On Aug 23, 3:10 pm, Wolf Whitewater <white_water_rap...@comcast.net>
wrote:
[...]
> Well, all the sword fighting and hand-to-hand combat you see in the
> movies is choreographed, kind of like a dance. The moves are generally
> taken from real life, and are modified a little so that you don't
> actually break bones or do significant damage. The moves, however, are
> not fake. If you're not careful, and if you don't follow the rules or
> learn the techniques poorly, you *can* injure or kill people -- or
Brandon Lee as an example? I guess that was more the prop master's
fault than something Lee or his co-worker did wrong.
> yourself. This is not a martial art for idiots. A lot of stuntmen learn
> this art as well as how to fall off buildings and whatnot and it's not
> unheard of for stunt folks to be killed or injured doing stunts! The art
> is called stage combat, and it's a 'soft' martial art, meaning that the
> most you can expect to be hurt is scrapes, bruises and aching muscles.
> Additionally, stage combat is 'soft' because you are working with your
> partner, the energy is flowing between both of you.
Professional wrestling!
> 'Hard' martial arts seek to actually cause harm (kickboxing, muy tai,
> etc) and often the energy is dominating and oppositional instead of
> free flowing.
>
> Anyhow, I digress. You can learn about the kind of stage combat I do/did
> by looking up the Society of American Fight Directors (last I heard, the
> website was www.safd.org but things might have changed), you'll get all
> kinds of information there.
Still there.
> The fight I was in was part of a certification program (which now has
> been totally re-formatted) so that if I wanted to fight onstage
> somewhere, the people hiring me would know that I met or exceeded the
> basic safety and artistic requirements of the SAFD. I got a little piece
> of paper to hang on my wall and everything.
heh :o)
Gotta love degrees, certificates, letters of participation, etc. Those
little pieces of paper can actually mean a lot.
> Luckily the accident happened during a training session and not during
> the test itself!
>
> My partner was suppose to grab my head by my hair and slam my head into
> his knee. Quite obviously I wasn't actually going to be hurt, that's
> just what it was supposed to look like. In that particular combination
> of moves, my partner was supposed to grab my hair, and I was supposed to
> do the rest of the work. Unfortunately, while he was performing the
> hair-grab technique, my partner miscalculated and grabbed my ear
> instead. He didn't realize it and performed the technique, which caused
> pressure and whatnot on my earring. Luckily my earring gave before my
> ear did! Once he realized what happened he let go, but it was too late.
> My earring had gotten wrenched in two, and had fallen with some force
> out of my ear, creating a small gash in my ear from the point of the
> piercing up into my cartilage.
>
> There wasn't a whole lot of blood, just a bit here and there. I found my
> earring (it had gotten flung the length of the room), cleaned up the
> wound, put an ice pack on for a little bit, and then went back to work.
>
> I used to have all kinds of little scars here and there from my stage
> combat days, but by and large they have all healed and gone away by now.
> Particularly if you're working with knives or swords, you can't help
> getting nicked every now and again. It come with the territory.
>
> I did learn, however, why you're not really supposed to wear jewelry
> while you're fighting!
>
> Whitewater
Fascinating. I love DVDs for their special features as much as for the
movie. Jackie Chan typically includes a big section on his
choreography. Thanks for the post.
--
Curt