Ambush 2 - Finished Video and Making Of

 With a couple days off in a row lined up and a much needed break from writing the 'Fight Me' Script needed I contacted Steve and Ben and we came up with an idea to shoot Ambush 2, a sequel to this years earlier short film Ambush. Steve plays the same terrorist type figure (or is he?) and this time he is hunted down by a different spy.

Like all film making endeavours something bad always happens and we have to hurdle it, this time it was getting lost trying to find totara park, thanks to most of south auckland looking alike. anyway, a couple of hours later me and ben made it and met Steve and his friends at the park. It was a fun shoot, alot of it was improviosed, dialog, half of the choreography and shots. But the end result looks cool. The purpose of this was to build a body of recent work that I caqn use in my pitch for funding/sponsorship when I come to start 'Fight me' Later this year, just have to finish building this script!!!

It's amazing how hard it is to write words on blank pages sometime knowing that this will be the skeleton you build the muscle on later, one wrong move and the thing collapses and you have days of rewrites ahead. Ah, it breaks my heart, but I must fight on!!

Anyway, here is the little 'break' project AMBUSH 2 and a couple of random outtakes, hope you enjoy :)

27 now, about time things got real.

11 September 2013

 Took the day off work for my birthday and went to the new minigolf place in town with the wife and basically spent the day chilling out. It was pretty fun, nobody else was there and we had the whole course for ourselves. Here's some photos below I've taken I can share, almost as if playing golf while a T Rex stalks you is entirely natural haha

Other than that nothing terribly exciting has happened over the last few weeks, learnt a new role at my job so I'm more senior now which is awesome. Job security had always been a big point for me when I applied so that makes me happy, now do I chase a new role at the end of the year? I discussed with my wife and my bosses that I will wait til the end of the year, see if I get my movie off the ground and re-evaluate my position...

Chelsea!! Thanks to Premier League being back on I've been playing a ridiculous amount of football/futsal myself. Tues mixed, weds outdoor on artificial turf with friends, friday league, and mon/thurs if needed. So much so I feel as though I'm doing nothing towards my goal of getting ripped and being an ass kicking machine, on the court I'm scoring which is awesome, but I want to be pounding fighters in the gym and building my character. I never entered the Sanda competition, as I knew people training everyday for that, I've been training zero. But I will try support the boys next week when they go out swinging.

So here I am, procrastinating again, before tackling my script again for 'Fight me', I've written the first 10 pages and seems fun/do-able at the moment. I'm also planning a sequel to Ambush, Just a short film to stay in shape, Steve again, except fighting me, stay tuned for screenshots of that when I shoot that next week :)

But now to work on my career! So boxing/filming/writing/self promo here I come! I found a cool spot when we were walking back to the car from the golf place and asked the wife to take a photo for my website, I looks pretty pro huh ;) Anyway til next time, never give up!!

This months project;

"If I design T-shirts, would anyone buy them? Let's find out!"

Introspection. To Act or not.

Monday. I'm sitting on the bus, running one hand through my hair, the other resting my mp3 player on my lap while listening to Skyler Grey's 'build a monster'. I'm staring past the window at the rain as it falls against the backdrop of a blur of shopfronts and suburbia and wondering how the hell did I get here again, is this a time travel bus? 10 years ago I was doing this damned same thing, busing to school, listening to Eminem on my Walkman, head full of dreams of being a famous rapper. Witty wordplay and interviews aside I would be seeked out for my knowledge, and summoned for my company. I would stare out that bus window at passersbys and be like 'That'll never be me, I'll never be a rat race player, I have dreams'. Yet here I am, ten years later. Same jerking bus, same beats, same attitude.

But I've got a lot to be thankful for, and I know why I never made it as a big time rapper. I didn't have a story, I never had a life or experiences that I could share and revel in. No rags to riches glory, no horrifying  upbringing but shit, its been 10 years, I've done a lot of living in that time believe me,  now I got a story.

                    Wednesday. Its my day off today, and like I joked with my customer a couple of days ago, it always rains on my day off. Its raining today, did I make that happen? Probably. Bad attitude.

