Cover Story: Traveling the World with "Blood Ties" Written by Nathan Flood That's how it always starts. "I've got this great idea for a movie." Pretend you do have this great idea for a movie (I know it's hard, but try). You decide to pitch it to a buddy with a little bit of money in hopes he'll jump on board. You've got this great script and you're ready to go, where at this point your buddy asks, "Where you going to film it?" And your answer is? If your answer is Thailand, you're lying (or insane), unless your name happens to be Kely McClung, because that was really his answer. Throwing independent filmmaking logic out the window, Kely pitched the idea for his film Blood Ties and its halfway-around-the-world bizzaro location to friend Robert Pralgo, and somehow, someway, got him to say yes. Blood Ties, is an action film set not only in Thailand, but also a few more wallet conducive locations including; Washington, D.C., Miami, Virginia, and, oh yeah, Atlanta. Filmed in a jittery, cinema verite, Blair Witch meets Bourne Ultimatum style, the concept of the film is, as listed on the filmmakers' website (http://www.bloodtiesmovie.com/), "Jim, (Robert Pralgo) would be kidnapped, and Jack, (Kely McClung) would save him; in essence, Rob would get his ass kicked everywhere he went, and everywhere Kely would go, he'd kick everybody's ass." How's that for an action film? Okay, there's a lot more to it than that, but at its core it's an action film, so you have to figure there's a significant bit of ass kickin'. The obvious story here is about Thailand. What the hell are two Atlanta boys doing shooting in Thailand? I mean, I like Thai a whole lot, but these guys must have Pad Thai running out of their brains or something. Half the budget's blown before the plane even touches the ground. Now that's a story, and it's a great angle for the film, but after spending a little while talking to Kely and Robert I realized they weren't curry freaks, they knew what they were doing. They sold me on Thailand. It was the perfect choice for the film. Knowing the film's action would be focused around Kely's martial arts skills (he's a black belt in 5 types of martial arts as well as a former world champion in full contact stick fighting), and having no sizable budget for guns, squibs and FX, shooting it on the streets of Atlanta wouldn't play real. According to Kely, "How do you justify filming in an Atlanta setting where someone will bring out a Mac-10 and just shoot you?" Couple that with the fact Thailand looks seriously cool as well as your actors and crew will work for a fraction of U.S. prices and suddenly you're talking Thai. Now that I see shooting in Thailand makes sense from both a cost and quality standpoint, where's my story? Do you ever watch the DVD extras? You know, where the director or whoever tells you about all the behind the scenes you don't really care about unless you're some type of fanboy (see my article in last month's CinemATL for explanation if you don't know what a fanboy is). Well, it'll be worth listening to on Blood Ties. There's not a scene in the film where they didn't have some interesting story. Story after story after story. A huge blowout over an $8.00 toy gun purchase, dealing with a Thai mobster for a location agreement, getting stopped by the secret service in Washington D.C., almost getting busted by the NSA in Miami, border guards harassing them in Cambodia, broken ribs, food poisoning, hiring Thai taxi drivers to play thugs, meeting your D.P. for the first time in Thailand, making fake rain, shooting in an abandoned and burned out 42 story building and a bunch of other stories of things that happened to them over the filming. They literally told me so many stories I started to wonder if the film was going to be half as interesting. To find out, they showed me a small clip of the film where Kely's character kicks some serious ass and takes out 23 bad guys in 77 seconds (or 1 bad guy every 3.4 seconds). I was impressed. It didn't just look good, it looked great. They told me one of their best and funniest compliments about the scene was someone who remarked, "This looks like it's a real movie". And they're right. Seeing that one fight scene, I knew they had something special. It looks like it could be in the Bourne Ultimatum yet they achieved it with 1/3000th of the budget. And then came the stories. There were the professional fighters who brought their own stunt gear including a Styrofoam chair to be smashed over someone's head and fake rebar to be impaled on. There were the 4 plastic guns that had to be shared by all the bad guys to make it look like every one had a weapon. And in post, to make the guns and everything look real, they had to add 1327 layers in After Effects, each with multiple animated masks and 4-5 effects in each layer as well as 140 tracks of sound. And that's just 77 seconds. That's when I realized they were going to have the impossible task of telling all this on the DVD commentary track. I suggested they pause the film during the commentary track just to get in all the stories. Probably stretch the movie to 3 hours. But that's one of the great things about this film, all the extras. Not that you'll see the stories on screen, for that, you'll have to wait for the DVD extras. Some seriously great stories. Blood Ties played at the Rome International Film Festival and is currently making the festival rounds. Nathan Flood is an editor for CinemATL and a local screenwriter.

