About a Week Ago: Nice to Meet You, Mr. Wick
This is the third installment of “About a Week Ago”, a public journal entry that helps me process my life as we know it while doubling as an incredibly handy way to update friends and family on what’s happening in the story of my life so far.
It’s highly recommended to read episodes one and two for context on how we got here for this episode to make the most sense.
Chapter 1: “Excommunicado”
Those who know me know I wouldn’t miss Star Wars Celebration for anything. For a lifelong Star Wars fan, a week of nothing but Star Wars on the levels of San Diego Comic Con for a week is heaven. On any other normal year, you’d be right. This year however is far from normal.
I was never normal growing up. Coupled with the fact that I was a diasporic Asian American kid caught between two cultures, the only thing that felt like home to me was pop culture. Movies like Star Wars and The Matrix provided two hours worth of escape from all of my problems in the world. Little did I know, it was providing me with the best education for my life as we know it now.
Returning to the world of film again, I realize that on top of discovering what I want to do for the rest of my life (well, not exactly yet…more on that later), I recognize that I’ve found “my people” in life again — a whole group of those who weren’t “normal” growing up yet found their way telling stories.
As with all episodes of About a Week Ago, we must first understand why these moments in life matter in so much through taking a look back at how we got here.
Chapter 2: “Ikigai”
There’s a Japanese saying that is also key to understanding my why in life — Ikigai.
It loosely translates to combining the following into one path:
- What you love.
- What you are good at.
- What you can be paid for.
…with the express purpose of finding a reason for “being”, ideally making yourself, the people around you, and by extension the world better in whatever form that may be for longevity.
I feel very lucky for having found mine very early on. My life starts and ends with movies.
There is no good story without bumps in the road. The first of mine would come in 2019 after graduation that we would come to know as COVID-19.
It’s a well known fact that I planned to move to Los Angeles permanently after graduation, but for very different purpose. I had grown jaded towards film and the pandemic was the third straw. I felt that going to a four year university for “film production” had only pushed me away from my passion but now I realize it’s because my school never taught me what I wanted to do, much less covering the right topics in general for the industry as we know it today.
My distaste in film had led me to discovering another form of storytelling I was interested in — community relations. There was something powerful about being able to tell stories of other people and empathy driven brands that impacted people’s lives positively.
Thanks to the my Godfather introducing me to the hobby, I fell into doing it in house for the audiophile world combining my love for music and technology. It ended up being the best fallback plan I could have ever asked for, setting up the next stage of my life.
Music is a universal concept. Bonding over it has some of the greatest connections I’ve had to date. From New York, to London, to India, and now Singapore, this very niche, very unique world was my second coming of finding “my people” again.
What’s surface level? A whole lot of very expensive products like speakers, DACs/AMPS, headphones, ands speakers. What I see? Communities and friendships being formed over shared ways people love hearing their music.
After starting out freelancing two full-time jobs for the past six years, I took the leap and moved to consulting full-time in January with the dual purpose of setting up my life for it’s next journey. Using this time to recognize how absurd it is I get make a living spending managing Discord channels and make memes (as a very bad description of my job).
Like Bo-Katan learning how to walk both the old and the new ways on her way to uniting Mandalore, I learned how powerful it was to walk between two cultures.
My perspective around everything — how to do business, how to build relationships, how to act as an individual — has shifted.
Above all else, it made me proud of myself for getting through what it took to get here. With each step, the journey ahead has become more clear than it was before.
Chapter 3: “Parabellum”
Parabellum in Latin translates to preparing for war. It’s an extremely accurate title for the stage of my life now, preparing for the many battles ahead of my next career.
What someone’s normal social media would normally tell you?
“I had the distinct honor of attending Stunt Master Class, a week long program held at Tempest Freerunning true to it’s name. With 30 other performers, we spent the week learning how to fight on film, choreograph our own scene as well as all the basic falls and rolls we would learn on set to parkour and basic mixed martial arts. Our instructors came from the famed stunt team 8711, known for their work on John Wick and probably every triple A action film you could name. From learning the basics of making a career in stunts a reality, as icing on the cake we got to sit down with Chad Stahleski for four hours, known first for his work on The Matrix with Keanu Reeves.”
What it doesn’t tell you?
“Despite thinking having some sort of a background in mixed martial arts would give me an edge, it didn’t entirely translate. At every turn, literally and figuratively, I spent the week failing at some of the most basic tasks in front of my peers. I spent the entire week learning how to shoulder roll and back roll.”
The funny thing? There’s something oddly comforting about knowing that your starting point is bottom of the class.
