Fight Directing

Fight Directing

In Conversation With Tim Klotz

Can you describe the types of project on which you’ve acted as Fight Director? Do I do mostly big budget stuff? No. I’ve acted on a couple of pretty big budget things but as fight director the most significant thing is Falling Apart by Brian Hill for Century Films, which was a documentary commissioned by Channel 4. It was great working on Falling Apart because they had a good budget for it but wanted to shoot it as a low-budget, micro-budget project. So it was done on a DVCAM, with minimal crew on set, in quite an indie style. Everything was handled really well; I was consulted before shooting began, I was involved in rehearsals from the very first read-through all the way to the end and my advice was taken as well. You know, I’m really nice about giving advice and I’ll let you know when you don’t have to take it. I don’t insist on too much! At what point in the filmmaking process do you like to enter the project? Why? Is there such a thing as too soon or too late? It seems that there are three ways a fight director gets into a project. The first is that the fight director can get involved when it’s still an idea in somebody’s head, before a script is written – some writers even consult an FD on how to write fight and stunt scenes or how to plan for them on a low budget. People have come to me for script consultation and that’s fantastic; when you’re involved at that level, especially with low budget productions, money doesn’t change hands, you’re just helping someone develop an idea through a script. The second is when the production is already set up; they’re about to finish pre-production and they call you in at the last minute. That tends to be a little bit more difficult; it’s a rough time to hire an FD because this is someone you have to work with intimately. You have to trust your actors with him. As a producer/director you might not be in the best position to hire someone then because you might have set aside your budget for all kinds of other things. The negotiation becomes difficult because you might not have much money to offer. As an FD at that point, you don’t

have much of a say about scheduling (not that you ever do, really!). Often at this stage everyone on the project is struggling for a bit of control, so it’s not the best time to hire someone new, especially an FD. So this one is bad but it’s not the worst case scenario. The third and absolute worst is, of course, the day or the day before you’re you are shooting a bit of violence. It’s crazy – people will call you up at the very last minute and say, ‘You know we suddenly realized we’ve got this knife fight and, uh, we’ve got our make-up people and everything else, we just don’t actually have someone to choreograph the fight. And our actors are refusing to do it without a fight guy…’ That’s what we are – the fight guys. People don’t even know to call us the FD or the fight choreographer. Although people are starting to refer to it as the action designer and things like that. It’s actually a lovely title and a better way of describing what we do – design. That’s why we should be involved early. The only nice thing about being hired at the last minute is you know exactly how much time you have to teach and shoot. You know the limitations and are prepared for a crazy day on set. Describe the importance of your job and why the position of FD should not be overlooked by micro-budget filmmakers. Right now, the UK has seen some new legislation involving what we call in the US corporate manslaughter. If you hire someone and create a dangerous situation and they get killed, you could be tried for manslaughter or perhaps a step beyond that. You are responsible for somebody’s life as an employer, which also means that you’re responsible for their health and safety. If you’re two-thirds finished with your film and your lead actor gets a huge scar across his face, it’s not only bad for your project but you’re going to feel morally bad as well. If you hire a qualified person, you’re doing the right thing to ensure the health and safety of your cast and crew. The other thing to consider is the aesthetics of your project. Think of some great, older films that you’ve seen and consider how bad the violence is. If you try to direct a fight scene yourself, the violence is probably going to be laughable. People are getting more and more sophisticated in terms of staging violence; you can’t get away with doing it yourself anymore. You can spend your money on a crane or spend money on a great piece of technology, but if you don’t have good action to photograph, it looks like you don’t know what you’re doing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone on-set to find a DoP, a couple of competent camera people and a director and they all come to me for consultation about how to shoot violence, which angles to use to shoot it well, things like that. I’m just getting used to doing it. It’s nice for all the other creatives working on the project, because in the end it’s better for the filmmakers to think about the pictures they’re going to make instead of fretting about whether or not their actors are safe. How did fight direction evolve to become what it is today? Fight direction is about working with actors – not stunt doubles or stand-ins. It’s about training amateurs to fight so it’s absolutely con-

