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 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...

Filmwork and Day 7 of The Bulletlist

Last week I did a day on the set of The Patriarch, a feature film being shot here by Lee Tamahori (director of The Devil's Double, 007 Die Another Day) which was awesome to see him work in person. Taught me you only need to shoot until you have the shot then move on. Lee of course, shot to fame over his film Once were warriors so this film seems a similar theme of family. Anyway, can't really talk about what happened in scene or what I did on it until it's release but just wanted to share I'm working on things here and there as I upskill and network :)

Day 7 was completed today for The Bulletlist webseries project, shot the missing scenes from Episode two and Episode One today at Highbrook park with Toutai and Steve so both those shoots are wrapped now, yes!! :)

4 more episodes to complete, mainly action scenes featuring Steve and others. Hoping to have this series released week by week late June/Early July. Will keep you up to date for sure. Just wanted to share some screenshots from today with you all :)

Toutai (left) and Steve (right) in character overlooking Mt Wellington in the background. Nice shot huh :)

Thank YOU for your support of this project :)

Stay tuned for more behind the scenes stuff :)

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 :)

Bullet List - Day 2 Shoot - Matt vs Ravi (Ep1)

My Car is at the mechanic. Automatic transmission problems (a story for next blog anyway) The situation was driving me mad trying to figure out a way I could still keep to my schedule of shooting something Friday 5th September for The Bullet List without transport. I don't want to be in a back of bus with camera equipment after a long shoot.

 Thank god for Jon, a friend who wanted to see how we shot our films and has passion for photography, he also has an awesome car so that worked out cool. Ravi had also returned from London so the stars sort of aligned and were able to shoot Ravi's fight scene with myself today with Jon behind the camera.

Having my first fight scene after doing the stunt course I tried to be better with my sells and do some more tumbles and stuff, I think it turned out OK, sure if we had better equipment, mats and time would have been better, but for shooting in a public space when it was supposed to bucket down with Rain we did pretty well. But oh my gosh, the continuity issues will be hilarious.  For an out of the way park on a bad weather day it sure had a lot of visitors than I thought it would, see if you can spot them when I upload the first episode .... :S

The scene we shot today is a scene from Episode one, the main action scene (there's one more) and the two of us fight during a cash delivery of sorts. When trying to choreograph it last night I didn't realise how restricted a car was in terms of combat (changed from outdoors as threat of rain warned by weathergirls). We made it work anyway with some camera tricks and I won't say more for fear of spoiling the story but the shoot went well,

 It looks good and I'm proud of what we achieved today. Shooting in public meant we had to wrap up a little bit quicker than we liked, had a couple cars full of people watching us as I was *(spoiler alert)* discussing breaking the character's neck and we were acting it out and the guy's in the van were like do it for real,*(spoiler alert ends)  Also they asked the filmmakers favorite line 'Are you making a movie?' haha. Doesn't get old *sarcastic straight face* Anyway, check out some screen shot's I've put here for you guys below :)

Ravinder (ravi narayan) waits for Mark (me)

Mark (matt kinsman) has to make a decision

Getting our acting on

My favorite part of any shoot

"Yip, One More"

The Incredible Ravi Narayan

Until next post, take care and follow your dreams :)

My House uploaded to Youtube channel

After a busy week fianlly have managed to edit our Monday shoot from last week.

Behold in all it's 1min 30 glory! (video below)


For last minute stuff turned out pretty good, since then though I have done that workshop I mentioned last blog so heaps of new stuff I want to try out when it comes to shooting the fight scenes for The Bulletlist. Steve's a swords guy so thinking maybe an errant knight battle might be fun? Anyway, hope you enjoyed it for what it was :)

Will post Workshop review once I have been sent the videos :)

How I spent my day off: Cancelled Day 2, shot short MY HOUSE instead!

Had my one day off on the 18th August Monday (7 day rosters are (not) fun) and had planned to shoot day two of the bulletlist and had everything set up, Steve had moved some things around and I had banged out the script, locations and shooting plan earlier in the weeknights to be able to do this, however, the actress we had in mind to play Briana had to cancel at the last minute due to personal reasons which sucked for us but I understand.

Still from My House (Steve Heke)

So to keep the motivation and momentum up since I can never get enough time off for this I txted Steve, "Wanna shoot another test film instead?", we haven't shot a short film since Ambush 2 which was ages ago. "sure, my place is all good if you want". I was happy as, "OK, cool, see you in a couple of hours". I sat in front of my computer....ready to type,....What could be a good reason for a fight scene? lol. Banged out a rough plan and drove over. So funny, spent half an hour tearing my house apart looking for a balaclava I had used when I shot Mondays back at SAE in 2011. Couldn't find it so thank goodness Steve had one. What do you think? It was a hot day, so it was very uncomfortable haha.

