6 Favourite Movie Fight Scenes for Inspiration

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Ip Man the Movie & Wing Chun for Martial Inspiration

Back in July, I wrote a post about my top 5 martial arts related movies, not just based on the fights alone, but the movies as complete works. A few people mentioned that Ip Man should really have been on my list, but I hadn't seen it. I finally managed to rectify this over the weekend and I must say, this movie would have made my top 5 list for sure. Check out the trailer:



Not only was the story well told, it was also well acted, not that cheesy-I-can-put-up-with-this-for-the-awesome-fights kind of acting. And the fights are indeed excellent! They did a great job of representing the style of Wing Chun and even made the Japanese's fighting style look, well, Japanese, with Karate style striking (though I would have liked to see a bit more Jiu-jitsu, naturally).

This movie made me remember way back in university when I did some Wing Chun training for a period of about 6 months. Its fluid striking and blocking blends hard and soft martial art principles and can be quite practically applied. One of my favourite drills was chi sao, a "sticky hands" drill that allows you to practice feeling your attacker's energy, so you can block, redirect and counter. Here is a video explaining the principles of this (you'll have to excuse the poor sound quality, but it really is a good video):



Anyway, Ip Man was a great source of inspiration for me, making me want to play with more flow drills. Have you seen it? What did you think? Out of curiosity, are there any Wing Chun practioners out there who have seen it? If so, do you think it stayed relatively true to the style?

My Top 5 Martial Arts Related Movies

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The Movie I Worked On Revealed!

Last year everyone was curious what movie I was working on doing special abilities extra work using my martial arts background. Now that the movie is done shooting, I can reveal it. I worked on Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief playing a half blood (demi-god) warrior. It comes out on Feb. 12. Check out the trailer:



For this movie, I got to do a bunch of sword fighting, some Judo style throwing and lots of running through the woods and charging. It was lots of fun!

I worked on a couple of the scenes featured in the trailer, but I wouldn't know if any of the warriors shown are me. The shots are just too quick and too far back. I worked on the scene in which the warriors are running through the woods, the one in which the fireball explodes, and the one with the fight on the river bank. Anyway, it sure looks like a fun movie! :)

Movie Sword Work Training in the Heat

Yesterday was the hottest day in recorded history in Vancouver. So what did I do? I went out to a Vancouver area stunt & martial arts training hall called the Action Room and spent most of the day doing movie sword work training outside in the heat. Aside from the heat, I had an awesome time.

The morning was spent going through basic attacks and defensive manoeuvres, working in groups of 2 or 3. We went through various sequences then later paired up with someone and put together our own sequence, which was later used to put together a bigger battle scene that was filmed.

The training was led by Kirk Jaques and Ernest Jackson (owners of the Action Room), both martial artists with decades of experience. Ernest Jackson is also a prominent stunt coordinator in the Vancouver area. Both were great instructors and led a fun and educational session.

For this session, I had brought my white oak bokken to train with. However, I noticed the ones they had for people to use were made of a hard plastic. They were lighter and easier to swing, which I thought might be nice because you would get less tired over the course of a long day, plus you don't have to use as much energy to do your routine at a faster pace. I asked Ernie about this, but he advised me to stick with wood.

The reason he gave me was that it forces the user to have proper form. Because it's heavier, you have no choice but to use the full motion. He said that when people use the lighter swords they often cheat and don't go through the full motion. By this logic, I think it's probably best to use a heavier sword for training, but if you need to make something look really sharp for a demo reel or for a stunt try-out, it might be good to have the lighter one too, as long as the form can be properly maintained at the increased speed. It's important to remember that even though the sword is lighter it is supposed to be heavier. So part of the stunt performer's role is to make it move like it's heavier even when it's not, which is not as easy as one might think.

Serenity Fight Rehearsal: Sweet Moves!

A friend of mine recently sent me a link to the video below. It's the fight rehearsal for the movie 'Serenity' performed entirely by stunt performers. In this movie, the fight is between River and, well pretty much an entire bar full of low-lifes. I personally think it's even better than the fight that ended up in the movie. That's the difference between a fight that's performed by an actor/dancer and a fight that's performed by a stunt performer with a martial arts background. Enjoy!

