Blazing a Hollywood Trail: Intimacy Coordinator Rachel Flesher

With Rachel Flesher- an international intimacy coordinator whom I graduated from stunt school
with back in 2011.  

So, it's not that often that I use this blog to write about other people; but every once in a while you get to spend time with someone who is doing something that's so unique that just worth writing about. In this case, the person is question is Rachel Flesher, a friend of mine whom I graduated stunt school with back in 2011. While teaching fight choreography and Japanese weapons work at the Paddy Crean this past winter I had a chance to catch up with her, here what she was up to, and actually take a few classes from her in a field I had never even heard of before: intimacy direction.

As aforementioned, Rachel graduated from stunt school with me 8 years ago, and also had a strong stage combat background, but in recent years, she had taken her training in a completely new direction, and was now doing intimacy coordination for Netflix and CBS. In hearing that she was doing this, in one respect I was surprised, but in another I could see the parallels:

- An action director’s job is to map out an action sequence to best tell the physical, action-oriented parts of a story, and to do so in a way that keeps the actors/stunt players safe.

- An intimacy director’s job is basically to map out sex scenes in the same way to make sure that no one is getting traumatized or taken advantage of. 

While an action director maps out the course of the action and how the camera will be used for it, the stunt coordinator’s job is to work with the stunt people themselves to make sure that everyone is communicating well and that everything is done in a way so that no one is harmed. 

While a stunt coordinator's job is to make sure that a stunt performance runs smoothly with no physical injuries
an intimacy coordinator's job is to make sure of the same things in intimate scenes with no emotional abuses or injuries. 

An intimacy coordinator’s job again is to do the same thing; to work with the actors to make sure boundaries are set, expectations are met, and consent has been properly granted for every step of the way- so that both parties can relax and do their jobs without feeling like they are being taken advantage of- by either their partner or the director.

While one might question the need for such a position (in contrast to stunts where people can get seriously physically hurt), it’s important to remember just how mentally traumatizing film work can be and for all the same reasons. At the end of the day, the director just wants the shot, and oftentimes, they are willing to go to any lengths to get it. For example telling a small child that his dog has died in order to get him or her to cry, or like in the Alien movies when actors were suddenly sprayed with animal blood with no forewarning to get a "real" reaction.  

In the same way that you wouldn’t want to ask a war veteran with PTSD to re-live a scene of getting shot at or watching his friend die, you also wouldn’t want to ask a person who has been raped, sexually abused or molested to re-live something similar without forewarning and the proper mental preparation. This is particularly true because so many people can carry sexual trauma without being open about it. 

While I was only able to take a few classes on it, I got to work with both Rachel and Alicia Rodis, both of whom work with and represent Intimacy Directors International. The perspective Rachel (coordinator) and Alicia (director) offered was absolutely fascinating; and applicable to not just intimacy direction, but stunt work and just better dealing with people in general. There was a lot of discussion on things like the difference between permission and consent. (Permission is given from someone from above like the director, and consent is given by the person engaging in the act themselves)and how to best get everyone into a mental space where they can open up to portraying intimacy organically without anyone being coerced for forced into something they don't want to do. I am a huge fan of life-long education, and I found this really enlightening. It was also fascinating because it's such a new field or set job, but it makes so much sense that you wonder why it was never there in the first place. But this is exactly the challege for Rachel and the others working in this field- they are creating it, defining it, and standardizing it as they go. I would encourage anyone who works in entertainment to learn what they can about this; I also applaud Rachel for her amazing work and look forward to the chance that I can work with her in the future.

More on Rachel and her work:
http://www.kokandyproductions.com/rachel-flesher/
https://www.writerstheatre.org/rachel-flesher-biography
Intimacy Directors International

Australia: First Impressions

After seeing it in so many movies, I finally got to see the Sydney
Opera House for myself. 

So, this morning I arrived in Australia for trial rehearsals for a production I may be working with later this year called Erth. The job came my way via my fireburn instructor from stunt school. He had worked with them before on many occasions, and as they had recently begun to do a summer tour in Japan, he suggested that they get in touch with me as not just a performer, (I'm slated to operate a giant triceratops rig), but also somewhat of a local liaison.

Long story short, this opportunity has finally given me the chance to get to the only continent I have never been to- Australia, so I am super happy to be here, and it's really interesting for a myriad of reasons.

As a city, it reminds me of Seattle a lot. Lots of water, rolling hills, and lushy green- but more tropical and "jungley" instead of deciduous...and apparently you can buy boomerangs everywhere, lol.  As any Aussie will tell you, the people are incredibly laid-back. More so than pretty much any big city people I have ever met. As an example, after my host picked me up from the airport, he pretty much threw me a key to his house, and said "Right. I've got some meetings. Take today to do whatever you like." and left me to do my own thing. This is in stark contract with the Asian sense of hospitality I'm used to where people will bend over backwards to show you around, take you out and be the best hosts you can imagine. But it was really nice.

