With dozens of action short films under his belt and with a part-time job as a stunt performer, Fernando "Jay" Huerto isn't exactly your average San Diego State student. While most of us spend our free time taking a break from our busy school and work schedules, Huerto is either writing, directing, shooting, choreographing, acting in or editing one of his own kung-fu-styled short films. He's a veritable one-man show.
Huerto's short films, while very low-budget, have an undeniable charm about them that's hard to put a finger on. Maybe it's the quick, "Shaun of the Dead"-style editing he uses, or maybe it's his well-crafted fight scenes - one thing's for sure; his films are downright entertaining.
In 2000, with some help from friends Dominic Sherman and Jonas Babauta, Huerto started Jabronie Pictures, an independent filmmaking group that has since grown to include several members and has produced numerous action-comedy and non-action shorts. The films of Jackie Chan, John Woo, Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino heavily influence the group's work.
Each short film's production schedule varies with the type of project, with some films taking only a few days to create and others taking several weeks, from start to finish.
"'Match Made in Spring Valley' took a few weeks," Huerto said.
Recently, one of Huerto's shorts, "Test Fight: The Movie 3: Paradise Lost" was accepted into the 2007 Big Bang Film Festival in Philadelphia, which runs through Sunday. "Test Fight 3" was one of Huerto's more quickly made films, taking only three days to shoot and an additional two to cut together.
Huerto's brand of grassroots filmmaking, which draws on a variety of influences, has found a certain niche on the Internet, garnering thousands of views on YouTube.
"If it wasn't for the Internet, I wouldn't have made it this far," he explained, ecstatic about his films' word-of-mouth-fueled popularity.
Huerto is currently working on a new action-comedy film that uses a documentary style similar to popular shows, such as "The Office" or the late "Arrested Development," and next year plans to make a feature-length film which he describes as "a romantic comedy with action fight scenes." We look forward to seeing it, Jay.
All of Huerto's films can be seen on his Web site, www.jabroniepictures.com.
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