3 Things You Should Never Do While Doing Movie Fight Work

I just got home after working 6 days in the woods doing martial arts special abilities background work for a movie being shot locally. There is a long list of things you shouldn't do while working on set, but for the martial arts performer, below are a few key ones. This is relevant whether performing as an action actor, stunt performer or special abilities background performer.

1. Mess around with your props. On movie sets, there is often a lot of time between takes and people often have to wait long periods for the next shot. People have a tendency to want to play with the prop weapons they were issued in the meantime. On set, I saw people whacking rocks at other people with their prop swords, striking trees, spinning them dangerously close to other people, etc. This not only infuriates the prop masters (they have to fix any damage the weapons receive), it can also pose dangers to the people around you. And if you get caught doing such things repeatedly, you may be kicked off the set.

2. Perform a fight without checking your space. If you're performing any kind of fight, be sure to check out your surroundings for your own safety and for the safety of others. If you have to put together your own fight sequence, make sure you have the space to safely perform it. Avoid using wide swings if you know you're going to be close to other people. Also, make sure there are no obstacles in your area that might trip you up or hurt you if you fall. In the show I recently worked on, we were often fighting in close quarters with other performers. A number of people were injured from not being aware of their surroundings or by people who weren't careful with their space. Fortunately, none of them were serious.

3. Try to get a stunt upgrade by doing dangerous moves. There are a number of background performers, both special abilities or general, who hope to get into stunts. Some particularly overzealous ones will do risky moves trying to get upgraded to stunts. This is NOT the way to do it. In fact, people who do this often get kicked off set. As a background performer, you are not covered by the production company's insurance if you get injured taking needless risks. You become a potential liability to the production. If you are SAE (special abilties extra) and there may be some risks perceived in what you are performing, talk to an A.D. (assistant director) and/or the production's stunt coordinator to ensure that you have the 'ok' to perform your skill the way you intend. When I was on set recently, I was asked to perform a Judo sequence with a couple of other performers. What we had in mind involved throwing and being thrown to the ground. Since there was some minor risk involved I checked with the A.D. who then checked with the stunt coordination team to make sure it was ok, assuring them that we wouldn't ask for a stunt upgrade for our performance. Happily, we got approval to do the sequence.

There are plenty of other things you shouldn't do, but let me leave you with one piece of advice that covers them all: BE PROFESSIONAL! If you're on set, you're being paid to perform a specific task. Don't go beyond that unless asked to and don't do anything that will interfere with the production. Act professionally and you will be treated professionally.

Safety Concerns When Doing Movie Fighting

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently. I've been away working in the woods on a movie set, doing martial arts special ability background work. I have the day off today so I'll tell you a little about that.

In the movie on which I am working, they have hired about 30 people to play warriors, all with their own special abilities, including fencing, archery, javelin throwing, horse handling, gymnastics, and martial arts of every description. It's been very interesting to meet all these people, each of which have a strong commitment to their individual arts. I've even set up training dates with a few of them for after we're done working on the movie.

One thing I'd like to emphasize in this post about movie fighting is safety. While the people playing warriors are all very skilled at what they do, they don't all have the same experience in all the arts represented in the movie. If you're ever working on a movie set and someone asks you to do something you don't know much about, either ask for assistance if possible, or give up the task to someone who knows what they're doing. Because people are very keen to get an active role in the movie, sometimes they take on risks they shouldn't.

The other day, one guy got stabbed in the eye with a wooden sword. The person holding the sword didn't have any experience with sword handling and when he got caught up in the action the sword ended up in a place it shouldn't have. This person would have been better off giving up his role to someone with more experience. Fortunately, they were only using wooden swords so the guy on the receiving end only ended up with a nasty black eye. If they had been using the aluminum prop swords he very well may have lost an eye.

When doing movie sword work, you never aim the sword for the person's body. It is easy to make the scene look realistic and still safe by aiming away from the body half a foot wide of the either hip or shoulder. Basically, you are aiming to the place where the other person is expected to block. It usually takes a lot of training to develop the control with the sword to do this at a speed that looks good for the camera while still being safe for those doing the action.

Well, that's my 2 cents. I'm away for another week or so on set so there won't be any new posts (unless my assistant instructor Chris finds the time to do one). Have a great week!