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Born in Hamburg, Germany, Alejo Mo-Sun was raised in Toronto, Canada, where he began a twenty-year career in martial arts, graduating from multiple specializations of Tai Ji, the Chen Style (Spiral Long Frame), Wing Tsun, Hung Gar, and Yang Style. Alejo's martial arts career culminated in his study with Tom Fung, the 8th generation descendant of Tai Ji Mantis founder, Wong Long. When Alejo came to California, he combined his extensive martial arts training with his aptitude for acting, quickly establishing himself as a star on the rise. Before long, Alejo's business acumen and understanding of the industry led him to shift his sights, and to great success. Alejo took over as SVP of Business Development at movie-marketing firm Route 66 where, in a few short years, he designed and executed a campaign to completely rebrand the firm and, ultimately, more than double their market share. Currently, Alejo's momentum is only increasing as he develops and directs his own projects through his company, Mo-Sun Welteroth Media. At MWM Alejo has made it his directive to create globally-based, franchisable action/adventures with a love-story through-line. With numerous pilots and commercials already under MWM's belt, Alejo is now writing, producing, and directing his first feature, Hirokin. Hirokin -- an action/adventure film that begins principal photography in 2010 -- is his most ambitious project to date, and Alejo has assembled a team commensurate with the project's magnitude. Producer Braxton Pope and Line Producer Elaine Dysinger as well as Casting Director Mary Vernieu, Production Designer Stephanie Gordon, and Stunt Coordinator Julius LeFlore are signed on to the project and, under Alejo's vision and leadership, will surely make Hirokin a project to look out for. |
After having cut more than 10 feature films in various genres with first time directors to veterans of the field, editing "Hirokin" was truly a breath of fresh air. Alejo's passion and talent for filmmaking seeped into every frame of the film from the perspective of a storyteller and someone with a strong eye for visuals. Typically, I work with directors who either lean heavily on style but forget about the importance of a great performance or are so focused on performance, they miss proper coverage to make a scene work. On day one watching raw footage from "Hirokin", it became instantly clear that Alejo had a real talent for both.
In one scene, there was a static close up shot with a ho-hum reading by an actress on take 1 that was completely transformed by the 2nd or 3rd take into a truly poignant moment in the film. In this scene, a couple separates their hands as one walks away after a conflict. Rather than only grabbing a CU insert shot of the hands, Alejo decided to tilt down at just the right moment after he directed the actress' to read the line with more power, to reveal the couple's hands slipping apart. As the actor leaves frame, the shot tilts back up to the actresses face - the shallow depth of field allowing us to gracefully shift focus on the tilt from the hands back to the actresses face. His communication to the DP and actress were spot on so that everyone nailed it by the 3rd take. It was this sort of on the fly creativity: transforming a fairly flat performance to one that really hit home and orchestrating these emotionally driven camera moves in the moment that brought "Hirokin" to a completely different level. It was an absolute joy to watch this happen scene by scene. From giant set pieces with hundreds of extras and elaborate action sequences to the most intimate moments between characters; all were evolved under Alejo's brilliant sense of filmmaking. In the edit bay, there were so many choices as Alejo also was thinking like an editor on set, grabbing insert shots when needed and making sure we had lots of options to work with. In the end, "Hirokin" ended up being one of the films I'm most proud of having been a part of and can't wait to be working with Alejo again in the future.
- Bryan Roberts :: Film & Television Editor
Alejo Mo-Sun Entertainment
310-454-5600
mosunassistant@gmail.com