Z.K.'s blog

After getting kicked out rather quickly at the Hudson River power plant by a Napoleon-complex fueled construction worker, my friend Michael recommended we check out the Boyce Institute that was nearby.  It was easy to find and get to; one of the boards that blocked an entrance had a freshly cut hole in it, and the half dozen luxury sports cars leaving the parking lot, obviously for some kind of music video shoot, made us optimistic that we weren’t going to get bothered.

On the bottom-left is where we got in – it was nice that they left a ramp but they could have taken out the 3-inch screws that were pointed directly at your feet.  I guess you shouldn’t be going in here bare-footed anyway…

This is my first (probably bad) attempt at making an HDR photo 

It always makes me wonder what happened to these places – I’ve seen places online that seem like they were just abandoned in a hurry; tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff left there to rot, with no attempt to sell/auction or salvage anything. THIS blog is great if you want to see what I’m talking about.  From what I read about the Boyce Institute though, was that it was made as a research facility to study plants that could help the famine problem in Russia that was witnessed by it’s founder.  The rising costs of property made it impractical to keep this location but apparently they continue their research at another location.

Anna, moments before a zombie leapt at her.  She threw it off the stairs.

I’m gonna pretend that there’s someone still in the elevator…

Collapsed ventilation – reminded me of the Silent Hill games.

…no.

Apparently it’s missing an entire floor – where it went I have no idea.

Above the pillars in the main entrance, there used to be a large marble ball…

..that ended up here – a couple hundred feet away…and it’s heavy.

There were Satanic scribblings everywhere, mountains of cat shit and discarded cans of tuna made it apparent that some of the squatters here (that probably still come back at night) are cat-hoarders.  One thing I learned here is that you NEED to wear some kind mask to filter out all the crap that’s floating in the air; it’s been nearly a month and I still have a bit of a sore throat…I just hope it doesn’t turn into something worse years later.

There’s NO WAY anyone got ritualistically sacrificed here..

We got out of the main area and checked out the greenhouse are before heading out – we only lasted a couple seconds before getting eaten by an army of mosquitos so we booked it after getting a couple clips (near the end below).   It’s amazing that this place has only been abandoned for around 10 years.  It almost looks like things start rotting once people leave the area; it’s a reminder that buildings are almost like food items when left to the wild – in a short amount of time it gets eaten away, one way or the other.

So it’s been a while….like a long while. A lot has happened – I got a few new facial scars in Mexico, been shooting Edge of Legacy, and a bunch of other projects that shot a bunch of photos on. I got some epic ones, so I decided to share them (or else this blog is gonna diiiiieeee). The above is a screen capture from the E.O.L. trailer.

A giant panel of glass, randomly destroyed out in a deserted area in near Palmdale.  There were other creepy things that I have no idea about like children’s shoes above an anthill, furniture mounted next to cacti, burnt tires, random tin cans…

John Gardiner – my DP

DeVille Vannik - from EOL shoot

View from location on the project “Little Boy” – Tecate, Mexico.  The view was rather awesome, everything else about the town, wasn’t.

That’s just a few – I’ll start posting up the more prettier photos as I sort through them…hopefully more regularly.  If anyone wants prints of these lemme know and I can put them up on zazzle. zk@zerokazama.com

Hey everyone, I’ve been slacking a bit (a lot) on writing here as of late – juggling a bunch of projects at once and having a hard time focusing and writing on this thing.  Anyhow, made a little sizzle reel of my work – few new things, few old things in about 60 seconds.

Been a little since I wrote anything on physical training and since people ask what I do, so I’ll just write a sample of a few days worth – I’m going to go backwards, starting from yesterday. First one I was with trainers Tanny Martty and Kevin Atkinson, and my buddy Evan “Rocket” Dollard helped to kick everyone’s ass.

1)Ropes, sprints, pain and parkour circuit (at Santa Monica’s old muscle beach) – google some images to get an idea.

1st circuit – double arm climb (donkey kong style) the double ropes, immediately sprint (approx 100 meters) to the longer ropes and climb as fast as possible, immediately sprint back to double rope area, do 8 muscle ups or equivalent (8 pullups -> 8 dips).  Do this twice.  No rest between.

Next, – we did kongs and speed vaults for about 20 minutes, then did kong-runs for approx 4 times across the grass patch.

2nd circuit – 100 reps w/metabolic ropes – change grip after 50, then do 15 ball slams w/25lb medicine ball, straight to sprint to long traveling rings (approx 100 meters EACH way) and back – no rest between sprints, straight to double leg plyo jumps (long jumps) from grass patch to double ropes (not sure of distance, but took about 10-12 jumps.  2 min rest then REPEAT, with added pushup right after ball slam as only adjustment.

