The seven men and one woman members of LBP Stunts Chicago were surprised when their first shot at producing a martial arts film was accepted for screening at the Action On International Film Festival, July 22-30 in Pasadena.
Produced for a minuscule budget, the 10-minute short, Yo Soy Un Hombre Loco (I am a Crazy Man) was written and directed by Los Angeles-based Vlad Rimburg, who has either been a star, stuntman, choreographer, director and editor, or all of the above, on more than 15 independent high octane action films.
Hombre Loco may be slight on plot, but it plays heavily on martial arts action as fighters Shawn Bernal and Emmanuel Manzanares as they pull out all the stops to decide which one will emerge as the number one assassin in the world.
Manzanares founded LBP (which stands for Lazy Brown Productions) in 2006 and Bernal joined the following year. “Nobody focuses on what we do,” says Bernal.
The tight-knit group, ranging in age from 21 to 35, specializes in martial arts, stunt performance, acrobatics, fight choreography, fight coordination, parkour/freerunning, acting and directing.
“We are not a school and we don’t train students in martial arts,” notes Bernal, who has practiced martial arts since he was six years old.
When the time came to make a professional film to showcase their skills, instead of relying on the demo videos they post on YouTube, the only conceivable filmmaker was Rimburg.
During the initial conversation with the director, Bernal found “Vlad had a lot of ideas for our film and was interested in coming to Chicago.”
Rimburg arrived last November and shot Hombre Loco in four days in a North Side apartment and in Prairie Stone Park in Hoffman Estates. Rimburg and Anthony Reddix handled the cameras and Manzanares and Rimburg edited.
“After a lengthy postproduction period,” says Bernal, LBP had its finished its show piece to enter in the Action On festival.
Screening the at this particular festival – which started in 2005 as part of the Long Beach International Martial Arts festival – where it would be seen by important action genre filmmakers, was one of their goals in making the film, Bernal says.
“While we were hoping Hombre Loco would be accepted, it was still a surprise when we got word it had,” Bernal says. They are optimistic that exposure like this will result in more movie and TV bookings.
Only three of the LBP team, Bernal, Manzanares and Alex Hashioka-Oatfield, have been hired to perform fight scenes in a handful of projects.
Bernal has worked the most, having appeared in two recent Detroit-set features: stunts for the zombies in the Justin Chon-starrer, Detention of the Dead, and in Cherry as a thug who attacks actor Kyle Gallner (A Nightmare on Elm Street.) He was a fighting ninja in Extreme Makeover:Home Edition episode last year.
LBP Stunts has no representation, so whatever film assignments they’ve gotten have come through referrals or by producers finding them on the internet. With Hombre Loco seen on YouTube and prominent genre producers seeing at the festival Action On, just might be the karate chop they need to be recognized outside of their home turf.
Contact LBP Stunts Chicago at 773/800-1822; Email lbpstunts@gmail.com.
