The Official AJ Epyx Productions Website
An NYC-based film & video production company.
A very huge THANK YOU to every one of you who contributed to the Vendetta Games Kickstarter campaign! Thanks to your efforts, we have raised $3,300 which was so much more than our minimum goal! We still have plenty of work to do after the holiday season when we continue production. But this will help us return to the movie stronger than ever! We also got some big surprises in store for the month of December…
We have two behind the scenes videos from the set of VENDETTA GAMES to share with our fans. The first (which was previously released) is from the two nights when we shot the opening scene this past summer. The second all new video is from the DEA office scenes that were shot earlier this month. See them below:
We have started making orders for the official movie poster and T-shirt rewards for the Kickstarter campaign. Should we meet our minimum goal once the campaign ends, we will survey all the backers who requested these rewards to make sure we get the right sizes for the shirts and other information pertaining to the rewards.
With Thanksgiving coming up, this will be our final campaign update until the deadline on Nov. 29 at midnight (5 DAYS FROM NOW). We continue to thank everyone who has supported the movie up until this point and we hope you can continue to support by helping us raise the remaining $329 we need to meet our minimum goal. This movie means so much to the entire cast and crew as you will see in our behind the scenes videos and previous interviews. Your pledges, link shares, and other means to build word of mouth only get us one step closer to achieving success for the project as a whole.
Happy Thanksgiving!
After taking a week off from their Halloween extravaganza, the boys return with Episode 29 of The CineFiles Podcast. This time they focus on movies stars who do weird stuff. Think: James Franco, Joaquin Pheonix and the current king of “weird” Shia LaBeouf. But before they get into it, they discuss the films they’ve recently seen. SPECTRE, STEVE JOBS, INSIDE OUT, STUNG, SILVER BULLET, BACK IN TIME, SAN ANDREAS, the silent classic THE MAN WHO LAUGHS, CALL ME LUCKY, TANGERINE and so much more! As usual they discuss the latest movie news. And wonder why James Bond got the Austin Powers-Goldmember treatment.
So kick back, pull up a chair and listen to Episode 29 of The CineFiles Podcast at This is Infamous!
http://thisisinfamous.com/cinefiles-podcast-episode-29/
A new episode of The CineFiles spin-off series UNFINISHED BUSINESS with Jeff Gallashaw has been released! Shot and edited by co-host Andre´ Joseph, this episode focuses on “Movies With Witches” including Hocus Pocus, The Craft, The Believers, and many more.
Leave your comments at This is Infamous!
We have exactly 10 days left to reach the minimum goal for Vendetta Games movie campaign on Kickstarter that we almost made previously. Currently standing at 80%, we just need $500 to make it happen or else we do not collect the funds at all. So we are offering 2 new rewards:
– If 500 people here can pledge at least $1 to the campaign, we will send you a customized poker chip from the movie.
– Pledge $5 or more, we will send you a CUSTOMIZED FREE BEER MUG. Current standing backers will have this included in your rewards.
Please support in the remaining time we have left by going to this Kickstarter link now!
I not only had a great showing the fraternity comedy TEMPTED to the Intra-Greek Council at Wesleyan University but the film also received positive feedback about its themes and situations. It was the kind of discussion that could improve the well being of college students (especially freshmen) and the reputation of all fraternities and sororities. Thank you Renee Johnson-Thornton and the council for having me up!
You can rent or buy Tempted today at Vimeo on Demand and Amazon!
Check out this interview with Vendetta Games line producer Yu “Rose” Wang about her personal attachment to the movie:
We are also happy to announce again that DISHONORABLE VENDETTA, the film that preceded Vendetta Games, was a winner in the feature film category at the Urban Action Showcase & Expo which was sponsored by Cinemax and held at AMC Theaters in NYC two weeks ago. We are very proud of the achievement and we hope for even more accolades for Vendetta Games in the near future!
Please continue to support us in reaching our minimum goal again in these remaining 12 days left! If you have already pledged, please share the Kickstarter link as much as you possibly can! Thank you!
As we discovered this morning, one of our backers decided to cancel their pledge which now leaves us $500 short of the minimum goal once again. But we still have 17 days to keep working as hard as we possibly can to achieve the most success from this Kickstarter campaign!
As I mentioned in my video yesterday when we did meet the goal at the time, we would unveil our Stretch Goals for making Vendetta Games a fully complete production. The new goals are as follows:
We are willing to take any and all suggestions for new rewards that you would like to see from us in these remaining 17 days. Please continue to support on all social networks, blogs, and your circles. Your help means the world to this team!
