Review: Fightscenes for Motion Pictures by the Kerby Brothers

Welcome to the DOJO!

I wanted to follow-up my earlier post on DVD courses for learning filmmaking with something a little different.  About a year ago I was working on a low budget indie action film of my own — I’d worked on tons of them in the past as a storyboard artist and have put together an insane number of action sequences as a comic book artist, but this was the first time I was going to be directing an action flick of my own.  Since I was on an incredibly low budget (anemic budget would be more accurate), I knew we weren’t going to have a big stunt team or have weeks of training for our actors.  To try and avoid the crappy looking action bits that plague low budget indie and guerilla films, I wanted to do as much pre-work as I could for the fight sequences we’d be filming. 

Sure, I am a rabid fan of martial arts and action movies and have hundreds (if not more) in my collection.  And, sure, I’d storyboarded 30 or more action flicks over the course of my career.  But, the truth is, I had no practical knowledge on putting together a fight scene on set.  What was worse was, I had absolutely no idea where to start.

Luckily for me a quick Google search resulted in one of the best low buget indie filmmaking finds I’ve ever had the pleasure to discover.  What I’m talking about is a down-and-dirty instructional DVD called “Fightscenes for Motion Pictures” by the Kerby Brothers (www.kbproducts.com).  I’ve stolen some of the images from their website — here’s hoping they don’t get upset and come to kick my ass! Full Story →

Film Sensei: An Introduction

With this new website, I wanted to take a few moments to introduce myself.  My name is Mat Nastos and you might be aware of me from some of my other websites: www.theNiftyNerd.com, www.WatchMeLearnGuitar.com or www.NiftyComics.com.  Or you might even know me from some of the comic books I’ve worked on: Elfquest, Thor, Spider-man, Superman (well, the Man of Steel title) or my self-published comic, the Cadre.  What I really am at heart, aside from being a Sex Symbol and inspiration to millions, is a filmmaker. 

I love everything about the filmmaking process — preproduction is fun, post production is a blast (who doesn’t love editing?) and production itself is one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had the pleasure to go through, especially on low, low budget films.  Sure, there is a ton of pain, hard work and a lot of sleepless nights involved, but that just caramelizes the experience for me.  It’s kind of like going away to camp or college where you’re thrown head-first into a group of people and you spend every waking moment with them: laughing, crying, arguing and bonding amidst the pain of early call times and 16 hour days.  Once the pain of the actual production process has faded a bit, you’ll look back and realize you have some truly great memories…even on bad films.  And, truth be told, a lot of times the finished piece won’t be as important to you as the memories of the process itself.  It’s a bonus if you wind up with a great movie when you’re done, but you’ll often find the bad movies are even more fun. Full Story →