Friday Fun Fact

This weeks Friday Fun Fact deals oh so appropriately with collisions and smashing into things.

If you increase the amount of time an impact lasts you decrease the force of that impact. Ex: If you double the time, you cut the force in half. If you quadruple the time you divide the force by four, etc.

An illustration of this is the water balloon toss. If you kept your hands still while catching you probably got wet, if you pulled your hands into your body when you caught the balloon you increased the time it took to slow the balloons speed to zero which lessoned the force of impact keeping you nice and dry (and winning a wonderful shiny ribbon).

A more intense and personal test of this will come during high fall training. I am going to he the water balloon and the airbag is going to be the loving hands slowing my descent to earth.

If you like math here is the equation (if you don't like math this is the end of the post so don't torture yourself!)

Fnet = mass  x acceleration
(F=ma)

Acceleration = change in velocity/time
(a=Vinitial - Vfinal/t)

Therefore

Fnet = mass x change velocity/time
(F=m x Vinitial - Vfinal/t)

Greg

Think-tank Thursday

This may be a familiar image to some. It's called a Rubin Face/Vase illusion.

It represents the Figure and Ground principle in the Gestalt theory of vision:
The eye differentiates an object from its surrounding area. A form, silhouette or shape is naturally perceived as figure (the vase) while the surrounding area is perceived as ground (the faces).

As you look at the Face/Vase illusion you can only focus on one image at a time. You may be able to alternate between the faces and the vase quickly but one will always be dominant.

The Figure and Ground principles applies to audiences watching a play. For fights we can use this principle to make the audience see what we want them to see and hide (sometimes in plain sight) what we don't.
Greg

No Fear...tons of worry.

Fear is a motivator/clarifyer/instigator/guide.
Fear is what continues to push me forward.
My trip to stunt school is born out of the fear from regret and from failure. Fear of failing is different than worrying about failing. Fear highlighted what I was missing; real knowledge and training in the film aspects of combat and stunt work. Without this knowledge and training, success would be unlikely and the danger to myself and others would be heightened. This fear then motivated/guided me.
Worry involves all the things out of your control; other peoples perceptions, random events or accidents, etc. Worry inhibits and stalls action.
What am I worried about?
Injury
The accident has me still a little shaken. I never used to think about injury but after spending a week without any physical activity and two more regaining strength, I am needless to say, scared.
I am rooting this worry out. If I don't I know I am more likely to actually get injured. If left unchecked it will cloud my judgement and hinder my ability to tell when I am really in danger. Worry has the annoying ability to be louder than real fear. Fortunately worry is all in the mind, all I have to do is face it and follow it to its root to conquer it.
Greg

Weapon Wednesday

This first Weapon Wednesday concerns maintenance of your stage toys.
When storing your darling steel treasures be sure to put a good coat of oil on the hilt, blade and pommel. WD-40 is too light and will evaporate too quickly, leaving your metal bits exposed (and that's just obscene).
At Rogue Steel we use Marvel Mystery Oil but any thicker oil will do fine.
Brass parts need lovin too, they turn a wonderful green fuzzy color if left uncared for.
Greg

Messy Beauty - The Action of "Inception"

Big-time writer and director Christopher Nolan is getting a lot of buzz for his latest summer blockbuster "Inception." Having seen it twice now, I have to say I like it even more than his pair of Batman movies (though I now consider "The Dark Knight" the definitive cinematic Batman - Christian Bale's excessive growling notwithstanding). It is definitely refreshing to see a big-budget Hollywood action film that actually takes a stab at being thought-provoking and original.

Most of the critical response is focused on the film's twisty, reality-bending plot, but I want to draw attention to Nolan's direction of the onscreen action. In interviews, Nolan has expressed some disdain with Hollywood's obsession with Hong Kong-style kung-fu fights for the past decade or so. Specifically, he has stated (on the "Batman Begins" DVD extras) that the excessive stylization has robbed a lot of onscreen violence of its threat, and presumably its dramatic weight. Coupled with a similar dislike for the overuse of CGI-based special effects, Nolan has aimed (specifically in the Batman movies) to keep the action stunt-based as often as possible, and utilize practical versus visual effects (A great example being the memorable Lower Wacker Drive car chase in "The Dark Knight," ending with the actual flipping of a real truck on downtown La Salle).

