Video Updates for the Holidays

As we head into the holiday season, I leave you with a few new video entries for my YouTube channels. First and most freshly updated, a bit on the Tinker Line swords from Cas/Hanwei, in their various iterations:

 

I’ve shared various in-progress thoughts about these swords here over the years, but now you can see them in motion at least.

And in a few days I’ll probably have a holiday-themed video up on PewTube, the Theatrical Firearms Channel I run – based around every gun guy’s favorite Christmas movie, Die Hard.

Need to find a way to fit better in that basement space, or else another space I can shoot where I can readily access my props and not have kids or cats wander into frame. That basement ceiling is just too low, so I’m compressing myself a bit to fit, which just accents the little paunch I’ve developed this past decade or so…

In other news, my first semester here at Case Western Reserve University and the CWRU/Cleveland Playhouse MFA Acting program is coming to a close. Still a fair bit of grading and such to do, and lots to catch up on that I’ve been putting off, but classes are done, and the final testing is now finished for everything. This week Fight Master Richard Ryan came in to adjudicate our MFA cohort’s Skills Proficiency Tests in Unarmed and Rapier & Dagger, something that’s a rare treat given his usual crazy schedule of film and tv work. He’d just wrapped the final season of Vikings, and the timing worked out well. It’s funny, I actually interviewed for a job at UNC Charlotte before I got the Wyoming gig, and was sad when I didn’t get it in part because I’d hoped it’d be an in to playing more with Richard and maybe getting on set with him. Turns out his wife has quit the department since, so that was a nice vindication in how life may be steering me in good directions after all.

He’s still figuring out what comes next, but Vikings has been a great ride for him, and a fun one for the rest of us to follow:

 

 

 

My students didn’t do their best work the day of the test, yet all passed, and that in a strange way makes me prouder; they didn’t have to do their best work to pass, and in live theatre, that’s important. We had six recommended passes and ten basic passes, which I think is a solid start for stage combat here at Case. I hope to keep building on that in the years to come, and have put in my first grant application here for some broadswords to add to the armoury. I’ll have an undergraduate intro to stage combat class next semester, which won’t test, but which has already filled.

And soon I’m off to the Paddy. This will mark 20 years of me going to this workshop, and of the insight and community there helping to buoy and steer my career. I’m greatly looking forward to being back! This year’s theme is The Road Ahead (the last one being In The Footsteps of Giants), and we’re making some real changes – the first being that it’s no longer billed as the Paddy Crean International Stage Combat Workshop, but just the Paddy Crean International Workshop, as it’s come to mean a diverse mix of stage combat, stunts, theatrical movement, martial arts (European and otherwise), modern combatives, and now Theatrical Intimacy as well. My next post may well be a post-workshop report.

Happy Holidays to all!

 

 

Paddy Prequel

As we head into the last few days of registration for the 2018/19 Paddy Crean International Workshop, I can share one of my projects from the last one. I’ve shared the 2min montage reel before, but this one’s more of a documentary style piece. Both were requested by Artistic Director Scott Witt, and were part of my staff duties from last time (and similar projects will be part of my intern duties this next time around).

There’s a great Mark Twain quote I’ve heard,along the lines of “I’m sorry I didn’t have time to write you a shorter letter.”…

This is far from perfect – it’s way too long, and there were some color correction and sound issues I wish I could have done a better job with, but as someone who is distinctly NOT a filmmaker but just dabbles, and had never done a project of this type and scope before, it was the best I could do. I hope it conveys some of what makes these workshops so special to me and the rest of the Paddy extended family.

Register NOW at the Banff Center website!

 

1911s and more

 

PewTube Episode II is now live, after more than a day of arguing with YouTube to get it to upload.

 

Currently trying to chase down Fire Marshals – State was closed for Veteran’s Day, then today said to try City, who is out… but folks at Cleveland Playhouse were talking about possible issues with trying to do a theatrical firearms workshop here – something about like a $7K bond required by a fire marshal if using live firearms on stage. Semantics matter in legal issues, and since blank guns aren’t legally firearms, and a classroom isn’t a stage, or an empty theatre isn’t always covered by the same requirements as a theatre with an audience in attendance, I need to figure out what exactly we’re talking about. Gun laws are a mess in this country, and replica guns aren’t exempt from that. Witness things like the poor actor in NJ who has a felony gun charge against him after using a pellet gun in an indie movie shoot a couple years ago where the director and producers didn’t get permits, or the states where blanks are considered pyrotechnic devices and therefore require a pyrotechnic’s license (which is built around the assumption you’re setting off fireworks, flash pots, and other such effects) to set them off in front of an audience. California has entertainment-industry-specific permits that nobody else either requires or grants.

