Original subtitles

Oh

welcome to Hollywood stunt makers

today on Hollywood stunt Megan will

explore the world of martial arts movies

and we'll find out from some of the

stars what it takes to make the action

look so real plus we'll take a look at

some of the best boxing scenes ever

filmed and get an insider's look at how

they were made a being will also meet

some of the superstars that made these

films box-office champs Hollywood has

never been bashful about borrowing from

other cultures there's a special kind of

film that requires physical strength a

sense of grace and incredible

coordination became known as the Eastern

Western the top guys are martial art

champions gunplay is replaced by high

kicks and exotic weaponry kungfu mission

is a good example of a popular martial

arts film in typical fashion the

plotline is secondary to the action

audience has clearly watched these films

for the carefully choreographed fight

scenes let's meet Brandon Lee he's

carrying on the tradition of his

legendary father Bruce Lee on the set of

showdown in Little Tokyo here's Brandon

with an insider's look at a rehearsal

the martial arts onra is special to me

because it's always been more

interesting in my opinion to watch two

men who are possessed of skills and the

martial arts fight with each other than

to watch people shoot at each other

because uh as my father said in Enter

the Dragon any damn fool can pull a

trigger for me the most exciting thing

and working in a martial arts movie is

the choreography itself you know just

it's it's it's really wonderfully fun

and creative to be able to choreograph a

fights you know on this film showdown in

Little Tokyo the choreographers a man

named Pat Johnson who's wonderful it's

been great to work with him and on the

next film I expect to have a little more

of it on my own shoulders and I'm

looking forward to that very much it's

wonderful you sit home and you think it

out and after all the training you've

had in martial arts academies you've

come to realize those certain golden

moments that happen in a fight when it's

just perfect you know when it's just

perfect in the guy steps right into it

and there's nothing like it in the world

and so you can create those you can make

it happen that way every time and it's

great return of the Dragon was really

interesting in that my father wrote it

directed it and started it was Chuck's

first acting role I believe and the

fight scene in the end of that between

Chuck and my father is the finest

one-on-one fight scene I've ever seen

that I'm film there are so many nice

little things in that film that show

that it's a fight scene between two

fighters you know what I mean little

things I mean real little things little

faints little things like that

I was eight and a half when my father

died and he was 32 we lived in Hong Kong

at the time so upon my father's death we

moved to America my mother my sister and

I and it was just a real different thing

a whole different school system

different cultural standards I mean

everything was different you know and we

went from living in a large house where

I remember every day when we'd go to

school they would open the gates and

have to push people out of the way for

us to you know get the car out to be

able to get to the school we went from

that to living in relative obscurity in

America which was a blessing it really

was great you know and have my mother to

think thank for that but uh so a lot of

things changed I just believe that my

father would want the achievements of

his life which worked great which are

lasting to this day 18 years after his

death you know he would want them to be

up ahead to me so I'm very grateful for

all I know that he would not want me to

attempt to become a pale carbon copy of

himself I believe that and besides which

I have no desire to and I couldn't

anyway you know I'm another person and

uh hopefully I'll have my own book to

write and now you're gonna have a

close-up look they're one of the most

important but least known elements of

moviemaking sound effects editing yeah

making a film is a collaborative effort

between a lot of different teams working

independently of each other they're all

working on the same film but we're all

specialists and we do specific tasks my

task is is I'm a sound designer and a

sound editor and I cut the sound effects

that that are added to the picture later

on typically when I get the picture

there's a lot less sounder than most

people were interested there's the sound

that was recorded with the width picture

um in a fight film like this one of the

things that's missing is all of the

sounds of people hitting each other

because people aren't really hitting

each other if this were a car chase more

than likely there would only be bits and

pieces of the actual sound of the car

chase if we were blowing up a building

typically the sound that we come in

would not really sound like a building

is supposed to sound being blown up so

my job is to step in and make it

actually sound like a boss best way to

illustrate it is in this little flurry

in the fight I'll play for you just

those sounds as the as were shot with

the picture

somebody my job then is still is to look

at that picture and and figure out the

