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VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION – Movie Sword Training Course Tip Five: What’s some cool movie sword training technique & tips for 2 handed longsword movie fight choreography that you can use for your reel or your own content? That’s what we’ll answer in today’s video. Hi, my name is Dillon Wilson with CBT Stunt Alliance. Train hard, perform easy. We help actors, stunt performers and filmmakers learn professional stunt training for use in film tv and live action entertainment. Before we get underway, if you’d like to add two-handed long-story movie sword fighting training to your current acting or stunt performer skill set, check out our highly popular master course at www.MovieSwordFighting.com or click on the link below this video. You can learn sword attacks, sword counter attacks, cinematic sword draws, a sword choreography, you know, sort reactions, how to market your career more, go to www.movieswordfighting.com for more information. You can sign up now and start training now.
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Now before we get underway, if you’re interested in adding two-handed long sword training to your acting or self-performance skill set, check out our highly popular online master course at www.MovieSwordFighting.com. You can learn sword attacking angles, sword counter attacks, sword stunt reactions, even cinematic sword draws, how to market your career and more. Go to www.movieswordfighting.com for more information or click on the link below this video.
Okay, so we get a lot of questions about movie sword fight training techniques and tips so we’re going to share a few things with you now I’m actually an experienced stunt coordinator current director. This is something I plan to do from the beginning of my career up to and including even attending and graduating film school as a director along my journey, I learned that being a stunt coordinator made me a better director as well as being a director made me a better stunt coordinator. So how this benefits you is I can share with you insights and experience from both sides of the camera as well through all stages of production when we thought about what would benefit you the most, we decided to put together this free six-part video course that shows you the basics of two-handed long-sword so you can use it to put together your own choreography for your own reel you know for auditions and even your own content for actual performances and highly competitive auditions. You need more training by what we offer in our movie sword fighting master course. movie sword training technique tips, movie sword training books, sword fight training movie, movie sword training how, movie sword training online YouTube free, Dillon Wilson, CBT Stunt Alliance, Movie Sword Master, Movie Sword Expert.
Now why does this work well? Because for many self tapes sword auditions and performances, you just have to look like you know how to use the longsword, I mean after all, if you’re not the lead or a featured fighter, you’re going to get to throw anywhere from zero to two strikes and then you get killed. Check out this clip for the movie Kill Bill.
Now, how many strikes did each performer get to throw in that action sequence? Exactly. So in this video, we’re going to cover cool movie longsword fight choreography that you can use for your real or your own content. Alright, so there’s two parts to choreography and each part can actually be the set fighting with the same person or it could be two different people. So the first part of the choreography could end with the person falling off a cliff or you know, off a roof or or whatever and dying and then you’re you go to face a second person or both could be with the same person. So after the first engagement, you reset and then start this is the great thing with movies uh fight choreography is that you have a lot of flexibility when you know how to work it.
Movie Sword Training Technique & Tips 1
So one thing we’re going to cover before we get underway and this will be more of a factor in the second part, is on two-edged swords, double-edged swords like this, there are two edges. That’s why they’re called double-a swords right, so we call the main edge that we’re going to be cutting with the prime edge or primary edge and the second edge that is on the other side, we just called the second edger. So prime, second primary, secondary. So, in the next portion just know that when you’re looking at the sword, different systems have different names for it. movie sword training technique tips, movie sword training books, sword fight training movie, movie sword training how, movie sword training online YouTube free, Dillon Wilson, CBT Stunt Alliance, Movie Sword Master, Movie Sword Expert.
This is what we call it prime edge, that’s your primary cutting edge and second edge or primary and secondary.
Movie Sword Training Technique & Tips 2
Alright, so let’s get underway with the first part of the choreography. And what’s going to happen is in a previous instructional, we share with you that one of the ways that you can do counter-attacks is just delivering angle ones and angle fours for your opponent’s attacks and it’ll pretty much cover the majority of stuff, except for leg. Leg attacks, so just an angle one and angle four will cover everything. So we’re actually going to show that with the first part of choreography, so your opponent, we’re going to demonstrate your opponent’s attacks first then your counter attack, so the opponent, very simply, is going to bring in an angle. I’ll keep, I’ll stand still for this one, an angle three and angle two and an angle one. Once again, they’re gonna bring in an angle three, these are the figure eights, remember the figure eights.
Alright, so an angle three angle two and angle one, that’s going to be their attack, that’s all they do in the first engagement, your counter attacks are going to be literally ones and fours. So it’s going to be one, four, one, once again, angle one, angle four. I’ll slow it down, angle one, angle four, angle one, now the difference is and later in the video we’re going to demonstrate this with a partner, so you see how it works with uh with two people, yeah a lot of certified choreography and even uh stunt fight choreography, empty hand is being able to visualize things. So you have to be able to visualize this as well. So what we just showed you was stationary, if you’re not going to just have a sword fight where you’re doing like this, that’s ridiculous, so you’re actually going to be moving, when you’re doing this right, so your, your partner’s going to be moving and attacking you, and you’re going to be moving and counter-attacking, so I’m going to demonstrate the a partner, your partners or opponents movement while attacking you.
