FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CRUMP SET TO STAR IN PINKAEW’S NEW FILM

Bangkok, Thailand – November 8th 2009 – Well known American martial artist Marrese Crump has been confirmed to be in talks with action director Prachya Pinkaew to star in his next film. The news was announced through a video that was released on YouTube outlining not only Crump as starring, but Yanin “Jeeja” Vismitananda (Chocolate, Raging Phoenix) as well. Crump, known for his wide range of exceptional martial arts skill, has said to be very excited about working with Pinkaew and Yanin as well as Panna Rittikrai.

“After meeting with Prachya and his team in Thailand, we are all confident that we will be making a quality film that both fans and martial arts practitioners alike will appreciate and be proud of.” says Marrese after returning from Baa Ram Ewe Studios in Bangkok.

Prachya, most notable for Ong Bak: Thai Warrior and Tom Yum Goong (aka The Protector), is well known for incorporating intricate fight scenes and cutting edge cinematography into his films, ranking them at the top of martial artists’ favorites worldwide.

The collaboration is said to be unprecedented as Prachya’s productions have done well to showcase the talents of fellow Thai’s, but has never starred an American martial artist before. Some of the specifics have yet to be released, but production is slated to take place in Thailand early next year.

Promo Teaser on YouTube:

Video of Crump working with Ong Bak Stunt Team:

So there’s this contest called the National Film Challenge. It’s where the craziest filmmakers (you have to be nuts to subject yourself to this) sign up to write, shoot, edit and submit a short film in less than 72 hours. So when I was presented with an opportunity to be part of a team, I said “Sure, why not?”

I signed on as the Director of Photography and as one of the producers alongside John Jones (director) and Jeff Zampino. I honestly can’t remember the last time I laughed so much on set. In all it’s craziness (including holding up the Tampa Fedex Shipping Station while we were burning the copy of our movie in their parking lot so we could get it in on time), I had a blast and can’t wait to do it again. Here’s the whole movie:

The opening sequence to my latest film, Hashishin. In this video (In order of appearance): Heather Saint-Noel, Abraham Hamdaoui, Kalil Hamdaoui, Ed Muquit. Also starring Sarah Zaitouni, Abdul Mahjoubi & Nick Naylor. Written, Produced & Directed by Anesti Vega. Cinematography by John Jones. Edited by Jeff Hillyer.

Synopsis:
Little is known about the Arabic secret society known as the Hashishin. But for Hasan al-Nassir, it will soon become his life. His father told him the tales of the assassin cult fighting the Crusaders, but never mentioned to him the legacy that is his family. Now, with the passing of his father, Hasans destiny is revealed and he must embrace it or face death.

My latest film, Hashishin, will be premiering Friday October 30th @ 7PM at the Art Institute of Tampa. More info, including the poster for the film and the synopsis is below! Hope to see everyone there!

Tampa Film October Event @ The Art Institute

Synopsis:
Little is known about the Arabic secret society known as the Hashishin. But for Hasan al-Nassir, it will soon become his life. His father told him the tales of the assassin cult fighting the Crusaders, but never mentioned to him the legacy that is his family. Now, with the passing of his father, Hasan’s destiny is revealed and he must embrace it or face death.

Action & Fitness Magazine recently did a feature on Marrese Crump and his philosophies on the martial arts in their June 2009 issue! It covered a brief history of Marrese’s training and his accolades and featured my photography in the article! Enjoy!

The official Elamintal Multimedia YouTube Channel has now reached one million hits on its videos! Elamintal Multimedia is my company that offers a wide range of media services including film and video production.

The YouTube channel was originally created to have a place to put the promotional videos I started editing and eventually producing for renowned martial artist Marrese Crump.  We put out the first few videos with good success and exploded when we put out Crump Workout. Once we released the videos with our friend Dave Batista, it was a wrap.

What’s really cool as well is that only 4 videos account for the one million hits. We had released a few more at one point, which would have had us over the one million mark a few months ago, but some of them were made private for a few different reasons. There are lots of other projects I’ve produced over the years and are on the clients’ channels or not published on YouTube, including my directorial debut of a short film that is making its way around the festival circuit. Another cool element is that if you put the videos in chronological order from when they were uploaded, you can see the progression in the quality.

Between this blog and YouTube channels, they not only provide a platform to showcase my work and projects, but also act as a journal of sorts for me to reflect on my accomplishments so far and to put my future path into perspective. You can expect lots of big projects soon as things progress.

One million hits might not be a big deal for some, but for me… it’s a nice milestone for someone who started out with nothing more than a camcorder, a computer, a camera…. and a dream.

