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 - 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 ;)
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 :)
My little brother came up from Christchurch for a couple weeks with his girlfriend so we went out for couple dates and all 4 of us played pool, bowling, futsal nights, restaurants, theme park and lots of Fifa and board/fun games.
Also have been focusing hard on work, eyes on the prize, heart and my mind. And this sunday recently completed the round the bays marathon, 8k so great entry point and haven't really trained so was a little worried but in the end finished, really should have done better. Was kicking myself, thought had 2 k to go but it was the finish line! Conserved way too much energy, next year I will get a much better time, this year it was 49minutes which was disappointing for me, but first time :) So OK, for now ;)
Anyway, Little brothers returned now, and no other distractions so I can return to focusing on the dream and step 1. Finishing The Bullet List!!
Since Steve was teaching a class this afternoon we planned a quick shoot and all the scenes at the airport were shot today.
Scouted the domestic terminal when I picked up my brother a couple weeks ago but far busier today, just that time I guess. Parking still cost me 9 bucks even though I tried to stay under an hour but hey, can't leave my car out in the open lest it disappear thanks to security. To be honest I was surprised. I thought we would have been stopped or asked for ID or permits or something as we were putting our bag on the baggage carousel and taking it off again as well as just loitering around the airport but because my camera looked touristy and we weren't suspicious or troublesome(I hope) we weren't asked to leave or noticed so that worked out OK and we got the shots we needed which was great!
Paticularly proud of this shot as wrote smoke bursts from the tyres in the script so surprised to actually get it on film, nice!
After I dropped Steve off I returned to the airport to wait fro planes to land/take off and get some footage for some cutscenes. So overall got all the shots we needed for todays schedule. Tomorrow is Day 3 and the gun fight :) scripts good, let's hope it turns out that way :)
So as you've previously read I have rewritten The Bullet List so it's coherent, has a story to follow, is quick to film for lowbudget and some great action scenes. (best I've done/attempted anyways)
Here is the link to the Facebook site to stay up to date with the latest news :)
Yesterday we reshot the car fight scene and it turned out great, the location seemed seedy but was quite expansive and the actors sold the story well, can't wait for you guys to see it, in the meantime here are a couple of screenshots below, if we stay on track we should be airing this thing by late June early July! :)
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 :)
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....
Standing at warehouse stationery, waiting for Thursday's scripts to print off, I was nervous. It had been a while since I've done a shoot, The doubting began, do I know what I'm doing? Will my camera battery last? Will it rain?. The guy's have faith in me. I look at my phone. 15 minutes late. Great start Matt.
I pick up Steve from his place and we roar down the motorway, it begins to spit and drizzle a little on the way. "Come on god", I mutter, "don't troll me now". We get to the spot and meet Toutai for the first time, He's pretty cool, pretty much like our conversation on the phone the night before, he's passionate about acting and belives in the project. He gets in my car and we drive to the first location of our planned 3 part shoot.
We shoot at the jetty near mission bay. Just me in my grey hoody with my cheap ass camera, and the two boys in their jackets and sunnies. The wind is trying to freeze us and the clouds hang overhead omniously. But this suits the shoot fine. Great color tones :) Fighting the wind I try to hold the camera steady as I shoot the 2 agents discussing the case with the beautiful Auckland skyline in the backdrop. The wind swirls around the performers as they make their way through their lines. Definately going to need ADR. The phone has a windcut mechanism, but I find out later when I get home it doesn't make much difference. I'll definately need to invest in a mic of some sort and a portable powerkit. I should have chosen a cheaper hobby.
The second location is nearby, and we roll through that one without any hitches and the last one we wing it. I remembered when I shot Timefish back in the day for SAE I shot it on top of one of the carparking rooftops. This time however I drove to one in which I had worked for as a mascot a couple of years ago and the backdrop below is simply priceless.
Location, Location, Location. But I admit, we found it quite funny rolling through a carpark looking for a park slowly with a hearty samoan in the back, a tall maori dude sitting in shotgun and a rough looking white guy driving a beat up old car. That could have been a short film in itself :)
Wrapping at the end of the day felt good, finally had some footage in the can after talking about getting this shit started for so long, made a new ally, and practiced doing something I loved for a change. Driving home afterwards I felt happy, lighter as if a weight had been lifted. Feeling Good!
Now on for Day two, finding everyone available on certain days when certain locations are free has been tough but I will be using my talent of words to help make shit happen now I know that this acting thing is definitely what I want. I will be doing a course in a couple of weeks time but more on that once I have done it, follow this blog and you'll be the first to know :)
