Your new movie The
Monk and the Samurai - in a few words, what is it about?
It is the battle within that all men must face sooner or later. There
is no stopping the inevitable chaos that is life, but we can choose
how to face it. From
what I know, The Monk
and the Samurai is based on an actual martial arts legend - so
what can you tell us about your source material, how did you happen upon
it, and how close did you stick to the legend?
In truth it is an original legend. In many forms across many Asian
cultures comes the old story of a warrior, generally in Asian culture
whom approaches a wise old hermit or monk pleading with him to share
his mastery over self control in order to reach a higher state of
being as the physical martial way is limited realised only in our
later lives as practitioners of the arts. This in itself was the seed
to which our story was birthed. From there my main character the
Samurai grew as each paragraph unfolded he became depressed, enraged,
he fell in love, he won great victories and rose above the status of
the emperor himself, he lost his best friends and built his own army,
he defeated not one but many dragons, it seemed as though the words
flowed there wasn’t enough that I could conjure as a writer to break
his spirit - I tried, but even I, the writer, was unable to break the
Samurai. He himself allowed the story to unfold and in that I can say
it is rather original or so I felt as I wrote it/him. Other
sources of inspiration when writing The
Monk and the Samurai?
My teacher, Keith Blackburn, who passed away and left me with the
lesson that we are our own masters after all. My team, they don’t
give up - the real ones, the tough bastards, they are all Samurai and
few of them monks. There’s always a little Quentin Tarantino in
anything I shoot or edit, even the way I display my titles or choose
them. Every mountain I’ve climbed all over China, every traditional
painting of any dragon, every teacher I’ve ever learned from,
there’s a bit of all of it deep within this story. I told my wife
long ago when I outlive her I will build a statue of her in our
garden. I am a large fan of Jocko Willink’s writing style - his book
Mikey and the Dragons was a major influence and helped push me
to write my first book in the same way. The
Monk and the Samurai was
intended to be a volume of 6 short poems that can be read to children
before bed or enjoyed by martial artists of any age containing
life’s lessons told through simple narrative. My team told me they
enjoyed The
Monk and the Samurai too much and that it must be turned
into a short film, so here we are.
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Do talk about The
Monk and the Samurai's very specific, stylized look for a bit!
The original intent was for it to be a book without moving images. I’m
a huge fan of Diablo and we took the Diablo 3 cinematic trailers for
their character introductions as well as the beginning of Kung Fu Panda
3. We felt by mixing them and shooting for that similar look would fit
our Asian setting. I wanted something that looked like paper as it was
intended to be a book at first and I felt if the viewer was seeing still
images mixed in with ink that was coming to life at times, they would
submit to the calm and soothing memories of what it was like to be a
child and have a story read to them. Vladimir Ershov and Hristofor
Yedigarov, two of our chief artists and editors, pushed it to be what it
finally is, they took my vision and made it better because that's what we
do, make each other better - also a thene which is deep within our story
itself.
We are in an exciting time where visual and audible media reach more
people than the written word ever can or ever has. I believe the
delivery can be enhanced by engaging the individual psychologically and
creating a moving picture book. This fantastically creative way allowed
me to still ‘write my first book’ without completely loosing it to
film yet still achieve a bridge between the two mediums. What
can you tell us about the action in your movie, and how was it achieved?
The action was simple, my guys dressed up punched, sliced and cut at
each other. We filmed the bts live for our Instagram viewers for one
of the shoots, so if you logged on at that moment you would have seen
everything. Usually things were achieved in one or two takes. We
didn’t put much care or effort into it, the visuals were shot
usually In front of a green screen in our studio and we rushed at
times because this was a 0 dollar budget product and we made it in our
spare time between actual projects and studio responsibilities - thank
god for our mighty studio executive and mentor John Dietz for trusting
us that we are either learning, creating or using studio hours wisely.
Largely it was achieved on his supportive good will and masterful
leadership standards.
A
few words about your overall directorial approach to your story at hand?
What’s important for me is that when I read the story out to my team
they all stood quietly and were engaged from the beginning until the
end, then I tried it on a few others. From there I knew it can impact
someone somewhere if my trusted and brutally honest friends were
entertained, this was before any moving images were considered or a
final art style.
As I wrote the bedtime story there were some moments and images I
simply could not do with out. Images of the Samurai dragging a demon
by the next to his final moments. Facing armies, the image of his
father holding him after not seeing him for some 20+ years. I let the
emotion guide my visuals - regarding the physicality of the Samurai,
that too was important. He has to be sure of himself, well balanced,
his movements must be precise and they must act as a dichotomy to his
undecided and shaken spirit. Do
talk about The Monk and the Samurai's key cast, and why exactly these people?
