Actionfilmartistes

AFA was …

actionfilmartistes — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 16:38:05 +0000

As the title suggests, we’ve been to a few places. It’s been a very fruitful past few months for the whole lot of us. We’ve managed to get a lot more organized, established a sense of professional practice and made good connections with our fellows peers in the media industry. Here’s a quick glimpse of what’s been on our plate.27th August 2010

Cubik’s Gala Premiere

Val’s friend and fellow NYU Tisch alumni Stefan Fanthome made a film titled Cubik. It’s travelled the world and won numerous awards overseas including some in Hollywood! Finally, Cubik has made it back to Singapore. Immerse yourself in the world of Cubik here : cubikthemovie.com.

Cathay's hall getting ready for CUBIK!

The Gala itself was extremely entertaining with a martial arts demonstration, elegantly sexy catwalk fashion show and to top it off a very exciting auction at the end.

The thing that made this gala very different from the others was mainly the logistics involved. It was held on a friday night, which meant that almost all the invited guests could make it thus ensuring a full house during the screening. Secondly, having booked out SILK a brand new club in orchard for the event made a lot of audience members including ourselves feel special and it added a touch of exclusiveness.

For the team at AFA, the whole event proved to be a night of new connections and also the start of something big.

At the after party at the posh SILK club a surprise birthday celebration was thrown for Val. Talk about double whammy. Poor guy had to drink. A lot. Amidst the fun and laughter, Daniel Milton brought up his idea to Stefan, who according to Daniel would love to sit and talk more about it’s development! Voila! A sign of greater things to come.

9th September 2010

Launch 2

thelaunchblock.com

Singapore’s premiere networking mixer for creatives in the media industry. For Val this was his second time attending Launch. But for Daniel Milton it was his first. Launch 2 was so much better than the first one for a few reasons.

1) It was held on the eve of a public holiday

2) It was held in a much bigger club , Forbidden city

3) It focused a lot more on the networking

The AFA boys had a blast having drinks, cracking jokes and even dropping hints on their latest in house production which got a lot of tongues wagging. It’s just our way of being a tease But in all seriousness we made valuable new contacts who share the same passion as us. With that being said and done, the night ended off with an after party at the venue which further escalated to the club next door which so happen to be Attica.

Now that the smoke has settled, we’re back in the dojo training, conceptualizing and doing a lot of planning for our up and coming short.

Get ready for our knock out punch people!

Coming soon …

actionfilmartistes — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 09:19:50 +0000

AFA has grown and seen some great changes in the past few months. With the home coming of Daniel Milton, the premiere of Steadfast we’re seeing more projects coming along our way.

Having been in this business for awhile and having a dynamic team with varied disciplines both artistic and technical in the team, we’re looking to pushing the envelope with our skills and know how.

The chance to work with other talented and creative individuals over the span of numerous projects have given us better insight to the flow and intricacies of what makes a good story. We’re excited to announce that AFA is working on our way in house project.

That’s right, written, produced, directed and starring us in it, from conceptualization to completion we’re taking the helm in the form of a short action thriller piece . We’re aiming to leave a mark and set the bar once again to what action and film making in Singapore can be about. Check this space for regular updates.

A nutshellreview checks out steadfast.

actionfilmartistes — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:02:11 +0000

A nutshellreview, Singapore’s #1 movie review blog covers Dilated from FPS UCLA and Steadfast from FPS Singapore.

Here’s what they have to say : NutshellReview doublebill

PS : Much thanks for putting the AFA link up too, you guys rock! Keep up the hard and good work guys!

Workshop with Byung Gil Jung of Action Boys

actionfilmartistes — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:38:59 +0000

It is not everyday that you get to wake up to an invitation to help co-facilitate a workshop with an international action director and ex korean stuntman. The boys at AFA were lucky and blessed to have been given that chance, find out what they thought.

EDWIN: It was an eye opener working with Korean director Byung Gil. We had a mini exchange session about the differences in styles between locally and Korea. Learnt quite a bit of stuff from the interaction. Stuff on how to make things look more realistic while minimizing the impact to the fellow actors. Coming from a martial arts background, I was ingrained in making my punches crisp and compact. However, for the sake of films, movements have to be exaggerated and loose. Learnt from Byung Gil a couple of drills on how to loosen up before a fight scene. Besides learning from him, I got to help out and teach too. Knowing and teaching is two totally different things. Overall it was an enriching and fun experience.

