About Time We Trained...
Today we've had the first proper training in over two months - Mike joined Kev and myself out in the garden. Kevin was late coming home, though, so we had to make the best of our time. Though, as you can see below, we took advantage of the darkening sky for some interesting photographs ^_^
I apologise for the blurriness of the shots - next time, I won't be relying on just turning off the hardware acceleration in Media Player to get them, I'll be using a program like VLC or VirtualDub. We'll see. In any case, the next photographs you'll see should be a big improvement. And the next set of photographs should be coming tomorrow.
While the project is definitely going ahead, I'm very worried about the special effects. Oh, not the lightsabers - as you can see in Rob's posts, we have no worries in that department. No, what I'm worried about is finding someone willing to work for peanuts to do a few sequences, for example a ship firing at another as it dives into a planet. Nobody on the team has either the time or the skills needed to create such sequences. We do have the programs - kinda, I'm not sure yet about Atmosphere and LiveMotion 2 - but not anyone who can use them. Boo. Because of this, and because of delays in pre-production (we'll be at this stage for a long time, I think) I can't give any kind of estimate for the date of release. Boo some more.
On with today's photographs...
Kevin and I in a very blurry shot...
Kevin and Michael, their silhouettes against the night sky.
Kevin and I, in the same situation.
Who knew that Kevin was so acrobatically inclined? Our duel is looking very good indeed, and progressing at a nice pace.
posted by Brian @ 7/08/2005 02:43:00 AM
13 Comments:
Hey!! You don't know me but i just wanted to say hey and i think it's freakin awesome that you're making a mini movie!!! I am in love with star wars!! Those pics are really cool too. It's cool that you are having fun with it too!!! ~~Becca~~
Thanks very much Becca!
Can you tell me how you found the blog?
Thanks for your comment, Blackops... I think ;)
StarWars rocks! Hell yes! Do you guys make up these routines, or do you follow the movies?
Hey!! I was just exploring other peoples blogs and yours happened to come up!! ~~Becca~~
Shandiana - I'm sorry, but what do you mean by routines? If lightsaber fights, then yes, we do.
Becca - Ah, I see! Thanks for your comments ^_^
So, does it take you guys awhile to come up with the routines or do you guys freestyle? ~~~Becca~~~
It does take us a good while to come up with new stuff, and of course we have to not forget the stuff we've learned which is why training sessions go on for so long.
It's hard to freestyle and make a fight look good.
Wow, that's insane. On the question you asked Becca, it was on the lower right hand corner of the blogger home page of interesting blogs to investigate, so that's how I found it. Training sessions? Is one of you a "Jedi Master" who trains the rest?
Ah, I see.
*L* No! Apart from the fact that we're big Star Wars fans and have studied the lightsaber fights a great deal, each of us trains in Kendo every weekend, with the highest ranking among us around 4th or 5th Kyu. The lower the number the higher the grade, and 5th Kyu is five grades away from 1st Dan, or black belt, if you prefer.
Is that like fencing, or karate, or is there actually a local class wherever you are for lightsaber duals?
Kendo is derived from Bushido, the martial art the samurai trained with. Bushido translated means, "The Way Of The Warrior". Kendo translated means, "The Way Of The Sword."
It's a very strenuous martial art, more than any we've done (some of us have experience in Shotokan Karate, and one of us is near to 1st Dan, or black belt, in Tae Kwon Do).
It is nothing like fencing. With fencing you use foils in place of rapiers, stepping back and forth, without a great deal of movement. In Kendo, we use hard wood replacements for the katana, called the bokken, and a long sword made of bamboo, called the shinai. In Kendo, you always have your right foot in front, left foot behind. You are always bouncing on the heel of your left foot - designed for an explosive forward strike.
Kendo is taught in a nearby University sports complex, by two 3rd Dan teachers, and we have a regular 4th Dan Kendoka (practitioner) from Okinawa in Japan.
No... I don't know of anywhere in the world that trains you for lightsaber duels. Your best bet is to call Nick Gillard, fight coordinator on the prequel movies, and see if he can help you ;)
Note - You can see examples of Bushido in the film The Last Samurai. Kendo is very similar to Bushido.
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