Still from My House (Me, Matt Kinsman)

I haven't shot a film my  old way since I left Christchurch. Which are basically all my films I shot with Sam back in the day. This 'method' involves me setting up the camera on a tripod, setting the frame, pushing record, running around in front of it, shooting our scene a couple times for the editing room then running back, stopping record, replaying it, reframing and repeating the cycle! Phew! tough but fun. Below is one unedited take so you can see what I mean. (finished film to be uploaded after sfx added, maybe next week)

May contain spoilers -however chose scene that doesn't give too much away

I have been trying to keep active too. I'm 27 now. It's make or break at my job at the moment so If I want this dream I have to make it happen or it's in with the suit and the sales focus. 

Most actors do their best work in their 30's so I need to make my move now. The First of my moves is getting some credibility (ironic since that was my first film) and getting out in the industry again, so tomorrow I am doing a stunt school fight for camera workshop. Pretty excited/nervous but hoping through it that I a)learn some new things, b)meet some new people who have the same interests and might like to part in shooting bulletlist with me and c)get a notch on my film CV.

Second of my moves is being proactive in sourcing opportunities so I've also put in for an audition for a kids action tv series and an internship as a director in another series. I hope to get good news but the fact I've even applied for this makes me happy, If you don't take action today then you are no better than you were yesterday. Between you and me I really hope I get these roles :)

I also did a camera test for my outfit as 'Mark' in The Bullet List as I had planned on shooting the scene on Monday, (next month now til next free day) so I'll share one of the pics with you below, I reckon it will be nice to play an actual character for once...

Anyway, post a blog tomorrow about how my first day went of this 2 day stunt school course I'm doing. So nervous lol, am I the real deal or a pretender?, we're going to find out... Wish me luck, apart from my football I'm so unfit, hoping to survive haha....

Progress report: Football World cup, and Ideas for Bulletlist look and choreography

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will." -Vince Lombardi

Since moving to our new place in April we have made it our home, with purchasing our new washing machine/fridge etc, some basic furniture and I have also finally got a gym set up in the garage! I'll share pictures of my workout space next post. All in all it's been a pretty busy move out/in process, had no idea going in how much it would cost and the time it would involve packing and unpacking, organizing and cleaning and re cleaning and whoa! Just happy it's done. Can finally live!

Trying to settle into writing the Fight me script, I have to do something, I feel my dream slipping from my fingertips. I'm 27, I haven't trained seriously in a year and in trying to do this I was getting feedback from potential actors who weren't feeling it. So shit. Maybe I'm being too ambitious. So I went to work on 'The Bullet list' instead. (posted below in this blog in May).

But then the world cup happened. Those who know me know I love football, so I've sort of had to take the month off working on my webseries to bet and watch some classic football matches, Brazil, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium still in it to win so going good, its been a great entertaining tournament so far :)

 

But it's back to work, real work, not that 8-6 thing I do at the bank, but the make it happen from the ground up thing I decided do 4-5 years ago. I have all 6 scripts finsihed, and I'm in the middle of finalising them now before I can schedule them and start casting/crewing up and finding the locations to shoot them in. I have heaps of leave so might take a couple weeks off to do this? Otherwise juggle it on my days off? Depends on the cast I end up with.

My friend Chris works with me now, wish is awesome, you may recall seeing him appear in JKD1 and JKD2 , anyway, he has been over to Aus recently with Sifu for some JKD training and he's taught me some lockflow techniques, so good news for watchers of our stuff, it won't just be all striking this time round, also I hope to make the show have some fights in each episode and with us playing actual characters I've created for this show they should be more enteratining with things on the line. High stakes :)

Was shopping with the wife today and finally saw the jacket I was looking for, My character Mark Maxwell needs something to make his character, I saw a gold jacket and a slim black jacket, I think gold will be great but is it too out there? I'm thinking it compliments the charcter since he is a 'talk out loud' sort of guy but we'll see, will do a promo shot next post for you to judge.

Anyway, will try finalise another script, have work tomorrow morning (yay *sarcasm*) so better be fresh for that, after all, it's what funds our lifestyles and allows me to chase my dream no matter how wispy it seems these days, we have to make our own motivation!!! :)