Right before I left Michigan to head back to Tokyo, I had a chance to work as an actor and fight choreographer for a short film called Letters to No One. Staged in a post-apocolypic era, the story revolved around a girl trying to get an artificial heart that she believes can save the life of her little brother, and it reminded me a bit of Book of Eli but with the added punch of having the lead played by a petite female. (I was playing the story's main antagonist, Vernes.) All in all the project was a lot of fun to do. We filmed everything around Ann Arbor and in Downtown Detroit, and the sets they got were awesome. (The only downside being that the detoit locations lacked heating and it was freezing on set most of the time).
As a fight choreographer it was also really interesting because 1) it was my first time creating choreography for something shot on film, and 2) because the nature of the story and characters dictated action that was much more realistic than the fantastic Hong Kong style that I had been trained in. In regards to the first point, most of my experience in action had been on projects shot in DV, and as a function of that, there's a lot more room for experimentation. On DV cameras you can just shoot, erase and re-record as much as you like, whereas on film (which has a limited stock that's really expensive to replace) every single take costs money. As a function of that, when you are working with limited resources, choreography utilizing a single master cut (with smaller cut-ins) is a lot more financially efficient to do than using a bunch of smaller cuts sequentially and then just putting them all together piece-meal. As a function of this, in order to make things run smoother, I created overhead 'fight maps' (such as the one pictured) so that the camera crew, actors and directors could all know how the fight was going to proceed beforehand and mistakes could be minimalized.
In terms of the second point, it was interesting in that I came to realize just how stylized the training I had in action really is. While I was always coaching the actors to make bigger movements and finish with pose outs, the director was constantly telling them the opposite, and encouraging to just 'keep it real'. Thus far, this seems to be the biggest reoccuring theme since returning to the states, working in American cinema, and training in western stage combat. The philosophies on portraying 'fight action' in the west, and 'martial arts action' in the east seem to be in stark contrast of each other in a lot of ways, and I can see why groups from both sides can get frustrated working with each other if that isn't clearly understood from the beginning. (Which happens from time to time).
In any event, I'm still waiting to get the finished result back, and am excited to see how it turns out once sound effects, music and editing have all been added in. Mad-props to Guru Kalaj of MMAForge.com who supplied us with training Knives, and Twistarts Gymnastics of Dewitt for use of their mats for stunt falls. Will defiantely post it once it's done!