All the trains are double-deckers. 

As I spent almost a decade wandering all over Asia by myself, I welcomed the freedom, and set about to make it out to the Sydney Opera House. As something I had seen in a million Hollywood movies, seeing it up close was a must; and looking at the map, it was only a few stations away.

 The train system took a minute to wrap my head around, (but literally just a minute) and then after that, getting around was cheap and easy. As aforementioned, people are super easy-going, so asking directions from strangers was no issue at all. My only complaint was free wifi was harder to find than I expected it to be. And I still haven't seen a single starbucks. It's fall here, (and cool) so a hot coffee would have been really nice. Another interesting thing is that yesterday when I left Japan, I was in the spring. Today, when I arrived in Australia, I am in the fall.  It's really weird sometimes to see just how different of a world you can go to on a single flight.

It was spring when I left Japan a few hours ago; but it is fall here. 

My first Aussie meal- A double patty, double cheeese, double-maple
bacon burger with a bun that was an enormous glazed donut. EPIC. 

Syndey looks shockingly similar to Seattle; but more tropical. 

And there are boomerangs for sale everywhere, lol. 

Fists of Absinthe: Coming Late Summer

A still from the upcoming action comedy,
Fists of Absinthe (アブサンの拳）

So this past week, I wrapped on Fists of Absinthe, (アブサンの拳) an action comedy short film that looks to be my next big thing... When oddly enough, a month and a half ago, it didn't even exist as a thought... Well not exactly.

Since about last year, I've had an idea for a comedic intro to my webshow, How to Defeat Dudes, where I play a modern Black Samurai akin to Yasuke. (A character in Japanese history whom I have always yearned to play, but as yet have never had the chance to). In the skit, he is defending his sneakers against Samurai who want them for their lord. Aside from just thinking it would be funny, it would also give me a chance to do some swordplay-  something I have studied for several years now, and rarely (if ever) get a chance to use. I've also been yearning to do some kind of a futuristic Cyber Samurai thing for a while too, but up until this point, the opportunity for it was never quite there. 

Then, near the end of March, while filming the first few episodes of Martial Arts in Slow Motion at the Youtube Studio, one of the staff came in and let me know that they were building a Samurai period set for Youtube Partners whom they thought had the potential to create great content with it... And that they would be partnering with Toei studio as well for sets, costumes, props, etc. As I had recently started a new Youtube channel just for action film work and projects that I and my stunt team were working on, that was all I needed to hear. I applied for the program immediately, and was one of a few people to be accepted.

With only a month to do all of the pre-production, (writing and editing the script, putting together a cast and crew, scouting and securing locations, etc), I set out to create something awesome... And it snowballed into something epic. 

Having a production budget from Google, and support of Toei studios, I felt as though there should be no excuse for this being anything less than a 100% professional production, and as such I felt that the shoes that the story revolves around were important as well. 

As luck would have it, Adidas had just unveiled a new product line, and in particular their newest high end running shoe, the Ultra Boosts. Using a new kind of technology, the shoe offers a new level of impact absorption while also giving the wearer a feeling of "spring" with each movement. 

Given how much action would be in the film  (chase scenes, parkour, etc) I thought that this would be an excellent shoe of choice, and Adidas was kind of enough to supply pairs to the actors and stuntmen involved in all the action, as well as offer social media support.

 With that, everything simply snowballed. 

Completing make-up for the "future" fight sequence.

I contacted an American director whom I was a fan of, and with him he brought the DP, and post-production team. People and businesses started offering us their locations instead of my having to ask for them, etc, and before I knew it, I was at the helm of a major project. 

As great and amazing and awesome as all of this was however, it also made the project incredibly complex... At a time when my wife and I were gearing up for the delivery of our first child, (who was born the week before we started shooting) and as luck would have it, I had also just gotten cast to play a character in the biggest theatre show in the country at the same time. (地獄のオルフィアス)

Needless to say trying to handle all three of these things at the same time made this simply the hardest and most sleep deprived month I have ever had. 

Thankfully though, I had the best cast and crew that anyone could have ever asked for on this film, their work ethic was just phenomenal, and in the end, I think we made an excellent film. Having a cast and crew representing Japan, the States, and Canada, I feel honored and privileged to have been a part of it, and at the end I think we have something that people from both sides of the globe will really enjoy. As they say at Adidas, "Impossible is nothing." ;)

Chuck Johnson Interview- Stunts, Action Cinema, & Martial Arts: East vs. West Part 1

Just uploaded Part 1 of an interview that was done of me for The Michigan Martial Arts Project, and was filmed the last time I went back to Michigan to see my family. In the interview, I am discussing some of the differences I observed between action cinema, martial arts, and stunt work in Asia and in the states, and we actually filmed it in my parents' home. In general, I always love doing interviews, but it's also a bit nerve-racking because you have to think and answer questions on your feet, and afterwards you always end up wondering if you said the things you really wanted to say, or if you said them in the correct light. Anyway, once I had a chance to check it out, I was fairly pleased with how it turned out.

