I'm in the pre-register stages for the pistol courses I want and have begun, in earnest the investigation of practical stage firearms to supply and train with. I'm still a major proponent of experimenting more with compressed air as well - cheaper, safer, and hopefully as effective in the "noise" department.
You see, most stage weapons don't actually expend a used round, even a 1/4 or primer round. All bang, no "clink." Since 8mm primer cartridges don't have the necessary kick to eject and chamber a subsequent round, there's a dearth of gunfights using semi automatic and even automatic fire. Unusual since most lethal usage of the actual weapons in combat situation involves the expenditure of multiple rounds.
I want more realism.
There's a company called Nightmare Paintball which builds .43 caliber paintball markers with an emphasis on extreme realism for L.E. and military use (as well as weekend gamers like me). They have a line of assault arms, rifles and pistols which are, having test fired a few at NJ Nam (I'm in their gallery! - 4th pic) excellent.
Most exciting to me is that their markers operate again, on extreme realism, meaning each .43 caliber paintball is encased in brass (or biodegradable platic) casings which are ejected after each firing. I'm considering the purchase of their P99 replica pistol (built up from the RAP4 P99 fully licensed by Walther) simply because a pistol that ejects brass adds an excellent element of realism often absent from stage firearms. This also means repeating fire, or full auto fire for incredible effect onstage. When's the last time you saw someone open up onstage with an assault rifle? Me either. But I've seen a lot of big guns that go off once and only once.
Of course, every expended casing must be tracked by stage management, and there is the risk of an expended casing sailing into the audience - but with no projectiles, it may be that the marker could operate without a casing as well, so it becomes an optional feature depending on the wants, or needs of the show director.
Of course, they aren't cheap, but a few rentals of this piece out to companies should cover costs over time. Using compressed air again becomes a safer, less expensive alternative to primer, half or full load blank rounds.
Meanwhile - tonight there's another fundraising episode of "Mraz Inc" the incredibly awful ongoing theatrical series that somehow manages to mash up "24" with a bad soap opera and awkward staging. I'll be reprising my role as "Eric" the undervalued tactical operative who isn't in the inner circle, ends up betraying the good guys, and then gets shot in the face. I told you it was awful. I modified my Tippmann A-5 to look a little more MP5-ish for the occasion. I'll attach an image later on.
I'll be reclaiming my 18th century (nonfiring display only) Italian duelling pistol this weekend, as well as "The Big Iron" my (replica) Griswold and Gunnison Confederate blackpowder repeating pistol. Ye olde Charleville and Brown Bess muskets are due for cleaning as well. Ahh, antique firearms. So glad I don't actually use ye.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
A word on those Vampire Cowboys in NYC...
This past Friday night, 7/17/09, the ladytype friend and I journeyed down to the HERE Arts center to catch the remounted production of Vampire Cowboy's "Fight Girl Battleworld" which was heralded as a zenith of comic silliness.
Now, before I go too far, I do need to say that I've been vaguely familiar with the Vamp's work over the last few years, though I'm not a huge fan. I am in fact, far too biased regarding their work when it comes to scripting, fight choreography and tech. I'm not personally big on mixing too much comedy and violence, nor am I a fan of the sort of martial arts stage styles they tend to use. Also, as an Impetuous Theater Group pal, the ultimately unrelated "Living Dead in Denmark's" sudden emergence prior to Brian Smallwood's "12th Night of the Living Dead" always left a bad taste in my mouth.
All of that aside (and by "that" I mean my own personal tastes) we took a look at "FGBW" and I am hereby issuing the following statement: it was tremendously fun.
The script itself does border on plain stupid in some instances (this coming from a guy who finds zombies in Shakespeare to be a truly first class jest so... take "stupid" with a grain of salt) but "Fight Girl" was more than expertly performed by a hilarious cast of nimble, strong and engaging performers.
I'll leave off the commentary on the acting performances and comic timing for someone else though, simply stating that I'm a sci-fi geek and there were enough nerd-core puns, gags, and easter eggs to keep even jaded, bitter me thoroughly amused from start to finish.
Since this is a blog on fight choreography though, let's get to the point where the fist meets the air. It was clear to me that Friday night's show was a little tired, and while there was a never a moment I was concerned about safety, there were more than a few times the moves were stretched past the point of credulity.
