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Getting Great Action Scenes on Small Budgets by Durand Garcia
Fight sequence from a student film 'The Transfer', choreographed by author Durand Garcia. photo: courtesy D. Garcia
NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION,
let's say you want an action sequence in your film. Here's a tip: Even a “simple struggle” of one or two punches is an action sequence and should be taken seriously—very seriously.
Not long ago, I was sitting in a coffee house talking with a soon-to-be, second-time director about his experiences with a fight scene. On his first film, he as well as his actors had learned a very painful lesson.
It takes maturity to admit you need help. He called a colleague of mine who was unavailable and referred him to me.
On his first film, which involved unarmed fight and a knife fight, he was of I-am-a-martial-artist-I’ll-choreograph-the-fight-myself school of thought. In college, he had been a boxer.
Thinking along this line would mean that, to make a horror film, you should hire a sociopath, as John Kreng, author of “Fight Choreography: The Art of Non-Verbal Dialogue”, pointed out during his fascinating, action filmmaking panel discussion in Los Angeles, last August.
“The first punch went as planned,” that director told me, “But the second, an upper cut, hit the actor in the jaw causing him to bite down on his tongue.” And that was minor compared to the knife fight.
“The actress was cut on the forearm and took 40 stitches," he told me, his eyes drooping in embarrassment, since I do fight choreography, "and another actor was stabbed in the arm,” also sending him to the hospital.
Incidents like these don’t make the papers or blogs because no celebrities were hurt, only unsuspecting young actors, but it happens all too often here in the Bay Area, and in indie filmmaking in general.
Actors literally put their lives at risk when attempting to perform action sequences that are not properly choreographed or coordinated by a trained professional.
Kenny Leu and Charles Maxwell rehearse for the feature film 'Art School of Horrors'. photo: courtesy D. Garcia
Understandably no actor wants to be labeled “difficult,” although in this case it could mean the difference between being safe and risking serious injury.
Last summer, a former student called me to say he was starring in a segment for an indie series shot locally by a local production company.
I could hear the anguish in his voice as he told me how the director never prepared the actors for a struggle which included a minor amount of grappling. Indeed, the actress he was playing opposite lost control, because she was “in the moment,” and really dug her fingernails into his back and chest leaving real scratch marks.
This would not have been so serious, he said, had the actress known anything about stage combat but what really bothered my friend was the fact that in a few days he was to go before the cameras as a fitness model and bare his torso. The scratch marks would not be gone in time.
My question to him was: Why did you allow yourself to be involved in a fight scene without a trained professional present, at least to coach the action.
All fight scenes, even “simple struggles and slaps,” carry real elements of danger and should be choreographed by a trained professional.
This is not just me plugging for my profession. Seriously. Be advised that being a martial artist or having been coached in a fictional fight a few times, or taken a stage combat course, does not qualify one as a fight choreographer.
My former student is a large and strong young man and, even though the scrapes and scratches hurt a little, they weren't cause for concern. It did, however, affect his photo shoot.
I asked him if he and his partner had rehearsed. They rehearsed the struggle, he said, but not long enough, evidently. And, not knowing better, he did not insist on more rehearsal time. Nor was there anyone who could provide a professional and objective eye.
The director did not plan ahead, no doubt thinking that what was asked of the actors was simple enough and could be achieved without any rehearsing.
Actors are often sensitive souls and easily intimidated by the pressure to be liked and thought of as "not difficult." But this should not deter them from standing up for their right to a professional fight choreographer to coordinate on screen struggles and fights, regardless of how “simple” or “easy” they seem.
The golden rule is: For every five seconds of fighting or struggling on film, an hour of training is required. Rehearsals help avoid an actor losing control while “in the moment.” Yes accidents do happen, even with well-trained actors but that possibility is diminished greatly with rehearsals.
The issue of safety on set has become ever more crucial as the number of film makers here in the Bay Area increases and I am not the only one active about it.
Fight sequence from the indie film “Hero Mars” (author Durand in the middle) also choreographed by him. photo: courtesy D. Garcia
Tony Vella, a well known local stunt coordinator, recently attended a SAG-AFTRA meeting where he addressed the issue of misrepresentation—that is: people calling themselves stunt coordinators and/or fight choreographers who do not have the qualifications.
It is hoped that SAG-AFTRA will issue some sort of guidelines for low budget indie films. Gabrielle Carteris, Executive Vice President of SAG-AFTRA, echoed these concerns in her recent letter to union members published in the SAG-AFTRA Magazine.
With violence constantly escalating, even in indie films, the question of safety becomes more and more important for both cast and crew. Carteris urges actors to speak up if they are not confident or comfortable with what is being asked of them, “be brave enough to say no.”
