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!

Dec 2014/Jan 2015 -Australia Holiday and goals for year...

Apologize for the lack of blogs lately, heaps been happening, you don't notice day by day but over the last couple months a lot of life has been experienced, take every day and make it yours :)

Went to Australia for an end of 2014 holiday with the wife which was awesome, we went to brisbane first, then Gold coast for christmas, beaches themeparks and chilling out really (wrong choice of word lol), then we finished up in Sydney for New Years break before heading back home to Auckland for a day, then we went to Christchurch for a friends wedding and to visit family and now we're back (a month ago). Here are a few photos (took hundreds but these are a couple that I can share)

It was a great trip all up and now in down times I'll find myself in my mind at surfers beach with the wife where the sun was warm, the beach was soft, the water was refreshing and we didn't care about anything material at all. Oh well, it's back to bills and the struggle for more again ;) At least its nice to remember we work to live not live to work :) If anything I'm Matt 3.0 now

I've come back to Auckland with renewed vigeur after this trip. This acting thing has got to happen in the next few years for me as I had said I wanted something on video shelves by the time I was thirty. I'm 28 now. Time is ticking....Challenge accepted :)

Below are my Career driven goals;

2015 Goals.
Finish the Bulletlist webseries
Do some TV work
Start and finish a straight to DVD action movie (written and acted in)
Resume Karate
Take part in the 2015 Sanda tournament.
Take part in a marathon
Buy an apartment
Learn the whole Wooden Dummy form (know half)
Workwise become a personal Banker
Baby Plans with wife, maybe early 2016...

These are the main ones, so follow this blog and you'll see how many of them I achieve :)

Sanda Competition 16th November 2014 -survived and won :)

Took the day off on Sunday so I could take part in my club's sanda tournament, was so happy to have won my fight! You won't believe the relief that washed over me at the end, if you watch the video embedded below you can probably see it on my face.

Thought I would share some pics of the day with you here. As for the fight, definitely far from my best, needed way more combinations and more attacking intent but in all honesty as fit as I am a runner my cardio isn't up to par. You can tell in the three weeks that I had known about this tournament I hadn't had any throwing practice, all instinct from 2 years ago but obviously the tehnique was rough lol.

After the first attack I was pretty much catching my breath and deciding how to fight more smarter than harder. When they pointed out my opponent I was instantly demoralized and starting making him out to be a bigger threat than he was, as Ali said, you win or lose the fight before you even step in the ring. Anyway, thanks for your support and let's step away from sanda and get back to making choreographed fights for a little bit, KAISF here we come :)

video;

pics;

 

 we got split into teams, my team was the black team, we won 7-5 :)

  

The JKD Club members who entered the tournament :)

 

Getting prepared for the fight I had been preparing for, chest gear needed to keep my heart from popping out from beating too fast lol

 Round 1. Let's do this :)

 Medal ceremony at the end. :)

 Happy Boy :)

 Got marks all over my body, but at least not the face or my boss would kill me lol

Can't wait til my next one now :)

New Project for 2015: Kicking Ass in Some Forest!

Hi guys :)

Been a while since my last blog or any work was shared, been hard at work at my day job so it has left me little time to dedicate to my dream for now. I've been in touch with Sifu and returned to training at least a couple of nights each week, juggling this with my some weeknight football and futsal and my job, I'm feeling pretty balanced again :)

I have a Sanda competition on Sunday which I'm looking forward too, unsure of how I'll do, hoping I do some good, as long as I give 100 percent and leave everything in the ring I will be happy. Will share the video next week after the fact :)

In terms of Matt the actor, everything's OK. When I get back Next year I'm going big or going home basically, so bring on January. I've put Bulletlist on hold for now, another project frozen in financial time. I will finish it next year though, will do some rewriting. As much as I love action, story is king.

Bought my dream Car, BMW, been wanting one since high school, Transporter always been one of my favorite films, so driving a European car has been a goal, since GKR its been on my reward list, so feels good to tick that off :)

So what now?

I've decided Since I have no money for a film. Or a large enough network to trial, to work with what I have and at least make something that won't take a year to make, too much time out of my busy schedule, and be enough of something to enter into festivals and start earning kudos.

Enter, "Kicking Ass in some forest!"

LOGLINE: When Hunter, a struggling action actor, is dragged into a forest by his desperate agent he has no idea that he's fighting for more than just a paycheck, he's fighting for his life!

Sounds fun right? And the title reflects the film so don't expect a soppy romcom or anything. There will be 3 main fights, one against a girl, hand to hand, one on three, my nunchucks vs a baseball bat weilder, a knife weilder and still thinking of a third weapon, and the last fight against a surprise guest but what you expect in every martial arts movie.

So with the script pretty much done, I started work on some location scouting, took my new baby for a spin  out to Piha/karekare which was a nice getaway daytrip with the wife and also gave me the opportunity to research for this project, here's some of the photo's below.

In the forest, but the trail was quite popular, unsure if will film here, maybe some walkytalky scenes lol 

Below, a beautiful empty canvas for the finale fight.

An idea of how epic this location looks, this will be part of the final fight scene.

And below some photos of the journey there which will be fight scene 2 and drama bits around it....

