Week 8 Report

For some strange reason, all the people from Martial Arts Madness failed to show up today, so I was not able to do all of what I wanted. Instead we learned a new sequence of guard pass, submission attempt, and counter, divided up the group available into the two teams, and discussed costuming.

Then we set up another improv scene, in which we rehashed "Captain Zorikh challenging the Adversary" that we had done two weeks before. This time I had Joseph Jordan stand in for CZ, and GA West and John B. Thierse played the "mentor" character. Lee Boria played the Adversary again. I had the cast run through the scene twice, and make different choices each time.

It was amazing how uncomfortable I felt watching someone play myself and watching myself be abused and made fun of. When I heard Bundy and Kamikaze shout "Captain Dork," and saw Joe stutter and stammer his way through his challenge, I was taken back to some of my less pleasurable moments in school and summer camp. That's when I knew that this movie has potential. We are not just punk kids half-assing grappling technique and fooling around, we are making a movie that people will be able to relate to, that they will respond to.

And that's what this is all about, isn't it?

Videos from Week 6, talk and improvs

Here is the talk I gave to the cast when I handed out the story breakdown. I explained the story and why it is important to have a believable Adversary for the Hero.



So I divided up the cast into two teams and gave them instruction that would lead them to enact a composite scene combining several elements of the story.

Here was the first team to preform their improv, made up mostly of pro wrestlers with Lee Boria as the Adversary, Jonathan Rodriguez standing in for Captain Zorikh, and GA West as the Mentor-to-be.



And then the second team went on, made up mostly of Sammy's team of mixed martial artists and the kung fu class I had recruited on Week 2. Elizabeth Vergara plays the Adversary, Douglas Ahammer stands in for Captain Zorikh, and Sam plays the Mentor-to-be.



These performances allowed me to see new aspects of the story that I had not considered, and showed me what aspects do not work. It was also instrumental in helping me cast the role of the adversary, and decide that the final tournament would be a match between two teams, not three.