BLOOD TIES is an independent, raw, beat-‘em-up from filmmaker Kely McClung. The hand to hand combat that this film showcases is a definite strong point. But the plot harnessed underneath it all is also ripped and muscular. It drives the action, beatdown to beatdown, with subtle and not so subtle revelations of what is really propelling the ass-kicking machine known as Jack Davis. The movie opens with Jack Davis (Kely McClung) walking in a David Banneresque loner fashion through Roanoke Valley in West Virginia. Heavily armed military operatives are tracking him. Fists pummel faces and boots spin heads on necks. There are bullets, knives, two compound fractures, and a broken neck. For an opening scene before the credits, it is quite apparent that this film isn’t going to follow the standard linear action-movie arc. BLOOD TIES takes many turns in its plot, all while heavily dosing the viewer with some of the most dizzying fight sequences you will ever see in an independent film. The relationship between Jack and his brother Jim (Robert Pralgo) is the foundation that supports the savagery of the fighting sequences. When Jim is kidnapped, the force of Jack’s will to save him is unstoppable. The disturbing genesis of this sibling dedication is explained through flashback. Their connection is unshakeable as is their commitment to one another. The motivation behind Jim’s kidnapping is explained in a series of sparse, fragmented scenes of exposition. We are given few narrative details to go on. A twenty million dollar military investment in Jack and his disappearance fuel the mystery. Jack has a deeply buried military past. He is an elite killing machine. Someone killed Jack’s wife, and he left the program. Jack is literally “the turd in the punchbowl.” He is a mess that needs to be cleaned up and flushed. The military’s mission to find and detain Jack is so completely broken that they resort to having Jim kidnapped in Bangkok in order to entice Jack out of the country. Jack takes the bait and proceeds to put in work, hammering his way through bodies as he makes his way towards the fight with his final antagonist, Markus (Erik Markus Scheutz), who is just as “off the books” as Jack. Scheutz, a champion Thai boxer, comes to this film with a role in the modern classic ONG BAK under his belt, and he is straight-up formidable. Although it is an action film, BLOOD TIES is beautiful to look at. While grounded in some reality, the surreal elements that have been introduced keep us on our visual toes, Tony Scott style. Bangkok looks alluring, cluttered, and dangerous. All of the necessary Bangkok touches are in place, including a slugfest at a dojo and a Tuk-Tuk chase sequence. All of the extra touches to this film really make it stand out. It is broken into four separate parts each with witty titles. The film is fun. The direction is playful at points, even borrowing from (and definitely topping) the old BATMAN fight sequences on television (Blammo!). Kely McClung plays Jack the way he needs to be played, stoic, with a dash of humanity. His reunion with his brother-in-law is particularly raw and real. But when it comes time to handle business, boots, fists, and anything he can wield as a weapon are used with concussive precision. McClung brings a black belt rank in a half dozen karate systems to the table. He also was the International Full Contact Stick Fighting Champion of the World. Robert Pralgo as Jim puts in his work too. He is tied up and beaten for the entire film. He manages to quip one-liners between crushing blows to the head and the rest of his body. The pounding that Pralgo’s Jim takes is really something to behold. He may not be a trained killer like his brother, but he is obviously made of some of the strongest stock available. It is no wonder that this film has earned so many awards (Best of Festival at Indie Film Fest and Action Film of the Year at the Action on Film Festival for example). BLOOD TIES is the kind of action film that we need more of. The plot is subtle, but thick, and to follow it, you must pay close attention. Facts are relayed through sharp, jargony dialogue, and the film has deeply embedded twists and turns that demand a second viewing. The action sequences are forceful and fast. They are well-edited, quick, and ruthless. This isn’t some of that Steven Segal “show the same punch three times from three different angles” stuff. This film is on some “don’t blink or you’re gonna miss it” type action. BLOOD TIES is still on the independent festival circuit run. It has more guts and heart than most mainstream action films. It is refreshing to see an indie film push as hard as this one does. by Peter Demmon - Mediasaurs.com