03-08-2020, 06:15 AM
Anyway, I have found about 45 assorted clips and their links, so I will be posting them here until I run out. But before I post any actual scenes, I thought I would share a clip of one of my actors discussing scene ideas. As I have discussed in other posts, I always tried to get my actors involved in the creative process, and one way was to show them assorted body types (shirtless of course) and let them make suggestions as to how they would like to see the prospective victim get it....both with what weapons, and how and where the hits might look best. This inspired them to think about how different bodies would react to being shot or stabbed, which weapons would look best hitting where, and how best the victim might end up when dead. With that in mind, they would be more open to helping develop their own scenes on their own bodies. As I would put it to them "a skinny guy taking a spear in his belly isn't going to "play" the same as the same shot on a guy with a bit of a beer gut."
What's fun to watch about these discussions is the actor's enthusiasm with coming up with ideas, and the satisfaction they seem to get from saying stuff like "aw, I'd get him right in the belly; he's gotta get it right in that bellybutton", and demonstrating it on their own body. In this particular case, the actor involved we used to call The Swede (pictured) because, well, he's a typical hunky Nordic blond type. Unlike most of my actors, who I trained to do this stuff, he was actually a trained actor; we had appeared in plays together, and he was quite skilled, a natural performer. After showing him some scenes I had filmed with other guys, he caught on right away to the style of performance I was going for: not "realistic" death so much as a slightly exaggerated style death like you might see in an old martial arts, Western or Peplum (Sword & Sandal) movie. A little over the top, and stretched out longer than you would normally see. I would always say "play it big, epic, use your body and take your time...we can always adjust the final length in the editing".
The Swede was very articulate and specific in describing his ideas and is fun to watch expressing them. Later I will be posting a few clips of his performances. But this is very representative of the kind of discussions I had with all of my performers. Usually I just audio recorded them, but in this case I shot split-screen video showing both The Swede and the prospective targets. Sadly I only had the opportunity to do that with a few of my guys. His is my favorite.
Here's the Youtube link: https://youtu.be/ecCgLoH2LHs
Incidentally, I have no issues with everybody saving the clips I link to, especially as there's no telling how long Youtube will allow them to stay up. I have had clips removed as long as two years after I posted them, presumably because some jerk complained. I recommend a program called Clipgrab to download them; they are saveable in MP4 format for your continued viewing pleasure. I hope this brings back fond memories for the guys who remember my work, and encourage those who haven't seen my stuff before to watch for future posts.
- Derek
![[Image: tumblr_nbpbfff8wN1rlvb7yo2_500.jpg]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/d0d4ba3616a92269c55b82a17fa5b8d2/tumblr_nbpbfff8wN1rlvb7yo2_500.jpg)