All of the moving figures in the film are all of my guys, and for me
there is no one more important than the next. We all performed, we all
shot, most of us edited, I allowed my guys to even take complete
direction and control over visual FX. They are all my stars and key
cast and since the beginning of our operations I have always
instructed that being in front of the camera doesn’t make you
central to any project, understanding as much of every department
makes you key. However the voice-over artists behind the scenes in
this volume is our very own bastard John Shang. He’s also the
Samurai throughout various moments of the film as well as the demon Oni who strikes down the mother haha - so he truly is at the very
center of this project in many ways. What can you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
We’re martial artists, we laugh louder than anyone else - we swear
more than sailors and we listen to rap music whilst we swing swords
and shoot through sequences. We were stripping down in the middle of
the studio and suiting up like demons and samurais. We were firing
bows and arrows and dragging each other around by the neck. We are a
bunch of foreigners in Beijing working in a China Hollywood studio
whereby 90% of our staff are Chinese. They love the way we work,
there’s always a huge support from that end and we don’t stop
having fun with them. I feel guilty saying so but perhaps we are over-privileged and too free, perhaps we create that energy and therefore
deserve it - who knows… That is our life and we are so fortunate for
it all, huge thanks again to Mr. Dietz our mentor and fearless leader.
The
$64-question of course, where can The
Monk and the Samurai be seen?
For now, it’s in film festival submission. We will withhold it for
sometime until it wins a few awards - if we don’t sell it to an
online platform we’ll simply upload it to our YouTube channel Troys Team! Stay tuned! Anything you can
tell us about audience and critical reception of The
Monk and the Samurai?
So far so good, the reviews are just starting to come in. For the most
part the language was targeted for ageing children, teens as well as
martial art fans or even grown men and women facing their own struggles.
I am always on the lookout for good hard honest feedback, we will repost
any such review good or bad on our platforms, all feedback is good
feedback! I’m anxious and excited to see how our short does against
competitors around the globe. Any future projects you'd like to share?
We’re always working on new things. This is volume one with five
more short martial art stories on the way set in different universes.
We shall be launching our online training courses for all things
martial arts this coming year. As I have read, you have come into
filmmaking via martial arts - so do talk about your path for a bit!
I was certainly a young actor in Sydney, Australia before becoming a
full time martial artist. I did however shoot my first feature length
skateboard film before leaving high school. This gave birth to my
interest in capturing live action. Story telling was also something
deep within my interests. When I began training martial arts shortly
after leaving high school, I felt combining everything was the sweet
spot for me. I submitted to a famous film school in Australia and was
turned down - I decided to use my body whilst I was young and travel
Asia mastering my martial art. Based in Beijing, China I have been in
close proximity to local martial art epic films, and my filmmaking path
led me to Mr. Dietz, our studio CEO. During this time I developed my
action team. We now work for him side by side as well as develop our
own projects simply out of the love for storytelling. We maintain the
martial arts as our key identity and way of life. We are so very
fortunate and grateful.
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What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to The
Monk and the Samurai?
My resume can be found on IMDb. I did some low key commercials in
Australia, left for China. Focused mostly on my training and hopped
onto set here and there. I surgically aimed for the bigger title
projects to ensure I could keep my training focused. I’ve produced
and directed car commercials, won some film awards here and there in other
people's projects as well as our own. I’ve built many performers in
China and assisted them in developing their careers as well as running
China's only standing foreign action team. We’ve worked on titles
such as Kung Fury 2, Ip Man 4 as well as various Jackie Chan projects
etc. - some of my guys have starred in or taken part in/performed
action in some of China’s highest grossing films of all time. For me,
I’m not as established in front of the camera as my guys are - I
just take the simple pleasure in being a part of their stories and I
try my best to work hard for them and bring new projects or
opportunities to the table so as to enrich our lives. I try to work
hard to give my boss back more than he gives or has ever given me - I
still fail daily as he has given us so much, but I never give up and I
never will. You of course also have to
talk about your company, Troy's
Team, and the philosophy behind it! All credit to god, no glory to us. The martial arts is our journey
with no end. Come get some. How would you describe yourself as a director?
A jack of all trades, master of nothing. Filmmakers who inspire you?
Tarantino, my boss John Dietz, my right hand man Vladamir Ershov,
James Cameron, George Lucas, Yuen Woo-Ping, Ryan Reynolds, Ridley
Scott, Chad Staheleski, Robert Rodriguez, Chris Nolan, Spielberg,
Kubrick, Walt Disney is a HUGE influence, Bruce Lee, Jet Li. Your favourite movies?
Gosh, it’s so difficult. Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan,
The Matrix, Beauty and the Beast, My
Sweet November, Django Unchained, Kill
Bill, Aliens, Star Wars (ALL OF
THEM, although I have my own critique, I still know when to bend the
knee and they all deserve respect), Predator,
Enter the Dragon,
Lord
of the Rings, Kiss of the Dragon, La Professional, the list goes on. I
like character films, movies that are about people. ...
and of course, films you really deplore?
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Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
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Senseless, grotesque, overly sexualised and vulgar films with little to no meaning which supply immediate gratification and null the senses,
films which fail to expand the human condition or lift it up. Your/your
movie's website, social media, whatever else? Find us on YouTube TroysTeam or Instagram @troysteam
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Not at all sir, I hope you don’t mind my extensive answers. Thanks for the interview!
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