Nolan has maintained this approach with "Inception" and personally the results are fantastic. There's a short but very nice footchase towards the beginning of the film with armed corporate thugs chasing an unarmed Leonardo DiCaprio through the narrow streets of an African city. Whereas the Bourne movies have Matt Damon engaging in a lot of superhuman hand and foot work, as do anything starring Angelina Jolie these days, the entire sequence feels much less choreographed and far more messy. DiCaprio falls, trips, makes messy landings. His punches are portrayed as being delivered by someone with training (his character is a corporate spy) but there's a hasty, desperate pacing that reinforces the idea that he is a real person facing real dangers.

And then of course there's the zero-gravity hallway fight between Joseph Gordon-Levitt and another onscreen antagonist that's been popping up in the film's advertising. In many ways, the scene is an inversion of the approach used by the Wachowski brothers in their "Matrix" movies. Both "Inception" and "The Matrix" feature fights set in artificial worlds of the mind (a computer-generated illusion in the former, dreams in the latter) where real-world physics are thrown out the window. However, while "The Matrix" used this as an opportunity to have its characters engage in an orgy of wire-fu assisted by some (then) innovated CGI-enhanced camerawork, the hallway fight in "Inception" is rougher and more brutal. According to articles and interviews related to the movie, Nolan opted to film the sequence the old-fashioned way, constructing a giant rotating hallway set in which the actors were required to bounce around the walls and surfaces.

Nolan caught some flack from both critics and movie fans for the fight scenes in "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight." Namely his decision to deliberately keep things dark and murky, a creative choice made (according to Nolan himself) to convey how the criminal characters perceive Batman. (However, I disagree with the opinion held by many that this is as visually confusing as the approach of the Bourne movies, with their nonstop shaky-cam and closeups). There's none of this in "Inception" though. Nolan seems to have turned the clock back to a time before CGI, MTV and rapid-cutting, pulling the camera back and even slowing the pace down a bit. Nolan has stated that he is a big James Bond fan and his favorite film in the series is "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," a fact that becomes obvious during an attack on an icy mountaintop stronghold in "Inception" with strong similarities to the Bond film. Bodies are clearly visible, the audience never loses track of who is involved in the scene, and the geography of the battlefield is fully understood. Some slow-motion is used, but surprisingly not when shots are being fired, giving the gunfights a greater sense of immediacy.

Like most of those who enjoyed "Inception," I was definitely impressed by its originality. But what made its action scenes great was their almost old-fashion nature. There's something to be said about what's tried and true.



If you're interested in seeing how the hallway fight was filmed, there's a short article here:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1643947/20100719/story.jhtml

Theatre-Hikes presents "Peter Pan" July 24-August 29

Hi All,

I recently had the privilege of choreographing the fights for Theatre-Hike's outdoor production of "Peter Pan." It's a great show for kids and the rest of the family. I'm pretty proud of the results. The director allowed me to indulge my love of old Errol Flynn movies and slapstick fighting.

-Dwight

http://www.theatre-hikes.org/

PETER PAN

"Recommended"

The Chicago Reader

Or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow up

by J. M. Barrie

Directed by Lavina Jadhwani

Featuring Zach Bloomfield, Kylie Edmonds, Bridget Esterhuizen, Ellenkate Finley,

Michael Neumann, Andrew J. Pond, Anne Sears, Allison Schaffer, Kaelan Strouse, Chris Yearwood

Costumes Designed by Sarah Haley

Fight Choreographer - Dwight Sora

Rehearsal Stage Manager - Danielle DeFassio

Hike Leader - Page Domikaitis

Saturdays, July 24 & July 31

at Chicago's North Park Village Nature Center

Saturdays and Sundays, August 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29

at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL

Performance Starting Time - 1pm

TICKET INFORMATION

Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie (1860–1937). A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Never Land as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with mermaids, Indians, fairies and pirates, and from time to time meeting ordinary children from the world outside. This is the classic account of two boys and a girl who follow Peter Pan and the invisible fairy, Tinker Bell, into Never Land, where children never grow old and where Captain Hook and his pirates are outwitted. Hike with Theatre-Hikes from London to Never Land and back again in J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; first performed in 1904 and performed continously around the world ever since!