Granted, we have it better than Canada (all replicas are regulated) or the UK (post VCR-act, anyway) so I probably shouldn’t complain. It’s just hard to keep track when you move states, or work in various municipalities, and the theatres and films we work with can’t be counted on to know this stuff. Nor can the local police who are the first to show up when there’s a complaint.

Also… while it’s not directly related to actors, this week’s tragic shooting of a security guard by a police officer highlights the importance of first impressions and safety. Apparently the responding officer’s first impulse when hearing of an armed individual and showing up to see a black man with a gun was to shoot him. That could just as easily have been an actor on an un-permitted indie film, as we hear about periodically. I’m sure I’m not the only one with friends who include actors and stuntmen who build their livelihood around looking intimidating, and aren’t all white. I never want to see them pop up in a story like this, so make sure your productions are legit, safe, that they’ve notified people in the area before using any kind of firearm prop in an area where they can be seen or heard by the public, that there are signs posted, and obvious film crew when possible. Post PAs on the corners who can stop random people from wandering on set. Make friends with the neighboring businesses. And for the love of all our brothers and sisters in arms out there, don’t do anything that would risk getting someone shot for real. I’ve had SWAT teams called on me for practicing with swords in public, but I walked away from those. With guns they may well shoot on sight.

 

 

 

PewTube!

I’ve been meaning to get this going for years… my hope is to be able to post something weekly, but we’ll see how long I can keep that up. The teaser above dropped last week…. and here’s the first video:

 

Subscribe, comment, share, ask… I don’t get any money off these, but just want to build the knowledge base and maybe drum up a little more business.

Side-project Swords

We all have things we do to ground ourselves. Call it procrastination, or centering, or meditation, or just a hobby. Sometimes we turn to mental escapism, through movies or video games or novels, or to physical escapism, getting out in nature or otherwise away from home or office. So long as they don’t reach the point of interfering with the other things required for functional adulting, it’s healthy.

One of the things that I turn to when I can is making things. Masks, knives, swords, other props, sometimes costume stuff… especially at times when the work I’m “supposed” to be doing involves sitting in front of a computer and being purely an academic, it can be grounding to work with something real, something like non-intellectual problem-solving, and something with tangible progress. It’s also nice sometimes to work on a project that isn’t directly connected to my career and being judged for my expertise. When I’m working on a sword handle or something like that, I sometimes screw up, but nobody’s disappointed with me but me, and I can just move on. I’m no Lewis Shaw, or Jesse Belskey, or Tom Fiocchi… and I’m not pretending to be.

One of these I got as far as gluing the leather grip on before realizing I didn’t like it, it was too fat and not elegant, so I ripped the leather back off and re-shaped it. And that was fine. Granted, I don’t always have the time for projects like this really, and there are plenty of other things I should be working on – and am, in my own bursts – but it’s nice to have been able to spend some time on these. Apart from maybe a little more polishing, I think they’re done.

These are more of the LG Martial Arts hardware on Tinker line blades, as discussed in a previous post.  Pending the sudden acquisition of a forge and welding gear (and the time to learn how to use it all well) this is probably as close as I’ll come to making my own steel swords for now.

The end product is pretty satisfying, although the ceilings in my new basement are low enough and full of exposed duct work, pipes, and bare bulbs that swinging them around much isn’t an option there. I’m a bit worried that the humidity here is enough of a factor that even just going back and forth between the dehumidifier-controlled basement shop/storage and the outside might change the fit enough to risk something cracking if I made any of these too tight a fit, but hopefully things like the grip wraps will help with that, and the wood handle is sealed as well for that reason. Not sure when I’ll get to play with these for real, but it’s something to look forward to. One of these days I want to pick up a sharp blade blank and try some cutting practice with one of these too, but that might need to wait until I’ve established better relations with the neighbors…

 

Overdue Update

Grabbing a moment of quiet to post a long-overdue update/announcement; for those who don’t have other contact with me and don’t already know, I’m leaving my position at the University of Wyoming this summer, and will be starting a new one in the Fall at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio. I’ll be primarily serving as the movement and stage combat specialist for the MFA program run in conjunction with Cleveland Playhouse, but also teaching some in the BA program as well.