Edwin leading the warmup

RAY: It was very surreal working with the Korean director Byung Gil, at the stunt workshop. Edwin, Val and myself were invited as co facilitators of the workshop. It was some sort of exchange program and Val and I worked out a simple fight sequence to show the other attendees. Edwin was the main choreographer for this.I feel that this workshop was very useful and I’m surprise at the amount of students who attended the workshop! A lot of them were very much into action films.

I learnt a lot from Byung Gil and it has helped strengthen my basic skill and made me more knowledgeable about the world of stunts and action films.

Ray assisting the warmup

VAL: I’m all for improvement and growth. This opportunity that we were so blessed to be given by Sunny Pang was exactly about improvement and growth. Language barriers aside, watching how the korean stunt people train and work professionally is inspiring and at the same time very scary.

I remember a scene from ACTION BOYS where a guy had to fall off from a height of two stories onto just a table. I could sense the pain and clearly the performer was in a state of constant fear. Fear is after all an enemy as well as a foe. But the thing that caught my attention was his professionalism and willingness to go all out for it. Even though he showed fear, he was discipline enough to calm himself down and execute the stunt, throwing in added emotions after the impact itself just to sell the shot!

During the workshop with the korean action director, I learnt a lot about movement and also my own personal flaws when it came to flow and technique. All these years after performing and doing live shows I thought I was a decent on-screen fighter. However after trying out some new improvements to the way I would swing for a punch, I realized my mobility in my hip was extremely limited and that made my punch look fake.

As tiny as this flaw may seem, it actually is important in the long run because this small little part activates a bigger mechanism; namely my own body. I’m naturally a pretty impatient person, but this experience has taught me a lot in terms of on-screen fighting and performance. There is indeed a lot more to learn and the process is ever evolving.

Overall, I did enjoy the one day workshop and found it very enriching. Special thanks to the people at SMU for making it happen. Sunny Pang for allowing me to go through this experience and not forgetting korean action director Byung Gil.

Group shot with Byung Gil Jung in light blue

AFA, makes a historical impact!

actionfilmartistes — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:49:12 +0000

Who would have thought that playing make-believe would get us this far! Lets be honest here, the first thing your parents would do when you mention that you want to be in movies when you grow up would be to either smack you real hard to get some sense through your thick skull or, just ignore you. We at AFA were not spared from this treatment either, however there was something that made us hold on tightly to our dreams.On July 6th 2010, Steadfast was shown at the Cathay in Singapore. This was indeed a good platform for independent local action films to be recognized by the commercial market. Steadfast, was made under very very tight constraints. With a measly budget and make shift props, the two directors Linus Chen and David Liu braved the odds and created a one of a kind Singaporean made action film. To find out more about steadfast click here : Steadfast film.

We at AFA are proud to have been chosen to work with this amazing team of passionate individuals to create a new milestone in the history of Singapore cinema. AFA played a vital role in training up the two actors for their 10 MINUTE FIGHT and choreographing the movements. We spent a total of 2 months training the two actors and planning out the routine with them. Even though they were not professional actors, their passion and enthusiasm inspired us to help them to push past their own personal boundaries. And push past them they did. Bare in mind that, between the two actors only one of them was trained in judo whilst the other one had no martial art experience what so ever. There were a lot of bruises, bumps and the occasional cut lip but overall everyone enjoyed themselves and there was a good sense of camaraderie between our team and the two actors. So much so that the actor who has never trained in martial arts, went on to train in Muay Thai as he claimed that we inspired him to get into shape and train!

Here’s a short sample during one of their practice sessions. A longer one is being compiled so watch for it!

On set with JD chua

actionfilmartistes — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:40:03 +0000

When I met JD, I was under the impression it would be a simple shot. Basically a simple act of running around while being chased. However, it seems that there was more than it meets the eye. I was doing a simple cop chasing thief across the road scene, where a car is supposed to go by after I dashed across the road. All was well in the first few takes.Then came this fateful take, where I checked the road was clear and dashed out onto the road.

Next thing I know, to my left, a car was speeding towards me. I knew for sure I was going to get hit but how was I to lessen the damage. Counting on my martial arts background for my quick thinking and reflexes, I decided to take the hit and slide under the car. It was nothing short of a miracle. I escaped unscathed except but a couple of cuts and bruises. In fact, I was able to run after that.

Working with JD was an enjoyable experience. He knew what he wanted and gave me the freedom to express myself. Also, he was pretty concerned when I got knocked down by the car. It isn’t everyday that you get to work with a good director. Getting knocked down by a car was an experience in itself too. Not exactly what I expected for being an action choreographer, but it’s this kind of experiences that make us grow as a person. Safety sure will be a concern to take note of in future.

Edwin