Fight Choreo Workshops
Kicking ass and giving back!
Building stunt reels on clip at a time
In December, I began holding mini stunt choreography workshops for people looking to expand their knowledge and build up their stunt reels to stant out more on auditions and on jobs. These workshops are much shorter than traditional intensives, such as the ones they have at JAM which are a week long, and focus primarily on building up one short choreography section. In addition to learning the choreography, we also spend a good amount of time practicing the skills we need to film the short section, this way everyone gets exactly what they need for their reels.
Typically, the first half of the day (9-11am) consists of warm-ups, acting work, learning a brief 8-10 count fight scene with a partner, and going over safe wrecks/alternatives. I’ve been luckiy enough to bring on guest instructors like Gabe Ruan and Jeffrey Li, whom I’ve worked with on several film projects, to help teach aspects of their unique backgrounds and experiences. It always feels good to be able to pay my friends for their work, although this is not a huge money-making venture for me since I only charge $20 for the whole workshop. I like to think of this as a way of giving back to a community that I’ve had so much fun working with, and I would do it for free if not for the fact I have to pay gym rent and facilities and all that. With the new gym change-over (CA Tricking has become Loopkicks Scoal) I might have to hike the price up slightly if there are new and/or altered fees to contend with, but I’ll still try to keep it as cheap as possible.
After a quick lunch break and location change, we spend the next two hours or so filming the fight scenes to make them look more professional than a gym clip. UC Irvine was the perfect loctation for this since we could just walk around ring road at film at various halls or buildings, and they would all look unique and distinct. With some dynamic filming (typically done by me) and an atypical set, the reel clips come out looking more than good enough for a novice stunt reel or even to beef up an acting reel if it’s shot like a skit. I’m not certain we’ll keep UCI as the second location, since it was a 5-8min drive from CA Tricking but is about a 25-30min drive from Loopkicks Socal, but I hope to keep the sequence the same in future workshops.
Drilling the first two sequences in the choreography at CA Tricking
future opportuNITIES
Having these workshops on a monthly basis is definitely the plan, however I do have some obstacles and bizarre scheduling to overcome before I can commit to a series of concrete dates. Until then, interested parties should keep an eye out on my instagram and email list (which you can join at the bottom of any of my website pages) for when I post another flyer.
That being said, the new gym location at Loopkicks Socal is a lot larger and better equiped than CA Tricking was, so future workshops will have a higher capacity and more tools for stunts. The new floor and multiple training zones are also a huge plus in adding variety to the training/choreographing methods, which means we might even be able to do entire previzes entirely indoors. Projects that film locally within Orange County will be the perfect opportunity to host preproduction sections, such as choreography, blocking, previz, etc., which will help cut costs on gas and gym fees all the way up in the valley.
My greatest hope from these workshops is to build an action production community here in OC which isn’t dependent on any part of LA. For example, for the film Back in Action, we created and filmed a previz at JAM and then went out ot Atlanta, GA for the filming of the actual movie scene. For most of the people involved in the previz, JAM’s location was probably convenient for the stunt people who live in the valley, but for those of us outside of LA, that location basically stamps on a 90-150min drive each way. Now, if our community of stunt people and actors here in OC are working on a project that films out of state, we can shoot our previz in-town either at Loopkicks Scoal or one of the many free filming locations in the area. There’s even the possibilty of doing an entire project, start-to-finish, entirely in-town!
