Kim Turney

My favorite swordswoman has to be Maureen O'hara. She played the daughter of Athos in the film At Sword's Point. Her swordfighting was fabulous and I read in articles about the film that she trained harder at swordplay than all the other actors put together.

Then there is Michele Yeoh. She rocks in all her Martial Arts films.

This has been a fantastic weekend! Friday evening I traveled with Sword Masters Jan Bryant and Dan Speaker to the home of legendary Stunt Coordinator James Lew! We had a great evening discussing different productions we have worked on. We talked about successes, we talked about mishaps - fortunately those are rare. James discussed a new project he has coming up in New Orleans. He is currently training the young lead in preparation for shooting. We also talked about the project James just finished last month in Denver, a martial arts/action film called Tengu for which he was the stunt coordinator and played a main character role.

I was also introduced to James' new dog, Floyd. Floyd is a miniature terrier mix. James got a small dog on purpose. Since so few films are shooting in Los Angeles and James has to travel more and more for work, he wanted his four legged companion to be able to travel with him.

Check out James Lew on Imbd.com

Then last night I traveled to a home in Tarzana, California to watch the SyFy Channel premier of Almighty Thor. The party was in honor of the show's star Cody Deal. We had a great time watching the movie. It is obviously a low budget film, but they kept to the story line of Thor wanting to change his fate, and in spite of all the crazy FX and the ultra clear 'see every pore on every face' bad HD make up, the story kept you engaged.

And Cody did a great job for his first feature film role! Cody is one of those actors who can play vulnerable without looking weak. I firmly believe we are going to see so much more of him in the future.

And, of course, the action looked really good. Dan Speaker and Jan Bryant created all the action choreography and they are always able to make the actors look good while they are fighting. They give the actors moves they are comfortable with and feel confident doing - so they can go all out on each take, even if they are performing with little or no rehearsal. An added bonus was my good friend, Jason Medbury, got to do an awesome double broadsword fight, in full armor, in the rain with Cody Deal. Jason has trained with the Academy of Theatrical Combat for many years and was able to walk in and perform the swordfight on cue! It was great!

This week I plan to take in the big budget Thor and Fast Five! Action Movies Rock!

Fight Coordinator Buster Reeves does a fantastic job with his actors! Buster was also a fight coordinator on Clash of the Titans and Terminator Salvation.

Fightmaven's Corner

So I am figuring out what I really want to be blogging and eventually vlogging about. My niche, topic, whatever is going to be the celebration of fight choreographers, fight directors, action/fight coordinators and stunt coordinators. These are the unsung heroes in any stage or screen production.

They usually have to do their work in the spare time that the other movie or play production departments leave them - that’s usually not much time at all. Plus they have to worry about safety of the actors and the crew. I mean stunt people are constantly risking their lives to get the action to look great. Some fight/action sequences in films are absolutely incredible - but that’s all part of movie magic. It’s behind the scenes. You’re not supposed to think about it when you are watching a film. So the names of these action artists are usually stuck in the special thanks section of the theater program, and in movies they are in the dead middle of the seemingly endless list of credits at the end of the film. I think these people should be brought to the forefront and acknowledged for their work!

So, to help me out with this, I have an assignment for you. The next movie you go to, if it has any fight scenes or chase scenes or action scenes in it, STAY TO WATCH THE CREDITS AFTER THE FILM! Don’t run out to buy that box of Red Vines for the ride home. Just sit there for a few more minutes and read the names of all the people that worked together to create the few hours of entertainment you just experienced. Find out who the stunt coordinator was on the movie and talk about them whenever you tell people about seeing the film. Write to me and tell me what movie you saw and who coordinated the action!

For a stage production, talk to the actors and find out who was the fight director/ violence choreographer, and ask the actors how much time they had to rehearse the violence. They will usually say it was not enough time.

So that’s what Fightmaven’s Corner will be about, along with talking about my favorite subjects, swords and swordfights!! I really hope you will join me because we are going to have an extraordinary time!

THIS WEEKS SHOUT OUT:  to Al Goto, stunt coordinator for the television series In Plain Sight!

In Fightmaven’s Corner, me, plus all of you, living life one little victory at a time!

BATTLE ON!

A Duel in Rhyme (by AcademyFightClass)

The adventure continues! I am continuing to learn new things daily. I am actually starting to join conversations better! (Why is this so hard?) I have been spending this week exploring Linked In and it's many layers. You have your connections on there and then you can join groups which allows you to focus more on who you want to be speaking to. Then you can join subgroups which can localize the group members so you are able to chat with people in your industry, in your city. It's all good!

I started working with Hootsuite. I am still getting used to that. But I can see how it is an effort saver.

We have the Fight Class - Killer Swag shop up on Cafepress.com. Can't afford to buy our own stuff yet. But eventually we will.

My cat, Mr Furley, has started helping me with my social media networking. He is an excellent assistant!

This morning I got to help my first social networking client create a Facebook page and start to connect with her friends! We had a great time. She was great to have as a first client because she does not have a great relationship with computers in general. But I was able to walk her through everything from the sign up, to searching for friends, to uploading her profile picture to creating her first wall post and confirming friendships. It was a very productive session.

We have scheduled the next introductory session for Fight Class and I hope the momentum will continue and we will get more and more people interested in learning how to be great looking but safe stage combatants.

We also met with the amazing Kristen Nedopak yesterday and began working on a collaborative project that will give both her and Fight Class some great exposure on the internet. Check her out at Kristennedopak.com and on Twitter @nedopak.

Plus I finally have the correct art in the correct format for t-shirts on http://www.cafepress.com/FightClass! I will announce as soon as they are up for sale so everyone can get a Fight Class T-shirt!

Everything I am reading, watching, studying and experiencing is telling me we are headed on he right direction with our social media networking plan - so I just keep moving forward.

Dan Speaker and Jan Bryant interviewed for Master and Commander (by AcademyFightClass