Hello fellow ninjas! My name is Joey. I am a producer and director at a small independent movie company called Platypus Underground. We make low budget martial arts films. I am also a 1st degree brown belt in ninjutsu.
Here’s a picture of me and Bran testing for our 1st degree brown belts. Black belt is next!
What is your way of ninja?
My way of ninja is training in the way of ninja and sharing the way of ninja through movies. I graduated from Temple University in May 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film & Media Arts, but I have been making movies since 5th grade. Almost all of them were action films, and when I joined ninjutsu at age 16, then all turned into martial arts movies.
Last summer we shot a short film called Sins of the Dragon, which features hordes of evil ninjas as the villains. The film was pretty well received; we got tons of great reviews and made it into three film festivals. We even won a runner up award at the Action On Film Festival in California for best fight choreography in a martial arts short film. That was pretty cool. The movie is on YouTube so if you haven’t seen it yet… well how can you call yourself ninja???
I am also on my way to Blackbelt in ninjutsu, so training whenever I can is also my way of ninja!
What are your goals you wish to achieve by Day Of Ninja 2014?
My goals for Day of Ninja 2014 are to achieve Blackbelt rank in ninjutsu and have filmed our next sci-fi/martial arts movie: SPACE FIGHT! Fighting In Space.
How much do you want to achieve your goals?
Really bad! I’m 23 now and I started training in ninjutsu at 16. It’s been a 7 year process, and I am ready for that black belt! Also, I really want to start working on this new movie because it’s gunna be awesome!
What are the obstacles you may facing?
There are a few massive obstacles right now. One is that I just got a full time job in Philly, and my dojo is an hour and a half away… This means training will be limited to holidays and a few random weekends when I can make it home. The job comes in as an obstacle again when it comes to making movies; if I am spending all day Monday through Friday working in an office, I won’t be able to film anything. That restricts filming time to weekends… which also happens to be training time. So there are some choices to make! However, I need the job because in order to make movies, we need money! Tough…
How will you achieve your goals and how will you overcome the obstacles?
I plan to continue training on my own during the evenings at my place so I don’t forget the techniques. When I get to the dojo on weekends and over holidays, I will be able to practice with a partner to help improve my technique.
As for the movie, we are planning as much ahead of time as possible. We will find time over the summer to shoot it, even if it has to be done over a few different weekend!
