UPDATES: "Fist of A Dragon" Film Shoot Day #9

Date: Friday, 11 Jan, 2013
Time: 7.30pm

It's day #10 and after countless number of schedule changes, my character scene of maid undercover assassin chick has finally been called to shoot as other scenes are postponed till another date.

It started out quite lightly with some cruisey light exercise before being hurled in the deep end with some 2nd unit directing for "Enlai (Xin Sarith Wuku) vs Damon (Josh Thomson).

My partner, Trung Ly did his best with camera operation as well as fight choreography but still it was a hard call to marry the two: selling the hits and logical reactions as well as sticking to the tight deadline of completing an epic fight scene for this Roger Corman flick-to-be.

I totally get what Antony Szeto was on about when it comes to action. He did drill it in me to ask myself the question: if somebody out there was to watch an action movie frame-by-frame, will they spot any flaws? And if so, am I willing to risk it being immortalised on a Corman flick?

But it is even more frustrating when you begin to average 1-2 shots per hour and over 20 takes the least.

So if time was reversed, what could have been done?

My answer: Pre-production.

Pre-Production is pretty much all the preparation needed before film shoot begins. You can never have too much of this stage, however, most projects skim past this.

And I did wish we had the luxury such as the Indonesian action flick "The Raid", which has a nice 3 months or so just for fight choreography and training.

I guess due to the very late nature of this project being green lit in November and then it was a rush to find the cast and lock in everything, there was no time for rehearsals and most vital; fight training.

Anyhow, back to reality, after 1 hour in make up it is my turn to interpret this character of mine as she eavesdrop onto Damon's conversation with Meili.

There's a part of me feeling the sampanness (if that's even a word) of the unusual studio system of Ace Studios; not to mention an array of loud and colourful characters, I rest assured that my drag queen killer make up and dead(Ly) sense of style, it will be under the scrutizing eye of Roger Corman.

...and that's still pretty cool.

More lame lovo pics of me below:

DAY #5 "Fist of A Dragon" Roger Corman Film Shoot

2012 was a crazy learning curve year, but the opening of 2013 started off with a Big Bang!

Crew on set and sleeping

Instead of counting down for the new year, I saw myself in a desolated part of Nanhai, Guangzhou and sleeping at 11.30pm for our first day of shoot on the 1 Jan at a freezing 5.45am. It seems like only in China this happens but the excitement is that we are doing a Roger Corman film. The hours are long (12+ hours), 7 days a week for 5-6 weeks, but hey, the amount of international talent we got on board this project makes it a gem to be on.

Roger Corman 

So lets back track a bit. Who is Roger Corman? I've never heard of him before but wiki tells me
that he is one of Hollywood's greatest, the father of B grade films, almost 90 years old, and now is making films in China.

I believe the ripple effect in life and how your decisions made before can be a chain reaction to the things you have today.

The predecessors to why I'm here is due to a lot of hard work and at specific decisions.

It all started with Maximum Choppage in 2005, an accolade of short films of various genres, employment as a digital media/ acting facilitator, researcher on one of Australia's largest documentary series "Once Upon A Time in Cabramatta", working on more shorts such as "Enter The Dojo" and "Gaffa" and now working with long time friend, Antony Szeto (director of Jackie Chan produced film "Wushu").

Maria Tran running action acting workshop

I apologise for the list, but it is also a reminder for me that no one gets there as a one hit wonder. Very rarely and it is a series of choices and learning made on the way.

So what am I doing on this international project? Firstly it was more so as part of the fight choreography team (Dong Tam Martial Arts Association) alongside with Trung Ly and his student, Joshua Tieu.

Then as Ms Juju Chan evolved to her leading lady role of Meili, I was offered the role of bad ass character Zhen.

20 hour shoot

Zhen is a run down assassin who has a specialty using twin rainbow knives to defeat her assigned opponent Damon (played by leading man MMA world champion fighter Josh Thomson) to retrieve some drugged up mooncakes.

Early mornings

Zhen is part of a bunch of bad ass baddies including Enlai (played by the infamous Xin Sarith Wuku who you tubers may know him for his "Urban Ninja" clips. Then there's Sin (played by Christopher Pang who is from movies such as "Tomorrow When The War Began" and "I Frankenstein") and Thorn (played by melbourne-based Daniel Whyte).

Stuntpeople speaking, we have Joshua Tieu who is playing almost 101 roles and also J Cheung.

Test shoot

Day # 1 was literally a Big Bang with a petrol station explosion and an intro fight scene featuring Hong Kong stuntie Andrew Dasz vs the bad ass character Enlai.

Day #3 & #4 was at the Imperial Palace CCTV studios with gunfights, martial arts tussles and high falls.

Day #5 was Chris vs Josh fight scene.

You get the drill, will update you more soon.