Notice I just stepped forward on those railroad tracks, alright, one more time, then I’ll do it on the left side, angle three, angle two, angle one, on the left side, angle three, angle two, angle one and we’ll do it from the side, so you can see, what it looks, like as well. I’ll slow it down, angle three, angle two and as you were angle three, angle two, angle one. Again, angle three, angle two, angle one, so that’s what it looks like from the side. This is what your opponent is attacking you with you’re initiating the fight, your counterattack. I’m going to do with with movement you’re going to be retreating, going rearward, well we’ll just say going rearward, delivering the angle ones and the angle fours, so they come in, you’re gonna be doing like this again. Now, do it from the side right and we’ll do it on the left as well.
I’ll do a three-quarters view so that’s the sword portion of it, now there’s one more piece that you’re going to add. This is for you, this is for you as the as the lead in this and we’re going to throw a kick so that last angle one that we throw, we’re going to press against their sword, so it’ll be like a almost like a stalemate, so they’ll their sword will be pressed here against yours, in the middle and what you’re going to do is lift your we’ll do it here, one yeah dude I’m gonna lift your right leg up and do a heel slam kick right, to the center of your chest. So that’s gonna be choreography, it look, it looks something like this. So it’ll be one angle four, angle one and you’re back here, do that from the side. I’ll do without movement moving my feet, angle one, angle four, angle one and they’ll be pressing against this angle one, angle four, angle one, take a step and step forward and to do that kick, think of bringing bending your your leg bringing your knee up to your shoulder, then thrusting out straight. I’m like you’re taking a great big step and you’re hitting with the heel of your foot in uh stunt fighting, the place where we do make contact is to the body, so yet you do this lightly right because it looks really fake if you don’t hit to the, to the midsection.
So with this kick, when you do it, you’re gonna do it very lightly and your partner will give you feedback on it if you don’t if you’re not doing this kick, don’t do it, alright, yet, if you’re comfortable doing this and your partner is two and you you’ll practice together, then you wanna do this. So one more time, angle one, angle four, angle one, right and that’s what that kick knocks them back. That’s what knocks them over the edge of the cliff, knocks them off the balcony, knocks them off the roof or just knocks them away in the middle of the battlefield and now you can reset for the second one, now we’ll do this uh, with from the left side, with a three-quarters view and this time, I’ll do, we’ll deal with footwork angle one, angle four, angle one and that’s it. So that is the first part of the choreography, all handle counter attacking with angle ones and angle fours. So stop the video now and give that a try, movie sword training technique tips, movie sword training books, sword fight training movie, movie sword training how, movie sword training online YouTube free, Dillon Wilson, CBT Stunt Alliance, Movie Sword Master, Movie Sword Expert
Movie Sword Training Technique & Tips 3
Now we’re going to learn the second part of the choreography, again this can be the same opponent, opponent who just reset after you kick them away and they’re reattaching or can be an entirely new opponent altogether. Now, if you don’t remember the number, numbered guards, reference the previous video where we show you the 12 most cinematic guards. This one’s going to start from guard five, then go to guard one with the counter attack. So I’ll demonstrate that now and it’s going to be, uh, in left lead, so we’re front stance and then left lead. Now I’ll demonstrate that from the side so you can see it and then I’ll explain to you what actually happened. So we’re in left lead, guard number five, bring it down to guard number one.
Now, I’m gonna explain to you what just happened and I’m gonna show you on a a fighting man dummy so your opponent is here with their sword and when we, when we have this, if you notice I’m using the thumb grip, right, this is the thumb grip and so we start here in guard number seven, then we bring it down and left lead and we bring it down to guard number one, okay. Now, on on a double-edged sword, we call it the prime edge, which is the main edge, we’re cutting with and the second edge or primary and secondary or prime and second other systems may call it different things, yeah that’s what we call it, we call this the prime edge, so the prime cutting edge, it’s already naturally aligned hitting this way with this edge, is the second edge, so that’s what we’re actually hitting with. So their sword is in front of them just like this and what we want to do is you want to clear that sword out of the way.
Boom, so we can stab them twice and that’s what’s happening, so we start from here, I’ll do a three-quarter view and this is just kind of to fake them out, so as we move down to guard one, we’re here and actually we’re in left lead, we take a step forward with the right foot and with the second edge, we parry their sword out the way and do a double thrust, that double thrust is going to the belly and to the throat, boom, boom, right, boom, boom. Now, when they get stabbed, their sword got pushed to the side and they get stabbed, their natural reaction is to bring the sword back to parry your blade or to or to block whatever they whatever they decide to do, you either, way the sword is going to come this way before their sword come this way.
