Whats It Called When "Nerds" Get Together to Do Fight Scenes From Medieval Times?

Technique used in theatre to create the illusion of concrete combat

A swordfight from a stage production of Macbeth

Stage gainsay, fight craft ^[1] or fight choreography is a specialised technique in theatre designed to create the illusion of physical combat without causing damage to the performers. It is employed in live stage plays as well as operatic and ballet productions. With the advent of cinema and idiot box the term has widened to also include the choreography of filmed fighting sequences, every bit opposed to the earlier live performances on stage. Information technology is closely related to the do of stunts and is a common subject field for actors. Actors famous for their phase fighting skills frequently have backgrounds in trip the light fantastic, gymnastics or martial arts grooming.

History [edit]

Aboriginal [edit]

The history of phase fighting and mock combat can be traced to antiquity, with Aristotle quoted as noting that tragedy is disharmonize between people^[2] or indeed it may exist traced to the origins of the human species and primate display behaviour. Display of martial aptitude is a natural occurrence in warrior societies, and ritualized forms of mock combat often evolve into war dances. Whether it is the struggle betwixt the men and women of Aristophanes' Lysistrata in Ancient Greece or Aboriginal Egypt where Herodotus in his Histories talks most a religious festival in which they crush each other with staves but no one dies, staged combat has always^{[ citation needed ]} existed.^[3] As information technology doesn't make sense to sacrifice citizens in rituals, many aboriginal civilizations turned to symbolic gestures of combat through dancing or bringing a weapon to someone'due south throat or cervix without actually touching them to symbolize decease or an deed of violence.^{[ commendation needed ]}

Post-classical [edit]

Fights staged for entertainment may also exist in earnest for the combatants, equally was the example with the Roman gladiators, and any public duel, such as the judicial duel of the European Middle Ages. The medieval tournament and joust are a classical examples of competitive ritualised mock combat. The joust from the time of Maximilian I developed into a sport with enormous cost involved for each knight and correspondingly loftier prestige attached, comparable to contemporary Formula One races, while at the same time minimizing the danger of injury with highly specialized equipment.

In the Belatedly Middle Ages, staged fencing bouts, with or without choreography, became pop with fencing schools. Some German fechtbuch ("combat manuals", literally 'fight' or 'fence book') take sections dedicated to flamboyant techniques to be employed in such Klopffechten ("knockabout fighting"), which would be impractical in serious combat, and the Late Medieval German masters distinguish mock fights (fechten zu schimpf, 'rant fighting') and existent gainsay (fechten zu ernst, 'earnest fighting').

The history of European theatrical combat has its roots in medieval theatre, and becomes tangible in Elizabethan drama. Richard Tarlton, who was a member of both William Shakespeare'south acting company and of the London Masters of Defence weapons guild, was among the start fight directors in the modern sense.^[iv] Sword duels depicted in plays showed how popular the pastime was in bodily life. Before 1615 in England, many plays featured duels and the duels were regarded as highlights of the show. As opposed to after 1615, when dueling was publicly condemned past Rex James and the duels were used as a last resort in regards to the plot.^[5]

Modernistic [edit]

During the late 17th and early on 18th centuries, stylized stage combat has been a staple characteristic of traditional performing arts for centuries, such equally in Japanese Kabuki theater (every bit tachimawari "fighting scenes"), Chinese Beijing Opera and Indian theater.

Fencing masters in Europe began to enquiry and experiment with historical fencing techniques, with weapons such as the two-handed sword, rapier and smallsword, and to instruct actors in their employ. Notable amongst these were George Dubois, a Parisian fight director and martial artist who created operation fencing styles based on gladiatorial combat as well as Renaissance rapier and dagger fencing. Egerton Castle and Captain Alfred Hutton of London were likewise involved both in reviving antique fencing systems and in teaching these styles to actors.^[6]

The beginning of a staged duel from Human activity IV of Gounod'south Faust.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scenes of swordplay in touring theatrical productions throughout Europe, the British Commonwealth and the United States were typically created past combining several widely known, generic routines known as "standard combats", identified by names such every bit the "Round Eights" and the "Glasgow Tens".

