in the Sanda ring. My record is 1-1 and I still want to rectify that first loss as I've been working on my low kick/wrestling game since then and have improved I feel. I've got to do this again - Proving to myself I have what it takes...Standing there, frustrated. Watching the others get medals I unwrapped my hands with a heavy heart and swore next time I get on those mats, I'm going all out...

Now that I've finished the Bulletlist Shoots I'm going to finish the editing and upload the series onto my Youtube channel by mid August (in a couple of weeks). I plan to start finishing the screenplay to my indy feature I am working on and try and begin preproduction/fundraising on that. I also hope to do a couple of short films in order to increase traffic to my channel, shooting fan films of things that I'm a fan of and network with some more actors/crew in order to build my next project.

I've watched alot of great TV shows and movies recently and feel I've learnt alot of storytelling techniques and ways to build up character I hadn't been aware of previously. Already with The Bulletlist if I could do it over from scratch it would be vastly different, but I am happy with how it turned out for what it was, just a couple of people running around with a camera making up a story as they went along for practice and to lead to bigger things...

Work's sort of busy at the moment but Being an action actor/filmmaker has always been the main goal and I need to make things happen. Look at all the things Bruce Lee achieved by the time he was 32? I haven't even done a single film to my name. That's got to change if I've got any hope of nailing my goal. I've got to be the change I want to see ;)

Thanks for your support :)

Day 10 of The BulletList -Screenshots from Sunday's Gabriel vs Killer Scene

As an actor/Director the most frustrating feeling you can have is the feeling that you can't be in two places at once. I love to direct and see the action happen on the lens realtime, but I also love to do the acting out. It's as vain as Kayne saying the worst feeling for him is he'll never get to see Kayne live haha. Anyway, I reached out to LJ if she was going to be free to shoot something with us on Sunday and she replied she was keen :) Which is Fantastic cos that meant we wouldnt have to suit our fight the run and tripod way (see My house; or any of my early fight films with Sam)

So with my Sunday off work (finally) LJ was kind enough to donate some time to help us out with shooting the finale episode's fight scene between myself and Steve, who was nice enough to be free on Sunday also :)

I had originally envisioned it to be the best stuff I have ever done, however due to time constraints and budget issues again I had to lower the bar on my ambitions (blood, powder/ breakables) and save it for another day, but what we came up with was pretty awesome in my biased, enjoyed the hell out of our time, opinion. Best stuff I've ever done on film anyway. Got to break something and at least it wasn't the window (almost) LJ (electrical lamp cord, long story) the lampshade (a little) or any bones ;)

The stuff we captured looks great onscreen even though we were playing with shadows most of the time as we were shooting indoors/low light and had no extra lighting.

LJ's camera has much better lens option and quality res than my own 'should be ok' camera I have used for the rest of the series. Only a couple more days of shooting now and a day on ADR....can't wait to have this thing in the bag :)

Below are some screen shots straight from Premiere, as much as I can without spoilers :)

Ending here we come! :)

Day 9 of The Bulletlist (Ep 4 Vinnie) - and some Mastercard Ad screen shots

Friday. I was dreading it as it was forecasted to rain a week earlier, but the sun was shining so thank god it didn't :)

Today we shot the fight scene for episode four. I'm happy I'm doing this project, I've learnt alot of things that I will do next time around (locations, casting, writing etc), first I have to finish it but it's been eye opening anyway and I look forward to sharing with you all what we came up with.

We shot on the rooftop of a parking building we used first time around before the rewrite. (so familiar to some) .The fight scene between Gabriel (Steve Heke) and Vinnie (Kamy Grewel) featured a little kicking and some dialog and is arguably some of the best stuff we have done, this and the last shoot were quite good. I'm in the middle of writing the choreography for the last episode as it has to be the best! :)

Screen shots from the shoot are below for your viewing.

Some badass screenshots, no?

In other news the Mastercard ad I did some extra work has been released, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, I didn't think I would be seen as way out, but I got a screenshot so have proof lol. Anyway, one day it will be more than just background apperances I can share. Just got to finish bulletlist, release a short film and get my feature up and running so I can show the world what I can do! :)

In white shirt, back right lol - I actually work in this mall for real so funny to see...