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!!!! :)

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...

Day 8 of BulletList - Gabriel vs Wolfe Fight BTS

Good news. I have a week off of work. Bad news. It's supposed to rain all week.

I was determined to get some more of these scenes shot for The Bulletlist so this is the first week I've had to pay for a location (as with others coming up) so let's consider it an investment on my part. And sure enough, with all my history of shooting stuff in public, there was bound to be complications.

We shot at Lagoon stadium, an indoor sports stadium. I knew of this location because I play weekly futsal there and kick ass but that's a different story ;) I needed a gym location for this scene so this was perfect. Upside. It's normally dead weekdays in the am, but we were *not* lucky enough to have some bballers in the background. Which downside, means we will have to do ADR later for a couple of scenes I couldn't edit around. I shot myself playing Bball in the background so hopefully that is enough to establish there are b-ballers there when 'Gabriel' walks into shot but we'll see.

For Episode three Gabriel meets another hitman on The Bulletlist for him to 'cross' out. Amber Vanessa Davenport plays thecharacter of  'Wolf' and the two fight it out. It was our first time working with her and she was professional, easy going, focused and suited the part. She did an amazing job working with Steve to make this awesome fight and I feel we choreographed a nice exchange. 

Anyway, screenshots below from the edit, stay tuned for more news :)

I love filming, I try to enjoy the moments of making the magic come alive on screen and tell an entertaining story, I can't wait until this is my job for real so I'll never have to work again lol -feature film here I come :)

The BulletList (Day 6 -Suzy/Gabriel Drama scenes ep2/3) and Commercial Shoot

19 April 2015 - Bullet List Day 6
Shooting digital at night was a learning experience. The eye can see things in a lot more detail than my little old camera can so making sure I was in an environment with lots of light sources was a priority. Sunday night was a work night but I needed to get some action happening on The Bulletlist project, as those following my blog will know, it's taken me a couple months just to get 6 shooting days done!

Anyway, May is the month we can hopefully wrap things up and get it all together in time for late june release each week :)

So for the night shoot it was 2 secenes, one from Episode 2 and 3 respectively, between Suzy (Katherine Mewett) and Gabriel (Steve Heke). I have shared some screenshots with you below. It was a fun, quiet shoot, (apart from the cafe, so much background noise, will have to overdub it later I think....) and the night ranged from asking a coffee place if I could shoot just before they closed, to a retiree who was sailing the world, mentioning the giant behemoth of a boat we shot near was worth 35 million. That's some expensive rubber duck lol - the maintenance alone would be worth more dollars than what most people make in a year.

Suzy (kat) and Gabriel (Steve) get to know each other in Episode 2.

The night, street light contrast was beautiful, Kat brought out the best of it.

This shot might not be in final edit but I'm so damn proud of it! Director Matt lol.

22 April 2015 -Plans, Commercial, Feature Film, 48 hour film competition

Busy week, after the shoot Sunday night, got home 11pm, had work Monday, football Monday night, work Tuesday, work function night and football 9pm Tuesday night, then today, Wednesday, off work and working on a commercial for a credit card company with a sport star, Tonight have an investment seminar to attend then away for 4 days on a long weekend road trip with the wife to rest from work/dreams/sport for a breather.

Once the Ad is finished I will share a link with you guys, won't talk about anything regarding the content to avoid breaking any contracts but it was nice to get back out there and do some filming again. Awesome to see the cameras the big boys use, people lugging around lighting materials, sound crew setting up and away again and the AD's herding the extras - it all definitely looks like a lot of work/fun. Can't wait to get to that stage myself, but for now slowly building my team :)

My feature script is finished now. Just choreography and locations to decide. Will do this once get back from our trip. But I'm super excited to get started on this, just have to sort out a sound guy and I can start my super low budget feature, a feature nonetheless, the action has to be spectacular to stand any chance on video shop shelves and he story has to get people engaged to watch until the showdown in the end.