WHO'S WHO IN PETER PAN

Art work by Rick Young at www.rickyoungart.50megs.com

Recovery

So, I was hit by a car while on my motorcycle.
Two cars actually. One plowed into the car behind me, pushing that car into my bike, turning me sideways and slamming me into the car in front, sending all of us into the next car.
It hurt.
My left leg was trapped between the car in front of me and my exhaust pipe. Fortunately I wear full motorcycle gear and my armored pants protected me. When they moved the car forward I was able to get my leg out and walk to the side of the road to lay down.
Amazingly I didn't break anything.
While I am thankful the injuries weren't worse, I had severe whiplash of my neck and torso. The whole week of the accident I couldn't walk, laugh, or dance around my apartment or grocery stores.
It sucked.
I felt like I had been doing crunches for three days straight then someone kicked me in the neck.
That was almost a full month ago. After three weeks I was able to finally start doing more than walk for exercise. I gradually got to the point of being able to not only lead last weeks Jam but to run home afterwards and do a full workout on top of that! Most of that energy is pure excitement over being able to move at all!
The only residual bit is in the base of my neck which feels eternally tense, only slightly, but enough to be bothersome. My muscles also get more sore the day after a workout than they used to.
I am curious to see how it all plays out in the coming weeks with stunt school. I am confident I will be fine (i feel like a friggin tank after coming back from an accident like that!).
I do have some really good medicine though...just in case.
Greg

Food and three weeks of fighting

My biggest concern with my upcoming immersion into the stunt world is eating right while living in a hotel for three weeks. Not jumping from elevated heights, not being lit on fire, falling down stairs, or being generally pounded for hours. Just food.
So far, with my limited culinary knowledge, the outlook is bleak. It's either the hotel breakfast and fast food, or day after day eating the few things I know how to make without boiling water or a microwave.
The big goals are energy rich carbs and muscle replenishing protein. With full days of fighting six days a week I will need a larger amount than usual. pastas would be an easy given if I had a stove or way to boil water (aside from buying an appliance to do so).
I have heard that leaving rice in a bowl of water overnight will allow it to plump up and absorb the water. Until I try this for myself it remains in a grey area. Here is what I do know:
Nuts/granola are good for protein and iron and are a good snack during the day.
Bananas are good for potassium which will help prevent muscle cramps.
Berries have some good carbs and natural sugars.
Veggies supply freshness, flavor and other nutrients.
Now what the hell do I make with that?
Greg

Improv and stage combat

Our next Jam will be tackling Improv and the use of stage combat.
There are a lot of inherent difficulties in combining the two art forms. A totally improvised piece of stage combat is extremely dangerous. Something that is too rehearsed and choreographed loses the in the moment feel of good Improv.
This isn't a new idea. Fights were used routinely in Commedia shows hundreds of years ago. While safety standards were possibly more lax, they couldn't afford to injure their fellow performers and risk not being able to continue the show. The Commedia groups would rehearse their bits, or lazzi, and if a certain trigger was hit in the course of the scene the appropriate fight sequence would follow.
Today, professional wrestling uses physical cues such as taps or slaps on their partners body to let them know what move is coming next. Those cues trigger the appropriate sequence to perform the violence effectively while maintaining the illusion of a real, on the spot fight.
This is the type of Improv violence I am working to recreate. We will use our modern and safer techniques to create funny, dynamic, engaging, and seemingly spontaneous acts of violence onstage that fit in the context of whatever is developing onstage.
This will he extremely challenging, but it is by no means impossible. The next Jam will only be an introduction but the goal is to show that it can be done.
Greg