I shot a new motherfucking fight scene

[pete]

http://vimeo.com/24068342

I shot this with two pretty incredible stunt guys, one of which was leaving for Japan so we came up with a short sketch.
the whole thing kinda became an homage to Jackie Chan's Wheels on Meals - we stole a shot from there.
enjoy. this was shot on GH1 which was doodoos.

[matt35mm]

That was motherfucking brutal yo! 

[Pozer]

this was awesome, man. very well done. nice choice of credits rolling on him walking away.

[RegularKarate]

Great Job, Pete!
I never get to see good fights in shorts... so good.

[Mr. Merrill Lehrl]

Does this become absorbed into someone's reel or does it have a potential life of its own?  How receptive are festivals to martial arts films?  Are there martial arts exclusive festivals?

It's a really strong short with some impressive moments is why I ask.  I'd like to go to a festival and see a short like this.

I have other questions if you have a minute:

Was the visual effect the gun firing?  Was that the only visual effect?   Just a person you know who did it for free?  It blows my mind that effects like this are possible on a microbudget level now.

Is there a flexibility to the fight choreography for you as the d.p./director?  Actually I don't even know from the credits who designed the fights (I see the one actor also edited?) - was it a collaboration between the actors and the directors on the set as it happened, in other words was the fight planned out or improvised?

[squints]

Man pete's been involved in fight scenes for years!

Like HERE , HERE

And my personal favorite, HERE

I think there use to be more in this thread but a lot of the links are down. You should just start one called "Pete Kicks Ass"


Also, the new one is great as per usual.

[Mr. Merrill Lehrl]

I'm happy to have those links, but I didn't think for a second this was his first short.

[pete]

hey dudes thanks for the positivity!
my strategy in starting out doing things at my level is to have a good handle on a variety of specialized subjects - food, music, and martial arts/stunts, namely.

merrill - our process is very much taken from the Hong Kong model from the 80's, where everything was choreographed more or less on the day of the shoot. We started out with the vaguest of maps, jammed on it for a little bit, find a groove, and finish it according the newly minted "narrative". we'd determine a tone, which limits, in a sense, our vocabulary in terms of choreography and camera movement. the location and resources also determine these things. our job is to fill up that space with mainly hands feet and the camera lens.

these guys are very disciplined and austere when it comes to camerawork - they have very very specific ideas as to which moves look good from which shot sizes and direction. Everything is edited in our collective head. they constantly reviewed the footage and they really understood how to line up shots and sell the hits, probably better than most professional directors (as you can actually catch a lot of misses or worse, stuntmen waiting for their cues to get hit, in big budget movies and TV shows.)

I work in a stunt collective with a bunch talented kids locally - some more professional than others. one of the stunt guys offered to do the v fx for free, but as you could see - we didn't put the digital bullet holes past the first half a dozen or so shots - we just kinda hoped that people would forget about them. there were action film festivals that we showed our things at - but they're kinda b-movie level fests and I feel uncomfortable constantly being associated at the level but I guess that's where the genre lies for the time being.

we are making a feature late this summer, wish us luck.

here's another one that I thought I'd posted - I'd shot and helped choreograph the first half of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4vaFaGVBS0&feature=related

[Mr. Merrill Lehrl]

Very cool, thanks.  Best wishes for the feature.  Maybe video journal during production??

[pete]

yeah, looking for an intern for us to boss around, who'll be doing behind the scenes and tutorials. TUTORIALS ARE HUGE right now. if you know of good film blogs that might take fun genre stuff like this lemme know too.

[Reel]

that jacobus dude is a monster! I guess all I'm looking for is a reason why dude's be fightin'.

[Pubrick]

I guess all I'm looking for is a reason why dude's be fightin'.

Racism, duh.

[Ravi]

Great job! You make me want to shoot some fights myself. Now if only all my friends weren't so out of shape...

[Reel]

a fat guy fight scene could be just as enjoyable.

[pete]

a fat guy fight scene could be just as enjoyable.

done and done