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Them's Fighting Words!
Fight Choreographer Nick Jamilla speaks out
At a Glance:
Jamilla: ha meal ya
Age: 35
Occupation: 4th grade teacher
Martial Arts Experience: 21 years fencing, 13 years aikido, 11 years kendo
Published Works: Shimmering Sword: Samurai, Western, & Star Wars Sword Fighting, several Star Wars articles at Echostation.com
RTOF: How did you hear about REVELATIONS?
NICK: I was checking out some bulletin boards on the.force.net and I saw a posting for a fan film (REVELATIONS) in the DC area that was looking for a lightsaber choreographer. I sent my resume on a whim, thinking that someone had already been accepted for the position.
RTOF: Have you been involved with any other fan films?
NICK: No, I haven't. The only experience I had up until I contacted Shane Felux, the director, were the mock trailers that came out in advance of the Episode I. I had a friend from Australia who wanted to do his own Star Wars fan film, so the idea of joining a local production seemed intriguing to me.
RTOF: Why REVELATIONS? What convinced you?
NICK: The same night I sent in my resume, I got a call from the director who was very enthusiastic about the possibility of joining the production. He went through the general plot of the film and explained the level of commitment he was looking for.
I didn't want to make a commitment until I saw the script. I took about a week to go over it and then contacted Shane to make an appointment to meet. During the week I downloaded every Star Wars fan film I could find in order to see what REVELATIONS might look like. I wasn't impressed at all, so the meeting with Shane over an early supper was pivotal. I asked questions about the script, the production, and my responsibilities. It was a combination of the script, which impressed me a lot, and Shane's professionalism.
RTOF: What challenges have you faced while making this film?
NICK: Scheduling practice time is probably the biggest difficulty. Since everyone has regular full-time jobs, we have to work around those schedules. Blocking everyone's movement as the site for the lightsaber fighting changed over time has been another problem. Another challenge is creating choreography that meets the director's expectations. It's his vision and I need to meet his needs. I have skills to create choreography, but it has to meet the director's expectations. I've had to dispense with some choreography because Shane wants something else or the background for the scene has been altered. I may not like it because I've put a lot of effort into my choreography, but as a professional it's my job to meet his expectations.
RTOF: Did the REVELATIONS actors have any experience in fencing/martial arts?
NICK: Shane, who is also one of the actors, has stage fighting experience, as does Frank, one of the other actors who does not have a lightsaber fighting role. After a picnic at Shane's house, we broke out some fencing weapons and did a little bouting. From what I've seen, their previous familiarity with Western fencing has helped them learn the lightsaber choreography. With them, I only need to explain the rationale for the movement once and then they pick up choreography immediately.
Choreography is very much like dance; a dance with a sinister purpose, that is. With the three women who haven't had any sword fighting ability, there's a lot of reassuring that needs to be done to make them comfortable. It's a lot more practice to get the basic moves, and then more practice to speed up the tempo, but the women on this project seem to be perfectionists and expect to get the movement down the first time. Karen is a natural at the movement; I think because she's done some dance. Gina has so much enthusiasm and has a lot of support from Frank and Shane. Holland, who's never done much athletically, has made tremendous progress. She had to do her first lightsaber work with a half hour of training. It's great to see because they're all determined. And with every practice, learning the next routine becomes easier. For REVELATIONS, the women know that they're the stars of the film when it comes to the lightsaber fights, which is what makes this production unique. They've got the look, and with practice they'll look even better on screen.
RTOF: What have you learned, especially considering the differences between teaching a student in general and choreographing/training actors for film?
NICK: With students you teach basics and expect students to learn techniques properly. With actors, a fight coordinator's goal is to make them look like they know how to fight. With the actors in REVELATIONS I had them read the chapter in my book about the Master-Apprentice system as a way to show them how much work would be expected of them. We also met during shoots and my assistant and I showed them some Japanese sword fighting with shinai, which got them even more excited about the choreography. A couple of months into production, I scheduled time at my aikido dojo to give them some Japanese sword fighting practice to give them an idea of the movements of Japanese fencing which would be the basis of Jedi lightsaber fighting. Now we're teaching actual choreography and we get directly into routines and supplement it with a little basic training.
(pictures)
RTOF: Are the actors fighting with the same style? If not, what fighting styles did you assign each character/actor and on what did you base these decisions?
NICK: There are subtle differences in choreography based on whether a character is a good guy (a Jedi) or a bad guy (a Rogue). Jedi have upright blocks, while Rogues have blocks with their arms up and away from the body. The biggest stylistic differences will be seen in the duel between Zhanna and Taryn. Zhanna, the evil Jedi, has crossed blocks and diagonal attacks. Zhanna, the good Jedi, has parallel blocks and vertical and horizontal attacks.
In the end, however, I doubt there will be little discernable difference between the good and evil Jedi. It's the movement of the choreography that will be memorable, not a fighting style. The same is true of the Star Wars films. There's no real difference between Obi-Wan's fighting and that of Darth Maul except that the weapons are different. When choreography is created, the pressure of creating something that looks good for the camera takes over.