I’m very much looking forward to the expanded opportunities in theatre and film that will be available to me in Cleveland – a huge step up from Laramie, Wyoming at any rate. There are some things I’ll miss, and this does mean stepping down from the SAG-AFTRA CO Local board, stepping down as Rocky Mountain regional representative for the SAFD (the capable Samantha Ann Egle is taking my place), and the end of the UWYO Stage Combat Workshop that I founded and ran for my four years here. But I think it’s something that needs to happen, for a wide range of reasons, ranging from state politics and budget issues in Wyoming, administrative and department-level politics, work/life balance, and more.

These moves are always stressful and complicated, but I really think this will be an improvement once the dust settles. Fight Designer props is temporarily shut down and will re-open for business some time in the Fall, as an Ohio-based business.

New props projects are also on hold, as everything’s had to be packed up. As always, there’s a list of things I’d love to get to given the chance – blade blanks to hilt up, a YouTube channel I was going to develop and switch most of my theatrical firearms stuff over to (PewTube!), etc. and there’s a new book I’m needing to buckle down and really start on in earnest. I’ve got a series of puppetry workshops I’m running for a high school group in Laramie before we move at the end of the month, as well. Busy, exciting times!

 

Cas/Hanwei Tinker Line Customization: LG Martial Arts and the Printed Armoury

There’s a backlog of things I’ve been meaning to post about, but as I’ve recently finished what will probably be the last of my custom projects for a while, let’s start with that. When I get around to posting again (I’ve been and will be busy!) there’s plenty of news to share, however! But on to the toys:

One of the interesting lines of products catering primarily to the HEMA crowd but peripherally also stage combat is the Tinker line of Cas/Hanwei production swords. Originally designed by master swordsmith, all-around good person, and Seattle buddy Michael “Tinker” Pierce under contract with Cas/Hanwei, these offer affordable cutting and sparring swords with interchangable blades, sharp or blunt, in a variety of styles including longswords, bastard swords, single-handed medieval cruciform, and more. They aren’t made to the usual beefy standards of our traditional stage combat steel blunts, but are designed first and foremost for either cutting practice (in the sharps) or armored sparring, if you put an archery blunt on the tip. The edges may feel a bit thin for those who learned on things like Starfire blades in the 80s or 90s, but these certainly handle and look better than those basic LS32s (although they rang so great!), so in terms of safety, it’s probably an even trade-off, and depending on where you get them, these may be cheaper than something from stage standbys like Baltimore Knife & Sword or even Rogue Steel.

I’ve been interested in these since I first heard they were coming out, back when I still lived in Seattle, and the first one of these blades I got was a sample I bought off Tinker himself, then hilted with a spare cross and a pommel I made from bar steel, mostly with an angle grinder. That took forever, and was a less than ideal process, but I’ve generally liked the resulting sword, and it was my go-to for demonstrating longsword work for years.

A younger me teaching in 2010 with my self-finished Tinker Longsword blade.

Within recent years, however, enough demand grew for more custom versions of these Tinkers (without the sloppy, messy, loud, and time consuming angle grinder work). In stepped LG Martial Arts/The Printed Armoury to fill that niche, with a line of replacement pommels and crosses that work on several of the Tinker line blades.

Several stage combat vendors have started using these, such as Jesse Belsky, as a quick way to get a nice custom look. My friend Benaiah Anderson, who studied sword making under the late Dennis Graves, recently used a set and compared it to a mechanic mounting new wheels… less satisfying than making your own, but certainly faster.  But then, he’s used to being able to do more on his own than I can:

For those hoping for plug-and-play, though, these are not quite that. Even ones with the higher finish level will still need some fitting most likely, but that’s not LG’s fault; Cas/Hanwei quality control is to blame here, as when I got my first ones of these, the cross guards wouldn’t slide all the way down on either of the two supposedly matching blade blanks, but they certainly went down further on one than on the other. When the first one was fit to the first blank, it still only went about 3/4 of the way down its mate. So count on some quality time with a file making these fit right… but that’s better than having them be too loose. Some of the pommels may need work as well.

 

Initial wood grip and finishing on one. The other, you can see this is as far as the cross will go without filing.

There’s also been patterns uploaded for 3d printable grips. Haven’t tried that yet, and some reports have said they’re brittle if you print in the wrong type of plastic. I’m curious though, and may try one some time.

Fittings are available in various finish levels. I got some of each, to try them out. The one I just finished was the medieval single hand sword, but I also have some bastard sword fittings I’ll have to finish up probably next year some time.

