We've moved!

Hi lovely lurkers--guess what?

We have updated and upgraded the Bonzuko blog: it's now found at http://bonzuko.com. All the past posts you have enjoyed before now are there, as will be all the new posts. So go there, refresh your subscriptions, all that jazz. It's a new day for Bonzuko!

We hope to see mamy astute and intellingent comments on our new site. Thanks for your readership, and we'll see you there!

~Jenn & Jas

Fight Clip Club

This is the video Kevin put together from the Boulder Quest Center's Youth Sword Camp. Bonzuko's own Jenn helped the kids out the last day of camp with choreography tips and a theatrical sword drill that they then used to build their very own swordfights. Enjoy!

Star Wars Uncut FTW

Well I now have a renewed appreciation for film editors. Sheesh! I counted approximately 13 edits for our 15 second scene.

Oh, wait, let me explain:

Star Wars Uncut is a project you can see here--basically, what these insane geniuses did was divide Star Wars: A New Hope into 15-second increments. Web crawlers then could claim a scene, re-film it themselves, and upload it. What will result is a giant Internet-produced quilt version of the film.

Since I was teaching a lightsaber class this summer--well, perfect project for class members, eh? Little did we know how many freaking moves there can be in a 15 second space!

Here's our entry: (sound isn't perfect but surprisingly close!) ~Jenn

Three Rules For Actors, and Everyone Else

A while back, I wrote about how the Three Rules from Acting training (objective, tactics, obstacles) served as guidelines for writing strong prose—I renamed them the Three Rules for Protagonists. As I did so, I noticed that the Three Rules also apply to the martial arts. Having recently weeded through a bunch of old MFA musings re: the Three Rules and Mamet’s “Where Do You Put the Camera?” it hit me that his theories of simplicity in filmmaking had everything to do with warriorship and the Three Rules.

Whew. Let me begin my explanation with a Mamet quote (from the abovementioned piece):

“As long as the protagonist wants something, the audience will want something. As long as the protagonist is clearly going out and attempting to get that something, the audience will wonder whether or not he’s going to succeed. The moment the protagonist, or the auteur of the movie, stops trying to get something and starts trying to influence someone, the audience will go to sleep.”

As long as an action fulfills the protagonist’s objective, then it’s a strong choice. If it’s merely interesting and only interesting, it will not actually be interesting to the viewer. The same holds true for writing: the minute a writer stops writing beautiful, interesting prose and concerns herself with “what do I want” (Rule 1), she will begin to write gripping works of whatever genre. Mamet calls this “uninflected” which I love as a term for this idea of unadorned, simple, compelling work.

How does this relate to warriorship? In the martial arts, it’s easy to fall into what I call the “coolness” trap; it’s the same trap both actors and writers fall into. It’s irresistible to the ego to write interesting stuff; to be interesting onstage: in other words, to appear cool. The ego doesn’t want to look boring or plain, it wants to look cool. It seems contrary that the least interesting choice is actually the strongest, and that the less information you give a reader/audience, the better they will get into the story. The exact same thing happens to a martial artist: we see so much over-the-top action in films that looks so cool: wire-fu, elaborate long fight sequences, sleek catsuits, macho setups for sport fighting like cages. The problem for the artist’s ego is that the really cool-looking stuff of martial arts is in fact the least effective in a real fight. Same for an actor, same for a writer. And now I’m writing this, it occurs to me that we could probably say this for any art form…

The Three Rules For Warriorship:
1) What do I want? (Objective) –do I want to attack or defend myself? Do I want to cause harm? What specifically do I want to do, physically? How do I want the fight to end?
2) What do I do to get what I want? (Tactics) –What actions specifically do I need to achieve my objective? Weak or waffly (or “cool”) choices here will fail, in a much more obvious way than just a mediocre performance or piece of writing. In a martial arts situation, a weak tactic leads to a smack in the head or even a fatality (or a lost match, if we’re talking sport martial arts).
3) What stands in my way? (Obstacles) –is my opponent’s guard up? Armor or weapons involved? Are there innocents anywhere? Is the law on my side? Is the space restricted, either physically or otherwise?

What’s the conclusion here? That good art should be “uninflected, … requiring no additional gloss” (Mamet again). Keep it simple. Which, of course, is the most difficult thing about mastery. For more of Mamet's words of wisdom, check out his book On Directing.