Injuries of a life changing nature can happen in just a second. Ms. Carteris, who was injured on a movie eight years ago, even though there was a stunt coordinator on set, gave two suggestions for SAG-AFTRA members.
"Fax the production contact sheet to [SAG] Field Services," she said, "in an emergency call the SAG-AFTRA 24 Hour Hotline." Granted this is a good start for union members but what about those of us who are not union?
Last year I was cast in the Tracy Letts's play “Superior Donuts” which required a knock down drag out fight scene. My acting partner in the fight told me his experience with a local fight director.
This “fight director” has been designing fights for years and has done a considerable amount of work in the South Bay. It seems that he was designing violence for a play my friend was in but when it came time for a “simple slap” the fight guy merely said: “Just slap him.”
“Did he give you any training?” I asked. “No” was the response.
There may be some of you reading this who believe that “just slap that person" is an acceptable stage direction. After all we’re guys and we can take a little slap. Just slap him so we can get the shot and move on.
Time is money in filmmaking, after all. Yes, but so are medical bills and law suits. In fact one director from Los Angeles told me that they did it “all the time” in his productions.
The facts are, "Just slapping" a person has sent more people to the hospital emergency room than any other combat move in history since an actor’s face and hand cannot be padded up like a stunt-man’s body before performing a stunt fall.
Careful training needs to take place to help make actions like contact slaps as safe as possible. The carelessness and total irresponsibility behind a direction like “Just slap him. He can take it,” is profound.
Actors hearing this direction should immediately protest, and ask for a new more professionally trained fight coordinator. If an actor is on a film set where a director gives this direction, because there is no fight choreographer, or if a stunt coordinator gives this direction and if it hasn’t been carefully rehearsed an actor’s response should be the same: “No.”
Actors have a right to protect themselves from injury and no film or play is worth the loss of one’s hearing or eyesight or nerve damage to the face, which can and have happened. These types of directions need to be recognized for what they are—extremely dangerous.
Actors and crew need to know that such direction can lead to injury. During the course of the run of his play, my friend seriously injured his fellow actor’s ear when he struck it—accidentally —while performing the supposedly "simple" slap.
The question remains: who is qualified to call themselves a stunt coordinator or fight choreographer? In Great Britain’s film industry a person will be considered for stunt coordinating only after reaching the level of teacher in five sports, unless they qualify through rigorous training and experience.
For example, Richard Ryan, Sword Master and Action Coordinator of “Last Legion” (2007), “Troy” (2004), “Sherlock Holmes 1 & 2” (2009) and (2011), “The Dark Knight” (2008), “The Eagle” (2011), “The Golden Compass” (2007), and many more, had reached the level of Fight Director with the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat and choreographed over three hundred theatre projects before becoming the Sword Master for a feature film.
Author Garcia taking a punch in a scene choreographed by the late Richard Branden, a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger in the ‘90s. photo: courtesy D. Garcia
Currently Ryan is a recognized Fight Master with the Society of American Fight Directors.
A word here about becoming a “Fight Director.” When looking at the process of becoming a Fight Director, we find that in Britain as in the United States, a person must first train extensively and be tested in various weapons and unarmed combat.
They must reach the level of teacher, which means that an actor combatant has been rigorously tested in both acting and fighting skills in eight weapons and have reached the level of “advanced actor/combatant” before training and testing as a teacher.
As if that were not enough, after becoming a teacher, they must do fifty professional fight choreography projects before ascending to the level of Fight Director.
How many “stunt coordinators” here in the Bay Area can say they have reached the level of teacher in five sports or that they have choreographed violence in over three hundred plays? I know I can’t.
I have become a specialist in unarmed and edged weapons use for film and theatre after completing hundreds if not thousands of hours of training in stage combat, martial arts, gymnastics conditioning, and related movement techniques including firearms handling.
To each assignment I bring the wealth of knowledge accrued over choreographing about three hundred acts of violence or comedic mayhem in more than one hundred projects and having performed fights of various kinds over the years as an actor.
I have performed combat in the role of Hamlet in “Hamlet”, where I used the Single Rapier (and Cynthia Splatt, was the Fight Designer), and Luther in “Superior Donuts”, where I was unarmed (and Richard Branden was the Fight Designer). I also played Don Guero in “Mummified Deer”, again unarmed but with no fight designer, hence the required visits to the chiropractor afterwards.
The point is qualification. I’m qualified to design edged-weapon violence and armed and unarmed combat. I have coordinated a high fall, several stair falls, rigged a flying leap and coordinated similar fight related stunts, but I certainly would not be qualified to coordinate something like a motor cycle crash or a precision car stunt.
And, yes, I have been slapped and slapped hard in a production that had no fight choreographer. For my troubles, I suffered twitches in the face for years afterward; the actress who slapped me, well, she will never know.