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vincing and photographable. You want to see your actors fighting and not some stunt man’s shoulder. More recently there have been two trends in fight direction: there’s the Hong Kong style pervading Western film and there’s people like Tony Wolf in New Zealand who uses digital swordmastering in fights. The new-age FD is well schooled in historical combat and is a relatively normal-looking guy usually with a background in acting. How did you get involved in this sector? I personally picked up a sword for the first time at age sixteen. I was working for the VA Shakespeare Festival as an acting intern and there were two British FDs over for the season and I just attached myself to them. For the last fifteen years or so I’ve been doing some fencing and some martial arts. All FDs tend to be generalists. That is, they can do all fights. But my speciality is 18th century swordplay and a little bit of bayonet fencing – that’s how specialised the field can be. It’s great being able to make a career out of what I’ve always been interested in. I divide my time now between acting and fight directing and live in the UK with my wife. People want an actor directing actors in fights; it’s great being an FD with that sort of background. I find it easy to communicate to actors directly about character, motivation, conflict, etc and not from a director’s perspective but from the position of being a collaborator in the production. Tell us about contract negotiation. Have you ever undertaken a microbudget production on the basis of deferred payment? If you have trained actors, a good script, a good crew and a long enough consulting period, the shoot itself can be quick and easy. If the FD is involved from pre-production, even if only for a few meetings, and everything’s prepared, advice is followed, it goes really nicely. This doesn’t happen often; anytime one of those elements goes wrong your fight scene takes exponentially longer – often for reasons beyond everyone’s control. The thing is this: if the FD’s advice is followed, the shoot won’t take too much time and won’t cost too much money. I work purely on a freelance basis. Every project I take on is for the sake of the project and I allow time for error. If I am committed to something I will negotiate my fee and we’ll agree on the minimum number of hours it will take to do the scene. If I’ve got extra time during that period, you bet I’ll be down in the studio, on set or in rehearsal with the actors – whatever possible – because my name’s going on this project too. I think it’s always important to check out the ethos of the person you are going to hire. Are they going to give you extra time? As the FD I usually know when I’m doing someone a favour. I negotiate a contract (and there has to be one for insurance reasons) on the basis of shared knowledge about how much time I have available for how much money the other person has available. The company collective we’ve set up called YoungBlood Ltd (www.youngblood.org.uk) has a low budget sector where we look at a project, the director’s credentials, maybe a showreel, and often work on

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these projects for next to nothing. Deferred payments are rarely paid but you go into a project knowing this; you do it for the love of what you do or perhaps for your CV or showreel. The main reason we do it at YoungBlood is we just don’t like actors getting hurt. The best thing to do with your FD is sit him down, let him know what your budget is from the start, and why everyone else is involved with the show. Allow him to decide whether or not he is the best person for your job: if he’s not, you don’t want him on your project anyway. Whatever you do, get it down on paper. Can you describe how you tackle a project from start to finish? Right. Think of it in terms of meeting with, say, a designer. There’s a consultation period at first, where you meet with the wardrobe people, the location manager, the art director, etc. It is at this point when you should also be meeting with the FD. If we’re talking about a film with several bits of action in it or maybe one big central scene, you meet a bunch of times. You work out the logistics; talk to make-up and wardrobe, figure out props and locations. We look at storyboards and talk about a shot list over and over and over again. Fights often occur at key moments that are supposed to introduce a character or a setting, present the climax or define the action of a piece – storyboard them! For god’s sake if you don’t draw out any other scene in the film – storyboard these! Then hopefully once everything’s in place we come to casting. YoungBlood now has a mailing list of several hundred actors, mostly London-based, that acts as a recruitment tool for new films. Involve the FD in casting if at all possible (unless you find them overbearing and hate them, in which case you’ve probably hired the wrong person anyway!). Involve them; they probably know hundreds of actors they can recommend. It’s also a good way to consult about the characters themselves; sometimes a FD will read a script and envision this massive, fit, powerful man who fights his way through the whole thing and then you find out that they’ve cast Bob Hoskins – then you have to re-think the whole fight scene. It’ll save you time in the end if you involve or at least inform the FD from the start. Pre-production and scheduling might involve the FD but not always; this changes from project to project. If you’ve got an FD who is good at administration and doesn’t mind taking care of scheduling, ask him! Length of time needed for rehearsal and shooting is largely determined by the actors in the film. Please rehearse! It’ll save you so much time. Get your DV cam and do a rough edit on a laptop at the end of the day to get an idea of how you want to eventually create the scene. Get your FD to the locations early and scout the places you’ll be working. One bad or wrong floor is all you need to stretch a one-day shoot out to three days. It’s amazing how quickly actors get worn out on the wrong surface. Production – the time when everything you’ve planned perfectly and tightly goes completely out the window. The worst thing that can happen is for your FD to show up saying, ‘So, what are we doing today?’ I have some simple suggestions from my experiences with production: – get tracks of actors huffing and puffing