I slept in this morning, then gambled with my car, driving it to the mechanic, risking the engine blowing up. Its been leaking coolant and DIY stop-leak couldn't fix it. I just had it warranted and registered a couple of days ago, premature celebration I guess. At least if it blew up I'd live my action star dream for a couple of minutes ;) (I just called the mechanic, hes sent the radiator away to get looked at, no car until tomorrow at the earliest, its been a week, one extra day wont kill us)

I arrived home, had last nights leftovers for brunch and watched 'Painted skin'. Donnie Yen was awesome as always, even if it wasn't primarily an action flick, the story was good and as tragic as most foreign films I used to like. With my job I don't really get to watch as much a spectrum of films as I used to, but I'm not a student anymore. I'm a career man. Pfffft. Forgive me for being cynical.

Sitting in front of My dusty computer ( I really should clean it) I stare at the screen. The cursor blinks at me. Again. and Again. I don't know what to write. This is supposed to be my screenplay structure. 30 to 40 beats of what should end up being the story of my feature film debut. Ive tentatively called it Fight Me. And I'm designing it so I can shoot it with my savings, the people I know, the locations I have access to and the abilities I have or can learn. Parnell Rise (my web-series) didn't really go to plan (budget/schedule and free casting being the main issue) But again, I'm stalling. Am I afraid of success? 

                    All of my dreams seem to burn and crash around me. I wanted to be an artist, I knew I was good at it, so I stopped trying and decided on something else. Logically, (really?) I chose Rapping. But its a social game, a macho game, a costly game. Things didn't work out. I changed paying jobs from store man work to sales. Sold Karate memberships for a while, learnt some Karate, decided being an Action Star was my true calling. INSERT: 4 YEARS LATER

I've done alot since making that decision and this dream is arguably the closest I've ever come to of achieving one of them, Instead of staring at the mountain and glory that awaits I need to just look at the steps in front. Finish the structure, finish the script, sort out locations and budget, sort out casting, shoot the film, edit the film, sell the film and reevaluate. So here I am, sharing with you my feelings. Am I ready for success or failure? Or am still scared to make the decision? More time is lost to indecision than bad decisions....

Who am I kidding? The decision was made for me when I moved to Auckland, every time I see the city I'm reminded why I'm here, to be a filmmaker, Though I've done some temp work and now work full time to make cash I HAVE done film work, and worked towards my career, yeah it was extra work, but hey, it's still immortalized. I been on TV, I've done work on a US film, I feel I've paid my dues, so screw it. Fight me, here I come :)

Emperor - A couple of immortal screenshots from my first appearance in a feature film :)

Welcome to my new blog! Chasing Ghosts - For the third chapter of my blog I want to write it in a more personal storytelling style...as if I'm talking directly to you instead of third person as I tended to do, anyways, intros aside here's my first post...join my adventure!

Last week 'Emperor' was finally released on DVD, I had been counting down the days since the start of the month until it was unleashed on NZ retail/rental shelves and I bought myself a copy at lunchtime to add to my DVD collection. Directed by Peter Webber, (Girl with the pearl earring) Emperor tells the story of Fellers (Matthew Fox) who has to investigate the Japanese Emperor and his role in World War 2 and only has ten days to do it as ordered by His general (Tommy Lee).

That night I watched the movie with my wife and was so happy to see my appearances weren't on the cutting room floor. From the fourth minute in you can see me on the plane during the Matthew Fox/Tommy Lee pep talk on the plane as they enter the airport. 

Most of my other scenes are background stuff, back of my head mostly, cut away's and the trucks didn't make final cut so no glimpses of me in the cab there either but on the hour mark I'm clearly in the office when the Japanese guy makes a dramatic entry. My wife smiled alot when she pointed out when she me, guess my ears are recognizable haha :)

 The finished product looked great and I was happy to be a small part in the project, I'm thankful for the opportunity and am excited to start work on my own independent feature film, My film wont be as polished, budgeted or as grand as this one but the same passion will be there, please rent Emperor if you want an interesting movie to watch as its based in Japan but the majority is shot right here in Auckland, the CG was pretty good :)

Yay, now I'm immortalized in a film, my parents can now believe my crazy stories of moving to Auckland to get into the film making industry now that I have been on TV in some New Zealand shows and now a US feature film :) now getting to say some lines on screen is my next mission! :)