At Comic-Con 2008 we were fortunate to meet Victoria Erica of Geek FM Radio, who interviewed me about The Stunt People and what we’re all about. The Geek FM Radio site is dedicated to geek stuff I guess, and we fit that nicely. So have a listen below, and don’t forget to check out their site for more audio-casts of nerds like us. Our interview is about half-way through the recording.
Micah Brock’s short film “Johnny Owes”, featuring Dennis Ruel of The Stunt People, recently won the Action on Film Festival’s “Best Fight Choreography (short)” award. Micah’s hard-hitting style of choreography is reminiscent of Tony Jaa’s in “Ong Bak” and “The Protector” and undoubtedly made an impact on the judges when they handed down their decisions. The small-res version is embedded below, but Brock recommends the high definition download since it was shot in HD.
I swear, if it weren’t for Shaun Finney, we wouldn’t have regular updates on the SP site. He keeps on working! When we oldies (Chelsea, Nathan, Amberly, Ray, and myself) worked the booth at Comic-Con this year, we’d go home and rest our dogs, but Shaun went out and filmed afterward! His latest is a comedy with some good ‘ol space-time continuum jokes with Jay Huerto of Jabronie Pictures and Shaun Charney.
This was mostly just a pickup day where we shot some coverage of the dialogue and fight scene. We showed up at eight and had a quick dinner, which was awesome as usual, and jumped right into shooting. On one take, Saif was on the ground with the camera at the same level, and he was screaming for most of the take, and afterward started crawling toward the cameraman trying to lick the lens. He’s a funny guy.
We also had the chance to talk to the cameraman/cinematographer, who had worked as a stuntman in Bollywood films. He had some great safety lessons he learned the hard way back home. The shoot finished at 12:30 AM, much earlier than the previous night which ended at 4:30 AM. Only two photos this time, but at least you get a glimpse of Jackie Do beating on Saif Ali Khan The shoot was awesome and it definitely made an impression on all of us.
John Soares and Doug TenNaple (of Earthworm Jim) have made public their latest foray into insane internet filmmaking with Sockbaby 4 (SockB4by), with guest stars Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite and Doug Jones of Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy 2. Keep an eye out for SP member Shaun Finney doing all the big stunts.
I was referred to the Swish film production company by a Lucas-something (if you’re out there, let me know so I can thank you! I forgot the name!), and they were busy preparing to shoot a big-budget Bollywood film in San Francisco. I was called in to do the fight choreography, and Dennis Ruel and Jackie Do were cast as a couple thugs (Santos and Lai) who beat up the star of the film, Saif Ali Khan.
Call us ignorant Americans, but we had no idea who Saif Ali Khan was until we looked him up on IMDB, and holy… the guy’s famous, and we’re working with him on a 35mm project. It’s been a huge honor. Saif (apparently he also goes by Saifu) is super nice and did all his own stunts and was courteous to us when it came to the choreography. Later in the night his girlfriend Kareena Kapoor showed up on location, and I looked her up on IMDB. Okay, they’re both huge. She left after a couple hours but not before we grabbed some photos with the “Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of Bollywood.” Other Hindi actors on location were gushing over the fact that two of Bollywood’s biggest stars were sitting 10 feet from us.
The scene is less a fight scene and more a brutalizing of Saif’s character. I can’t dispell any more than that, and I can’t promise these photos will stay up, but everyone in the production has been super cool. Once I get the title of the project I’ll post it right here.