Image is Jenn and Boaz doing a theatrical thing in a martial arts studio. Go figure.

~Jenn

Preview

This is the video that I call the Making Of Our Star Wars Uncut scene. Now, we'll be uploading our scene to the site soon, but there are 13 edits within the 15 second scene, so for now enjoy this peek into our process, lovely lurkers. And take a moment to remember the lightsaber class. ~Jenn

Here's the scene we're trying to recreate:

Are we close? :)

Random Latin

sic transit gloria mundi
- so passes away the glory of the world.

~JAS

Lightsaber class

Here, lovely lurkers, is the culmination of the 8-week summer Stage Combat class in lightsaber technique. This is the conclusion of our summer efforts. We had a great time! ~Jenn

Lightsaber finale

Boaz and I had the opportunity to perform our lightsaber fight for the Boulder Quest Center testing community and their fan clubs last night. It was fantastic to be able to do it with Duel of the Fates playing and a live audience that wasn't fellow students who've seen it a million times before. We had adrenaline and joy. Here's a still photo thanks to Marcus and family. Video to follow. ~Jenn

Happy Birthday!

...to J.K. Rowling, author of the wildly, insanely popular Harry Potter book series. Here again is Molly Ringwraith's hilarious parody for your enjoyment. No, I don't have a movie review, haven't seen it yet. Many happy returns of the day, Ms. Rowling. ~Jenn

http://mollyringwraith.livejournal.com/43789.html

Fight Clip Club

Ninja jump from the BQC. Keegan, you put your hand down. Does that count? :)

Come to NinjaFit Fridays if you want to learn stuff like this. ~Jenn

Thursday and Friday's Exciting Events

Thursday the 30th is the last day of the summer lightsaber class (sob). We'll be filming all our fights, though, so stay tuned and you can see the results of our 8-week session up here soon afterwards.

Friday the 31st is Test Night at the Boulder Quest Center. Highlights will include Jenn and Boaz's lightsaber fight, Kim & Jenn showing the groud flow, and of course much fun belt testing as usual. This will be the last test for Kim & Jenn before their Black Belt. Spiffy!

INFO:

7/30: lightsaber class finale; 12"30-2pm; PE 103 on Auraria Campus

7/31: BQC Test Night; adults & youth testing + demos begin at 6pm

Images are Jenn and Kim in April's BQC test, and Jenn and Boaz creating their lightsaber fight, in class in June.

Ninja Assassin

Here's the new trailer, full of super Matrix-esque, shuriken-flinging action. Looks like fun! Thanks to Boing-Boing for pointing the way to this site. "Insanely awesome," indeed.

National Cowboy Day

Sunday was National Cowboy Day--a day to celebrate the Western American icon we know and love so well here in Colorado. Of course, when we at Bonzuko think of cowboys, we think of staged bar brawls, whip work, and other skills "walk-around actors" still use in various live gigs. Ever been to the Silverton-Durango train trip? There are cowboys and wenches at each stop staging skits and fights. Last year's Denver stage combat seminar fest, the Rumble in the Rockies, was cowboy-themed.

One of Bonzuko's inspirations in the stage combat field is Dale Girard. He is one of a very few that the SAFD calls "Fight Master," and was Jenn's teacher's teacher, and still is a brilliant stage combat artist. One of the things he did back in the day (which was the inspiration for many of the stunt shows we did almost ten years later at the Colorado Renaissance Festival and elsewhere) is a Western-themed live stunt show, with his company On Edge Productions. Jenn actually still has a couple of the Western scripts from these shows, and it makes us wish we could have seen these!! Acrobatics, gunslinging, whip work, cowboy punches and bad jokes all abounded. It nearly makes Jenn want to round up the MSCD Stage Combat Club dogies and do it again! Anyone game?

Enjoy these images from On Edge Productions Western stunt shows from back in the mid-'80s. Pictured are Dale himself, along with his company performing the show "The Swell, the Not-So-Swell, and the None-Too-Cute" (had to correct the original spelling--sorry). Thanks to Dale Girard for permission to show off and celebrate these images documenting a great talent and inspiration for us still. Yee-haw!