structure of the fight and make sounds

that are appropriate for that fight so

now playback that same section and I'll

I'll play without the production but

with just those sound effects isolated

by themselves that have been cut

something that's very important in the

dynamics of the actual fight sounds is

that one of the pitfalls is that you

can't make every hit be the biggest hit

that ever walked the face of the planet

because then what happens is it all

sounds very much the same so every every

hit every punch every kick is examined

one at a time the film is taken apart

and dissected and a sound that that is

exciting yet appropriate for not only

that individual hit but for the overall

dynamics of the fight it's as if to say

if there's a flurry of seven or eight

hits and and the last hit is considered

what we call it dispatching yet that's

the hit that's got enough energy to

finally knock the guy down it's really

that dispatching hit that everything is

is is aiming towards this is a pretty

vicious sound sound like that is used

almost exclusively when when when it's a

kick to the head the gooeyness and some

of these sounds simply has to do with

what what UFO mystically is called gore

and the sounds of films like this where

you really need to add the quality of

bone breaking and blood vessels poppies

and things like that to get that

intensity now the same thing we'll play

with with the production in with those

sound effects added

of course what would be added to that

then would be fully which is all of the

small sounds of the movement all of the

foot fall on them on the mat all of the

wishing of the arms k Robyn and Sarah

we're going to record the body falls for

the same next right Dean hi Dean do it

ok Foley is creation of sound effects

live on stage in sync with the picture

years ago Foley was simply a way to

record footsteps in sync with the

picture it was something that they

didn't really want to do but it made the

made the overall sound job easier so

they built these stages and they did it

with the least amount of expertise in

the least amount of money now Foley has

become two things it's become a way to

bring life to a scene and it's also

become a way to ease the editors burden

in terms of the hard effects that he has

to cut ok that was great Foley and I

worked together as a team you know in

the case of the fights I've taken care

of all of the actual impacts all of the

actual skin hitting skin but the sounds

of the cloth movement the sounds of the

feet on the mats the sounds of the arm

or you know the leg whipping through the

air the wishes behind it that those

we've decided in this particular film to

leave to Foley I think a good Foley

artist needs um a sense of rhythm and

sense of creativity a deafening come you

know you have to think of what to work

for sounds sometimes the real thing it

doesn't necessarily sound right and you

have to think on your feet no pun

intended

what you do and my Sega sense of humor

helps do you're trapped in this room all

day so then this is like a marriage so

you gotta love your partner we actually

rented mats for this show over the

professional world when a karate man but

when we got them and they sounded they

sounded dreadful they just they got too

much residual noise and it actually

didn't sound good at all so we had to

come up with something that would even

though it's not correct it doesn't

usually edition right but it sounded

Greta you don't want it to get in the

way and make it make it a problem it

takes some incredible amount of focus

because there's the red light goes on

and you have to be there like this you

know so it's it really is split second

timing you have to be in sync and you

also have to I mean there's I know it

sounds ridiculous but there's character

I mean if somebody's angry they walk

differently there are good Foley artists

and there are bad Foley artists and if

Foley artists are bad there isn't

anything I can do with these knobs to

make it sound right and therefore it

becomes extremely important to get good

people out there Robyn and Sarah are

among the best okay good

I miss drew looks like my grandmother's

attic nigga we need a million props to

emmett literally everything is redone

each prof is redone so we go to

junkyards and and we have all these

different surfaces if you're walking on

cement or if you need dirt what you need

12 gravel pit water Rick linoleum you

have to have all the different surfaces

so that you can go from outside walk

along the grass onto the street into a

wooden house up the stairs so you have

all these different surfaces I'll play

the scene now this is 13 channels of

fooling playing later on the dubbing

stage when they put this stuff together

they can pick the sounds the best

flatter the dialogue the production the

music the Foley all of the other

elements that are coming together at

that point what may result may be a

composite of literally hundreds of

tracks of sound

now let's check out martial arts expert

Billy Blanks a seven-time world champion

Billy Blanks has made martial arts a

lifelong study he's now applying this

discipline to films

what

well the road that I had a bluff this

was a character that was in the Vietnam

