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Between Bullets

Johnny Parker goes undercover into the elusive underground Mixed Martial Arts fighting world to take down criminal mastermind Vincent DeChant, who is responsible for the death of his younger brother, Rory

  • Justin Burquist
    Director
  • Evette Betancourt
    Writer
  • Evette Betancourt
    Producer
    Craving A Life
  • Cassandra Betancourt
    Producer
    The Assassin Exit
  • Kaleti Williams
    Producer
    Stretch
  • James Kyson
    Key Cast
    Heroes
  • Dominic Lee
    Key Cast
    Don Quixote
  • Cassandra Betancourt
    Key Cast
    Blind Egress
  • Cara Mitsuko
    Key Cast
    The Perfect Roommate
  • Kaleti Williams
    Key Cast
    Stretch
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Action
  • Runtime:
    37 minutes 54 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 22, 2014
  • Production Budget:
    15,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Sony FS100
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Justin Burquist

Justin Burquist was born and raised in the Imperial Valley next to the Mexican border. The Imperial Valley is an interesting place to grow up, considering it’s the county with the highest unemployment in the nation and is predominantly Latino (Justin is a gringo). He began his love for film-making when his brother brought a camera home from his high school. A short film was immediately shot with Justin behind the camera with his brother and cousins acting. Justin has placed
highly in several screenwriting competitions and has won various film festival awards for his shorts and music videos. He is one of the founders of In Vitro Films, a production company based in San Diego. His current projects are his first feature length film and various shorts, music videos, and spec commercials. Justin also place 3 times in the top 25% of the Page Screen Writing Awards, Top 5 in the Bare Bones Film Festival Screenwriting, 1st Place Music Video for Bitter Sober, "Crazy" at the 2011 Indie Gathering Film Festival, and many more. Justin recently directed, wrote, and produced his latest project, Broken Knuckles. Justin is also the director in our digital series Between Bullets starring James Kyson and Cassandra Betancourt. Between Bullets was his first SAG-AFTRA Signatory project. He also wrote and directed, Proxy a digital series that has 8 episodes. He currently resides in San Diego and has never attended film school.

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Director Statement

I enjoyed shooting Between Bullets and working with Gemini Pictures operated by Hispanic twin sisters, Evette and Cassandra Betancourt. It's not common to work with females who are Hispanic and also twins! Although I wish it was and to being do so on an action based genre that is mostly dominated by men. With my background growing up in the Imperial Valley, I appreciated a diverse casting. Between Bullets had a diverse cast. Star talent with Kaleti Williams of Hawaiian descent, David Fernandez Jr. who is Hispanic, and of course James Kyson. I'd never worked with "working" actors. They were a great experience.

My favorite scene and most difficult scene happen to be the same one. The police raid on the fighting event. The difficulties were having some of the cast there and some not, shooting out of order and just choreographing the 40-50 extras we had to do the same thing when we had very little time. While filming I kept in mind the transitions to help the editor.

Doing a martial arts film with great stunts was something I'd only experimented with (previous short Broken Knuckles. Working with the fight scenes was an interesting and new experience, realizing the camera angles that worked and didn't work with the choreography. I'm very happy to have been a part of the film, Between Bullets.