Update on Ilram

I went to see my friend last night and he casually asked my
if I'd visited Ilram Choi's page on imdb.
I replied that I had not, but was very pleased to see that he is working steady
in this year's and next year's major releases in stunts. His work includes
Transformers 2, G-Force, and James Cameron's Avatar 3-D.
But let us pause and look back at his humble beginnings making kung fu movies with my camcorder.

R.I.P. David Carradine

As many of you martial arts fans may have already heard, B-movie legend
David Carradine has passed. Carradine, known throughout his
career for his role in the TV serial Kung Fu had a series of lackluster
roles in terrible films before being picked by Quentin Tarantino for the
titular role in the martial arts uber-epic Kill Bill. I will not make
any jokes in this post about that particular title, but I choose instead to
pay my respect to an icon. It's a shame that his latter years he mostly milked the
Kill Bill persona in cheap commercials, but hey, the guy's gotta eat. Good
luck in the afterlife, Mr. Carradine.
Respectfully,
Robbie Ryan
Martial Arts Director

The InGlorious World of Tarantino

As an independent filmmaker, I'm often compared to Quentin Tarantino,

Which is fine, except that he and I are absolutely nothing alike, except that we
both like women fighting each other in full-on Kung Fu Style. He's really done a lot,
I must say, for expanding the audience for Asian movies, with the movies he produces
or "presents" and his track record with his Dragon Dynasty label.
But any filmmaker in the past decade and a half that has any 70s references in his films will automatically be
labelled as a Tarantino follower, which many people seem to enjoy, but I'm a filmmaker, not a cover band.
His new flick, Inglorious Basterds, which has been gestating for some time, could be surprising when it
comes out, namely, because it looks like an actual movie, like The Dirty Dozen, not a modgepodge of winks,
nods, and excessive pop culture references. We will see, but in the meantime, here's the trailer.



It looks like fun, eh? Especially when one of his lead actors is goremeister Eli Roth,

who also assisted with acting duties in Tarantino's previous effort, Death Proof.
A last surprise, as seen in the trailer, is BJ Novak, who is one of the actors and writers on "The Office.

An arthouse film at the end of summer? If anyone can do it, It's QT.
I'll keep you posted! ;)

See Wolverine's Jackman in my Australia Trailer

With all the Hooplah about Hugh Jackman's new flick "Wolverine, it takes me back to the trailer I edited and scored for my good friend Baz Luhrmann when his movie "Australia" came out. It was very refreshing
to cut together quality footage that I hadn't shot myself (hence, "quality" footage, LOL) and to add a little electronica to what is an epic, sweeping, orchestral sounding score. I haven't caught the whole movie yet (Sorry, Baz.) but I do have my
trailer- See it right here!

Robbie Ryan Australia Trailer for Contest - Funny home videos are a click away

Robbie Ryan's Kung Fu Filmmaking- Part 1

One of the reasons that I got into filmmaking
was because I had been exposed to so many great
resources that broke down the filmmaking process.
In the interest of passing that along to you and others,
I present the first installment of
Robbie Ryan's Wonderful World of Kung Fu Filmmaking!


The video below was shot on our very first day. The film was cast, we had several setbacks, as is the case in any project,
big or small. We had intended to shoot the film at a high school across from my house, which was wanting to charge thousands
of dollars for rentals and insurance, which we simply didn't have. One of the actor's girlfriends knew the theater director
at a local community college and said we could use the campus free of charge. Music to my ears, friends.


So we showed up the first day, borrowed camera in hand, to shoot what would be my masterpiece (I thought this, anyway.)
I met the actors that I had recruited, although this was the first day I would meet a few of them.
My schedule was pretty arduous. I had scheduled about 10 scenes to be shot in about 5 hours. What this resulted in was
a seemingly endless amount of delays, but actually we were in good shape. Most movies shoot about a scene a day, so this was
really no sweat and we actually ran pretty efficiently.


The clip below is in 2 parts:
Part 1 was shot in a Japanese park in Fort Worth, Texas, about a block from where they shot the Logan's Run finale.
When I had scouted the location, there were no crowds and it was a pleasant, quiet, day. Of course, whenever we showed up to
shoot with Amy Jo and Kelly, it was crazy crowded. The fact that we were able to get a wide shot with them alone is an absolute
miracle. I owe a lot of that to my DP and editor, Mike Nimocks.

Part 2 was our very first scene from our very first day of shooting. We got the wides, closeups, and reverse angles in about 15 minutes,
and after that, we were certain that this shoot was going to be the easiest thing ever, and the rest would be history.
Well, that would prove to be one of the easiest scenes to shoot, but you'll have to wait for another installment.

-Robbie Ryan

Seth Rogen - A Retraction

After hearing that Seth Rogen has turned down an offer from Roland Emmerich, he's allright in my book. Keep making goofy movies and you'll be alright, kid. Like I'm sure you care what I think. -Robbie Ryan

Welcome To The New Kung Fu Girls Club Website!

Hi! And Welcome to the New kungfugirlsclub.com! I've gone ahead and moved everything over to the blog, so you'll still be able to watch the videos we've posted and still be able to contact us about Kung Fu Girls Club. I'll also add the merch and Twitter links later. You can find me on Facebook, and of course, you can add yourself as a friend on our Myspace Page.


Hope to see you more in Kung Fu Land!
-Robbie Ryan
Writer/Director/Producer/Composer/Blogger/Webmaster
kungfugirlsclub.com


PS: I'll be posting the whole movie (and a commentary track!) on the website soon, so subscribe and stay tuned!