BFI Film Academy Intro to Action Filmmaking

I was pleased to be invited to host a BFI Film Academy panel offering an introduction to action filmmaking. I'll be chatting to a top lineup of UK action talent including Joey Ansah (The Bourne Ultimatum, Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist), Nathan Barris (The Dark Tower, Into the Badlands), Katrina Durden (Doctor Strange, Shadow and Bone) and Jean-Paul Ly (Hobbs & Shaw, Jailbreak). We heard hearing about their respective journeys through the industry, sharing some stories, experiences, philosophies and advice for young filmmakers.

Hosted by Action Xtreme, this online panel discussion, featuring key UK action directors and stunt professionals, will cover the current UK action scene, the creative opportunities the genre offers for filmmakers and why action films work well internationally.

Action films engage and entertain fans worldwide, providing excitement, thrills and suspense to audiences, no matter where they are or what language they speak. This panel will provide an invaluable insight into their experiences working across both independent and major studio action productions, their journey and entry into the industry, along with tips and insights on what makes for a truly great action sequence.

The BFI Future Film Festival is the UK’s largest festival for young, emerging filmmakers. The festival runs across four days in February, with events and screenings taking place both online and in-venue at the BFI Southbank, all of which are focused on helping talented young filmmakers aged 16 to 25 to break into the film and screen industries.

Here is a playback of the live event

Find out more about the guests below…

Joey Ansah

Joey Ansah was born in 1982 in Hammersmith, London. He is of mixed ethnicity, with his mother from Plymouth, Devon and his father originally from Ghana, West Africa. Growing up, his passion for performing soon ran parallel with an almost obsessive interest in martial arts and cinema. Training in a variety of martial arts styles during his formative years, including Tae Kwon Do, Capoeira, Ninjutsu, and Acrobatics, he also took an academic path, completing a degree in Human Biology at Oxford Brookes University, before entering the film business. To date, his best-known work includes fighting Matt Damon on screen in The Bourne Ultimatum, roles in Snow White and the Huntsman, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, The Old Guard and creating and directing the hit YouTube short film Street Fighter: Legacy, followed by two acclaimed TV series, Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist and Street Fighter: Resurrection.

Jean-Paul Ly

Born in Lyon, France to Cambodian and Chinese parents, Jean-Paul Ly started martial arts from the age of five, practicing Hapkido, Karate, Capoeira and ‘tricking’. He spent a few years in corporate office jobs before making a change and pursuing his dream of filmmaking. Now based in London, Jean-Paul experiments making short films with his stunt performer friends, while being hired as a stuntman on major films and TV shows. He returned to Cambodia to work on their first martial arts film, Jailbreak, in which he starred, choreographed the action, and trained many of the cast and extras. It became the country’s first film sold to Netflix, and he returned for their first million-dollar film, The Prey. To date, his stunt credits include Hobbs & Shaw, Fast & Furious 9, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the long awaited, The Batman.

Katrina Durden

Katrina is an actor and martial artist from London. Having been raised in a family of journalists, writers, filmmakers and actors, she began her own creative path at an early age, practising and performing dance, theatre, music and spoken word. After the death of her father, halting her drama school aspirations, she finished college and completed a degree in Sports and Human performance, while continuing to perform and train diligently in the martial arts. Despite her education, her creative aspirations were stronger than ever, and she began developing her skillset which naturally lent itself to action. With a passion and drive for both traditional acting and fight choreography, in the last decade she has enjoyed a varied career, working on many film and television projects, including Marvel’s Doctor Strange, Street Fighter: Resurrection, Strike Back and Shadow and Bone, as well as motion capture for video games including Destiny 2, Gears of War, Battlefield and Diablo.

Nathan Barris

Originally from Basingstoke, Nathan Barris grew up enamoured by the physical skill seen in action films, specifically through watching Jackie Chan and the original Matrix film trilogy. He was a founding member of the famous 3Run parkour and free running group, who achieved viral internet fame through their incredible YouTube videos in the early 2000’s. The group was eventually hired for music videos, TV shows and films, which introduced Nathan to stunt work. He is now an established fight choreographer, crafting action on screen, and has trained many Hollywood actors, and doubled for them during dangerous scenes. His best-known Hollywood work includes The Dark Tower, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and popular Amazon TV series, Into the Badlands.

Find out more about this panel and BFI Film Academy