I had some fun this past weekend. A friend of mine participates in the 48 Hour Film Project every year, and organized a similar for-fun-practice this past weekend. The rules were a bit more lax -- for one they were chosing the theme, genre and props and for two they weren't contiguous 48 hours -- but the result was the same: make a movie over a weekend timeframe.
I haven't made any live-action films or shorts since university, and the last film I made really was in high school (44 mins long) so this was fun on several levels: acting! being involved! creating! kung fu!
Indeed, one of the chosen elements was indeed to add in some Kung Fu. After the Taiji lesson on sunday (and some extra practice for me as they got lost finding my location...) the cinematographer scouted and found where he wanted to do the shoot. I had never seen it before, but by the pond there is a fountain/waterfall, in front of which are a series of flat concrete 'paving stones', each about 30" by 42" in size. Five of them are arrayed next to each other, with a 2" gap between them, hovering over the water, each one staggered from the previous. It was indeed a picturesque location. But doing the sets on that uneven and narrow surface? If our sets were perfectly linear maybe...
It was entertaining and a challenge at the same time. Few of our sets really move in such a limited axis, never mind parts of the floor dropping away to water unevenly. So, I made things up! The benefits of future editing helped too of course... I took chunks of sets, strung moves together, ad libbed, mashed shaolin and hung gar together, and generally had fun. Doing tornado kicks on such a small target was, shall we say, interesting in its own right, mostly just for the mind's reaction (landing on such a surface and control is easy, but the mind has a way to shout out 'aiiiee!' -- now I get the whole concept behind plum flower poles!)
We shot several takes from several vantage points -- close ups for hand movements, pulled back more for the kicks, then a wide angle shot looking perpendicular to the axis (with the waterfall in the background). By the end I had basically done kung fu and taiji for about 4 to 5 hours off and on. That was the hardest workout I've done in the new year, evidenced by the soreness of my muscles today (yes, the first sore muscles post in a VERY long time!). Adjusting for the small platforms likely made me more tense too, adding to the muscle soreness. I did have my foot go off a platform at one point during a sweep...
After we finished up there we moved onto the second location for a scene between myself and another antagonist. The scene was originally intended for the same location or flowing from the kung fu practice scene(s), but was re-purposed and even a bit re-dialogued to adapt to changing conditions and participant availability. I really enjoyed this part, not only as I got to do some fun acting, but also I got to choreograph some basic fighting, teaching the actor working with me as we moved along. Combine that with the cinematographer working with us to set up shots, and it was a very organic growth of the scene. There should be enough takes and variations there to satisfy everybody during post and to create something truly wicked.
After a few more scenes and lines delivered (less combat oriented!), I headed off to gaming that night.
Which, in a way, is more acting, non?
I wanna see it! That sounds tres cool :D
Posted by: Sprawl at February 27, 2007 09:06 PM