War had a chance to go compete in the

world championships and I did and uh you

know I'm where near fun in blood fist

Billy had an opportunity to choreograph

his own fight scenes working out the

strategy for a scene like this then take

weeks to make it seem real I lost but

you know that's the movies

I think you choreographed martial arts

fight by the angles of the camera and

know what techniques were executed to

the camera that makes it make the

technique look better ah when I first

started working on films I thought that

I could go out and throw a kick like a

rhetoric in a fight but it's totally

different never had to kick wider like

cowboy punches and my cowboy kicks you

know he's not basically a traditional

straight karate kick so everything had

to be a little more wider and

overemphasize I think the most important

thing that mark sharks can teach a

person period is disciplined and focused

honey that's the key studying is an

actor in the studies of martial arts

basically by the same you know I think

it's just goals you got a certain asst

you got to set yourself a certain go if

you if you set that goal try to reach it

you know coming to the gym trained every

day you have to go back to class a train

every day to be a good actor I'll go to

acting class myself and if everything

still goes the way it is I'm gonna

become an action star you know in the

way it's got right now it looks like

it's unopened up hope it keeps calling

that we look forward to seeing more

action from billy blanks in many films

to come here's one of today's busiest

action directors mocked assault in the

film death warrant the cell worked with

martial artist Jean Claude Van Damme

like the heroes of most films of this

genre van Dam is out for a vengeful

justice and the villains who try to stop

him find themselves in harm's way geez

i'm a fan myself of martial offense I I

was in love with Bruce Lee he was my

favorite and I think people like them

because they it's like a ballet

sometimes watching watching fights with

professionals

doing their thing it's it's really

interesting to watch it's exciting

everybody likes a good fight if it's

done well you know rather than the old

western movies were you know the it was

more of a joke but to make them look

realistic I think it's very interesting

for a lot of people the biggest thing

about making a fight look realistic is

not so much throwing the punch it's

taking the hip it's having it's reacting

to the hit that makes the fight work and

that takes timing and that's that's not

something that you could just pick up

even though you can be a great fighter

oka and wash the oddest to be able to

receive the hit is what sells the hit

and you have to have that timing just

down so it takes time to learn that in

order to make the fights look very

realistic you have to rehearse again and

again so that the con some contact is

made and yet it doesn't hurt you so that

the camera angles are picking up the

hits so between the choreography and the

cameraman and the angles and the

individual fighters themselves it has to

be timed very carefully and rehearsed

critics have called it one of the

greatest films of the 80s Martin

Scorsese's Raging Bull the Syrian

portray the boxer Jake LaMotta boxing

films have been around since movies

began to talk from the champ in the

1930s to raging bull and the rocky saga

body and soul starring John Garfield in

these scenes the fighters really seem to

be making contact

this exceptional film is a gritty expose

of the corruption in the flight game

John Garfield's determination not to

follow through on a fixed fight is

reflected by the intensity in his eyes

notice the realistic application of

fight makeup guys crazy

amateur

I'm gonna come

the great white hope adapted for the

screen after a sensational run on

Broadway here the boxing took a backseat

to the story which offered a shocking

look into the real-life story of boxer

Jack Johnson

the brilliant performance by a young

actor named James Earl Jones instantly

made him a star

Jim Nickerson he's a guy whose stock in

trade is to show two guys on a bang away

at each other without getting hurt move

over Pete right the potty left in the

buddy you know what the fight seemed to

be is always kind of the same way they

were twenty thirty four years ago so

it's trying to take the realism and put

them into movie fights was the most

challenging because everything always

seems so staging and all due respect to

John Wayne there was only one John Wayne

punch and everybody tried to duplicate

it and then it wasn't working anybody

test John Wayne now center right right

in right of your lips cool buddy quad

Club go go to the head Oh catch that one

there right and then hate his last 10

number one it's all in the planning is

the choreography is that how much time

is loved to prepare everything's in the

preparation see my main thing is making

the actors making sure they're

comfortable once they're all comfortable

then I can put the camera in we can make

magic okay that wasn't too bad but

here's the problem now the right hand

the one that he weaves you're just

throwing it over here are you got to put

it I'd like to put it on his left ear so

this way he's got a reason to weep right