I’m very grateful to these performers for their warmth to me throughout the week, giving me the confidence to push forward:
Rustic Bodomov — Nicole Rombaoa — Tigi Hill — David Mapa — Ally Crowley — Spencer Greene — West Clay — Julia Garland — Sarah Anarna — Tyler Wombles — Charlie Thomas — Amy Sturdivant — Duy Ly — Aaron Field — Nina Rateree — Shawn Pullen — Allen Quindiagan — Dennis Getmanski
And our instructors:
Victor Gonzales — Tony Virtuoso — Jackson Spidell — Cara Marie Choo — Shane Yan — Bruce Inaba — Jeremi Aguas — Chad Stahelski
Chapter 4 : “Hagakure”
The alternative title of John Wick Chapter loosely translates from Japanese to “The Way of The Warrior is Death.” What’s often synonymous with death? Life. And, a good death is only after one has lived a good life.
In Chad’s talk, he mentioned he never identified as “normal” throughout his. He sacrificed much in his earlier years to get to where is now. Like many of us in our mid 20s, he found his path in life with movies as his Ikigai.
My takeways:
- If you really want do be a stunt performer, you have to practice choreography 50% of the time. Yes, mixed martial arts and your personal fitness are important but they are supplements to what you do.
- Even if you’re mainly stunts, go P.A. on a set to understand how sets work. Talk to everyone, shake everyone’s hand and make sure they know your name. Never say “I don’t know” as answer, but always go find that answer if you don’t know it. And then shake hands again. Eventually, you’ll get hired as someone known to be reliable and can solve problems. It’s how Chad got his first jobs.
- Stress test. Make sure you and your partner can perform on your own, shadowing each other with one person doing their side. Repeat. Repeat with an audience.
- You don’t have to be the best performer to be the successful in the game. Every stunt team needs good organizers with excellent people skills who become coordinators, good visualizers that can teach who become choreographers, and people to shoot and edit. There are also different kinds of performers from those who excel in martial art to those who excel in wire work. Try everything. There will be something for you.
- Whether you are a coordinator or a performer, there is no room for you if you treat people like…well, you know. The old ways are changing, and the new since the new guard has seen what works and what doesn’t. This creates more opportunities in stunts for those who don’t want to be identified as one thing. People are becoming more open minded to diverse backgrounds in terms of performance, acting, and doing both at the same time.
- Everyone has a camera in their pocket. You should not be practicing choreography without also shooting it.
This? This is why I risked it all and moved out to Los Angeles. There’s no other community like this anywhere in the world. In a massive industry the world of stunts is comparably small. There’s no other learning experience like this in the world.
This is freshman year of film school all over again.
Thank you to my hosts in Singapore — Zeppelin and Co, FatFreq, Eletech Subtonic, and Symphonium for making my first trip to the country so special.
Thank you to the team at Stunt Master Class and Tempest Freerunning for making this week possible. Thank you to my fellow classmates for making me feel so much better than, and so warmly welcomed into this world.
Be seeing you in Q3, SMC 103. Core memories unlocked.
“For our movie dreams!” — Shane Yan
Chapter 5 : “TBD”
Want more from the Wickverse? Go see John Wick. Go see Ballerina. Go watch The Continental. Your ticket and subscription creates more opportunities for performers up and coming in the industry — my class.
Over the next few months, I will accomplish the following:
- Shoot one project every week, covering at least two film sets a month. If those aren’t film sets, I will continue experimenting with action, product, cosplay, and portraiture photography.
- Focusing on my recovery while I repair from another injury — shin splints on my inner left leg, no fun! — hydrating, stretching, steam room/sauna, sleep, repeat.
- Get hired by a camera house part time to assist with brushing up my knowledge on gear being used on sets now and start networking with more camera focused individuals.
- Continue exploring design and pre-vis, thinking about how I can build my camera skills to combine with my love for action.
- After I heal, hopping into an eight week training camp to reset my body for the path ahead. It will consist of 50% choreography, 50% everything else — Muay Thai, Kali, Wire Work, Strength, Flexibility, Mobility, and Explosiveness.
- Growing my consulting business in HiFi to be able to support five clients at the same time and start paying my first part time employee.
To my mentors:
I realize that this update may have went against the best laid plans your advice had for me — this part of my journey is something that I had to do for me, at the very least to continue pushing my body. My generation doesn’t really like to choose, or be told what we can’t do — it’s more of a matter of leveling out how we do it.
This is how I like to describe how I’m building the next steps of my life.
Passion for passion’s sake? Stunts. Passion for talent’s sake? Unit photography. Combined? The stunt community is my network — it’s how I get on set to shoot. Because of it, I’ve met 100+ contacts over the past three months since starting in January. It’s how I’m starting to make my way into the film industry.
The end goal remains the same — to work on movies, so I can eventually work on a Star Wars set. The path to that is what’s going to be up in the air. This year, just like freshman year of doing anything for the first time about trying everything while leveraging my best qualities, and seeing what sticks.
And the cool thing is? If I become dual focus SAG and IATSE 600, why not?
If you’re struggling, a brother from another mother sent this as a text to me that hit different:
“You’ve chosen such a cool path. I know it won’t be easy, but you’re doing what feels right, and the best / coolest thing ever.” — Romain Vaklitabar