This is a high energy show, and credit is certainly due to the cast and creator/choregrapher Qui Nguyen, but it struck me that this limited remount could have used a little more rehearsal in the space, correcting sightlines, and in general some tightening of the combat.
Nguyen and the director use a variety of film style techniques to keep long fights moving to great effect, both in choreography and comic potential, but I found that ultimately, all of the combatants were immersed in using a very finite series of moves in a similar style. To me, the fighting characters all seemed to have trained together. Doubtless, the actors all trained together - and again to good effect. I'm just being nit-picky about the lack of combat diversity among characters, several of whom came from entirely different worlds.
I'd have enjoyed seeing a variety of styles mashed up - some brawling, messy and wild, as contrasted with a more expert level of martial art, something like kenpo, or aikido. To me, clashing styles in a fight is part of the story telling, probing for weaknesses and holes in defense, rather than flying fists and kicks is something I find reveals a great deal about character in a fight, also allowing for earned results in an outcome. In "FGBW's" case, many of the moves became predictable, and were so far from their targets as to be wholly comical - perhaps even when not intended to be so.
Also, there was an interesting lack of hand held melee weapons. It would appear that in the far flung and silly future of "Fight Girl Battleworld", the deplorable myth of the unarmed super-combatant persists still.
Now, don't get me wrong- I had a blast. FGBW was innovative in a lot of exciting ways, the staging alone catapults this show into the realm of unforgettable. In fact, I haven't had this much fun at a show in a loooooong while.
I'll be going back to see what the Vampire Cowboys have in store for their next offering of course, but I'm going to hope for something new. I've seen a lot of the same punches, kicks and martial arts based moves onstage already. Here's hoping they can level up for the next show.
The good news is that even if they don't experiment, they are still so good at what they already do that I'll likely only complain once more and gloss over virtually everything they do right. And for the record, what they do right is better than most everything else I see in that vein.
Now, before I go too far, I do need to say that I've been vaguely familiar with the Vamp's work over the last few years, though I'm not a huge fan. I am in fact, far too biased regarding their work when it comes to scripting, fight choreography and tech. I'm not personally big on mixing too much comedy and violence, nor am I a fan of the sort of martial arts stage styles they tend to use. Also, as an Impetuous Theater Group pal, the ultimately unrelated "Living Dead in Denmark's" sudden emergence prior to Brian Smallwood's "12th Night of the Living Dead" always left a bad taste in my mouth.
All of that aside (and by "that" I mean my own personal tastes) we took a look at "FGBW" and I am hereby issuing the following statement: it was tremendously fun.
The script itself does border on plain stupid in some instances (this coming from a guy who finds zombies in Shakespeare to be a truly first class jest so... take "stupid" with a grain of salt) but "Fight Girl" was more than expertly performed by a hilarious cast of nimble, strong and engaging performers.
I'll leave off the commentary on the acting performances and comic timing for someone else though, simply stating that I'm a sci-fi geek and there were enough nerd-core puns, gags, and easter eggs to keep even jaded, bitter me thoroughly amused from start to finish.
Since this is a blog on fight choreography though, let's get to the point where the fist meets the air. It was clear to me that Friday night's show was a little tired, and while there was a never a moment I was concerned about safety, there were more than a few times the moves were stretched past the point of credulity.
This is a high energy show, and credit is certainly due to the cast and creator/choregrapher Qui Nguyen, but it struck me that this limited remount could have used a little more rehearsal in the space, correcting sightlines, and in general some tightening of the combat.
Nguyen and the director use a variety of film style techniques to keep long fights moving to great effect, both in choreography and comic potential, but I found that ultimately, all of the combatants were immersed in using a very finite series of moves in a similar style. To me, the fighting characters all seemed to have trained together. Doubtless, the actors all trained together - and again to good effect. I'm just being nit-picky about the lack of combat diversity among characters, several of whom came from entirely different worlds.
I'd have enjoyed seeing a variety of styles mashed up - some brawling, messy and wild, as contrasted with a more expert level of martial art, something like kenpo, or aikido. To me, clashing styles in a fight is part of the story telling, probing for weaknesses and holes in defense, rather than flying fists and kicks is something I find reveals a great deal about character in a fight, also allowing for earned results in an outcome. In "FGBW's" case, many of the moves became predictable, and were so far from their targets as to be wholly comical - perhaps even when not intended to be so.