Pronobozo isn’t someone you may have heard of yet, but you will… soon.

I first came across his music when it was laid over a promo video put together by Team Ryouko, a martial arts team out of Canada. As great as the footage was, I was amazed by the music. I looked it up and found his website, www.pronobozo.com.

I downloaded his album, zero=one=everything, and fell in love with it. At the time, I was running a small martial arts organization for children called Warriors Tribe and I had emailed him about using his music on my website.

Over the years, I’ve taken it upon myself to help get his music out there… having it featured in films and soundtracks… and just telling my friends about it like I am now. A Patriot Act was the first film I had his music featured in that made waves at many film festivals and those who were at the premiere of my directorial debut, Traceur, got a small taste of an upcoming track during the credits. I even put his music on the latest promo video I produced, Batista Crump Kali, which is now gaining about 1,000 hits a day.

He just posted a small promo video about his new album coming out soon including a sneak preview of a track called Evol. It’s very… guerrilla style… which I like. So check it out:

More Info:
www.pronobozo.com
myspace.com/pronobozo
youtube.com/pronobozostudios
twitter.com/pronobozo

This past weekend, I wrapped my fight choreography and stunt performer services on the set of Experiment 7, the latest film from Joe Davison (100 Tears). Here’s the description of the film from IMDb.com:

Dr. Felix Copper is a doctor of Biological Sciences and is on a quest to find a solution to purifying radiation from water in the year 2022, ten years after the fall of humankind. He has to travel to the far outreaches of every city known, trying to make his way to the coveted underground lab, if the Mutants don’t get him first. Along the way he meets some unwarranted friends, Sam and William, two off the cuff heroes who cause more problems than they fix, and Aco, a super-model turned weapons expert. Together, Dr. Copper just might survive long enough to find a cure.

It was an exciting experience working on this film and a nice change from the typical vampires and zombies, although almost everyone was mistakenly calling the mutants ‘zombies’. Being on this type of set reminded me how easily you can make the most of the resources you have. Joe had some of the best skill and talent around… all to be apart of a great film. Joe had great energy and was fun to work with, Chris Rish had great vision as the cinematographer to turn great fight scenes into epic ones, and working with the talent of Candice Rojas for the second time and Dwight Cenac for the first time made me wish I would have been more involved in this film somehow. As with every film project, big or small, there’s going to be some times where things don’t go exactly as planned. Behind the scenes, Jori and Karaly helped keep everything moving along nicely and kept everyone sane under some stressful times.

Since this was the first time working with Joe Davison, working under stunt coordinator, Jonathan Tilley, was seemless and his input and adjustments on the fight scenes helped give Joe exactly what he was looking for. It was refreshing working with someone like JT where egos did not get in the way of making great fight scenes. Some people made some comments about ’stealing thunder’, but I set that straight real fast. Fight choreography is a specialty under stunts. That means that when there’s a stunt coordinator, I report to that person. Jumping out of windows and setting people on fire is not my thing. I’m not trained or certified to do it and I don’t really care to do it. I choreograph a fight scene, present it to the stunt coordinator who may make adjustments as needed, then we take it to the director and cinematographer.

Finally working with professional boxer Jenna Shiver was a pleasure as well. She’s been training with Marrese Crump on and off between fights and may be a great addition to our team. She took direction well and after just a few rehearsals, her movements and timing were pretty sharp. I look forward to training and working with her more in the future and helping her use that potential and energy for film.

Although I’m listed as the fight choreographer on my website and on IMDb.com profile, I only worked on two major fight scenes. I have been extremely busy with my new son and a few other projects so I wasn’t as involved as I’d like to be. I’d tell you which scenes they were, but I’d rather everyone go see the movie and tell me which fight scenes you enjoyed the most. Word is, it will be premiering at Screamfest in Orlando this year so I’ll be there and hope to see all of you there as well! I’d have some pictures for everyone, but they are keeping everything under tight wrap until the release of the movie. However, you can head over to Fangoria.com to check out some exclusive photos and comments they have. Enjoy!

Well, actually… it’s been launched for a little over a week now. Anyway, Crump Dojo is a social network for martial artists BY martial artists. You can create a profile, upload photos and videos, start a blog, partake in discussions on a wide range of martial arts related topics and more!

Although this social network is created on the Ning network, my company… Elamintal Multimedia, was in charge of creating the network, designing its header and look, and is in charge of maintaining the site.

We will soon be releasing more content, including “Warrior Journal” training videos that are currently in production and info on seminar tours and events.

So if you’re a martial artist and would like to share your ideas, thoughts, philosophies and training with like-minded people, please feel free to join!