Here it is, if you'd like to check it out yourself!

Doing a burn stunt... in a kung fu uniform

Today was my first experience learning to do a burn. In actually however, the process started about a week ago when I went to a thift store with a bunch of the other stunt players I'm training with to find cheap clothes that we could light ourselves on fire in. As a burn stunt requires all 100% cotton clothes (most synthetics will 'melt' into molten plastic instead of burning to ash), and multiple layers of protection, the very first part of stunt was finding the right clothes to burn in. As luck would have it, the ONLY tops I could find that was 100% cotton and in my size was the top of a kung fu uniform, and an exact replica of Freddy Kruger's sweater. What a combo! I already knew it was going to be a good day.

On the day of our burn we were given a lecture on the natural tendencies of fire, and how to protect yourself from it (which fit nicely with some of the wilderness survival related fire work I had done in Japan), and the instructors walked us through the preparations we would need to take in order to do our burns, and it was an incredible learning experience. I could see first hand why 1) burn stunts are rare in films and 2) why they are always so short.

1) They take an incredible amount of manpower to do as just one person safely doing a 20 sec. burn takes a team of about 20 people. (3 on fire extinguishers to put out the main fire, one with a hose to put out spot fires that re-ignite inside the clothes, 1 on blankets, 3 to prep the clothes, etc).

Second of all, you are always working against the clock. Before the stunt, the player needs to put on long-johns of flame resistant material (that have been soaking in freezing cold flame resistant gel) and the longer you wait after you suit them up, the warmer the undersuit will become, (and thus less affective). Furthermore, given the fact that it is a wet, ice-cold bodysuit against your skin) waiting a long time in the suit before the stunt also puts you at risk for hypothermia.

2) The reason they are so short is because you can't actually breath while you are doing it. As they chemicals burning are a bit toxic, there is fire around your mouth and nose, and smoke is everywhere, you can't risk breathing in. And even after you drop to the ground (the sign that you want them to put you out) they are spraying you with ice-cold CO2 from fire extinguishers (which you also can't breath in) so you need to hold enough air to get through that as well. Finally they also fill your ears with the flame resistant gel, so you can't actually hear such as well. (and for a frontal burn, you also have to do it blind.

As for my burn it went pretty well. The only downside of doing the burn in the kung fu uniform was that the small metal tabs in the collar meant that I had to cut it completely off before the burn, (hot metal on skin-no thanks) and that meant no protection for my neck. It also meant the back of my head would act as a 'heat shelf' and would get extremely hot, extremely fast if I didn't keep it down all the time. They told me that this would happen and that I should get flame 'licks' on the back of my head, and it happened more or less exactlly as they said it would. Also as I have a shaved head, I didn't have any hair to hold the flame resistant gel, (which is basically water in a molecular gel form), so that layer they put over my skin would be all that there was to protect me. After catching 2 of those flame licks on the back of my head, I was done. I dropped down so they could it me out. Interestingly enough though, after standing up, taking a shower, and walking away from it, it was an incredible feeling...kind of like completing a successful skydive. Really looking forward to the next time I can get more experience in this particular area of stunt work.

Stunt training in Seattle

Yesterday was my first day of training at the United Stuntmen's Association Intenational Stunt School in Seattle. About 6 months ago, while I was training at the Society of American Fight Directors Winter Wonderland Workshop, I met the owner, Dave Boushey, and he said that it would be great for me to come out, so I decided to jump right on it. The training is 22 days and covers 15 disciplines of stunt work, including flame stunts, high falls, trampoline work, and of course, my personal favorite and specialty, fight choreography. Unfortunately, do to my schedule, I missed the first 2 days of the school, and arrived half-way through the third, literally fresh off the plane from spending the past 3 days flying Tokyo-Dallas-Michigan-Seattle. (I actually showed up at the training hall with all of my luggage).

They had spent the past two days learning a fight and were preparing to showcase it in about an hour. After having spent 5 years studying incredibly complex fight sequences in Tokyo however, the one they were doing wasn't too difficult (although the stylistic differences did take a bit of getting used to), so I just took the 30 minutes to learn it, practice it a few times, and an hour later performed it like everyone else. Personally, I felt my performance was kind of lacking (at the time I had a sore back from carrying my luggage for 3 days, and I hadn't slept yet), but I actually got applause for the performance. I think more than anything people were just impressed that I figured it out and could perform it as well as everyone else in only an hour.