WE DID IT! The Vendetta Games movie campaign is now 100% funded on Kickstarter! Thank you so much to every backer and any one of you who shared our link! But there’s still 18 days to go! So now it’s time for us to reach our stretch goals to finish the production. Here’s a special message from writer/director Andre´ Joseph giving his thanks to all contributors and revealing new behind the scenes footage:
When I started production on my second feature film Dishonorable Vendetta back in 2009, I was determined to make the most success out of it than I had with my previous work. Film festivals had discouraged me with my first film Priceless because I agonized over spending hundreds of dollars on entry fees only to be turned down constantly with no refund. Though DV had a lot of help along the way to its completion, my producers and I felt we needed to go straight to distribution which turned out to be a mistake.
With nothing to lose once that company fell apart, we decided that festivals were the answer for DV. Only this time, I had enough success with my short films to take a big risk. The first official screening at Anthology Film Archives for NewFilmmakers NY last February was a very good turnout overall. But it would be a shot in the dark to take a chance on the Cinemax-sponsored Urban Action Showcase and Expo. To my delightful surprise, we were accepted!
The UASE event was founded by martial artist and filmmaker/actor Demetrius Angelo and it celebrates achievements in independent films in the action, sci-fi, horror, and fantasy genres. More importantly, this festival promotes minority filmmakers like myself who do action films. This year’s event was set to be jam packed with anniversary screenings of The Last Dragon, Mortal Kombat, and American Ninja as well as big name stars in the martial arts world. Since my short film Tempted had played at Garden State Film Festival, UASE would be the next truly legit festival that I would be attending.
The night before the event, my dad and I attended the VIP event at HBO’s headquarters in Manhattan. We took part in a panel about self-distribution through Vimeo on Demand which I found to be very informative. As some of you know, I already have a Vimeo channel with some of my films on sale now; however, I learned a lot about marketing strategies and new ways to reorganize my videos on the site. With the exception of getting interviewed on the red carpet, I didn’t network as much as I would the next day. But the biggest moment of the night for me personally was seeing the DV trailer play on the TV monitors in the VIP room. The fact that it was happening at HBO was a little dream come true.
The UASE screenings and expo took place the following morning at AMC theaters on 42nd St. My dad and I were surprised by the way in which the 4th floor of the theater was converted into a mini con filled with comic book artists, independent filmmakers, and celebrities. I got to meet Taimak aka Bruce Leroy from The Last Dragon and we chatted for a bit about potential sequels and the work that I’m doing now. No pictures were taken, but it was wasn’t the last time I would run into him that day. I also met Jose Hernandez Jr., was one of the stars of HBO’s Oz and also a mutual friend of Robert Clohessy who was in my first film. He actually mixed up my dad for another famous martial artist who fought Bruce Lee in the 60s!
As for the film screenings, some were really good and some left our heads scratching. Among the ones I liked included Super Debt (a superhero comedy short about a female superhero forced to sell her gear when she’s overdue on rent), a Mortal Kombat fan short with Scorpion against Noob Saibot, a Last Dragon fan made sequel, and a cute webisode pilot for a series called The Invaders which we thought had potential to go on Nickelodeon one day. The best screening of them all was a showing of The Last Dragon. People went nuts in the isles reciting lines, cheering the fights on, and even throwing high kicks out their seats! When it was over, Taimak and screenwriter Louis Venosta did a Q&A where I was able to ask some burning questions about the writing process on the movie.
At night, Dishonorable Vendetta would play at the end of the last film block. There was one problem: The time would overlap with the awards show as this was a one full day event. I figured between limited seating and the small chance of me winning anything that I was better off watching my movie again. My lead actor J.R. Carter and one of my supporting actors Zoiea showed up along with their guests. At first, the turnout was very small. But something interesting happened midway through the movie where more people started to come in. Of course they were waiting for the next movie to play. Either way, I was just happy to see fresh new eyes on the movie and I even thanked them on the way out.
The overall experience at UASE was very positive. I learned a lot about to help me along in my profession and got a lot of inspiration from the people that I met there, especially the founder Demetrius who took the chance to give me this opportunity to show my film. That experience would soon be punctuated by an email sent by Demetrius yesterday when I learned that DV had won an award for Best Firefight! A win like that is a big victory for the film overall.