In real fighting, art styles develop because there's a philosophy behind the movement, which is considered by its practioners to be effective. That's why tae kwon do looks different from boxing from tai chi from karate.
In REVELATIONS, you will see some unusual stances and a variety of different attacks. For the most part, these movements stem from traditional Japanese weapon movements. A student of Japanese weapon arts will identify the influence from Japan. Similarly, you won't see very many kicks, which are more prominent in Chinese wu shu and Korean tae kwon do. Another thing the audience will find interesting is the combination of weapons used during the duel. I won't say anything more about that except that a conscious decision was made to avoid the double-bladed lightsaber because it's done so often in fan films.
I have to say that there is a lot of pressure to make the fighting look like Star Wars. If the style looked too Chinese (i.e. too much like Jackie Chan or Jet Li), Star Wars fans immediately react that it doesn't look Star Wars enough. Because the lightsaber style is based on a samurai style of fighting, it's easy to keep that Star Wars look. The real trick will be trying to get the multi-weapon fighting to have an acceptable Jedi look. There's already some precedence in AOTC, so I hope to build upon it.
RTOF: What are your influences?
NICK: I guess I'm most influenced by my instructors and their movement in training me. I've observed dozens of weapon styles and martial arts, and when I see a move that seems interesting, I try it out and add it to my own repertoire. My mobility is limited by my physical conditioning and a back injury I had about a year ago from training in aikido. I don't have the gymnastic skills of a Chinese style, nor the experience of unorthodox stances in styles like "drunken monkey" or "praying mantis". No kicks for me. Mostly a solid, upright stance generally without an overtly martial stance. My movements have become much more fluid as I've grown older; in fact, my movement looks much more Chinese these days, almost like Tai Chi.
This kind of evolution to a "formless" style of movement develops naturally to more experience martial arts. Bruce Lee stressed similar ideas, that a style or form of movement is still a limited kind of movement. Moving naturally and efficiently means that there is no set movement -- there is no form. You'd be amazed at the similarity of movement of masters in different fighting styles. There is a limit to efficient movement when everyone who fights has two arms and two legs.
RTOF: Who are your inspirations?
NICK: I can't say that I have specific people as inspirations. I could say people like my previous instructors (Saotome, Kubo, Howson, Meyer, or O Sensei, the founder of aikido) who do serve as inspiration, but I've found that my 4th and 5th grade students are my inspiration; 10 and 11-year-olds. So it's not in their superior ability or knowledge that inspires me, but their struggle to achieve just as I did when I was a student. My philosophy of teaching is trying to get a student to teach him or herself, which is also the place I find myself at this point in my life. I'm always trying to teach myself new things; sometimes through imitation, at other times through experimentation.
If you're talking about things other than martial arts, such as philosophy and literature; then it's Wittgenstein, Des Cartes, Thomas Merton, Aristotle, Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Thomas Mann, James Joyce. Of living people: Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Madeleine Albright, Coraghessan Boyle, Paul Watkins, my best friends, and exes.
RTOF: How do you balance fight realism with the needs of drama for the film, plus make the moves understandable for the audience?
NICK: With actual weapon training, you're learning how to hit and cut through an opponent. With choreography, you create movement that looks interesting to the camera. My goal, however, is to base my choreography on real movement, but it does give way to more flowery movement that looks interesting to the eye. My goal isn't to create extended fight scenes, but interesting choreography that helps tell the story through dramatic movement. I was pleased when I learned that more dialogue was going to be added to the climactic duel, as it was done in the original trilogy.
A cinematic fight needs to have a focus; basically a sense that someone is winning or losing at a given movement during a fight. If the fight goes on for too long, the fight becomes pure entertainment and less a means to helping carry the story. As a choreographer, I try to create that in the movement of the actors, but a lot depends on the final cut of the film -- the editing -- and the music. If all three work well together and the script is good, you'll get good fight scenes.
RTOF: What has been the best part of working on REVELATIONS?
NICK: Working with Shane and having free access to the sets during shooting. Shane has been extremely supportive and his passion for the project is reassuring and contagious. On the set, it's great to walk freely around the set to talk to anyone and everyone from the extras to the principal actors and actresses to the crew. Everyone associated with the project has been so enthusiastic.
RTOF: What do you hope to achieve or take away from this experience?
NICK: It'd be nice to get an offer to do choreography for a Hollywood film that would pay me for my contributions, but my immediate goal is to get my novels published, and have them made into films. This being the first movie I've worked on, it's been a very enjoyable and learning experience. Making a film is very similar to a theatrical production, which is very satisfying in that unlike writing a novel you get to have wonderful collaborative experiences. It's certainly been great working with Shane and Dawn.
Find Nick Jamilla on the 'Net:
nbk@shimmeringsword.com
Visit NBK Publishing
Purchase Shimmering Sword
Read Echo Station's interview with Nick
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