Cinematic fencing has its roots in the 1920s, with the movies of Douglas Fairbanks. I of the more celebrated fight directors who emerged in this time was Paddy Crean who revolutionized stage gainsay, specifically sword play, for the silver screen and theater. Paddy created the flamboyant style of sword play that can be seen in Errol Flynn movies, among others. He promoted the use of safety above all things and and so focused on story of the fight.^[vii] B. H. Barry and J. Allen Suddeth, students of Paddy Crean, are two fight masters who have continued developing Paddy's legacy. Barry helped found the Society of British Fight Directors and then came to the United states to give fight direction a more specific shape.^[viii] J. Allen Suddeth founded the National Fight Directors Preparation Program in the United States and wrote the book "Fight Direction for the Theater" (1996).^[9] Martial arts movies emerge as a singled-out genre from the 1940s, popularized by Bruce Lee and Sonny Chiba from the 1960s.

Starting in the mid-1960s, John Waller, a pioneer in the English language historical European martial arts (HEMA) revival, was a fight director for stage and screen, and afterward a teacher of stage combat at London drama schools, with an accent on historical realism.^[10] Informal guilds of fight choreographers began to have shape in the 1970s with the establishment of The Order of British Fight Directors, 1969 to 1996. Training was established in the United states of america with the formation of the Society of American Fight Directors in 1977.

Post-obit this, further academies and associations worldwide have been established to uphold the craft, training and quality of work in the art-class of stage combat nationally and internationally, including: The British Academy Of Phase & Screen Combat (BASSC) and Fight Directors Canada (FDC) in 1993; the Club of Australian Fight Directors Inc. (SAFDi) in 1994; the Nordic Phase Fight Society (NSFS) and the New Zealand Stage Combat Society in 1995; the British University of Dramatic Combat (BADC, formerly known as The Lodge of British Fight Directors) in 1996; Art of Gainsay in 1997; Stage Combat Deutschland in 2004; and the Australian Phase Gainsay Association (ASCA) in 2010; The British Guild of Stage Combat in 2015. As of 2005, East 15 Acting School, London offered a B.A. (Hons) Caste in Acting & Stage Combat. Many of the societies offer certification programs for dissimilar weapons, which is used as an indicator virtually how much grooming an player has had.

Techniques [edit]

Stage gainsay training includes unarmed gainsay skills such every bit illusory slaps, punches, kicks, throwing and holding techniques; theatrical adaptations of various forms of fencing such as rapier and dagger, smallsword and broadsword, likewise equally the use of other weapons, notably the quarterstaff and knives; and more specialized skills such as professional wrestling and unlike styles of martial arts. However, stage gainsay can include whatsoever form of choreographed violence and the options are limited only by condom concerns, and the ability of the participants involved. As a note, almost of these techniques are drawn from actual fighting techniques, but modified to exist safer for actors. For example, although there are a number of means of creating the prophylactic illusion of a slap to the face (which is manifestly something that could actually exist washed in combat), none of these involve making actual contact with the victim's confront.

The overriding concern is for the safety of the actors and audition. This requirement has led to the accommodation of many standard martial arts and fencing skills specifically for performance. For instance, many basic sword attacks and parries must be modified to ensure that the actors practice non bring the points of their weapons past their partner'south face or otherwise inadvertently hazard the other actor'south wellness and well-being. Attacking actions in phase combat are extended past the performance partner's torso, or aimed short of their apparent targets. Likewise, whereas their characters may be engaged in vicious unarmed combat, the actors must operate at a high level of complicity and communication to ensure a prophylactic, exciting fight scene. In many forms of stage combat, distance is a key gene in technique. Many attacks are performed 'out of distance' so that there is no possible adventure of one performer accidentally striking the other. Considerable professional judgement is called upon to determine what technical level may be appropriate for a given performer, taking into account allotted rehearsal time, and the expectations of the managing director.