You can see some fit better than others out of the box, but that’s also the blank; that finished cross only slides all the way down on one of the two blanks I bought (which were back-ordered for almost a year, and just came in this weekend). The Viscount longsword pommel needed a fair bit of filing inside it as well.

Here’s a quick comparison of blades:

From left: Hanwei Tinker Line stock bastard sword, H/T Longsword with Viscount fittings and handmade grip, H/T Early Medieval Single Hand Sword with Dunvegan fittings and custom grip, and the Hanwei Practical Single-Hand sword.

In terms of handling, honestly the new one isn’t as different from the Hanwei Practical Single-Hand as I’d expected, although the pommel nut lets you keep it tight, unlike the practical’s peened tang. I did shorten the grip a bit, grinding off some of the shoulders of the tang to allow for a smaller handle, which fits me well now. I did a cord wrap over the wood, and then rayskin over that (left over from my last wallet after the inside parts fell apart). I do like how the bluing turned out on the furniture.

after the cord wrap was done

The Viscount style longsword I like the looks of, but the pommel’s a bit pointy in areas where I like to put my off hand, so if I was finishing a rough cast one, I might round those off a bit more. While it’s uglier, the one I made with an angle grinder is more comfy to use.

Conclusions? Not at all a bad option to have. I haven’t used these enough to say how well the blades hold up to an extended run, or how good the fittings feel after a full day of use, but for me, as an occasional hobbyist without a full shop, it’s a nice compromise between DIY customization and buying stock.

 

 

Falling Again

Tis the season for ice once again! It’s been a busy half year since I took time to do any updates, but here’s a few:

One of the NPR reporters for Here and Now took a bad spill on some ice this week, and started looking around for advice on how to mitigate things like that. She pretty quickly came across the piece in the New York Times that I was interviewed for last year. I got an email from one of her producers on Wednesday asking for an interview, and by 7am Thursday I was in a studio at Wyoming Public Radio, being interviewed by Robin Young (who is in Boston) about falling. Two pieces came out of that, the radio spot that aired and a more print-friendly piece. As with the NYT piece, there’s plenty of people asking for video, so if I ever have extra free time (hah!) that’s maybe something I should look into…

Amongst the projects I’ve been busy with this last 7 months:

I directed The Fantasticks for the Snowy Range Summer Theatre.

We received meritorious achievement awards from the American College Theatre Festival Region VII for my directing, the ensemble, the music direction, and more, but it was clouded by controversy over the show’s built-in use of “Indian” disguises for the abduction scene, which is something that deserves a thesis more than a passing mention in a blog post, but I don’t have time for that now. I assistant directed a show for the new playwrights festival at the Kennedy Center in DC this summer. I co-directed the original production of Fascism! The Musical this Fall with the writer and songwriter at the University of Wyoming:

(there’s a playlist of teaser clips I made there if you want to keep poking around)

As this is ostensibly a stage combat, stunts, and prop weaponry industry blog, I’ll also point out that what was going to be “a props light show” ended up having a full SWAT team at the finale, plus another number about guns on campus.

 

I’m in the midst of directing A Bright Room Called Day now.

I’ve gotten another book contract, which I’ve yet to really start, and will share more about later. Published another article in The Fight Master. Got a chapter in for a book on Physical Dramaturgy that should come out this year. I attended the biennial SAG-AFTRA National Convention as an elected delegate from the CO Local (where I’m also a board member now), as well as four regional theatre conferences/festivals (WY State Drama, TX Thespians, N. TX Auditions, CO ThesCon), gave some workshops on campus for our High School Open House, created a video montage and started a longer documentary style project for the Paddy Crean International Stage Combat Workshops:

I’m sure I’m forgetting some things in there… but it’s been a pretty full summer and Fall!

 

Flashback Friday

In lieu of a post here, let me just link to a guest blog post I did for Zombie Orpheus Productions, over on their site, discussing the fight coordination and armoury work I did for them on The Gamers: Dorkness Rising and GAM3RS: Hands of Fate.

 

Click here. Go there. Read.

UWYO Workshop

No time for a proper post; I hope to catch up a bit in the coming weeks, as I might get some time between the end of classes and the beginning of full time rehearsals for The Fantasticks, which I’m directing and then touring in June.

Biggest upcoming thing, though, is this weekend’s Third Annual UWYO Stage Combat Workshop. I hope some of you can join us – it’s grant subsidized thanks to the Wyoming Arts Council, making it the cheapest SAFD sanctioned stage combat workshop in the country. Come check it out!