Still, it was a great way to start off my training. Coming in two days late, I thought I would be at a disadvantage and would need to bust my tail to catch up, but it actually worked out even better because it allowed me to start off my making an excellent first impression. So far so good...Now the challenge will be to keep my level of performance for the rest of the school. Next up is training with clubs and knives. We'll see how it goes!

Sushi Typhoon Quadruple Movie Premiere

This past saturday, I attended the Tokyo Premiere of 4 Sushi Typhoon films: Aliens vs. Ninja, Dead Ball, Yakuza Weapon, and Hell Driver. It was great to get out there as I had a chance to catch up the with the films' producer (who also produced Death Trance), as well as spend a bit of time with Yuji Shimomura, and Tak Sakaguchi. My good friends (Kentaro Shimazu- whom I squared off against for the sword action part of my demo reel) and Asami were also there, as well as Yassy, as well as an actress whom I used to do pronunciation coaching for Miho Ninagawa, Miho Ninagawa. It was my first time to see everyone together since returning to Japan, and that made the trip out to Ginza for the premiere worth it inandof itself.

As for the films itself, Yakuza Weapon was heralded as having the best martial arts action, but unfortunately as I had a rank test in Karate that day, I had to miss it. Aliens vs. Ninjas also looked like a lot of fun. The only film I was able to catch was Dead Ball, and it was absolutely hilarious. Shockingly so. Although I had an idea of the kind of stuff that Sushi Typhoon makes (just from the people involved, and their previous work), I had no idea they would pull it off as well as they did until I actually saw Dead Ball. Although it didn't have much in the way of martial arts action, it was quite simply a hilarious film. Shockingly so. Imagine a live action version of South Park (complete with all the blood, profanity, and intelligent purpose behind it) done in typical Japanese slapstick style humor, and you are starting to get the point. I was also surprised at the fact that the film actually had some really huge names in the Japanese entertainment industry as well such as ( )the guy who plays Will Smith, Keanu Reeves and most other major Hollywood male celebrities in Japanese voice overs), and ( ). It was simply awesome. I've already decided to buy a bunch of copies and give them away as christmas presents. Can't wait to see AVN, Hell Driver and Yakuza Weapon!!

Martial Arts Action at WE Kids Health Expo!

Today I spent the day running a booth offering people an intro to martial arts screen action at the WE Kids Health Expo in Meridian Mall. Although I love the mission of the expo (showing kids a wide range of ways to exercise to help combat child obestity), I wasn't exactly sure how well my own particular interest would go over. (Particularly since MA action and stunts is much more for adults than anything else). Still I decided to set up a booth and give it a try anyway, and it turned out to be a great day and an absolute blast. I had a monitor with some action scenes playing and that was enough to get people's attention, so I had at least 10 or 12 people stop who and give it a try. Basically, I would just run them through a short sequence (and at the end have them throw me to the ground with an Irish Whip) and they thought it was hilarious! Eventually, I even started getting crowds to stop and watch and a few people even expressed interest in coming to my next seminar (next Sunday, Feb. 27th) which I thought was very cool.

Probably the highlight of the day however was a chance meeting with Michigan State junior XMA champion Micah Moore. His TKD school also had a booth at the Expo, and his master (who is a friend of mine) suggested to his mom that he meet me. From there, he wandered over to my spot and I took a minute to show him a few moves he'd never seen before. Apparently he had a good time because he came back a few hours later, and basically stayed to continue practicing. After a while I got so into teaching him that I stopped promoting my own stuff altogether. As a teacher, it's a rare chance to get to work with someone that motivated, (particularly of that age) and the kid just impressed me beyond belief. Backhandsprings, 540's 720s, you name it, the kid could nail it. Even the stuff I showed him, he got with no problems at all. The only thing he couldn't quite land was an Ariel (no hand cartwheel), but I'm sure that with one or two more sessions, he can get it. Particularly if we do it at my gymnastics gym where I've got all the right equipment to teach him. I've got a great feeling about this kid. Very much looking forward to working with him further.

Last Day of Training at WWW

Yesterday, the Society of American Fight Directors concluded the Winterwonderland Workshop. As with any experience like this, I was really sad to see it come to an end, but felt so lucky and fortunate to have experienced it, and met all of the people that I did.

