In
the midst of work on the new Scott Adkin's action sequel, Ninja 2,
actor/stunt-man/action choreographer Tim Man takes a bit of time to
chat about the past challenges of Kill 'em All, and his goals for the
future. Once again, another exclusive, honest interview on Dan's
Movie Report, no edits, no bull, all action. Without further bluster,
time for a verbal "kick to the head" with the talented Tim Man.
Chat
about pre-production work for the fight scenes in Kill 'em All, Tim
Man the fight choreographer and Tim Man as "The Kid"
I
had roughly around 1 month of prep time with Kill em all.
To make
the choreography, train the actors, train the stunt guys, set up the
stunts etc... So it was quite a lot for such a small amount of time,
with that amount of action. Most of the actors in the movie didn't
have any martial art / screen fighting experience, so I had to
make the fights as easy as possible yet still try to make them look
like professionals.
I didn't really read the script before
saying yes to the project. I had just finished an Italian movie, the
first Italian (comedy)martial art movie,
and went from there to
Thailand.
I was just suppose to do the fight/stunt
coordination for Kill em all, but they had a problem finding the Kid,
so I ended up doing that part as well. It's a little bit heavy to do
3 jobs at the same time. But I had just done it with the Italian
movie I worked on so I was already used not to sleep anything at all.
How
long did the fight choreography take prior to shooting?
The
shooting was fast I think 1 month of shooting. So it was a bit
stressful, but it often is when the budget isn't so high.
Working
with a legend like Gordon Liu, describe the experience, did you feel
more pressure working with him?
Gordon
is an legend, he did movies before I was even born. Gordon is a very
experienced actor/martial artist and an easy guy to work with.
But
no I didn't feel any pressure working with him, but I respect him a
lot.
Sadly
Joe Lewis recently passed, please share a story from the set of Kill
'em All about Joe.
Joe
Lewis was the greatest, such a funny guy he was. Always happy,
smiling, telling jokes, he lit up the whole set with his
presence.
Now Joe was almost 70 years old, have that in mind, and
he still pulled of some hardcore fighting, no stunt double for him.
That's all him in there.
We filmed with the small Canon 5D, but I
think Joe never understood where the hell that freaking camera was.
He was always asking me where is the camera even though it was next
to his face. He probably went around wondering where that big camera
was hiding.
Did
actors Joe and Gordon also contribute to their fight scenes by
working with some of the moves? If so, share some of their input.
Gordon
didn't have any input on the fights, he was happy to do what I showed
him, but all I had to do was to show him the moves once and he
remembered them. Joe had some input, though we couldn't use them. He
wanted to do some real fight techniques, 5 head buts in a row with a
hard take down ripping the arm of his opponent haha. But it was not
for this movie he probably would have destroyed the guy he would have
done that with. Joe was a real fighter I would feel sorry for the guy
trying to rob this old man.
The
fighting looked convincing on Kill 'em All, were some scenes much
more difficult to shoot than others, maybe describe one of the more
challenging ones, set-up time, rehearsing etc...
None
of the fight scenes was really hard to film, film wise. BUT we didn't
have much time. so it was always stressed, no time for breaks. It was
just action, take after take, as much as possible to make it in time.
It's not the best or safest way to do. I prefer not to do it like
this. It's a lot of pressure and it gets all the fighters involved a
bit moody and irritated when something goes wrong or someone forgets.
Working
with several different sized actors and actress (Zom) Ammara Siripong,
describe some of the challenges of creating a believable fight scene
when a 110 pound woman fights a 200 pound man.
Well
first of I don't think the fight is really believable it's a movie.
The guy is huge and the editing was pretty bad on this one. It could
have been so much better with an experienced martial art editor for
example.
Speaking
of Ammara, she is really talented, what ideas did she bring to Kill
'em All fight scenes, including the scene with Gordon?
Zom
is amazing yes. She knew nothing before Kill em all. I remember when
I first saw her. I was thinking oh my god it's not gonna work. I need
a good stunt double for her. But she trained really hard, every day
for 1 month. She surprised me a lot. I'm proud of how she performed.
After
you watched the final edit of Kill 'em All were you happy with the
fight scenes, maybe chat about something you would have liked to
change?
I
was really depressed when I saw Kill em all to be honest. I had
higher expectations. To be honest, and probably if the editor reads
this he will try to end my carer. But the editing was so bad, so
awful! Every fight scene has one punch cut, one kick cut, one move
cut. He even cuts in some power moves WHO THE HELL DOES THAT AND
FUCKING WHY?!? Let the performer finish the move damn it! He even cut
to some stupid angels that doesn't show the hit or to a close up
during a kick. In the fight scene between Me and Joe Lewis for
example the last kick I do on Joe is a jump split sidekick with a
real impact sending Joe Lewis in to the wall. First of Joe did that
for nothing he took a hard hit and fell in to the wall and he was
almost 70 years old, why the hell would someone want to cut behind
the shoulder hiding the move and hiding the impact and the crash in
to the wall? All this cuts destroys the rhythm. Sure if it was an
indian movie or an movie with actors that cant fight or fight bad,
then maybe many cuts can save the action. But in a movie like this it
destroys it. Originally the movie was suppose to be edited in
Thailand with the director supervising, if that would have been the
case the movie would have been 10 times better. But I guess they
decided to let the wrong editor in America get a hold of the scenes.
On
to the next project, ready for Ninja 2, when does pre-production and
filming begin?
I'm
working on Ninja 2 as we speak. I'm done with the pre work, just
starting to train the actors. Shooting will start January 14th.
Any
ideas and concepts you can share about Ninja 2?
I
can't tell you anything about the movie except that the movie is
filled with action and that it will be great (yet another couple of
sleepless nights though)! And you will see my ugly face in this movie
as well.
What
is in the future for Tim Man, focusing on acting more as well as
choreographing films?
Hopefully
the future will bring more acting roles and choreographing roles. I
like both acting roles and choreographing roles but if I had to
choose I would probably go for choreographing. It's nice to be
infront of the camera but it's hard work specially if you doing
martial arts flicks. Choreographing is hard as well but more headache
hard than physically hard. And when you do both acting and choreo' at
the same time is energy demanding, but you feel great when it's a
wrap.