R.I.P. Merce Cunningham

Just heard today that one of dance's greatest artists, Merce Cunningham, has passed away at age 90. He was one of the best movement artists ever, so take a moment today to appreciate his contribution to the movement arts.

What I appreciated most about Cunningham's dance way was his combination of classical style with a modern sensibility. He also had the coolest improvisation structures, and was a movement improv innovator. Check out this video clip from the '60s. I dig his use of tableaux (stillnesses) in this piece.

~Jenn

Image from this site. Vid from YouTube (do a Merce Cunningham vid search and find more cool stuff!)

Movie Review

TV review, actually. It's been a long time since we've done a review, and there has been much watching of media since the last one. There have been a few Bonzuko favorites in there, but one that has especially good stunt work is showing its first season over again this summer. It's called Legend of the Seeker.

Based on some Fantasy novels by Terry Goodkind, Legend of the Seeker plays on TV like a delightful combination of Ren Faire and a good D&D game. Our triumvirate (Richard the young Seeker, Kahlan the Confessor and old Zeddicus the Wiz) move from one unrealistically clean and diverse medieval village to the next on their way to stop the melodramatically evil Darken Rahl, saving the day each time as they go on. Now this may sound like not a high-quality show as I describe it here, lovely lurkers, but actually this formulaic, archetypical structure is quite pleasing. The script moves from predictable to cheesy to melodramatic, but in a good way, and the acting is actually decent, not only by our main three, but all the extras we encounter each episode. And it's sexy, but in a family-friendly way.

Of course, the main reason why we at Bonzuko like to watch Legend of the Seeker is its fight scenes. The Seeker is known for wielding the Sword of Truth (which really looks like it was made by Starfire. Anyone know if this is true?), so there are many swordfights each episode. They are all very well choreographed, filmed in a stop-and-slow-motion style that actually (when the channel itself is running smoothly) makes the action easier to watch than if it were in real time. All the actors that fight look like they do a generous portion of their own stunts, and look too like they have worked hard to look awesome as they do so.

The other thing that makes Legend of the Seeker stand out as far as its stunt fighting is the inclusion of female warriors, not as bystanders that may or may not have a vase handy when the bad guy's head gets close enough to her hiding place, but actually fighting right alongside their male counterparts. Kahlan wields not a sword, but a pair of daggers (often reverse-grip. Yeah!) as well as her magic power. But even female secondary characters that get caught up in the Seeker's quarrels are not bystanders but hold their own. I'm reminded specifically of a recently-shown episode wherein the Seeker is handcuffed to a young woman and has to fight several guards to escape. They both use their manacles and unarmed prowess to save themselves. Again, some creative choreography (mainly by Steve McQuillan).

Here's the Season 1 recap from Hulu. Minor spoilers, but you'd be able to predict these "twists" anyway, right? http://www.hulu.com/watch/74157/legend-of-the-seeker-season-1-recap

Anyone who enjoys light, enjoyable fantasy fare and/or good stage combat should catch Legend of the Seeker whenever they can.
Bottom line: **** out of *****
Thanks to this site for the image.

Random Latin

ipso facto
- by the fact or the act itself.

~JAS

Random Picture

Shuffle up the Pictures file, lurkers ours! And...it's....

Bonzuko's own Jenn being flung across the racquetball court by Glen! Old Genki Kai footage. From 2002 or 3ish.

Youth Sword Camp

I was happy to come down to the BQC for the last day of their Youth Sword Camp, to help with theatrical swordplay and making a movie with the kids. It was super-fun, super-tiring, very hot, and all kinds of great choreography today between 9 and 12. Good job, Sword Camp kids!

Image is Kate and Jane showing their favorite sword kamae.

Class Time Change

Anyone coming to the Boulder International Fringe Festival Stage Combat class, taught by Bonzuko's own Jenn, the time has changed. It's still August 15th, but now the class part will be 12-3pm, and a showing of our work at 4pm. It's ridiculously cheap--spread the word, and show up yourselves!

Do the Hindu

I'm all about the Hindu Pushup--we do them all the time in NinjaFit. But instead of how this guy does it, start in an actual Downward Dog, go slowly and get your nose as close to the floor as you can, then come up into an Upward Dog. And love the sweat! ~Jenn

Thanks to Lifehacker for mentioning this today, and for the link.