That’s when we do a disengage and we do it, it’s called an elbow circle. This is a shoulder circle. This is an elbow circle, this is a wrist circle, set of rotation takes place at my wrist at my elbow at my shoulders, we use those for different reasons, right. This one is rotating with the elbows so as they come back in to parry, my blade away. I’m going to cross up to the rear, my left foot do an elbow circle and knock their sword down then take another step and do a second elbow circle which is going to top their head off and then the last step is I’m going to step forward the left foot and do an angle two to their abdomen and that ends the fight. So we’re going to do that a couple more times, I’ll do it with the PVC so you can see it and then we’ll even do it with the fighting mannequin. movie sword training technique tips, movie sword training books, sword fight training movie, movie sword training how, movie sword training online YouTube free, Dillon Wilson, CBT Stunt Alliance, Movie Sword Master, Movie Sword Expert.
So once again a lot of practicing with movie sword fighting is being able to visualize what you’re doing actually with all uh, stunt fighting empty hand or with sword, you have to be able to visualize what your partner’s doing and what you’re doing because you’re dance partners, you got to choreograph this dance together. So again, we’re in front stance, left lead and guard number five, we bring this down to guard number one.
Again, we covered guard combinations in the previous video, now we’re gonna step forward with the right foot and parry I’m exaggerating with the parry bit you’re gonna parry out with the second edge and then lean and do two fives to the stomach and to the throat, what they’re going to do because it may not hit them, remember this is choreography, they may take a step back and they seek to carry your sword away and stab you, so what you’re doing is before they can hit your sword, you’re disengaging, right, you’re disengaging and that’s what this is for and if you notice there’s two elbow circles, two strikes with that, so as they come into parry, I step circle one, circle two, alright, at the end of this video, I’m going to show you the stunt reactions to do with this, so you’ll see how they’re reacting and what happens is when we do those two circles, the first strike puts their sword down and the second strike hits them here in the neck and they’ll usually stumble forward.
Then that last angle two comes right up to the belly, boom and then you turn and face your next opponent, this is a longer sequence, if you, for if you’re a featured fighter, remember you only get zero to two hits you’re the person getting hit, if you’re the stunt performer yeah, you’re most likely a featured fighter or the lead, if you’re doing the choreography that we’re showing you now, alright. So again, I’m gonna run through it a few more times from a different angle so you can see it. So we’re here in guard five, in the thumb grip, left lead, come the position to guard one, step forward, parry through thrust. I’ll slow it down, parry thrust, thrust they go to uh parry or block left step to the rear with your left foot, let me move back a little bit. See my feet step to the rear with your left foot elbow, circle one just hits the sword step. Again, elbow circle two hits the neck. Now, we’re going to step four with the left foot and deliver an angle two to the belly that opens them up. Alright, now I’m going to show you this with a different weapon so you can see how this looks. It doesn’t matter the type of weapon that we use, this is a katana. So we’ll do a three-quarter view front stance, left lead, guard five, come down to guard one, we step in and with the katana, we would use the flat edge, because the primary edge or prime edge is here, we want to use the flat edge here to do that parry. So we come in, I’ll do it here, parry, they go on the block, they want to block the way like this, here before they can left rear, cross step hit the sword, cross it with the right, take the head start with the left to the belly.
Alright, finally we’re going to show the choreography with an actual partner so you can see some stunt sword reactions to the movie sword choreography. movie sword training technique tips, movie sword training books, sword fight training movie, movie sword training how, movie sword training online YouTube free, Dillon Wilson, CBT Stunt Alliance, Movie Sword Master, Movie Sword Expert
Movie Sword Training Technique & Tips 4
Safety is paramount when doing sword choreography with scene partners. In the match of course, we cover a lot more things on safety like leveraging the distance drill, a very important drill to actually embody. Also, cinematically attacking your opponent’s weapons, also leveraging near misses to increase dramatic tension in the scene and a lot more. One other technique which we’ll touch on lightly here, we cover in depth in the master course is striking your opponent by breaking the camera line. Alright, so we’re going to demonstrate now uh breaking the camera line and we’re going to do this with both angular strikes and thrust.
Again, this is one of the strategies on how to do sword fighting. Now what you’re going to observe is this, is the sword as I cut across, you can observe his reactions right, now, we go to a belly strike uh-huh without the grab, now to the legs, the other leg, right back to the throat, right and and coming back. Now what you observe is that the strikes look like they connect especially when you’re in post-production when they add you know foley all the sound effects and everything and they may even put digital blood or something uh yet the entire time we’re doing this as we mentioned in a previous video, we’re on average, you’re one to three feet away sometimes, you’re much closer yet sometimes, you’re three feet away.