My last day of classes consisted of two more staged knife combat classes, and my final class was on falling techniques. The two knife classes were great, and although there was a bit of overlap with the other ones I had done (I once again earned a reputation as someone not to square off against in knife battles ;) I feel that the review was good for really crystalizing a lot of the concepts. One really cool thing was that after the second knife class (Which focused on nasty elements of knife fighting) I had a chance to talk with the instructor about his own martial arts background, and we decided to spend half of our lunch period playing around. He had a great deal of experience in the Fillipino arts, and showed me a lot of really cool (and particularly nasty) ways to manipulate someone's body off of a punch, so that was the highlight of my day.

The last class on stunt breakfalls was also excellent, as it was my first time getting to study them in English, and it allowed me to fill in a lot of gaps. The instructor (who had a ton of film experience) also had a lot of good advice about really effective ways to cushion falls (in particular for a roll) and it made me wonder why they hadn't figured this stuff out in actual martial arts gyms. (Although when I think about it, it's probably because they had never actually had to USE those falls on concrete or equally hard surfaces and he had). Very very informative.

The end of the Workshop consisted with a show of all of the masters putting together a series of choreographed fights. One of these simulated the possible way in which a sword duel that led to a particularly perplexing autopsy (with all kinds of stab wounds in crazy places) might have gone, and that was simply fascinating to see. The event itself ended with a huge party that unfortuantely I had to miss to catch a train, but overall this was one of the most fun martial arts related events I have ever been to, and I already can't wait till next year.

First Day of Training at WWW

Today was my first day of training at the Winter Wonderland Workshop sponsored by the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat (BASSC). It's being hosted at a resort about an hour outside of Chicago, so it took a bit of logistic finagling to get myself here, but thus far it has been totally worth it.

The workshop is 3 days in total, and you have 4 classes a day, with each one being an hour and a half. This morning's class focused on the art of intimate killing (i.e. choking someone to death, maiming them with a knife, stabbing them and/or pulling the blade out so you leave a gaping wound).

After that, the next class was elemental combat which focused on choosing and interpreting one of the four basic elements (earth, wind, fire, water) within yourself, and then adapting it to fencing / swashbuckling style fight choreography.


In the afternoon, the first class was an introduction to further knife work (i.e. cutting angles, targets, etc). And the last class was short staff, but the instructor (who seriously dislikes the way short staffs are commonly 'cheapened' in contemporary stage combat choreography chose to focus on martial techniques instead, drawing heavily from Aikido. Cool sh--.

Unquestionably the highlight of my day was during the knife class. Near the end, instead of just giving us choreography to do, in order to make it more real and really get us into the mentality, the instructor put all of us in a circle, and made us chant 'Two men enter, one man leaves!' then two at a time we entered the 'ring' as combatants in white T-shirts. Instead of a knife, we were armed with a marker. As such, 'cuts' show up on your shirt, and a deep one means you lose. As a martial artist with 17 years of highly diversified ring fighting experience, I know how to move. And as a function of it, I was fairly confident that I would do well, if not win. In the end, out of the 20 or so people in the class, it came down to myself and one other guy (who I found out after was a martial artist of 30 years). Although I had the advantage of reach because I was a lot taller, he was really quick, and he got a stab in on my stomach. With that, he (and everyone else) thought he had won the match, until he stood up straight, and the long black mark starting from the Karotid artery and running across his trachea showed that I had slit his throat in the process.

Another day another shoot... with car crashes, and exploding windows

This past weekend, I had another shoot for the film I was doing. I was pretty excited because I was one of six people who asked to bring cars to the shoot so that they could actually use them in the film (which meant more $$$ for me ;). I was supposed to drive it through a major intersection just before 6 cars smashed into each other. Cooooool stuff.

After I arrived on set, they told me to park behind a blue Tahoe, and then wait for further instructions... Which was fine... except that I really really had to go to the bathroom. Finally, 2 1/2 hours later, I broke down and decided to make a quick run, and then sure enough found out that the AD had come around to give directions while I was in the bathroom, and that I had lost my spot to one of the other drivers. This is one of the things I've come to learn- if you are involved in huge projects with a lot of people, (and ultimately millions of dollars at stake) the production schedule comes before all. Unless you are one of the major players in the film, If you miss a beat, you're out. As such, I ended up spending the vast majority of the afternoon simply sitting in the car parked right behind where the accident took place. It did however, still add to the scene, still earn me a paycheck, and keep me warm and out of the wind while everyone else was outside freezing (the weather was snowy and unbelievably cold) so I didn't particularly have any complaints about it.