Yet very often those with the least amount of stage combat experience are called upon or allowed to choreograph fight scenes in indie films. Too often hubris wins out over common sense and learning that lesson can require a trip to the hospital.
This doesn’t mean that an actor is totally safe with an experienced “fight guy.” As I have pointed out—on Ms. Carteris’s film the production company hired a stunt coordinator. But not all fight designers or stunt coordinators are created equal.
While attending a national stage combat workshop that takes place deep in the heart of the mid-west, last year, I noticed a young woman doing forward falls and dive rolls rather awkwardly.
Professionals had demonstrated these moves for us and talked us through them just as they would if we were to perform them in fight scenes. I was a participant who was there to learn so when I witnessed her movements I did not presume to tell her how to perform them, however, I did mention it to one of the trainers because I could see that the young woman was in need of help.
Oddly enough, she was surrounded by certified teachers and fighter directors and even a Fight Master or two. Two of these instructors talked with her but by that time it was too late she had injured herself and was unable to participate in most of the training for the two days that remained of the workshop.
Those of you who have had experience in this arena know that as a teacher, fight choreographer, or stunt coordinator, we can give detailed instructions, demonstrations with perfect technique but an actor can still get it wrong.
Sure, in most cases, after a few tries, actors will be able to perform the movement. Nevertheless, bad habits, distractions, or just the lack of ability to mirror (exactly) what is demonstrated, can result in injury. Only practice and plenty of it, in slow motion, can help articulate and perfect a movement.
Our choreographer for “Superior Donuts” was the late Richard Branden, a friend of the lead. Richard did not coach technique; there was no training on the safest way to fall and not much about distance between actors, balance and targeting (though anyone watching could see if a move worked or not or if a move was masked properly from the audience).
Nor did our choreographer notate the fight—in other words, write out the fight moves as they were choreographed. That and everything I just mentioned was left to me. As fight captain, I took it upon myself to notate the fight, a task I’ve often done as fight choreographer and where necessary I coached technique with Richard’s blessing.
Most stage-trained fight choreographers would be very clear about coaching actors in these areas. My understanding of our choreographer grew after he told us about his early work in Hollywood.
He and several other martial artists had been hired by the production studio to be in the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” television series because these martial artists all possessed some top ranking in their various martial arts form.
Richard Branden was a Kung Fu champion, a six time WAKO World Champion and a ten time NASKA National Champion in both Chinese forms and Weapons. In the early 1990s, when he responded to the overtures of Hollywood, fight choreographers were not hired. Why should they add an expense when they had national or world champion martial artists?
Instead, he said, they were told to go off to the back of the studio and choreograph and rehearse their fights in order to perform for the camera in about an hour.
Eventually this lack of preparation time led to injuries. In one incident Richard sustained a broken leg. Frankly, what did the studio expect given the lack of professional choreography and inappropriate rehearsal time?
What is a poor filmmaker supposed to do?
My response to this is simple: Plan professionally. If you wait to be professional and have a professional budget, you won’t be ready. Begin your professional career now by planning.
If you want violent action in your film, plan to pay for it. Put it in your budget, just as you would for film equipment rental, food and water. In addition, it would not hurt to at least story board the high points of the action which gives the choreographer different moments to build the action toward.
Next, hire a professional, that is someone who has had plenty of experience designing fights or related action. Generally speaking, a professional will also have liability insurance and he or she will not give you a fight or other action that has nothing to do with your vision.
In other words, they won’t design a fight with flashy moves for the sake of the flash and their resume only. They are not there to show off their great creative talents, rather to serve the purpose and vision of the film maker and to do it as safely as possible.
Flash for flash's sake has a tendency to rob the action of its inherent function and purpose which is to further the plot. And flash for flash's sake also cheats the audience by drawing attention to itself and taking the audience’s attention away from the motion picture.
On the other hand, a good choreographer will always have many ideas. Then in the event that an actor is not able to perform some move or technique, the experienced choreographer will have other tricks up his or her sleeve which they will be glad to rehearse in to the choreography—after all, that is why you hired them.
Now that you have a budget, where do you look for a good fight choreographer or stunt coordinator, well, your first stop should be the “Talent” section of Reel Directory.
Then interview your candidates, check out their links and/or reel. Next ask for certifications and insurance. They should be able to provide examples of these. If not perhaps you should pass and look elsewhere.
But if things check out be prepared to make a reasonable and fair offer of compensation. And remember: Safety is priceless. Happy filmmaking.
Durand Garcia is an actor (SAG-AFTRA), director, educator, fight and action designer who has served as sword master and fight choreographer on numerous features and over a hundred other film and/or theatre projects. He recently taught and directed in Beijing and can be reached .