Summary of my year 2014: The Return of the King

I am titling this year’s summary “The Return of the King” because it’s like a closing chapter in an epic trilogy.

First before I get into it let me just say that I am so so so blessed. I am so blessed to have my health, wisdom, family, and friends and so blessed for all the amazing amazing things that have happened to me 2014 and prior.. and each year just keeps getting better and better. Now let’s let the picture’s tell the story.

So to be fair I did have a few hiccups towards the end of 2013, but right off the bat in 2014 I got to action coordinate a really cool short film called “The Other Side”. This project is already finished but will be hitting the film festival circuit before its public release. I am really excited to share my work on this movie. I choreographed, coordinated, doubled James Kyson, and action directed the fight scenes. This project, directed and produced by the lovely Akiko Izumitani, was a project where she really gave me great liberties in the action design. She trusted me and let me go to work. This project let me see my own abilities with action directing and even expanded my interest in directing. Of course, I met some great friends as well that I would continue to work with through the year.

I also manifested to do more print and editorial work because I wanted to learn more about both sides of photography. As fate would have it I was reached out to by some talented photographers this year and I got some great photos that ended up in print and in a Beverly Hills art gallery exhibit.

Before I knew it, I had to hop on a plane again. A good friend of mine was getting married… in Vietnam! At first I hesitated if I would go because there were projects in the US and other potential work I would have to put on hold.. but as Andy was a good friend of mine I made the choice to go. The wedding turned out to be awesome and it was a great experience with all my bros. Also, I swung by Taiwan and China after since I was already in Asia. This would lead to a huge life changing event, which I will talk about in a second.

As I hopped off the plane and landed in LA, yet another HUGE event happened. My buddy Eliver picked me up and I told him this story about a man trying to save someone he loved. He said he would help me produce this story. THAT NIGHT, we started filing SAG paper work and getting castings going for this project. This project would be called – Retrieval, my first full-fledged SAG short film as a director.

It was crazy. We planned, casted, and shot the whole thing in less than a month. We finished principal photography in LA but there was a second part that needed to happen in Beijing. I had no idea how I would make the second part in Beijing happen yet.

But remember how I said something happened when I went to China after my friend’s wedding? Well I got in touch with a friend and a coordinator on the Jackie Chan stunt team. As a result of my trip, he mentioned that a Jackie Chan movie would be filming soon. That movie became a reality, the coordinator called me, and immediately I was flying to China again.

This is definitely the highlight of my year. The life experience of working with my idol, Jackie Chan, is only comparable to winning a gold medal at the World Wushu Championships, one of my other life dreams. I officially worked as part of the Jackie Chan stunt team on “Dragon Blade.” I worked in Hengdian and in the Gobi Desert for 4 months! I cannot describe how mentally and physically strenuous it was out there. We worked 16 hour days in sun that just doesn’t set. On the flip side I think I had the funnest 2 weeks of the year when my buddy Adrien Brody arrived on set. For those 2 weeks he was filming, I was assigned to help him out. We worked on scenes, action, and I helped translate for him as well. It was a blast.

The whole movie was so memorable. I learned a lot and met really really awesome people. Special shoutout to Max Huang and Andy Nguyen who really helped me out on the JC team.

I even ended up going to Thailand with Max and Istanbul, Turkey through Fatih all because of the people I met on Dragon Blade. Thailand was amazing! I finally made it to the Full Moon Party. Then I chilled out and had coconuts all day with Max. For my trip to Istanbul I got to do stunts and speak in Turkish on a Turkish feature film.

I got back from all these places and ended up in Hong Kong where I stayed with my elementary school friend Max Kwok. It was non-stop adventure in HK while I was there. After HK I finally made my way to Beijing, where I finished the second part of my film, Retrieval.

And AFTER a crazy 3 weeks of prep, principal photography in Beijing was done!

A few days before my flight back to LA, I had dinner on the set of Skiptrace with Jackie and the stunt team. Jackie knew I was going back to LA because my visa was up. He told me that if I ever wanted to find myself back in Asia again to just reach out to him. It was so moving for me and it was the perfect ending to my 6 months in Asia.

So I got back in LA at the very end of October and immediately I action coordinated a TV Pilot – Option Zero. November flew by as I was still getting over jetlag, cleaning up my house, finding a new roommate, spending time with family (in Vegas) for Thanksgiving, and settling a lot of bills/errands. Oh yeah, I also turned another year older.

December I shot a lot more, spent quite a bit of time upping my editing game, picked up some more tricks, and got back into my workout groove. I signed with a new stunt agent and went to a lot of auditions through my commercial agents and manager. I also finished editing my action choreography reel, something that was on my to-do list for some time now.

Looking back, 2014 was an AMAZING year! I have so much stuff that I haven’t shown you guys yet. There’s just too much that I haven’t even had time to write/share all of it. Look forward to some amazing stuff in 2015.

In summary, I’d say this year I really finished a chapter on Asia. I’ve done so much there and feel I have achieved great personal accomplishments there. I’ve blazed a trail in terms of getting everything done on my bucket list – including working with Jet Li and Jackie Chan. For me 2015 is a year of focusing on Hollywood films, blogging more, being efficiently active on social mediums, improving my fitness, acquiring new skills, and moving to the next level.

And with this manifestation I conclude my 2014 post. I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Keep rising.

-Alfred