48 hours 2015 competion coming up 1st  May 7pm -3rd May 7pm. I'm a bit anxious for our entry as this is the first time I have done the 48 hour film competition since settling in Auckland. But I have assembled a champion spirited team and much ass we will kick! (or at least entertain)

Watch this space :)

Powerstation - Finished short film link

As promised here is the Powerstation test short film we shot as Plan B to an original shoot this easter (fullstory last post);

Hope you enjoy! I'm working on creating more things, maybe a couple more short films before Bullet List is done and I start on the independent feature film I have been talking about for so long :) As normal, I welcome any comments/suggestions in the comments section.

ps. Sidenote; The last shot had to be the sound effect as the battery was dead and the last 4 or 5 shots of the day were one takes, and sadly I didn't have a clear one of the final kick, still, looks good for a first time working together, love acting again lol looking forward to more this year :)

Fist of Justice/ Power Station (shortfilm) Making of.

Seriously?

The rain hit the ground trying to inflict lasting bruises on the pavement. The heavens above literally opened up and pissed itself. All this deluge as I open the door on a cloud filled day ready to shoot my short film I had spent the whole week preparing for. No. Not today. For every problem there is a solution. I just have to think. Breathe. Ok.

I've scouted a great outdoor location, problem. outdoor. Raining. Mud. Equipment. Shit.

I drove the around the neighborhood. Something with shelter. Somewhere public. 

Solution. It's Easter Sunday, why not shoot at the mall parking lot, not many people if any, no damage, no advertising or offended companies, should be sweet?

So the plan was changed. I met LJ (my DOP/ camera girl for the day) and Kamy (first time actor) to shoot 'Fist of Justice'. Cool title right? Hope no ones done it before, then again, I don't care, its my short film so I'll call it what I want :) Anyway, I asked them to follow me to the parking lot where the story wouldnt have to be altered. I had bought a blue french shirt to play the part as a traffic warden/cop a couple days earlier ( I mentioned this last post) and wore dresspants and shoes and bam! Character done :)

LJ owned an awesome DSLR camera and she definitely knew her way around it, she even changed lenses for some of the shots and had her own stedicam like rig. I smiled as I knew I'd talked to the right person to collaborate with. I was impressed. I had never met her before today or Kamy, so life has a funny way of working out. He had come to India some years ago, has a TKD background and has learnt other arts on the way, he wanted me to refer him as a ninja since is his latest martial art of choice to study. He had done a TV commercial before and some modelling and had a passion for martial arts his whole life and had wanted to do a film like this for a long time. So our paths crossed and we combined to make the magic happen on screen :)

We barrelled through the drama shots building the story up as the cop catches the thief and the end drama scene. (no spoilers here). SO all the acting was done, the part, the meat of the burger, the FIGHT scenes were all that was left to shoot, saving the best for last :) 

The fight scene will have to be shot another day. This is all that remains. ps. yes, equipment in shot lol.

So we stopped for lunch, then returned to the location -to who do you think?

Mallcops. 

Seriously? I explained to them I work in this mall (I do) and didn't think we would harm anyone shooting a film on an empty lot which didn't influence/intimidate/inconvenience any customers or show any company logos, that the owners wouldn't even recognize the damn place unless we pointed it out. However the two security guards in their golf cart explained now they had seen us they couldn't permit us to continue., lets call them brains and brawn, and pack up our stuff.

I suggested couldnt they turn a blind eye and forget they ever saw us? we have been here the last 4 hours and you didnt show up once? I wanted to ask management for permission to shoot here however as its a public holiday they are closed so catch 22? I didnt even want to film here. Complain to the weatherman. Brains says come back tomorrow when the are open and get permission. I say, how? we all have work tomorrow as you know. Let us finish the hour or so we have to go and I will get the permission form them tomorrow, just for you -.

In the end, there is no winner to an argument, everyone loses. Either respect/ face or integrity. Seeing a waste to valuable time ( we were losing daylight!) I gave him my businesscard and said terminators line (I'll be back) and I asked the team to follow me to the original location, The park beside the powerstation and we'll shoot a practice fight scene there and make a short film out of it. No script, improved fight scene and see what happens. We got this far, lets finish somthing and come back to this later.