now he's doing is just T just easy

they're redirecting or bobbing right one

of the third love look it's not a true

we've yet okay you have to give them the

form of a foundation of basics the

mechanics of it balance it's like

turning the volume up i'd like to get

after it much more i like to pace much

more i like that go for it let me get

after you type style okay

sure that way

the whole world is a film society is

much more intelligent needs to be you

can't fool the people on fights anymore

think I look real or they'll boo you out

of the theater or turn your TV off on

you here's a quick sampling of some of

the work of stunt master jim Nickerson

rocky the movie that reestablished

boxing films as a box office giant fight

choreography reached its peak in one of

the greatest boxing films ever shot

it's too long as far as a fighter was

very raw in the beginning how I trained

the storm was all about trial and error

at the time I was pretty young when I

did this show and um we hit it a good

time timing was right but see we had a

boxing a the technical advisor tried to

teaching the mechanics of boxing and

then I just took a little bit of that

and took it into my system and things

with the rest is history Stallone style

as far as boxing was very similar to

rocky Marciano's that anybody doesn't

know that style it's let me take three

to give you my one

nice day

John avildsen Academy award-winning

director of rocky the first boxing film

I ever did was rocky the first time ever

saw a prizefight was when I got the job

and went to see a fight I looked at a

lot of fight films that had been made

previously and I was struck by how I'm

silly the boxing looked it didn't look

real at all so I said okay if we're

gonna do this we're gonna have to

rehearse it a lot and we've got to start

long before the movie begins so that the

guys can learn how to do this so we'll

look good because if it doesn't look

good then why are we doing this so the

first day we brought the sylvester

stallone and Carl Weathers together into

a ring one of them said okay now I'll do

this and you know the other guys know

I'll do this I said wait a second all

right whatever you're gonna do write it

out Sylvester why don't you go write it

out whatever you'd like to do two left's

are right in it and then we'll learn

that so the next day he came back with

32 pages of left's rights crosses jabs

all this stuff and that's what they

learned I saw John every once in a while

and just we were working there you know

the choreography out plus when it came

to shooting it you know he'd taught me

an awful lot he he I don't know if he

knows it but he turned the lights on for

me in a lot of areas during those four

or five weeks they learned every left

and right and cross and jab and could

anticipate what the other guy was going

to do so we had two things resulted from

that one we were able to shoot the movie

in 28 days for less than a million bucks

and two we had a crackerjack boxing

sequence cuz the guys had gotten so good

at it

by this point in the fight Sylvester

Stallone and Carl Weathers look like

they've been through a war building

momentum around after round is one man

tries to hold on and another reaches for

his dreams

let's find out from par weathers how he

got the coveted role of Apollo Creed I

went in I read one afternoon late on a

Friday and i SAT there and I give my I

gave my best reading and I've told this

story so many times its beginning but

anyway sylvester stallone singer he's

reading and he was introduced to me as

the writer and nobody said he's gonna

also star in the picture so i finished

tonight felt like you know it's my one

opportunity it's like an actor who walks

on the set he's only gonna be there for

a day and you're gonna be there for

eight weeks or 10 weeks well you know

you have to kind of stay into it this

guy gives everything he's got right I

give everything I had slicer looked up

everyone hmm and I turned to the

director John I ethnicity you know if

you get me a real actor get me an actor

I can really do this part good I can

well so I looked at me as he does and

probably were saying this idiot you know

I'm the star of the picture he wants a

real actor anyway he was very generous

and I got the part watching a boxer's

face change through the course of a film

or the course of a fight is an important

ingredient in storytelling Michael

Westmore the man who created makeup

special effects for Rocky one of the

biggest challenges up to the rocky film

at that time in 75 was the fight

sequences because it was going to go 15

rounds it wasn't just getting hit once

and have a bruise on the eye and then

have it more or less disappear a little

bit they actually had to grow and be

choreographed and I took a plane flight

from here to New York and I took me the

whole plane flight to work it out to the

point where you'd say he's going to get

hit under the right eye and you're gonna

get a little swelling out of it and then

he's gonna get hit over the left eye and

that is gonna have to start growing a

little bit so when the left eye starts

growing the right eye starts getting

bigger and then the top of this I in

that I so you have three five six seven

different sizes underneath and I and

