The three Bourne movies are often cited as favourites of modern film fights. Let’s take a closer look.

The Bourne Identity

Fight Summary: This is the one that made Bourne: Pen Versus Knife.
Fight Length: 97 seconds
Notes: There is time and space given to character choices, but flurries of attacks are fast and close. However, even the close handheld work is clear. The punch-dagger is a clear priority, but the assassin doesn’t use it stupidly. The high-skill moves like the kip-up are shown to be necessary, not for show, and the practical moves like punches and elbows connect more than they are blocked.

The Bourne Supremacy

Fight Summary: What is happening? What’s happening!?
Fight Length: 110 seconds
Notes: I’ll tell you what’s happening: boring sequences like chokes that are attempting to be more exciting with camera shake. Hits to lower targets (stomach punches, kicks, etc) that are completely out of frame, but we hear the sound effect. And poor wardrobe/lighting combinations: don’t put two guys in dark suits against bright horizontal blinds.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Fight Summary: He beats him with a textbook. That taught him a lesson!
Fight Length: 100 seconds
Notes: Although this is my favourite of the three, it is clearly a reprisal of the fight in Identity. The assassin has a gun (calling for an early disarm), there is a female companion who will be mostly an onlooker (and vocal score), an everyday object is used as a weapon. Other notes: You don’t need to see a disarm, you can just hear the object hitting the floor. The close-up on the wrist lock is a nice touch.

MovieClips

As you may have noticed, these clips are from YouTube, but were sourced from a site called MovieClips.com. If you’re doing any research on films, I highly recommend it (and I’ve got no affiliation with them). You can search by keywords, by actors and themes and hundreds of other tags.

Listen

One of my main joys in these clips is the absence of music. The grunts of the fighters, the sounds of the weapons, glass on the floor, clothing and objects moving and spilling, and the impact of the hits are all sufficient for the fight. You don’t need to enhance a fight with an exciting score, it’s already the most exciting part of the film.
In fact, go look at one of the Pirates of the Caribbean fights… ask yourself how much that awesome music actually takes away from the action. If that’s a difficult to judge, just watch the video twice, the second time on “mute”.

Upcoming Events

A few quick reminders to mark your calendar…

FDC Nationals

The next chance to earn your certification with Fight Directors Canada is at the National Workshop, which is happening here in Vancouver. If you’ve never tried stage combat, you can get Basic Actor-Combatant certification. For those who already have some training, Intermediate and Advanced levels are available for actors and stuntmen.
It is a two-week intensive course from 24 June to 8 July, and don’t plan on doing anything else in that time, because when you’re not in class, you will be studying for the written test in a bath for your aching muscles. It’s all worth it for the experts you learn from, the friends you make, and the awesome that you become by performance day.
Register now at www.VancouverCombatWorkshop.com

Next Fundamentals Workshop

Slaps and Slashes, our Introduction to Stage Combat Workshop, will be happening on Sunday, 13 May, also known as Mother’s Day. After breakfast in bed, leave your poor mother alone and train to become a safe and exciting stage fighter. If you’re planning on trying for Basic at the Nationals, this is a good way to get a head start and acclimated to the type of work we do.
Visit AcademieDuello.com for more on this workshop and how to register.

The art of dying is dying, according to a recent article on NPR:

Now 69, Fukumoto recalls landing his first job in the movies as a stuntman and extra with Toei studios in 1959.

“When I was younger, our studio had some 400 stuntmen and extras,” he remembers. “I wanted to stand out. I wanted to be on screen. The best way to do that was to become a ‘chopped-up actor’ and to fight with the stars.”

Fukumoto’s art is known in Japanese as tate, a stylized sort of stage combat that combines elements of martial arts, dance and kabuki theater. Its use in Japanese film has influenced foreign cinematic styles from “spaghetti Westerns” to Hong Kong kung fu flicks. But few Japanese actors practice it today.

— NPR: In Japan, ‘Sliced-Up Actors’ Are A Dying Breed by ANTHONY KUHN

Here is an example recorded from Japanese TV, in which Kirareyaku (or “Chopped Up Actors) demonstrate their art, and their use of camera angles:

Dying for Your Entertainment

When an actor needs to die on stage, the performer and director should consider:

• What overall effect is necessary for this scene and the overall show?
• How long does it take to kill them?
• How long will the actor need to remain dead and visible on stage?

I’ve previously written acting tips for the dying: How to Die on Stage, so the specifics of acting several kinds of death are there.

More important to the show are issues of gruesomeness. The use of fake blood should be used for victims of villains, and the bodies that litter the stage after a war scene should not be casually ignored by “good” characters.

This is the reason why Mercutio is quickly taken off-stage to die, and why Romeo flees almost immediately after murdering Tybalt. Otherwise, the corpses ruin Romeo’s image.

Even if the hero needs to show determination and endurance in a long fight, we almost always want to see them use cleverness to win in the end. He should not merely be the last character with any strength left to slowly turn a dagger.

And it should be pretty obvious that in comedies and children’s shows, we let hurt characters leave the stage quickly or die in an elegant way, regardless of whether they were positive or negative roles.

More Chopped Up Actors!

It’s nice to read inspirational happy stories that encourage you to train harder and feel great. It’s also nice to get clear information and details to help your chosen studies. Normally, I try to give you both.

Today, I have to draw your attention to bad news.

Vancouver Playhouse Closed

I saw one of their final presentations, the creative and creepy Hunchback.

Although last Wednesday’s performance was close to a full house, and the production was excellent, ticket sales cover less than 40% of costs. The rest comes from support from provincial and federal Arts Councils and donations.

Speaking of which, Ida Chong is sitting on 3 million dollars in unallocated Arts & Culture funding. I guess she has other plans on where to spend it, because the Vancouver Playhouse is now on permanent hiatus.

Rebecca Coleman wrote a concise article about the issues and the gathering to save the theatre called It Might Be Time to Retire. In it, she ruminates over moving to Europe since performing arts are losing more respect every year in Canada.

Hollywood North-East

What’s in a name? Should the label “Hollywood North” reflect amount of revenue from the film industry, revenue per capita, number of films, or number of Canadian artists hired?

Well, the easiest way to count is dollars. And the AFP reports that Ontario now beats BC in film industry money. The Georgia Straight’s article “B.C. drops to fourth largest North American film production centre” explains clearly the trends and differences between domestic and foreign investment, and what lessons we might take from the data.

It’s not all bad news, here’s a quote from the same article:

BC Film Commission data released Monday (March 5) revealed that overall film and TV spending rebounded, from a dip down to $1.02 billion in 2010 up to almost $1.19 billion in 2011.
Foreign film and TV spending in B.C. rose a healthy 26 percent from $777.89 million in 2010 to $979.72 million in 2011.

The World of Tomorrow

Don’t stay focused on hobbies and local events, and miss the bigger picture. Speaking of bad news…

Depressed Yet?

Why do I teach and perform stage combat here when all these bad things are happening? Live performance will go on. Filmmaking will go on. If your talents include storytelling and entertaining others, there might be conflicts and fights within your stories. It’s important to tell these stories to get messages across to people. And it’s just as important that no performers get hurt needlessly in the process.

Create stories. Watch stories. Cooperate. Be safe.