Even so, it was a pretty cool shoot to see up close and personal. There were 6 car crashes, gunfire, windows exploding, etc. Typical Hollywood fare. Didn't know semi-automatic weaponry was that loud. Nor had I ever witnessed real car accidents that close either. Interestingly enough, I also figured out how they blow out the windows to real restaurants and things on set... Very interesting stuff. Definately a trick I'd love to use in a film sometime myself. For this scene 50 cent was also present. I was talking to a few people on set during one of the downtimes, and noticed that he sitting about 10 feet away from me. No chances to talk to him at all (and I didn't except to), but I was surprised to find that he looks exactly like he does on TV. Don't know what I expected to be different... but when I was doing security for celebs a few years back, I was suprised at just how different a few of them looked than they do on TV. Sometimes, it's really a wonder what make-up can do ;)

First Appearance on an American TV Drama... sort of

I had a job for the new ABC drama Detroit 187 last week. As there is a scene in an upcoming episode that takes place in a boxing gym, they wanted to take photos of fights for the walls of the gym, and with my background, I was one of the people selected for the photos. Anyway, I was happy to be on the show, even if only as a still image ;)

It actually reminded me of a similar job I did for a Japanese TV drama once. There was a scene where the main character reflected on and recalled his time in Africa, and he had to hand a photo from it over to someone else in the scene to look at. Much like this past shoot, the attention to detail was simply insane. In that shoot, the guy was standing in front of a tank to stop the destruction of an orphanage, and they actually brought in 20 little African (or half-African) kids, 10 'soldiers' (of which I was a part) and an ACTUAL TANK. For the orphanage, they seemd to have painted the walls, put up banners, planted flowers, etc. and then they spent the WHOLE day shooting it from different angles simply to get that one image. This one was similar, although not quite that extreme. (Didn't get to ride a moving tank this time).

In the pictures, I was wearing camoflage trunks (which were actually pretty cool- wish I coulda kept them). They got a few really good shots, but as the person I was 'sparring' with didn't have any action experience, (and as such, didn't know how to 'sell a hit') they seemed the most happy with the shots where I was taking it to the face, so that's what will probably be on the show (unfortunately ;)

Another cool thing about the shoot though was the fact that I got a chance to meet IBF World Boxing Champion, Cornelieus 'K-9' Bundrage. (Also there for the shoot). During the downtime, he gave me a few tips on how to improve my boxing technique, and showed me a REDICULOUSLY SICK jumprope routine (which I can't even begin to copy and wished like he-- I coulda got on tape). After the shoot was completely finished, and we were just hanging out and talking I got a picture with him as well. Very very nice guy. Very modest and a family man. (Notice the size of his fists and forearms though- said he's been doing 1000 push-ups a day since he was 11.) Definately not the kind of arm I want to take a punch from.

First Filming in Michigan

Had my first experience working on a shoot in Michigan this past weekend for a new Bruce Willis film. While I'm here, I'm training more than anything else, but I registered with Real Styles in Detroit (who casts extras for Hollywood projects in Michigan) just for the chance to get onset and make a bit of extra cash on the side before I start filming on Figment next month, and they cast me in this immediately.

It was a first in terms of a lot of things (i.e. working on a film of that budget size, working here in my home state in Michigan, etc) but the single most impressive thing about it was the food. With a lot of the jobs I did in Japan, the craft services (i.e. food) consisted of a few bottles of tea, some Okashi (snacks) and a bento (lunch box).

Here just the snack table was INCREDIBLE. 6 different kinds of fresh veggies, all kinds of fruit (dehydrated and fresh), 5 or 6 different kinds of nutri-grain bars, 5 or 6 different kinds of candy bars, multiple kinds of potato, corn and veggie chips, and a multitude of different nuts... and all that was BEFORE LUNCH.

Lunch actually consisted of king crab, fresh steak, grilled chicken, 2 kinds of pie, 3 kinds of salad (with 7 different kinds of dressing) and the list goes on and on. The most incredible thing was the fact that I was eating like this as an extra. I can't even imagine what they must have been feeding Bruce and 50 cent.

Beyond that, the mechanics of the shoot itself were pretty much the same. The equipment they used was obviously of a bigger budget, but how they did things was nothing new. I did learn a few cool new tricks for dealing with fake blood, and adding realism to a murder, so that was cool though.

Beyond that, the other big difference was the pay rate... As an extra, for shorter shoots, Japanese films actually pay better... but out here, you actually get overtime pay and all kinds of bonus for things (wearing your own clothes, bringing your own props, etc) so for a longer or more involved shoot, you can actually make a really decent amount. It's no wonder there are people who work as extras full time in LA.

Michigan State University Action Seminar

Recently, I had the pleasure of giving my first American action seminar at Michigan State University. It was a lot of fun, and at 14 students, I was pleasantly surprised to have a full turn out. The seminar ran for about 3 hours, and covered stretching, basic kicks and punches, breakfalls, and finally fight choreography. It was my firtst time teaching in English, my first time demonstrating my action ability in the states, and it was being overseen by a member of the Society of American Fight Directors, so I was a bit on the nervous side... But overall, I was really happy about how it turned out.

