Week 11: Final rehearsal and audition, Part 3: Referee audition

So after we put the auditioners through their paces, we lined up three of the matches we had planned for the movie and assigned the auditioners to improvise refereeing them.

The matches were:
Willis vs. Bundy, the heavyweights!

Dan vs. Kirkland, Wushu vs wrestling

G.A. vs. Big Vince, an Underground party match


So what do you think? Who were your favorites? Post yoru thoughts in the comments section!

Week 11: Final rehearsal and audition, Part 2

So we got the auditioners squared away, busy working with each other or regular cast members. Then Lou Nogueira of The Dojo, Wolcott, Ct, showed them a three-move routine, which they practiced with cast members, while I and the cast kept our collective eyes on them to decide who would take which open role...



The camera for this episode was held by Jeremy Salig, and the music is by Dr. Bronko Von Johnstein. The Sprawl fight clothes Lou and I are wearing was provided by the Sprawl Fight Shorts company

Week 11: Final rehearsal and audition, Part 1

I was able to steal a few minutes to put together another video. This is of the last rehearsal day, where we auditioned a few new cast members.



The music is a new composition by Dr. Bronko Von Johnstein, the guy who created the music in the trailer.

Week 7 - Meet the Cast video

Here is the second part of the Week 7 video, in which Captain Zorikh talks with the cast and gets to know them better. There is footage from various rehearsals, the movie itself, and other sources to illustrate what the various cast members are talking about.

Week 11 Report

On Week # 11, everything came out in the wash.

The cast member who had problems with two other cast members had written himself into an agreement that prevented him from working with those cast members, and since I would lose four other cast members if I lost those two, and losing those particular cast members would disrupt the storylines that I had been building and fight routines that had been established, I decided that I would lot get rid of those two members. So he dropped out, and one other cast member went with him. The first of those two cast members who left was not so difficult to replace. In fact, I had pretty much already replaced him. He had been absent a lot lately, and Lou Nogueira had stepped in and been present on those days that he was out. Even when he was in, he had deferred to Lou a lot. The other cast member was tougher, as she was part of the "Romeo & Juliette" sub-plot I was writing in. But Nicole Giunta joined the cast in time for Week #11 and took over that role.

I also put out some casting notices and got a surprising level of response. I got experience competition grapplers and MMA fighters, Jerry Mendez had referred a few of his grappling and MMA friends, and I even got contacted by the former Israeli Pro Wrestling champion and the agent of Brimstone, a well-known indie pro wrestler.

I had invited these people to come to a particular "underground wrestling party" in Manhattan as well as the rest of the cast, and got a great turnout! the cast members were able to get a sense of the scene that I was coming from with this movie, and I was able to see these potential new cast members in action.

So on Saturday I had 6 potential new cast members lined up (including Nicole). Lou and I put them through some paces with the cast, and then I conferred with the cast as to who would get which role. In the end we were able to use each and every one of them to fill a hole in the cast.

Specifically, we needed to cast a new Tybalt. Stephen showed in his wrestling the kind of desperate fury that I thought such a character would have. We needed a new trainer for the "Legit" team. Bret showed the legit credibility such a role required. We needed three referees and someone to fill a hole in the "Legit" team. WE had the auditioners improv refereeing three different matches (this also gave three pairs of wrestlers the opportunity to practice their routines under performance conditions). After this we were able to select a head referee. Looking at the cast, I decided that the other referees would be supplied by the two teams, and that they would start off the tag team match.

Together with Willis, Oscar, and Yusif, the three of us some days earlier had set all the matches for the tournament and the tag-team match that we were to shoot on the 25th. I told everyone in the cast what those final matchups were and the order in which their fights would go, and set them to working on their routines.

When that work was done, we gathered up the mats, the "Underground" team, the cameraman, and the PA's, and headed up to Tagine, where we shot the "Underground Fight Party" scene. The three preliminary fights there (Vincent vs. GA, Bundy vs. Kamikaze, and Sandra vs. Lee) were all well prepared, with only my match with Yousif someone improvised (I have found myself so busy doing everything else it takes to make a movie that I have had precious little time to actually work on my own fights. Note to self: don;t let that happen in the future). Lou proved invaluable, giving us good grappling advice. He also was able to do his trick whereby he caught an orange thrown at him while blindfolded. Jeremy Salig manned the camera, and Debra PA'd with great dexterity and sensitivity.

Tomorrow we shoot the scenes where Captain Zorikh first comes to train with the "Legit" team.

Week 10 Report

When I originally conceived this project, I had envisioned that I would have been done shooting in March. Then I looked at how many weekend there were things I wanted to do with the cast to help and promote the project, including going to grappling tournaments and comic book conventions. I also had the idea that we would need a few extra weeks to really work and hone the routines. So I thought that this week, April 11 would be a good day to shoot. A closer inspection of the date revealed that this was the week after I-Con, and I had too much going on at I-Con to miss it, and we would definitely need a week after I-Con for a "dress rehearsal."