So here we are. Old school Matt. A camera and 2 actors ready to go at it for camera. This time the camera moves though with an awesome camera person who took direction really well as well as creative solutions of her own. Decided to shoot this way the way I was planning on shooting JUSTICE. 

I've been watching alot of oldschool 80's HK actions films over the last 2 weeks, keeping myself inspired I guess. They use the zoom ins and zoom outs to great effects so chucked them in there, as well as still WIDE shots with long takes, as well as some of the handheld stuff the Raid series was so good at making the most of. I like it :) Looks good, hope you agree once you see the finished product :)

POWERSTATION is the title of todays film :). This short test film will be edited by myself by the end of the week hopefully as finished rough cut tonight. I just need to add music to it and all done :) Check out some screen shots so far :)

Great shot by LJ, awesome composition and balance :)

Taught Kamy and LJ that people come from everywhere when we shoot in public, this interesting fellow popped out of the bushes behind the container lol. He smiled, nodded and watched as we kicked each others ass for a couple minutes

Stance off :)

Kamy's first action short film, looking pro :)

Getting better with each fight I get to create onscreen, looks cool anyway :)

I just wanted to share with you guys my day today, the dream continues!. Only you can be in charge of the way you feel, and if you set yourself a goal you can achieve it, as long as you are flexible and smart enough to challenge obstacles and be the change you want to see:) Only dead fish go with the flow ;) Keep an eye out for my next blog :)

The Bullet List (Day 5- introducing Suzy)

Thursday.

It finally arrived, First day of our hero with the female lead - the motive to drive the story forward :)

Target or Friend?

Last month I put out a casting call for the role of Suzy as I needed a young woman who was enthusiastic, had some dance or martial arts experience and believed in the project and endgoal.
After many applications, We found our star in Kat!

Kat as SUZY in The BulletList

 She was awesome to work with, friendly, easy going, responded to direction well and brought plenty extra of her own to the role, great expressions and projection. It was a fun shoot made easier by her professionalism. This also pushed Steve who came with some fine acting of his own. Really looking forward to editing this one. (post note, finished editing- looks good :D)

Like all film shoots, everything went wrong before we made things right but as I am known to say, smooth seas do not make skilful sailors. To be a directoor we need to Direct, that includes solving problems! We had to shoot early evening to balance our work commitments, earlier in the day was sorting the mechanic about my car, and sorting out the script/ shooting plan for Day 5. So 5pm planned start turned into 530pm once we found a park, fighting with Traffic to arrive.

The amount of time I was in my wife's car today, I felt like I just got out of a space shuttle when I got home, seriously, that little pod went all the way from Manurewa and town, twice, also to town twice as I went earlier in the day for some DVDS, the shirt for my sunday project (next blog) and martial arts shop investigation. (however didn't find the extra nunchuks or rubber tonfa I was looking for, may have to ebay these) Wish my BMW was back, driving it long distances was my favorite part of having it :|

So with fading light, ( I knew in my heart it would be close) People everywhere (joys of public shooting), threatening rainclouds (rained on the way, rained after, great timing), car alarms, church bells and passing cars - we persevered - and managed to pull off the plan and the results were fantastic! Can't wait to share the scene with you guys, even got a shot of possums in the park which was random but hey, right place right time :)

Below is another screenshot that doesn't give too much away apart from how great these two stars play their characters :) Thanks to this day, I have finished a rough cut of episode one! Five to go :)

Day 5 of shooting complete, Day 6 awaits! :)

The Bullet List (Day Four - Boris/Gabriel scenes part one)

So today Friday 20th finally arrived, this was an important shooting day as we would do the majority of Boris's scenes played by the excellent Walter Marsters and Steve got to perfect his acting chops with more drama with Gabriel.

Walter Marsters as BORIS and Steve heke as GABRIEL today. Awesome!

 The night before the shoot I made sure I made a shot list so the day would run smoothly and pretty much stuck to it, a couple of inspired moemnts but you will see, as long as you can follow the story the camera works not too important as long as it shows the reactions and actions at the right time :) Pic below :)

I rearranged the living room of my house to make it look like it was lived in by Boris and had scouted a great location for a meet the day before, a man made park across the road from my work!