Probably the most comical part of the seminar was when we were practicing breakfalls out of a kick to the stomach, and the students insisted on yelling "This...is... SPARTA!!!" while they did it. (For those who don't know, Michigan State s sport teams are called 'The Spartans')

Anyway, the timing was just right, we got to everything that I wanted to get to, and everyone understood the choreography (and thankfully thought it was super-cool).

With that, I feel like I've got the confidence to move forward with organizing more, and with the excitement building as Michigan s film industry continues to grow ( from 3 films and. $2 million dollars in 2007 to 50 films and $300 million dollars next year) this is a great time to be here... And to be the only one in the state who can do what I do.

First Hard Fall

So, I took my first really hard fall in 3 or 4 years of gymnastics training yesterday. At the time I was working on improving my set (jump) for backflips as a way to increase their height. Backflipping or 'Back tucks' as they are called in gymnastics is something that I had figured out how to do on my own years ago, but now that I am training in (and teaching) gymnastics formally, I thought it in my best interest to learn how to do them with correct form.

Basically, my problem is that I pull in my legs too early, and as a function of it, cut short the potential of my jump. To counter-train against that I'd been working on a trampoline to jump, and then wail until the last second before tucking. This time I'm afraid, I may have waited too late before doing the tuck because I came down right on my face. The right side hit, I saw a flash of lights, and then felt a rapid fire series of 'pops' in my neck.

At the time I was training on my own at work where I coach gymnastics, and thankfully no one (except for one little kid) saw it. Dazed as I was, I got to my feet, and went to the bathroom to see why my face was burning so much, and low and behold, I had taken off skin in more than a few places. None to comfortable.

In any event, I grabbed some ice for both my face and neck, and headed home. Needless to say, I ended up spending the day in ER (my first time in years!) before I was finally released with the happy news that nothing was broken and that I would retain function of all my limbs. Yay for that!

In any event, reflecting on the fall itself, it was interesting, because it didn't really hurt. It was just like being punched in the face (which I guess in essence, I was) and was just kind of disorienting and numbing in the same way. Strange as it may sound though, in a way, I'm glad that it happened, as now I know what taking a major fall feels like, and it isn't quite as scary. Kind of like my first kickboxing match, where I thought: 'That's it? That's not so bad...' Thus far, it hasn't seemed to deter my desire to keep improving in the least, and if nothing else, is simply irritating because I didn't feel like taking a break right now.

Anyway, I am not supposed to work out for the next two days (due to minor soft-tissue swelling))) and am really looking forward to healing up, so I can get back to hitin' it by the end of the week. It's true what they say! What doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger!!

First American Film Casting

Not too long ago, I received an email from my manager, Taka stating that I’ve been cast in my first American film. It’s a suspense/triller scheduled to film in Virginia this fall.

Although I’ve known about the project for a while because Taka had gotten another Japanese actor cast in it, I was surprised to have gotten a role myself. A few months ago, as the Japanese actor going doesn’t speak a word of English, I suggested to Taka that I go along with him as a translator. I felt it was the least I could do because during the live theatre show I did out here a few months ago, this actor himself came along with me on a few occasions just to make sure that I was okay and that the production management was treating me right.

Beyond that, having been onset and having to work and figure out everything exclusively in Japanese, I know full well just how stressful and difficult it would be on him- 1) because he wouldn’t be able to fully understand directions or what’s going on, and 2) because even if he did, he wouldn’t really be able to ask questions. I’ve had to work my way through that situation on more than one occasion, and I know just how hard it is- especially when you are still ‘fresh’ and trying to prove yourself and/or earn respect.

In any event, after getting the green light to go with Toshi as a translator, Taka told them what I've done so far,and they decided to give me a role in the film myself- complete with speaking lines. The film is being produced by Able Kane, a company that worked with Taka’s company, Quorum on ‘The Box’.

I’ve read the script, and it looks pretty cool. It will also be nice because it doesn’t start until after the action Master’s class, I’m teaching at MSU, so there will be no scheduling conflicts with that as well.

Both the film and the Master’s class will be the first time in my 7 year career that I can work in my own language and my own culture, and that prospect is exciting beyond belief. Can’t wait to get started on both.

The Play comes to an end...

I had my last show this week. The last one went well, and I was happy that I managed to get through all 6 shows with no major mistakes. It was also cool because at the end of the latter shows, Miki had me coming up on stage to introduce myself and give a quick kicking demo at the end roll.

In one respect, it's a relief to be done, but after living, breathing, eating and sleeping this play for the past two months, I still have a hard time taking in the fact that it's simply done. (And of course, being a musical, I can't help but continually sing all the songs in the back of my head).