over the top of an eye so by the end of

the fight the eyes are basically swollen

shut again she doesn't got open my eye

coming back

don't wake up one of the most memorable

scenes I think in the fight in Rocky is

course the cutscene and we did it in one

take and we had the swirl and I there we

had the little blood we had the razor

and everything and the timing had to be

absolutely perfect on it this is a

little mechanism right here which is a

razor of the tube and the blood was in

it and Louie look at the picture here we

have the full piece on the eye and this

is al sylvanie who was actually a real

cut man in boxing and I'll held this in

his hand and he would just take and draw

across the I like that and as he would

do it he would just pull the plunger and

it would lay the blood streaming right

across the advil still own ways that

into the realism of what we were doing

that he didn't want to just fake it with

a makeup which is two-dimensional he

wanted to use a third dimensional plane

to be able to work with on the first few

days of rocky we were traveling around

in a Winnebago in Philadelphia we were

making jokes about Rocky meets Bonzo you

know rocky flies to the moon with really

no idea that the rocky saga would

continue for the period that it has with

the popularity has and the type of money

that a film like this would would bring

in because boxing films were not popular

at that point but he was able to take a

boxing film and put you know life into

it

this is the prime example of how far

boxing films have evolved Raging Bull

the most realistically brutal fight film

ever made being involved with Bobby De

Niro and the Raging Bull was one of the

greatest things that I was ever part of

um I didn't know at the time that it was

gonna be as good as it was but I was

glad just to be involved in Bobby he was

he was a real fighter just watch and

listen to these punches every time De

Niro hits the other fighter it seems to

land with the force of a sledgehammer

one can really appreciate the opponent's

skill and timing in reacting to the

punches De Niro throws he he would he

would I sparred with him and I tell you

something I've been in with some champs

some world champions and eight minutes

how hit as hard as I've been hit with

him as Jake LaMotta he he trained to the

point when we shot the fight films that

the fight advisors that we had around us

said that he was so well trained that he

could probably go into lower divisions

of boxing and probably win

working with Robert De Niro was a real

pleasure it's a questions been asked me

by many actors because he his volume of

work is so big the characters he's done

and they want to know people want to

know who is the real De Niro and i think

i can honestly say when it's all over

with i don't think anybody knows the

real dinero he got his weight down to

152 pounds and when we broke for lunch

he would go workout instead of eating he

was that dedicated his body probably

will never get down to that weight into

that that muscle tone again the rest of

his lifetime and then it was so strange

because after that he had to go through

a weight gain process he started to eat

glazed doughnuts and pasta and malts it

have a dozen glazed donuts delivered in

the morning we even built a rubber

stomach form he outgrew the stomach

before we could ever use it he weighed

215 pounds by the time we hit New York

to do the final work it was interesting

because there wasn't really so much of a

personality chain right and change or

anything like that it was like something

that he had to do for the character and

it was marvelous scenes like this helped

win thelma Schumacher an Academy Award

for editing then quick cuts in tight

close-ups of spraying blood and flailing

arms give the fight a gritty violent

field unparalleled in boxing films

you

Howard rocky for Stallone faced a

powerful Russian boxer played by Dolph

Lundgren like when I got the part I

didn't know what it happened I had a

store for me I just you know sometimes

you did not really wear that because I

didn't know the business I didn't know

the exposure i was gonna get so i just

looked at it I said the way of paying my

bills when I started working with

stallone and I was a kid you know I

didn't know anything about anything in

this business and obviously he is a top

guy to learn from physically he was

burgers shape I was an athlete at the

time so I was pretty good shape myself

and before the rocket film I was a

martial artist since I was 15 and I knew

a little bit about boxing but I had to

adjust my style according to the

character I was playing the way to your

spider

the actual fight scene was choreographed

we had a 50 page script with left right

left hook right cross and so forth so

that took about five months to practice

for the fight and rocky for was

obviously it's not completely

choreographed you're trying to avoid

getting hit but you don't want to make

it a bloodbath out there you know but

you're you do get hit a little bit

especially to the body I had some

injuries in Rocky Horror you know small

things bruises cuts strains a couple of

little bit of a headache course in a

while

yes well it's over for us as well so see

you next time on Hollywood star makers

and safe

you

you