So we’re going to demonstrate the same thing from the side, so you see the distance, it’ll be right here and we do the exact same thing. Ready, this is exactly what we were just doing belly strike then to the legs and then to the legs, alright and so what you see this is called breaking the camera line. This is why learning movie sword fighting is totally different from combat sort of fighting, combat sword fighting, you’re all up on the person stabbing him and hitting him and stuff movies are fine, you’ll be all over here from the camera’s perspective, the camera doesn’t have depth perception like it’s like if you only have one eye, right, the camera only has one eye, the lens and so it doesn’t have depth perception.
So let’s go back up here one more time, it can’t tell even if he’s all the way back there. Now he’s about eight feet away from me, eight feet away from me, it still can’t tell how close I am and it looks like I’m still hitting him right and we’ll even do a couple with the thrust too, so we’ll do a thrust to the belly, let me just let me aim at him uh-huh without the grab and then the thrust to the chest uh-huh. One more time, that’s it. So this is called breaking a camera line. Pause the video now and practice doing, practice doing it and also practice receiving it because you can actually do this to yourself in a mirror or phone, you know, if you have your own sword, you know practice when the sword crosses your centerline, your nose is when you react, so don’t react too soon, don’t react too late when it crosses the nose, that’s when you want to actually react. So pause the video now and give this a try.
Now some of you understand you can’t learn this kind of stuff in combat sword fighting. This is a different art form all together, this is for why people who actually train in combat sword fighting and they start learning movies for refinery like okay I get it. Now, not like the stuff I used to do before so to finish up, now we’re going to demonstrate both sides of the choreography so you can see different ways of telling different stories with the exact same sword choreography, a very important skill for stunt performers. Alright, so now we’re going to demonstrate the first portion of the choreography. Again, since we’re actually actively doing choreography.
Now, you notice we both have our eye protection, and what you’re going to observe is we’re going to do this at different speeds, we have quarter performance speed, half performance, being performance speed, we’re going to demonstrate everything at quarter performance speed. So it’s easier for you to see it and learn it and you’ll notice at the end of the choreography, it knocks him away where that could either kill that opponent and he could reset with a new opponent. I’m not gonna, I’m gonna take the microphone off because I can’t move with the microphone on and let’s go. And what you notice, again, this is a quarter performance speed, so it’s very, is very slow, so you can observe how it looks as you practice more with your partner, you increase from quarter performance speed, to half performance speed, and then finally to performance speed and performance speed is not combat speed, combat speed, you can’t see the sword move so that’s not good for uh for filming tv.
So like you saw when he stumbled back and reset when he resets that sets him up. For the second part of choreography which we’re going to demo next or again he could have been kicked out of frame altogether falling off a cliff into a you know, a pit or something like that. So pause the video now and give this a try. Alright, now we’re going to go on and demonstrate the second part of the choreography, we’re going to go a quarter performance speed and you’re going to observe everything that we did before with a partner and observe the distance of the sword even with the thrusts in relation to my, my uh partner.
Movie Sword Training Technique & Tips 5
Now, during the reset, when you’re resetting between the two choreographies, you can have your scene partner flow through two or three of the guards, as well before the attack while you’re doing the same thing and again, this just builds up dramatic tension as opposed to just breaking apart and instantly clashing back together again. So to get more production value out of the fight, I refer back to the the 12 cinematic guards and each of you do two to three cinematic guards and then you initiate the attack. Also feel free to play in your area, yet not too much as we covered in a previous video, the blocking has already been determined by the director dp and stunt coordinator, so you don’t want to be moving around a lot.
So it’s alright, though if you’re like shifting your weight back and forth, or you’re only moving your feet a few inches, alright, this also helps to build dramatic tension in the fight as well as raises the stake. Next, we’ll deal with a different weapon. I’ll actually use a two-handed battle x just you can see how it looks with different weapons, alright, now we’re going to demonstrate using the exact same choreography on my part, we’re going to tell a different story and the first two thrusts that you initially saw that hit him now, they’re gonna miss him and see if you can follow along with the story. This next one we’ll, we’ll do it again, we’re gonna tell a different story and I’m gonna use a Ghanaian two-handed sword max. Okay, now these are just a few ideas for telling stories that audiences will love. Now, go have fun doing your own sword stunt reactions, watch yourself in the mirror or record it with your camera phone when you do it to craft the perfect performance. Pause the video now and give it a try.
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Lastly, if you like more information on our highly popular 2 handed long sword master course go to www.MovieSwordFighting.com or click on a link below this video. Again my name is Dillon Wilson with CBT Stunt Alliance. Train hard, perform easy. Don’t miss our next video, we share with you another movie sword fighting tip. See you next video.