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!!

The Bullet List (day three) -Bush

Shooting Day 3 arrived. We had to shoot after Steve finsihed teaching his class and I finished watching the chelsea PSG champions league game, however it went into extra time thanks to some crappy reffing so left home at 11.15am so when the dust settled and all relevant parties had arrived, we started filming late.

Not to mention after cruising around in the morning to decide a location (originally I had settled on a beach but the location was an hour away and we had to be finished shooting by 2.00) the area with bush did not have said bush. It was just farmland. After an hour of searching we finally decided we were in the right place and the location was a little walk away. Since we were pressed for time we shot the old school way, the point and shoot, nail it, next! way. The footage we got was pretty good and I was happy with what he walked away with. 2 Screen shots below. I'd share more but that would give the story away, enjoy ;)

Toutai as FELIX, Bad guy number 2. Will he finish off GABRIEL?

Steve as GABRIEL, imposing as always :)

 Looking forward to Day 4. SO happy that this project is headed towards a finish line, and a 'bigger' picture :)

ps. special thanks to Toutai, always a trooper, his enthusiasm for the piece was boundless, looking forward to shooting the car chase scene with him and Steve next month :)

The Bullet List (Day Two) - Airport scenes

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 :)

The Bullet List - Day One (again) Episode One - Gabriel vs Tom

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! :)

BulletList 2014- Deleted Car Fight Scene (Mark vs Ravi)

Last Year I started a webseries called The Bulletlist however the story I had written didn't suit the title and I couldn't really get anyone to film it for free due to my roster etc, So Over the holidays I decided to rewrite the story, recast it and startover which meant sacrificing the below scene which didn't quite work out the way I intended due to the background and continuity (as you will see shortly haha)

So I hope the Deleted scene below hints at what might have been, It features some awesome acting from the ever cool Ravi Narayan and was shot by my friend Mr Jon Chan as his camera is much better than mine and he had an interest in filming something. Thanks Guys!

Enjoy!

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!