Another important element of phase combat is sound. Sound increases the believability of an action for the audience. There are 2 kinds of sounds that can be made. I is vocal reactions. By adding a gasp, groan, or grunt when struck, the combatants make the moves come to life. The other kind of sound is a knap or a percussive audio made by hitting a resonant part of the torso.^[11] This is timed to the moment an impact would happen and is staged so it is subconscious from the audition. This allows the audience to believe that an actual blow or slap has landed because they hear a respective sound and see a reaction.

The combat phase of a play rehearsal is referred to as a fight rehearsal. Choreography is typically learned step by step, and practiced at outset very slowly earlier increasing to a speed that is both dramatically convincing and prophylactic for the performers and their audience. Even stage combat is risky, and it is preferable for actors to have equally much training and feel as possible. A "fight call" or a cursory rehearsal before the show is performed each fourth dimension, set bated for the actors to "mark" through the fight to increase their muscle memory. A bear witness which involves fight choreography will typically exist trained and supervised by a professional person fight choreographer and may too include a fight captain, who runs fight calls and ensures that actors are remaining safe throughout the duration of the prove.

The fighting styles in movies set up in the Medieval or Renaissance periods may be unrealistic and historically inaccurate. Most fight choreographers use a mix between Asian martial arts and sports fencing to re-enact fight scenes. This is by and large due to the look of the fighting asked for past the director. If the managing director wants the story to flow a certain fashion, and then the fight director volition choreograph the fights to fit that manner and tell the story.

Weapons [edit]

For stage gainsay, all edges should exist dulled and points blunted then that there is no risk of severe injury if someone is accidentally stabbed. In addition, weapons that are used, and not just for prove, should be certified every bit combat-fix, thereby preventing whatever accidents involving blades accidentally breaking off.

Melee [edit]

Melee weapons are used in large battle scenes and tin can include spears, axes, maces, flails, and more than. These are other weapons that are all-time used in large playing spaces where there is room to work at a safe distance.

Stick-fighting [edit]

Quarterstaffs are used in shows that are performed in large playing spaces due to the large size of the weapon. One of the most pop quarterstaff fights is that between Robin Hood and Little John in the tale of Robin Hood from the 17th century ballad. Modernistic quarterstaff choreography has also integrated the techniques of the bō staff from the Japanese martial fine art Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū, which originated effectually 1447. Examples of this style tin exist seen in the famous Kabuki play Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura, written in 1748.^{[ commendation needed ]}

Asian [edit]

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Other weapons like a katana, a Japanese style sword that is curved on one side, and nunchucks can also be used onstage. These require more detailed study of Japanese martial arts. Phase combat versions of nunchucks can exist purchased that are foam instead of wood, thereby reducing the danger to the actors.

European [edit]

A large sword usually used in the early Middle Ages in Europe. The broadsword was notable for its large hilt which allowed it to be wielded with both hands due to its size and weight. Used for slashing rather than stabbing, this weapon is used in plays gear up in this menses like Shakespeare's Macbeth and is as well seen in fantasy epics like Lord of the Rings.

First school instructing on the correct apply of the rapier in England was started in 1576 by Rocco Bonetti from Italy.^[12] Bonetti took over the lease from playwright John Lyly to open up his school in Blackfriars.^[13] The rapier has the reward of the thrust over the slash which ways it could be a much smaller and lighter weapon than the broadsword. It is popular in Shakespeare plays like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet where duels are performed and can be used in combination with a dagger.

2 men dueling using the smallsword.

The smallsword came into fashion in England and French republic in the late seventeenth century.^[12] It was used every bit a thrusting weapon and then sword movements were kept minimal to detect the opening that a thrust could land. Most men of the period carried smallswords equally fashion accessories then most were elegantly ornamented. An case of a smallsword duel can be seen in Les Liaisons Dangereuses past Christopher Hampton written in 1985, based on the 1782 novel of the same name.

