Film and television
Kayanan is a Master-level edged weapons (knife, sword, tomahawk) expert and instructor in Sayoc Kali. This rare combination of a visual and martial artist, has led to projects which utilize both skills to illustrate fight storyboards for film and TV. Kayanan choreographed and trained the actors, in William Friedkin's The Hunted starring Benicio del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones.[12] He also trained actor Sam Rockwell for director George Clooney's film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Kayanan was a development artist, fight trainer and weapons consultant for Paramount Pictures adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars. His art was used for the CBS tv show NCIS: Los Angeles. Kayanan designed fights for the main cast of LL Cool J, Chris O' Donnell, Daniela Ruah and Eric Christian Olsen, as well as special guest stars Danny Trejo,[13] Ernie Reyes Jr.,[14] and Daniel Henney.[15] Kayanan was the technical advisor for the close quarter fights inside the airplane of the film Non-Stop starring Liam Neeson.
Rafael Kayanan was a set illustrator and story board artist for the Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark Broadway show, directed by Julie Taymor with music created by Bono and the Edge.
Kayanan worked on concept illustration for the films Immortals[16][17] and Mirror, Mirror both directed by Tarsem Singh from Relativity Media, and the related graphic novel anthology Immortals: Gods and Heroes published by Archaia.
Other projects include the Discovery TV show Lone Target, also known internationally as Manhunt, starring former Navy SEAL Joel Lambert. The Kayanan designed RnD Hawk, Bontoc and Madumi Sayoc Kali-Daniel Winkler knives were prominently featured in this show.[18]
Kayanan’s Sayoc Winkler RnD Hawk is also featured in both the tv and book series Terminal List, written by Jack Carr.