Anyway, like the page HERE to keep up with the latest on my new project, next step, rehearsing the fight scenes (let's do this right, no more turning up on the day, bang it out in 2 hours and go home and find the film...) I want this to look awesome and be something I haven't done before, and show you guys and the world some range :)

Shaking Hands with Action Superstar Donnie Yen

When I found out a couple months ago that Donnie Yen was coming to New Zealand to film Crouching tiger hidden dragon 2 I was excited. I'm not going to lie, my mind ran wild, I wanted to do all I could to be apart of it, I asked my agency if they had any parts going but unfortunately they were only looking for Chinese or asian/polynesian extras. Unfortunately I'm as white as a ghost so I couldn't really apply, I wouldn't fit in ancient china lol A friend of mine did audition though and got picked as a stand in and ended up being a PA to one of the stuntguys so that was as close as I could get to getting to meet my hero, was so happy for him lol.

Donnie Yen is The Bruce Lee of today, his technique is awesome, he does everything! act/direct/ dude even plays piano awesome. and he's just so cool in his movies. He's a huge inspiration to me when I'm trying to make my own films and start my own career. Him and Bruce Lee are even in terms of pushing me forward.

Anyway, Months passed, he kept posting teasing photos of shots around Auckland. It was so frustrating knowing he was in the same city as me and I'd never get to meet him. But then as a fan on Donnie yen's facebook page I saw he was going to try meet his NZ fans. all we had to do was download the app to stay in touch. I've always had a block phone, the oldschool phones that just text and call, no cameras etc. But this was a sign, give in! Get a smart phone! So I did. I got a cheap phone and tried to download the app but it wasn't compatible, I sweated for a week or so then he posted a link for those without the app to register. I registered my wife and I and waited for the confirmation email.

I received it, yes! It was the 5th of Oct- now I get every 5th weekend off and just so happened I had this one off, I was stoked! God works in mysterious ways :) My prayers were heard haha :) (thanks)

It was at the Pullman hotel, in the ballroom lounge. It was really nice, flash. After waiting for everyone to arrived, the man himself arrived.

 

Bey Logan (for those that follow HK movies will know he tends to produce and comment on these films and has been a big part of bringing it out to western channels) was emceeing the event, a Q and A for Donnie with the fans before a signing session. (I also talked to bey after the event about he managed to round up funding for the films and he told me just make the film, in today's age its so much easier to make a film, just get it out there and the right people will eventually seek you out, just find someone who directs, someone who likes sound, someone who likes acting etc and put ti together. Food for thought, I'm procrastinating to much, so next year (lol) I will do that and do the feature I always talk about. I talked about my plans of being an actor/director and how NZ's small so I'll try here first then build myself up. He kept calling me 'the screenwriter' cos of my question but we'll get to that later...nice guy, I can see his passion for kung fu films...

So we all clapped as Donnie Yen walked in smiling and then people started asking questions. Donnie yen answered them humbly and with grace and was so cool. Definitely can learn from this. I told the wife If I don't ask a question I'd kick myself the rest of my life, so I stuck up my hand- confident as (fake it til you make it :D) Bey was like, you there, in the white, and I stood up making eye contact with Donnie like "Hi, I'm Matt," and he's like "Hi'. wow. I'm talking to a guy I've watched destroy so many people on films late at night on hard to get dvds I've had to order in, or at the cinema with only a few people. This man who seems so big and fantastic on screen is sitting in front of me, and we're having a conversation :)

"You must receive tons and tons of scripts everyday, I was wondering what do you look for in a script when choosing a part and why?" He talked about how since making a film can take months and is such a big commitment that he only likes to take positive roles, ones that will challenge his acting or give a positive message to people, he quoted alot of reviews from everyday people about his success in Ipman, and about how he doesn't want to have to explain to his kids (if he played a bad guy) why he killed that guy for no reason. He stressed the point about having positive impact on people since he cant change the world by himself but maybe his films can inspire the right people to make the right choices. Was really cool.

 

He answered other questions, like he was offered Expendables twice but the parts were small and again he wanted to do something positive but he was open to do one if it was right (similar to Jackie Chan I think, where you don't want little cameo's if you have fans lining up to see it). Someone asked who of all the onscreen fighters hes worked with was the hardest, he said it was like music and everyone brings something differently, but Jet Li in his opinion was one of the hardest as Jet Li was so quick and in Once upon a time in china he was so quick with the pole, he said Jackie brought something interesting and yeah, there were a lot of laughs through out the session. One man asked in Chinese to show us some moves so Donnie did a little something which was fun. After that we wrapped up and the signing/photo session started.

 

The line was huge but eventually we got our turn, I shook hands with him and told him thanks for his films as they've been a huge inspiration to me, he said thanks for my support, I got him to sign the slip and he also signed my flashpoint cover which was awesome! 

 

This was the first film I had seen of his on the plane ride to Philippines maybe 7-8 years ago before being hooked and seeking everything the guy had made. Then I asked him if we could do a fighting pose and he smiled and said sure, I got the guy to take our photo with my phone then I shook Donnie's hand and said thanks again and that was that. I was so pumped. Wow. what a year, seen my hero growing up Eminem live in concert and now I've shook hands and struck a fighting pose with my hero leading me into adulthood and this acting path I've chosen. I'll never forget this day. And Now I have a photo to prove it :)

A big shoutout and thanks to Donnie for visiting Auckland and meeting your fans here! :)
 (I was going to be serious in this pic but I was so happy I couldn't, awesome day)

and Donnie with melody :)

Great photo they took with Donnie+fans :) Me and Melody in Middle at back, I'm in a white hoodie lol,