Two opponents face off in a knife fighting rehearsal.

In that location are many knife fighting styles from the Bowie knife to a switchblade. Knife fights tend to take quick sharp movements. An instance of this can be seen in West Side Story's fight between Riff and Bernardo. Often in plays all the same, it is one actor with a knife against someone who is unarmed like in Act I of Georges Bizet'southward opera Carmen, written in 1875.

Gauge size and shape of shield used in phase combat.

LLyg The Sword and shields used in phase gainsay are unremarkably round and are stiff enough that they can exist used as a defensive and offensive weapon. An of import element in using a shield is to concord the shield arm in an upper diagonal and so the fist is college than the elbow so the elevation of the shield does not move when struck, and the danger beingness hit in the face with the shield or the weapon using to strike it can be avoided. Sword and shields tin can be found in battle scenes like in Shakespeare'southward Wars of the Roses history plays.

Guns [edit]

A staple of modern activeness films due to its visual spectacle, a issue of oftentimes impressive choreography and stuntwork.

Bodies and bottles [edit]

This consists of mitt to hand combat without weapon. Elements of unarmed combat include slaps, punches, kicks, grabs, chokes, falls, rolls, grappling, amidst others. Many fight directors rely on combinations of messy street fighting and martial arts such as aikido and Brazilian jiu-jitsu to create fights of this nature. More often than not more common in modernistic contemporary plays, after swords accept gone out of style but also seen in older plays such as Shakespeare'south Othello when Othello strangles Desdemona.

Constitute objects are objects that are non traditionally weapons but can be used so in the context of the scene. A classic example of this is breaking a bottle over someone'south caput. Every bit with all phase combat, the objects are rigged so as non to really pose any danger to the recipients. In the case of bottles or plates, sugar glass molds are used rather than actual drinking glass bottles.

Realism [edit]

Fight choreography tin can vary widely from true realism to outright fantasy depending upon the requirements of a particular production. One of the biggest reasons that theatrical fight directors ofttimes do not aim for strict realism is that the live audition could non easily follow the 'story' of the activity if bodies and blades were moving in the ways trained fighters would move them. For example, a production of Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, using 17th-century rapiers, might evidence Cyrano making many circular cut attacks. Only a more than efficient, applied assail would be taking a quicker, more directly line to the opponent's torso. But the fight director knows that the audience couldn't follow the action too if the attacks were faster (the audience might inappreciably be able to see the thin blades whip through the air), and then most fight choreographers would make choices to assist the audition follow the story. Of grade, this is dependent on the production, the managing director and other stylistic choices.

Ane school of fight choreographer idea says that an unusual aspect of live stage combat, such equally in a play, is that audiences volition react negatively to fifty-fifty simulated violence if they fear the actors are existence harmed: for case, if an actor is really slapped in the confront, the audience volition end thinking about the grapheme and, instead, worry about the performer. Audiences may also fear for their own safe if large combat scenes seem to be out of control. Therefore, stage gainsay is not only a rubber technique merely is likewise important for an audience to maintain uninterrupted suspension of atheism.

Types [edit]

In theater [edit]

Having its roots in Medieval theatre, stage combat enters classical theatre choreography with Elizabethan drama (Shakespeare's simple and oft seen stage direction, they fight).

Classical stageplays with sword fight scenes:

Romeo and Juliet (1597) by William Shakespeare
Henry Four (1597) by William Shakespeare
Village (circa 1600) by William Shakespeare
Macbeth (circa 1605) by William Shakespeare
King Lear (1606) by William Shakespeare (Cornwall and the servant, Human action III; Edgar and Edmund, Act Five)
Troilus and Cressida (1609) by William Shakespeare
'Tis Pity She'south A Whore (circa 1630) by John Ford
The Rover (1677) by Aphra Behn
Die Räuber (1781) past Friedrich Schiller
Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) by Edmond Rostand

In film [edit]

