Fight choreography + education reqs?

[Sihing_Dave]

alright guys what kind of education(other than martial arts) does one need to become a fight choreographer??

any info would be greatly appreciated

sihing dave

[David Jamieson]

It's always a good idea to get some theatrical training. Likely, if you are in an urban centre you can find an acting class or two.

fight choreography is not jsut dranw from martial arts, there is a strong element of understanding theatre and theatrics involved.

This is why movie fu is not much like actual fu. It is choreographed to look good to the viewer and not to be effective.

anyway, theatre school will take you far in this and your martial arts stuff will aid you in the styles you want to choreograph.

[Shaolinlueb]

knowing how to build a fight set that looks good.

[GeneChing]

And before you start dreaming of the silver screen, most fight choreographers pay their dues in live theater, which is a considerably harder venue to choreograph in than movies since there are no retakes - it's all live. In America, most fight choreographers don't do martial arts so much as they do fencing because there's more call for that in live theater, what with the popularity of Shakespeare and all. Plus it's very hard to choreograph martial arts for live theater without highly trained martial artists. A good starting point for this is The Society of American Fight Directors.

[David Jamieson]

yes, I had completely forgotten about that org ~G.

that's some good link fu for the dude though I must say!

[SimonM]

Don't assume that someone trained in theatre doesn't know about the real stuff too.

I had a drama teacher in high school.

Reed Needles was the brother of Dan Needles (of Wingfield Farm fame). He was a classically trained thespian.

We were doing a school play and he was giving us a quickie lecture on stage choreography. During this lecture he did point out that stage choreography was different from real sword-play. One of the leading men of the play was a Kempo black belt. He gets all swaggery and somehow ends up holding a stage-prop rapier against our drama teacher. Took our teacher all of about five seconds to disarm the guy. It was almost funny.

[Sekabin]

Yeah martial artists often complain about how 'unrealistic' movie fights look, but when they try to choreograph something it looks as dull as a very dull thing. One of the most enjoyable bits of my theatre training was the fight choreography. It's a great feeling when you stage a fight and hear the audience gasping at the sheer violence of it all...

I'd advise the same - learn the ropes working in live theatre. You'll understand what it takes in terms of positioning of actors in relation to the audience (or camera), and also the work that the actor must do in both giving a punch/throw/grapple/kick and taking it. It's a LOT different to 'realistic' martial arts.

[GeneChing]

The Society of American Fight Directors is abbreivated SAFD (pronounced Safe-D by some) . You got to remember that many of the actors you might be choregraphing ARE NOT martial artists, no matter how many *months* of training they might have had to prepare for the role - case and point Charlize in Aeon Flux. It's even more pronouced in live theater. A fight choreographer in live theater needs to be able to create something that is not only exciting, it's safe for the actors and something they can do time and time again before a live audience. Most audiences are more concerned with the story than the fight scene (sad to say ) butthe fight scene is always a critical turning point in any plot. It moves the story along in a totally unique way. Too many kung fu flicks suffer from fixation on the fights with no story context make them interesting. Another case and point here would be Tom Yum Goong. So in answer to Sihing_Dave's question, martial arts falls a far second to knowledge of theater when it comes to becoming a fight choreographer. I would say that networking is even more important than martial arts.