Overall, I had a great time of it, and was really impressed with what a different feeling it is from working in front of the camera (but yet still so familiar ;)

I think the biggest difference is that when you are playing a character on-screen, and you 'grow into' character throughout the filming, you can't redo the scenes that you already took. As such, you may be happy with your performance of a character near the end, but still not necessarily with the earlier scenes.

With a play however, you do the whole thing, start to finish multiple times. As such, as your character develops you have the chance to really hone all the scenes you are doing. Although what I was doing was relatively simple, it was interesting to see all the different ways I could experiment, and/or improve on how I do things. It was also interesting to watch how Miki (the main actress- who had to play a character that is diametrically opposed to who she actually is) continually grew more relaxed and comfortable with playing her character Lena.

Overall, great experience.

Chuck`s first Rock and Roll Musical!! ...with Katana fight scenes (?!)

So after the success of the short film, Miki asked me to join her again for an up and coming rock and roll musical she is co-producing called AWAY IN THE LIFE. Having very little theatre experience, I jumped at the chance, and so far, it has been a ton of fun to work on.

Insomuch as I can piece together without reading the script, (all in Japanese) it revolves around the formation of a rock band with a bunch a wild characters (an old narcoleptic woman, an ex hard-ass turned flaming drag queen, and a former super-nerd... turned hard-ass). Apparently, Miki's character is based off of a really famous old school Japanese rocker who will actually make an appearance during the show. Thus far, it looks hilarious, and I wish I had some way to show it to people at home.

As for myself, I will be playing a security guard (/ninja?) and I don't have any speaking lines, and am mainly there as an extra comic element.

Initially, as I was only brought in at Miki's request, (and the director had never heard of me) it seemed like the director didn't know what to do with me. As such, for my first scheduled practice (which I cancelled another job to go to) all I did was sit there. I was barely even acknoledged by him, let alone kept in the loop as to what was going on. Needless to say, my manager, Taka was none to happy about this, and after politely politely mentioning it, I was given another practice day.

As I could understand the director`s reservation about using someone who 1) he`d never heard of, and 2) he hadn`t screen himself, I thought I`d have to really grab any chance I could get to show him what I could do. Finally, after I was allowed to join a practice, he had asked me to do a certain scene where I usher a woman off stage. Instead of simply doing as he said, I picked her up, threw her over my shoulder and carried her off-stage. It completely caught her off-guard, her reaction was hilarious, and he loved it. As did everyone else. At that point, he seemed to take a liking to me. And he started expanding my role to the point that now I'm in 4 different scenes. He even asked me to go to Osaka with them for the Kansai shows. (Which regrettfully I had to turn down because I'm working full time).

I really feel like I've melded fairly well with the rest of the cast as well, and for the scenes that I am in, we've gone past just 'doing' and has actually started 'creating'. It feels good to know that I can have synergy with an all-star cast of Japanese talent, and that they could feel so comfortable working with me (especially since my Japanese still has a way to go). My agent Taka said this musical is going to be really really big, and he will be shocked if I don't start getting a lot of work from it afterwards.

As a live stage necessarily means no retakes, it`s both a bit scarier and more intense as compared to working in front of a camera, but I also think it will be more fun, as we will have the energy of the crowd to feed off of. I`m looking forward to the challenge. Should be fun!

Results of the short film.

So after completing filming on the short film with Miki Mizuno, she invited me to come along to the film festival which she had created it for. The original rough cut of the short film was about 15 min long, but do to the rules of the festival (each entry could only be five minutes) she had to substantially cut it down to create the final version. Although this is more or less normal for film production, it`s still sad to see scenes that you know were good and/or funny go, just because there`s no room for them. Such is how it goes, I guess.

Anyway, it was still fun to see, and did fairly well at the festival. (Making it into the top 5 out of 16 entries).

It was also funny because when they interviewed her on stage, they asked in Japanese: Who was the black dude? To which she ended up giving a 5 minute discourse as to how she knew me, my action background, and oddly enough, what I look like with my shirt off.

Needless to say it was pretty comical to be sitting in the audience listening to the whole thing.

Sukeban Hunters Hits Theatres!

The latest film project I did, Sukeban Hunters hit the theatres in Shibuya this weekend, and I`m looking forward to getting in to theatres to check it out. After checking out the new trailers on the website, (which were head and shoulders better than the last one released for both films) and getting a glimpse of the final product, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much more polished it looked with the sound and visual effects in place. Just goes to show you the difference between the rough cut and the final (and why a lot of directors don`t want to show their rough cut to their actors ;)In any event, I`m excited to see them both in their entirety.

Unfortunately, Im in the middle of rehearsals for my first major theatre production, and have two all-day practices next weekend, so Im just going to have to wait a bit.

Duel in Hell


Final Death Ride Battle