It's a boy, it's a girl, it's a...website?

So...many of you may have seen the good old Asylum Stunts webpage. Brr....that is brutal. Just thinking about it makes me uncomfortable. But, no one really wanted to get ankle deep into that mother, mostly because html was tough, and time is money, and everyone who had every worked on the website had moved, disappeared, or gotten deported.

But me, being the brave soldier that I am, stepped forward and moved ahead. I found out that google has developed a wysiwyg web editor at http://sites.google.com - if you have a gmail account or another google service, you can log into google sites and create webpages based on their basic templates. The nifty thing is that you can link not only to whatever pages out on the web, but you can also link to all of google's varied services; picasa for pictures, youtube for videos, google maps for directions, docs, calendar, even blogger; Google has a wealth of web applications to beef up your basic webpage.

Now, it's not polished, but I have reorganized all of the existing content, and added a little bit of my own, so now...we have the official unveiling of...the revamped Asylum Stunts Website. So far so good. I haven't been deported or abducted...but there is that other pending matter.

In any event, poke around the website, and drop the webmaster(me) a line with corrections and suggestions as to what I could be doing or fixing or making better. And why not take a look at this handsome fellow.

New Test Fight

I've not posted in awhile because I've been struggling. It's been a cold year for the film biz. It's the economy, stupid! It's allowed me to take a certain amount of liberty to train and work, and I put together another test fight, just to see where I'm at.



A lot of people like it, and I think that I've come a long way in putting together functional choreography, and I plotted out a decent portion of the angles that I wanted to use for this fight as well. It helps, as always, to have the ever impressive Emmanuel Manzanares manning the camera, but I'm starting to feel like I can be more than just a performer.

I've got some more things on the burner. Catch you in a few weeks.

Hard at Work

So, I've been working, hustling, working and working. Plenty of times I've done stuff, but nothing paying off yet. I still have to hustle gigs and day work, but everything seems so much closer now. I feel like I'm really really close. Of course, I still need to do better, and to break into some big contacts, but it feels like things are ripe for the plucking - mostly due to the fact that Emmanuel Manzanares of Lazy Brown Productions was kind enough to make demo reels of myself, Shawn Bernal and Keith Min.

Looking at it, it's kind of surprising for me. I've been doing stunts for about 5 years now, and I never REALLY felt like I was doing anything that noticeable or spectacular. But I feel like I've really been doing things when I look at this. And a variety of different things no less.

Which is not to say that I can't improve, or make new and better and different things to give myself more options - I fully intend to do as such. Looking at these reels, I'm pleased, but I also see all of the holes in them - the gaps where things need to look better or different.

However, I don't feel like this is futile - like I can't make something happen for myself. Right now, I feel like it's all a matter of taking the effort and making the time.

But take a look at the reel and judge for yourself.

Editing and posting Video online

I'm editing stuff for myself. Well, for myself and others, but still...editing on my own.

And why is that you ask? Well, guess what? Working in Chicago, there's no plethora of work available for you - you're either a successful actor or not - agent or no. Now, there's varying levels of success, but as someone who's strength is not in pure acting, I need to do what a lot of beginner level stuntmen have done and are doing - promote myself, and produce my own videos and content.

I'm not gonna say that it's necessarily easy, but I've had help - some good people to show me the ropes and the basics, make suggestions and offer critique - I almost feel like it's too easy - that is, until I try uploading videos on different places online. Youtube worked well. Almost excessively well I want to say - but that's google for you - they run a good show. Facebook? You'd think that facebook would be as valuable, if not more valuable with the contacts and networking implicit to it. But no, for whatever reasons, various people, including myself are having a dickens of a time uploading stuff there. Not sure if it's technical incompatibility, some doofus move on my part, or the fact that a site that big wants to limit storage space and bandwidth. Generally, it seems like users are having a harder time working with larger files - and with raw AVIs, that's what a lot of people are going with - mostly, because it makes a HUGE difference in the video quality.

Still...maybe have to do some compressing. I just hope it doesn't end up looking like the low qual version on youtube.

Nonetheless, I just finished putting together a demo clip from footage compiled at asylum stunts.

Hope you like it!

The Beginning

I've been training stunts for about...5 years now, and I've had some work, some breaks, and luckily never broken anything. Now I'm working towards getting work consistantly, having stunts be a career more than a hobby, and gettign more chances to do these things that I love.

I find myself with one major problem. What I often find is that I have no control over the look of what I do - someone else is often shooting, and I don't necessarily like how action turns out when someone who's not familiar with action shoots it. So often you get music video hodge-podge or Bourne-style disorienting flashes. What I want to start working towards is creating some work on my own - expanding my skills in the area of action direction.

Don't get me wrong - I still want to better my stuntman self, but I can't help but want to improve the look of these hits, falls and strikes that I've worked so hard to develop.

Innate of this - I put together some choreography with the good people at Asylum Stunts and figured out some angles. Then, the good people of Lazy Brown Productions helped me edit up the material. Here's what came out. Watch in high quality!