Earlier in the day, did core activation exercises with Luke Sniewski at the LEAF facility – all my indoors training is done there.

2) Core and Ropes (a “rest” day)- simple – 45 second metabolic ropes, then 15 standing ab rolls w/wheel: this is the one where you start with the ab wheel by your toes while standing, roll flat out and back.  Do it on your knees (lol) to start with.  4 sets

3) Push Push Pull - bent over dumbell rows STARTING with 135 x8 reps, then dumbell bench press STARTING with 70lbsx2 for 8 reps, straight to 12 plyo pushups (hands AND feet lift off ground).  4 sets With every set, ADD weight – for the rows, I added 10 for the next set, then another 20 for the last 2. For bench, add 20 each set until finishing with 100 on each side.

4) Deads and Jumps - Deadlift 225 x 8 (for this workout, not going heavy on dls, just maintaining) to start, straight to 12 KB (kettlebell) squats with 48kilosx2 (holding one with each arm, locked below), straight to 12 KB jump squats with single 48kilo.  4 sets, increasing weight of deadlifts to 275 for last set.

Note – I start everything by rolling out (foam rolling and with tennis/baseballs) necessary muscles and also doing hip/glute and posterior chain activation.

Alright, that’s just a sample of the last 4 days, taking a break day today.  Will post another set when there’s enough variance to report in training style that you might think is interesting.

gym/trainers info  - www.LeafLifeStyle.com

Over the years and in present time, I’ve met a large number of people that risk their lives and safety on a day-to-day basis.  It may be because they’re stuntmen, or extreme sport fanatics ranging from street bike racers, freerunners or big wave surfers (that also swim with great whites).  Regardless of what it is they do, every moment they’re engaged in whatever activity it is, they know that everything may hang in the balance of their ability and forces beyond their control – at any point, if something goes wrong, everything that holds their lives together could collapse.  Death or permanent injury is a reality at every moment that could manifest.  Given the nature of whatever sport, activity or career that these individuals pursue, I’m constantly scratching my head when a youngster tells me that they have all these lofty goals and dreams but they’re scared to pursue them, or an elder saying that they admire the courage I have for leaving the islands to pursue what I wanted.

This has happened so many times that I felt like I had to explain why I’m scratching my head, because the fear of the young and the admiration of the old don’t make sense to me and I don’t feel it’s due.  At any point, the activity these people are in could kill them or end their lives as they’re presently living it.  INSTANTANEOUSLY.  How I see it, leaving all that’s familiar to you and moving to a new land/pursuing a dream/going out into the “wilderness” gives you much longer time buffer for anything to go wrong.  You could be homeless in a week or month (and maybe not), but you’re not going to break your neck in the middle of a some move you’ve never tried outside.  I see kids risking (sometimes in THE most idiotic way possible) killing or hurting themselves just to get youtube hits, but they’re afraid to move out of mom’s house.  War veterans of every age worrying about health insurance.

It’s a matter of consciously noticing the acts of faith in ourselves and the risks we take on a daily basis without even thinking about it, and seeing the paradox of fearing a situation that’s far less dangerous/risky.  The difference is only in duration and intensity; instead of one moment of  powerful focus, faith and acceptance, you have to be able to stretch it out over a longer period, to be able to rely on that part of yourself and the forces outside of your control that take you from one movement to another, from each jump to hairpin turn, to each stride in life you take.

“Take the willingness to die for a cause and apply it to your own.” – ZK

So lately I’ve been shooting a ton of stuff – over 20 videos in the last 6 months ranging from parkour/freerunning demo reels, my Beasty Training! web series to cooking shows and testimonials for the gym I train at.  The most recent project I’ve been getting off the ground is a zombie-killer film set in the future and we’re getting funds together to make it awesome

If you check out the site, you’ll see we got some “perks” meaning you can contribute to get credit in the film, be a zombie in the film, to executive producer credits, or a combination of both – one including getting a massage from me in my underwear.  Yeah you read that right, and I’ll firedance for you too…not in underwear.

When I first met this guy on the set of MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge, I was thinking “this guy has to be a stuntman and/or professional model, and a total dick”, mainly because I’ve haven’t met many people with his skill level and looks that aren’t full of themselves.  I was fortunate to be wrong about this and I’m proud to call him one of my brothers – Shane is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and unusually happy on top of that; I mean really really “what the hell are you so happy about?!” happy.  One day I was walking down 3rd street promenade and saw a bubble machine being sold on the street.  The first thing that popped into my head is “HolyCrapIgottaGetShaneToJumpThroughAwallOfBubblesAndChompThemInMidAir!”
Finally, a couple months later…

Oh, and btw – his dad is GARY FREAKIN’ DANIELS!!