However, some drama occurred that meant that this was not to be. A large and significant portion of the cast participated in a martial arts tournament on week #7. This was cool, I thought, as it would give the cast martial arts cred and be a great promotional opportunity. The following week, however, not a single member of that portion of the cast showed up at rehearsal.

It turns out that there was a bit of internal dissension in the group, and some members no longer wanted to work with other members, and my project was stuck in the middle. I had to have lengthy phone conversations and in-person meetings to find out what was going on. In the end I had to make the very difficult choice of who to let go and who to keep, because I was not going to be able to have everyone in that group work together.

So in week 10 six cast members I would have lost if I had followed the woitshes of one other cast member returned to the production. I had a talk with them, along with one other cast member who was close to the one. When I reported the results of the meeting to the one member later, he decided to withdraw, and the one other member went with him.

But in the meantime we had to continue working on the movie.

I focused on continuing to build routines, and I am very pleased with some of the results we are getting. Kirkland and Dan have built a "wrestling vs. kung fu grappling" routine that is quite interesting. Kat and Vince have built a wonderful romantic comedy storyline. And Bundy and I have a spectacular routine for the tag-tam match. I am getting concerned, though, because I am having to spend so much time directing and producing and writing that I am not having any time to train.

Oh yeah, I was able to distribute the Sprawl shorts and shirts to the cast members who needed them.

Week 9 Report

Several of the cast members who had been absent the past two weeks returned, but several key members did not. Tony, who had been with us the first two weeks, returned, and brought with him Manuela, a new addition to the cast.

We worked on routines through the entire rehearsal. We figured out how Kat would spin and throw Yousif. Kirkland and Dan fount the completion of their match. GA and Vince figured out how they would do a move I had wanted GE at do since I saw his "Osirus" videos: a flying triangle. Bundy and I worked on our routine, which will have some spectacular stuff in it. And Sam and Lou continued to provide good advice and training.

A few key people were not there, though. I am starting to get concerned about the attrition rate among the cast. I expected a few people to drop out for various reasons. One woman dropped out early because she was concerned about injury. Another dropped out because she was concerned that too many people would think this was a fetish video and she had to think about her career. Another woman dropped out because she thought the "darkness" in this movie would affect her. And yet another female cast member had a pretty horrible family tragedy strike. And now a few cast members are saying the don't want to work with each other. I am certainly going to have to get to the bottom of this.

Hopefully I won't have to have another casting call. I love this cast. Their unique personality and chemistry has informed and inspired my vision for this movie so much, I can't imagine what I would do if I had to replace too many of them.

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?

Week 7 video Part 1

Here is some video from week 7. This was the week that Sam and his team of Martial Arts Madness fighters were competing at a mixed martial arts tournament. So with a smaller cast of attendees, and with Lou Nogueira leading the training, we learned a new sequence and continued working routines.



Stay tuned, because in the next video, we will finally learn a little bit about the cast members themselves.

Video from Week # 6: Zorikh Talks to the Cast

In this video, I speak to the cast about what the movie is about, how you need to have a real downer to make the uplifting believable, and the need for the right person to play the Adversary. In the end I set up the cast into two groups to improv a very important scene.

Video from Week #5: grappling routines

Here's the video of the routines that we began choreographing, complete with a little thematically appropriate music to give it that extra "something"...

Video from Week #3

Camera by Phil Fiumano of NY Rock TV
Editing by Captain Zorikh

Wrokshop/rehearsal report, Week #4

We had a great workshop today. We worked on falls and takedowns, and then we did more cooperative choreography work.

We had a bunch of new wrestlers from New Era Wrestling join us,a nd they proved to be very good, able to pick up techniques fast and having some great physical skills of their own. The beginners in the cast made great strides and show real potential. There were a couple of folks from the auditions we were not too sure of to start with, but they have all shown marked improvement

At the end of the rehearsal, thanked everyone for all the hard work they had done for the past four weeks. I had the cast applaud themselves, and I was actually surprised by the length and passion of the applause. I really think that they are beliving in this project. Then I pointed out that they had been working hard but I hadn;t done much but watch them. Then I aske dwho was wondering when I would get into the action, and who wanted a piece of the Captain.

Then I ran a gauntlet, wrestling each and every member of the cast for 30 seconds or to submission or tag out. It was good to finally get some action after spending 4 weeks simply watching everybody (as a director must do). I realized after that that I need some more moves in my vocabulary, more physical strength, and better conditioning.

But it felt great to do it, and the entire cast was into it. At the end everybody was cheering and chanting my name. I shouted "Who wants to be in my movie!" and everybody enthusiastically replied in the affirmative. It is moment like these that truly make me believe that this can be done.

Also this week, I had a new person hold the camera, A. Afendi. I will be posting his footage soon.

After the workshop, I met with Sammy, Lee, and Willis Cruz, Jr. We discussed how pleased we were with how things were going, and we proposed a few potential matches for the movie. As soon as they are confirmed, I will be posting them here.