 I checked it had ducks or it wasn't going to work, sure enough to my surprise it did have ducks and plenty of them!


After a mix up in meeting times and locations we finally arrived together on the location of the park scene. And sure enough as Murphy's law would have it a tractor mower was scouring the lawns. We shot nonetheless, aint nothing going to bring us down, still, a great lesson for the future :) Apart from me saying action! And the ducks Quacking on cue before my actors could speak, the shoot went smoothly. A pic below :)

Arriving at my house we quickly got into characters and shot three scenes in our 'set'. I have taken reference photos for continuity for next shot when we shoot the finale fight so lets hope we keep it similar, after all, I have to live in it :) Below is one example of a shot today, great shoot with good results :)

On the way to pick up my wife from work my car, lost power, I was on the motorway doing 100 while everyone else was doing the same and suddenly I couldn't accelerate anymore. The gas just went. I was in the 'fast' lane, 4 lines from the side of the road where I needed to be and there was a big truck (read missile) in my next lane and a cop in the next. I had to bear grylls my 'descent' as I coasted and avoid these cars and pull over.

The cop didn't seem to notice/care and I was so happy I had charged my phone before hand and that it was a payweek and had some cash for AA. No better time to sign up for roadside assistance than now right? haha. Life. God giveth God tketh away. On the bright side got my footage shot and car worked fine then, and dont really need it this weekend as can walk to work (not ideal but smile)

Picking up my baby :|

Final Destination. Now the fix up begins...

Anyway, that's the only news for today really. Keep you posted, looking forward to the casting the lead/solo female of our series (some good responses so far) and shooting the action scenes and getting this finished by early may for release in June :)

Below is a pic I snapped while shopping with the wife at Sylvia Park, thought it was amusing to catch a dog in the act trying to drive while owner away, dog's expression was one of 'hey, wait! its not what it looks like!' Funny lol.

Have a great day, see you next post!!

2015- Jan/Feb News- Action on BulletList and Shortland Street :)

Hello!

Auckland celebrated its 175th Birthday on the 26th January so we watched the fireworks which was awesome, a symbol of the desire inside me, Great start to the year, the year I make shit happen. 

The night sky was so calm beforehand;

 First thing done towards my acting goal this year is an extra role in Shortland street (local TV show), just reading magazines in the background but its work and in the industry so happy to have done that, its more than I have done the last two years anyway. (should air in april so post a screengrab if I can see myself haha)

 Came back to Auckland to find out my Computer is dead, Hard drive not being accessed so will have to fix that sometime, in meantime since wife always wanted a laptop and I like the convenience of it, especially when it comes to writing scripts or editing on the go we decided to get one, so happy to finally be able to update this blog and also work on my stuff :)

Second I've finished rewriting The Bulletlist And I Have started to shoot it, Yesterday was Day One of the new shoot, and was Gabriel's first kill so now we're a scene closer. It will be six episodes so looking forward to completing this one. Still reining in talent on this one, people I haven't worked with before so hoping to finally finish this project :) Looking good! ;)

Steve vs Tui in yesterdays scene (and my car :) haha)

Thirdly, I've got a couple of screenplays (Mumbai Cop is the main one right now) I'm working on, hoping to meet a producer in a couple of days to pitch him, fingers crossed we get some action or at least another screenwriter who can help me tighten the story.

Fourthly, started work on the treatment for My feature film project I aim to shoot and release this year. Stay tuned for more news on this one as it develops. I have the story, its just writing it in such a way it can be shot of little budget but maximum action within the days I'm free when I'm not working at my paying job lol

 

Trying not to work myself to death like this guy

Lastly, Trying to keep fit, trying to learn the dummy form from Chris when I can and plan to resume karate (done one class, haven't done the last couple weeks due to cash/finishing work late but plan to go again next week) Got to get that 6 pack for the big screen! ;)

Anyways, Live it up Yo, See you next post!