The term “Flow” roughly defined in the newer fields of positive psychology is roughly defined as a state of consciousness where the observer and the observed event/activity, etc become merged into a state of timeless unity. There’s many other definitions of course, and they all respectively change depending on the situation and activity. I believe the most common ground the definition has is that it points to a state of effortless, and paradoxically intense focus. Physical activity takes on a feeling of non-thinking action, total engagement but at the same time having the feeling that one is an audience to the activity/observing the actions. In other areas it usually manifests in different varieties of the same type of feeling – “nothing exists but this, but I do not exist within this” – what I describe as “I” in this statement is the thinking self, the ego, the persona that feels local, separate, disconnected from the rest of the world and environment. Achieving this state is usually the means and end simultaneously to whatever craft is being practiced (even if that craft is having a flowing face-to-face conversation, an art that seems to be dying off in the world of texts), but being dependent on that activity to induce that state while subconsciously believing that the activity is the ONLY state leads people to become unconsciously addicted to the motions that trigger the flow experience within their consciousness.

Without getting too much more into the philosophy behind all of this, I’d like to share some ways that can increase the experience and avoid some pitfalls. Any activity can be a flow inducing activity but it usually takes something overtly engaging/demands all of your attention for it to compartmentalize enough psychic energy to trigger the experience. Conversations become flowing when both parties are completely engaged in the dialogue between each other – the key with all of this is the conscious use of attention when the situation can be handled with less that all of your attention. Distractions are easy when your physical safety or losing a game isn’t in jeopardy, in these situations, it takes conscious awareness as too how much attention is going elsewhere. One easy way to feel if you’re attention is drifting in different direction (unfocused) is that you become very aware of the passage of time. Notice that when you’re in flow, time stretches are speeds up, but only AFTER the point where you disengage flow.

Some experiences can’t induce flow, such as when something is too difficult or too easy, and this can be sensed in all areas – a physical activity where you can’t keep up or the challenge is too low, or if you’re having a existential conversation with someone who believes the world is flat.

The fine point here – use your intuition, but don’t let covert analysis mask itself as intuition. For instance, you might be actually intimidated to talk to someone/scared to do something you can do/fearful of unknown outcomes and your (false) “intuition” pushes you away from the situation/person.

It takes honesty to know when you’re bullshitting yourself.

Flow does not mean the helpless release of discretion – I’ve seen/heard too many people use the excuse “I was/am going with the flow” as a description of either why their lives are the way they are (as if going with the flow makes you exempt from decisive actions) or as a way of releasing responsibility after doing something really, really, f*cking stupid.

So pay attention, seek out playing field in both physical, mental and social areas that inspire AND help you to grow while practicing the art of honest self reflection.
ZK.

So you probably noticed I haven’t been blogging too much – between moving again, another season of shooting and random projects, I finally got myself a camera and learned editing.  Here’s the latest reel I’ve made for a friend – Andrew “Trainwreck” Cavuto.  Even if you’re not too familiar with parkour or freerunning, this video will leave you feeling good, I promise.

He’s currently unrepresented/unaffiliated freelance tracuer/freerunner. You can contact him at andrew.cavuto@gmail.com
Right now he’s only 18 – insane potential; when I first met him I had no idea he could pull off half the stuff he did in the video….and that’s not all of it – I had to extend the song to cover MOST of the footage I got of him and had to use a bunch of jump-cuts in the edit to make all of his rail work fit in.

We shot this in a couple hours guerrilla style at a park(over 6 months ago), my thought was just to see if we could mix up the Star Wars and Dragon Ball styles of action together. Oh, and no budget…just food, a car, and a few (understatement) favors. It’s going to be one of the submissions to the fan film competition on atomfilms.com

My concept on how to mix the two universes together came from watching Dragon Ball as a kid – I remembered that Goku came to Earth on a space capsule: what if a Sith Lord was able to intercept one of the Saiyan babies while in transit and train him as his apprentice? I figured anyone with Force-sensitivity would be able to pick up the energy of a Saiyan from galaxies away.

If you’re reading this George Lucas, please give me and my friends a job. We will rock it. Promise.

At this point we don’t have a feature/longer version in the works (yet?).  My next project I’m hoping to do is a short film that’s purely in the Star Wars universe entitled “Legacy of the Sith”.  If you like this, or any of my other projects, please donate (50 cents, a buck, anything helps, or buy one of my art prints on the right) if you can – I plan on shooting the next project over several national parks…gas and food for everyone gets expensive….and I need legit lightsabers….and my own camera be great.  Thank you! -ZK

Starring: Zero Kazama and Xiajun (XJ) Wang
Post Production/VFX: Jake Akuna – Akuna Entertainment
Editor: Justin Zagri
Camera: Daryl Gilmore – Evolve Pictures
Director: Zero Kazama