2009
In 2009 I had quit my job as a produce distribution storeman and I was working as a Self defence consultant, doing door to door sales selling karate memberships. Here's a pic of me at a competition.
It was during this time that I realized that I still loved martial arts movies (Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen), I grew up watching wrestling (Bret hart was my hero) and Jackie chan films but grew out of it a little near the end of high school, after following the music business so closely, I was such a stan, a big big eminem fan, I still am, but I was into everything hiphop and doing all I could to get into the local scene, however my shyness and lack of funds really held me back. Anyway, after doing this job I felt in my heart that I could do martial arts if I really wanted to, not just as a teacher, but as an actor on the big screen. Having already tasted a moderate success with All the time in the world, I decided that I would become an action star by doing it the kiwi way, D.I.Y (Do it yourself). I figured by making my own short films I could learn from my inevitable mistakes and also come with grand ideas of the future.
First up in 2009 though we entered the V48 hours film festival again, this time it was a little bit more planned out, sharing the duites of directing and writing amongst us (as I had a soccer game halfway through the shoot) unfortunately we drew 'Educational film' as our genre which sucked but we made something out of it anyway, check out our bad boy cops below :)
Delta Force (2009)
It was also around this time I discovered The Stuntpeople, an inspiring american group who had already made successful short action films with no budget and tons of creativity and shared it with others on an independent action film online forum. It proved to me you didn't have to be asian to rock at HK action film making. So, I started out with 2 close friends of mine by shooting 2 short films in the same weekend, Unprofessional and Gamblers.
Gamblers (2009)
Gamblers was a simple film to try figure out how to shoot fights, the story was simple enough, a guy is playing basketball at a local park when a scam artist makes a bet that he can beat the guy, and pretends he sucks so it's an easy gamble. However, things get out of control at the end. It was a breeze to shoot as I shot it with one of my best friends, the only hitch being that there was no hoop, so I had to work it into the story somehow. I have no idea why someone would still a rim but hey, it was hornby. I learnt after sharing this film about the 180 degree rule and to cut on action, otherwise its quite static like you can see for yourself :)
Making of Gamblers (2009)
Unprofessional (2009)
Unprofessional was shot with my other Best friend and was more of a acting test as he wasn't as physical, I learnt alot about cutting between characters and timing. It was pretty cool, we shot these on the same day so it turned out OK, but these 2 films were definately big building blocks for my outlook on film making...
Making of Unprofessional (2009)
So that was that for 2009. I quit that Sales job at the end of August and started my new job behind the counter at a local (well, across the city to be honest) Video store. I also started work on my short film Credibility, which I didn't finish until 2010, and that's where everything clicked and started to really come together...
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