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get isolated sounds of pain reactions get as much coverage as possible if you want an intense performance, use stand-ins for rehearsal don’t wear out the actor during an acrobatic fight Good FDs will offer advice if they feel very passionate about something, but they won’t force the issue. Employers are now legally responsible for anything that goes wrong, so actors have the right of refusal – unions will stand up for them. Bottom line – there’s no point fighting over anything on a film set. We do what we can to make the best product possible. If you don’t have a piece of the puzzle for the day of shooting a fight scene, ask the FD early on if he can possibly help; chances are he can and will. I don’t take part in the editing process but I know some FDs who do. It’s difficult for me because I create this 3D thing that’s made to look good for the camera. If they pick the right shots and we’ve gotten enough coverage, I have a vision of what it’s going to look like. Suddenly you find out that your scene has been turned into a series of shots of the lead with flashes of action in between. What is the most important emotional factor in a fight? Sound. In Falling Apart, I was happy with what we’d done. We’d created a very real style that was brutal and suggestive. But when they added the sound in post-production and I saw it at the Channel 4 screening, the sound made me sick. They were so brutal and dark and perfect. I was called a genius and a very sick man but it was largely the work of the foley artist. As sound goes, be as realistic as possible; but be creative. Close your eyes and think about how you want to affect the audience, how you want to make them feel, then choose the effect based on that. Can you give me an idea of what your services cost? It is very hard to generalise because budgets vary so much; also no one wants to put a price on what s/he is worth. It’s a little bit like paying an actor or designer. If someone is qualified to do the work and you feel they’re right for your film, pay them like a camera person. Whatever you do, just pay them! Maybe they’ll do residual or deferment. What did you make of Fight Club? I’m glad you asked that because it brings up a large question about style. A lot of people forget that any time someone hits or gets hit, there’s a little bit of a discovery there. Sometimes it’s a journey into pain and other times, like in Fight Club , it’s a sense of coming alive every time you get hit. It’s like waking up to a more vivid world through violence and pain. In our over-stimulated world, pain is the only thing that means something to our characters. And again sound is so, so important. This film was carefully storyboarded, well planned and superbly shot. Every moment of action is a surprise for the characters. It’s quite nicely done – a terribly cool film. The FD has largely determined the mood of those scenes, if not entire sequences.

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Thanks for your time, Tim. Any closing thoughts? Yes. The FD has to be careful of too much testosterone. I had a student say to me once that performance combat is the opposite of tai chi. Tai chi looks really soft from the outside but is using strong and hard techniques. Likewise, performance combat looks quite hard from the outside but is really soft inside. Actors have to be supremely focused on protecting the other actors. Although sometimes you will use shared or real force during a scene, performance combat usually obeys this rule. Actors who understand this inside-out dynamic are fabulous to work with; they commit to character intentions and reactions incredibly well. It’s the job of the FD to facilitate that understanding, despite having to deal with a large amount of persistence and often ignorance. There are three main priorities of a FD, in this specific order. – ensure safety (for the actors and the crew) – build morale (to eliminate method practices) – create an illusion of violence and action that aims to surprise If you work really hard with the FD on the first two, the final will come easier and quicker.

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Fight Directing Glossary

Action Any movement line or cue which demands a reaction from your opponent. What is a fight sequence, but a series of actions and reactions? Action director Fight or movement director who co-ordinates sequences of movement on a larger scale. Perhaps with giant puppets or with crowds. Actions Simple, compound, progressive, or combined movements of the blade and/or body used to accomplish the combatant's objectives within a fight. Ad lib Extemporaneous movement or sequence, which has not been choreographed into the fight. Not a good thing. Advisor When a fight director has not been given enough time, payment or control over production he/ she may wish to be known as the fight advisor. This makes it clear to a company that for one or all of these reasons, the fight director cannot guarantee the safety or quality of a fight in production. They are effectively washing their hands of the responsibility for the safety of the shoot. Sadly, the fight advisor is becoming a more and more regular occurrence. Armourer In film, the person in charge of weapons on and off set. Assistant fight director One who assists the FD, either by filling in or by working under the direction of the fight director. BAF British Academy of Fencing. A professional body which governs coaches of the sport of fencing. Blocking The process of laying out the action in a fight. Blood bag A small bag filled with fake blood, which an actor bursts when struck by a weapon or fist in the mouth. Unreliable messy little things which drive wardrobe crazy. Body blow An armed or unarmed attack on the body intended to hit or appear to hit.

