Kung Fu for Movies

Discussion in 'General Martial Arts Discussion' started by Immutable, Jan 9, 2017.

  1. Immutable

    Immutable New Member

    Hi everyone!

    I love forums so if this place is active and has off topic discussions you can expect to see me around as a regular.

    I'm an amateur film maker and I want to make an action comedy with fighting scenes. So I'm doing a lot of stretching and I want to start practicing martial arts and kung fu with the goal of looking cool on camera.

    Is warming up really important before stretching if I want to improve?

    I want to kick really high so my routine is the pancake stretch, butterfly, and then sitting down in front of a wall with my legs split and trying to pull myself close to the wall.

    Then I stand up and do lateral leg raises w/ a cableflex for strength.

    It's great to be here and I looking forward to getting to know you.
    Thanks for reading my introduction thread

    :)
     
  2. Mushroom

    Mushroom De-powered to come back better than before.

    Welcome to MAP.

    I was formerly in the film industry and my degree is based on it. Do you train already in any arts or you looking to "look cool" mostly?
     
  3. Immutable

    Immutable New Member

    That's awesome mushroom! I've only been on a bonafide set twice.
    I'd love to hear more about that. Mind if I ask what your degree was in?

    I took martial arts for a few years so I'm familiar with the basic stances, etc
    Unfortunately I haven't trained under any teacher in a long time and I've never been able to do the splits.

    I don't need to become donnie yen. I was thinking I'll get one or two flashy moves and then just practice the same move over and over again until I can pull of the choreography.

    That's basically the same thing as learning a form for a belt test right?
     
  4. Mushroom

    Mushroom De-powered to come back better than before.

    It was called Contemporary Media back in early 2000 in London.

    Good luck with your film making, not many people realise the amount of time and stress it causes, even when filming for fun.

    Apologies if I'm teaching you how to suck eggs, but fight choreography is also a lot of camera trickery and editing. You are literally in control of what people see. You can make a high kick look higher by shooting from lower angles, standing on a box (or receiver standing in a lower stance).

    So yes, practice and experimentation will help. Although no, I wouldn't compare it to a belt test.
     
  5. Tom bayley

    Tom bayley Valued Member

    WARNING SPOILER ALERT - video below shows the end fight scenes from some movies.

    You don't need to be acrobatic to do "good"kung fu movies. the actor bellow has been very successful in films. and No-0ne would accuse him of being acrobatic or flexible.

    He also has a very small repertoire of moves. I actually teach one in my classes, a knife disarm that appears in all his films. I call it the Steven Segal, it is important to give correct attribution to source material. I teach it because it demonstrates good practical understanding of functional anatomy and bio-mechanics. I teach it because it is actually works 99.99% of the time and most people will tell you that knife defenses are sketchy at best and for one other reason. (shown 5 mins 15 seconds in)


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EAuLL9n42s

    This knife disarm is so easy to do you can actually learn from a video and do it at home. Note - I always get the attacker to hold a wooden spoon. Not to protect myself if I get it wrong - it is almost impossible to get wrong. but because the weapon often flys out of the attackers hand can end up anywhere. - uncontrolled flying knives are bad.
     
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2017
  6. Van Zandt

    Van Zandt Mr. High Kick

    The answer primarily depends on two things: 1) your level of muscle tone (residual muscle tension, or your muscles' resistance to passive stretches during resting state), and 2) your response to the duration of static stretches. The first part is difficult to guage unless you have access to a soft-tissue therapist who can manually palpate your level of resistance during clinical assessment. You can determine the second part for yourself by experimenting with durations of static stretches, such as holding for 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes and so on, and comparing results. Generally speaking, people who have low muscle tone and respond best to short-duration stretches (e.g. best results with 30-second holds) may benefit from warming up beforehand, as the heat will increase muscle elasticity. People with a moderate to high muscle tone, and/or whom respond best to durations of 1 minute or longer, would be better suited to skipping the warm up, as this tends to increase muscle excitability and makes relaxation difficult.
     
  7. Thomas

    Thomas Combat Hapkido/Taekwondo

  8. Tom bayley

    Tom bayley Valued Member

    Knife disarm @ 5 mins 15 seconds

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EAuLL9n42s

    This knife disarm is so easy to do you can actually learn from a video and do it at home. Note - I always get the attacker to hold a wooden spoon. Not to protect myself if I get it wrong - it is almost impossible to get wrong. but because the weapon often flys out of the attackers hand can end up anywhere. - uncontrolled flying knives are bad.[/QUOTE]

    Wow - have all the fun people got banned? I was hoping for a little more response to the above. (I have had a rolling migraine for a month and was looking for something to distract from the pain).

    Any who -the reason I teach this technique is to show the difference between a technique and practical real world application. the technique really does work. It is quick, simple, easy to learn and uses some key anatomical principles. But in practice it is worse than useless. It only works if the knife is presented to the defender at an upward angle of 45 degrees (ish). The attacker pretty much has to stick the knife up the defenders nose. Any other angle and you end up slicing your own wrist as you slap the knife out of the attackers hand.

    As a functional technique it is worse than useless because it could give a false sense of security in what is a very dangerous situation. A major problem shared by many knife techniques. However for application in movies it works really well - "I'm going to gut you like a pig! (sticks knife up victims nose)" is pretty much a universal signature of Steven Seagls films. Along with unfeasably young and attractive ladies falling for a middle aged fat bloke.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2017
  9. AussieGirl

    AussieGirl Valued Member

    Geez thanks. I just snorted coffee all over my keyboard. ;)

    For the original poster - I'm a photographer and have done a small amount of work as a gaffer on independent short films. Good fight scenes come down to the camera work and editing, rather than the actor's martial arts ability. That said, an actor with good skills will make the editors job a ton easier.

    I have a friend who has done fitness video work. She tells me that aerobic fitness is the key component of film work. Generally you have to do take after take after take... all day. You don't want to end up a hot red sweaty mess under the studio lights and stage makeup because you can't handle the intensity.
     

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