Also, there was an interesting lack of hand held melee weapons. It would appear that in the far flung and silly future of "Fight Girl Battleworld", the deplorable myth of the unarmed super-combatant persists still.
Now, don't get me wrong- I had a blast. FGBW was innovative in a lot of exciting ways, the staging alone catapults this show into the realm of unforgettable. In fact, I haven't had this much fun at a show in a loooooong while.
I'll be going back to see what the Vampire Cowboys have in store for their next offering of course, but I'm going to hope for something new. I've seen a lot of the same punches, kicks and martial arts based moves onstage already. Here's hoping they can level up for the next show.
The good news is that even if they don't experiment, they are still so good at what they already do that I'll likely only complain once more and gloss over virtually everything they do right. And for the record, what they do right is better than most everything else I see in that vein.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Who's running this thing?
Over the last 10 years on the independent theater scene here in NYC, I've been in a lot of shows, and worked on building more than a few. Along the way I also had the chance to get my "hands dirty" by staging some violence - nothing too heavy, the odd bout of fisticuffs, an occasional beating and a fair bit of gun play.
I've always got a charge out that, and it always floors me how many actors out there are just plain miserable at (and terrified of) using modern stage weapons. I've seen plenty of stage directions that read like this:
"Doug pulls a knife and Frank blocks the attack and wrestles the knife away from him."
The subsequent staging of that moment usually left me wondering which actual fighting style the fight choreographer knows, or why these guys are suddenly proficient at martial arts, or somehow worse, it left me wondering why "Doug" attacked "Frank" with a dagger in a style extremely reminscent of European sword duelling.
On top of that, there's always a pistol showing up on stage being weilded extremely cautiously by an actor who is terrified his 1/4 load blank round will kill everyone onstage. The poor actor holds the pistol like it's their first day on the firing range, and it inevitably detracts from the action of the play. Especially when the character is a police officer, soldier, or someone with more than a passing familiarity with a weapon.
Obviously, not every character is supposed to be good with a weapon, but when they are, and the actor is not, it kills me. I'm a big proponent of safety first, especially when dealing with weapons, and combat choreography... but there's a difference between Safety First and boring stage combat. There's also a world of difference between real combat and telling a visual story. But there has to be a balance.
So what's it take?
I think it takes being expressly familiar with the real stuff - or as close as one can safely get. So that means training. It means being a good and patient teacher. And above all it means having an artistic eye towards making the combat look as real as possible while still being visually gripping and not so fast and brutal that the storytelling falls by the wayside. Every real or training fight I've seen has been over in a few shots. Many stage fights I've seen have been long, and silly. I intend to split the difference.
In any case... I'll be posting regularly as I go - it's a fun side project.
I've always got a charge out that, and it always floors me how many actors out there are just plain miserable at (and terrified of) using modern stage weapons. I've seen plenty of stage directions that read like this:
"Doug pulls a knife and Frank blocks the attack and wrestles the knife away from him."
The subsequent staging of that moment usually left me wondering which actual fighting style the fight choreographer knows, or why these guys are suddenly proficient at martial arts, or somehow worse, it left me wondering why "Doug" attacked "Frank" with a dagger in a style extremely reminscent of European sword duelling.
On top of that, there's always a pistol showing up on stage being weilded extremely cautiously by an actor who is terrified his 1/4 load blank round will kill everyone onstage. The poor actor holds the pistol like it's their first day on the firing range, and it inevitably detracts from the action of the play. Especially when the character is a police officer, soldier, or someone with more than a passing familiarity with a weapon.
Obviously, not every character is supposed to be good with a weapon, but when they are, and the actor is not, it kills me. I'm a big proponent of safety first, especially when dealing with weapons, and combat choreography... but there's a difference between Safety First and boring stage combat. There's also a world of difference between real combat and telling a visual story. But there has to be a balance.
So what's it take?
I think it takes being expressly familiar with the real stuff - or as close as one can safely get. So that means training. It means being a good and patient teacher. And above all it means having an artistic eye towards making the combat look as real as possible while still being visually gripping and not so fast and brutal that the storytelling falls by the wayside. Every real or training fight I've seen has been over in a few shots. Many stage fights I've seen have been long, and silly. I intend to split the difference.
In any case... I'll be posting regularly as I go - it's a fun side project.
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