Picture palace inherited the concept of choreographed fights directly from the theatrical fight. Douglas Fairbanks in 1920 was the first film director to ask a fencing master to assist the production of a fencing scene in cinema.^[fourteen] A second wave of swashbuckling films was triggered with Errol Flynn from 1935. Renewed interest in swashbuckling films arose in the 1970s, in the wake of The Iii Musketeers (1973). Directors at this phase aimed for a certain amount of historical accuracy, although, as the 2007 Encyclopædia Britannica puts it, "movie fencing remains a poor representation of actual fencing technique". The Star Wars films, the fights for which are choreographed by Bob Anderson & Peter Diamond (Episodes IV, V & VI) and Nick Gillard (Episodes I, II & III), tend to portray its lightsaber gainsay using swordsmanship techniques drawn from existing martial arts, only performed with fantasy weapons such equally lightsabers or the Strength, whereas the action featured in The Lord of the Rings as well choreographed by Bob Anderson employed fantasy weapons and fighting styles, designed past Tony Wolf.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Bruce Lee, Sonny Chiba, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung became famous for both choreographing and acting in martial arts action films, and were influential in the development of phase gainsay on motion picture. Hong Kong-based fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping is known for his work on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Matrix trilogy, in which the often unrealistic fighting techniques are complemented past directorial techniques such as bullet time. Ching Siu-tung is particularly noted in the field of Hong Kong activeness movie theater for his utilize of graceful wire fu techniques. By contrast, films such equally The Duellists, fight directed by William Hobbs, One time Were Warriors, fight directed past Robert Bruce and Troy & Ironclad, fight directed past Richard Ryan are widely famed for including gritty, realistic gainsay scenes. Ryan is also known for his inventiveness in devising styles such equally Batman's in The Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes 'prevision' style in Guy Ritchie'southward ii Sherlock Holmes movies.

Combat reenactment [edit]

Combat reenactment is a side of historical reenactment which aims to depict events of battle, normally a specific engagement in history, but besides unscripted battles where the 'winner' is not predetermined.

See likewise [edit]

Hong Kong action cinema
Kung Fu Theater
Martial arts motion picture
Samurai movie theatre

References [edit]

^ "Fight Arts and crafts". 19 April 2013.
^ Aristotle. Poetics. pp. Chpt. 6, Sect. II. Line 16–20.
^ Herodotus. Histories. Vol. Book 2. pp. Line 63.
^ Gordon, Gilbert (1973). Stage Fights. New York: Theatre Art Books. pp. six. ISBN978-0-87830-131-vii.
^ Waggoner, G. R. (1965). "Timon of Athens and the Jacobean Duel". Shakespeare Quarterly. xvi (4): 304–306. doi:10.2307/2867659. JSTOR 2867659.
^ Wolf, Tony. (2009) "A Terrific Gainsay!!! Theatrical Duels, Brawls and Battles, 1800-1920"[/]
^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Feryn, Elisabeth; Walker-Fitzpatrick, Lesley (2008-03-08), The Fight Master: A Documentary nearly Paddy Crean , retrieved 2018-11-17
^ Childs, Casey (September 24, 2014). "B.H. Barry Interview". www.primarystagesoffcenter.org. The Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Projection. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
^ Suddeth, J. Allen. "J. Allen Suddeth Bio". www.safd.org . Retrieved 2018-eleven-17 .
^ Wilson, Guy (2018). "John Waller — A Life Remembered". Artillery & Armour. Royal Armouries. 15 (two): 113–121. doi:ten.1080/17416124.2018.1522141.
^ The Society of American Fight Directors. Glossary of Terms. Updated 3/xix/16. http://world wide web.safd.org.
^ ^a ^b Wise, Arthur (1968). Weapons in the theatre. New York: Barnes and Noble. pp. 5, 123–124.
^ Turner, Craig; Soper, Tony (1990). Methods and Practise of Elizabethan Swordplay. Carbondale, IL: Southern University Press. p. fifteen.
^ 2007 Britannica, due south.v. fencing.

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