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Body double An actor or stuntman that replaces the actual actor for difficult or dangerous moments, or in times when the actual actor is only partially in shot. Centre left Block of the performance area to the your left of centre when you face the camera. Centre right Block of the performance area to the your right of centre when you face the camera. Centre stage (centre centre) Block of the performance area which is dead centre. Certified teacher The second level of four, as recognised by the SAFD. The individual has passed SAFD tests on teaching techniques, historical styles, weapons theory and theatrical. choreography. Chalk marks Marks made on the floor to ensure that the actor or camera stops at the right place. Choreographer Another name for the fight director. Also the person in charge of movement on any given production. Combatant One who fights. Anyone involved in a fight. Coup The actual blow or hit made to one’s opponent. The risky bit. Cross lighting (Side lighting) Lights that angle across the stage. These can interfere with a fight by silhouetting the opponents, making distance difficult to judge. Cue A pre-arranged signal for someone to perform a specific action. Downstage The band of the performance area nearest the audience. Downstage centre The lower third of the centre stage area. Downstage left The block of the performance area in the bottom left hand corner.

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Downstage right The block of the performance area in the bottom right hand corner. Dynamic The energy and rhythm of a fight, performance or film. Extraordinary risk A clause in some union production agreements that deals with potentially dangerous situations and staging. Fencing master A licenced and accredited person skilled in the three weapons of foil, epee, and sabre. FIE Federation Internationale d’Escrime; French Fencing Board Fight arranger Another name for the Fight Director. Fight call (Fight rehearsal) A physical and mental review of pre-arranged fights prior to a take. It enables the actors to warm up and secure the moves. Fight captain An actor or crew member who has some knowledge of swordplay and has been assigned the duty of calling the fight rehearsal when the fight director is not present. He/she understands not only the actions but also the intentions and desired effect of each move within a fight. Fight choreographer Another name for the fight director. Fight director 1. A theatrical fight coordinator who directs stage violence within a production. He/ she coaches the dramatic presentation of a fight sequence, through consultation with the production's director. 2. The third level of recognition with the SAFD. 3. The name of the journal of the Society of British Fight Directors. Fight notation A short hand used to mark the choreography, stage directions and cues within a fight. Fight plot A written description of the whole fight. Finger fight When combatants, due to lack of space or time perform the actions of

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their pre-arranged fight sequence using only their fingers. Floor plan A plan of the stage or set area, indicating specific positions and sizes. Hand to hand Close combat without weapons. Master 1. Fencing coach trained to the highest level in foil, epee, and sabre. 2. The highest rank of achievement in the SAFD, SBFD, and FDC. 3. Fight master: a fight director on a very big production in charge of one or more assistant FDs, in overall charge of battles in production. In many ways, more an administrative role than an active one. Meter Pre-arranged rhythm of movement. Mise-en-scene The totality of lighting, blocking, camera use, and composition that produces the dramatic image on film, or on stage. Murphy’s Law ‘If it can go wrong it will go wrong’. Expect the worst and be prepared. Physicality The physical orientation of a character. The size, shape, build and manner of movement. Rain fight Fight with limited footwork designed to work safely in the wet. Sharps Non-fake weapons. Sightlines The character’s lines of sight. It is best to stay out of the actors’ line when filming, in order that they can fully concentrate. Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) A large professional non profit organisation created to promote the art of fight choreography safely in the Film, TV, and Theatre industries. Storyboard Series of sketched images of key moments which suggest what a scene will look like. Stunt A move or arrangement of moves which are dangerous and do not

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involve weaponry. For example, a fall down steps or a jump from a great height. These are not the fight director’s job. Style The manner and way in which a play, performance or fight are presented, e.g. pantomime, dramatic. Stylised Manner of presenting a stage fight (or indeed a single character or whole production) which is, by the director or writer’s aesthetic choice, not fully real. For example, a fight in slow motion, or in silhouette, or in moments as opposed to a whole. Subtext 1. The character’s inner thoughts. 2. A film’s hidden meaning, underneath the surface characteristics. Upstage The band of the performance area furthest away from the camera. Upstage centre The upper part of centre stage. Upstage left Top left hand corner of the performance area, as you face the camera. Upstage right Top right hand corner of the performance area, as you face the camera. Video assist A film feed taken from the camera viewfinder and displayed on a monitor usually for the director to watch during shooting. Walkthrough A running of a fight for the moves only and at no great pace.

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