No one.
The reason I put this in my script was that I remember my dad telling me who use to bare knuckle fight for money when he was younger and in the Marine Corps. He would tell me stories of chumps he would fight and even about the losses he took. I was captivated. I fell that since I was told these stories at such a young age and they were about my father, I have this romantized idea of the bare knuckle fighter. Even when I tried a couple fights when I was a younger and fitter lad. They hurt. They were brutal, but a part of me felt something primal. My fighting career was short lived, but it was something I wanted to try. To walk in the footsteps of my dad.
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| Actual picture of my dad in his Marine Corps day. |
Which brings us back to the fighting of the movie. When Ben Banks agreed to play the lead, I was excited because Mr. Banks has the body of a fighter. I knew he had done martial arts for many years and had expeirence fighting. This was a plus. I wanted the fights in this movie to look better than most fight scenes I see in student films and low budget productions. Now I know they still may look not up to par, but at least I tried. I wanted to really work on the fights. Make them something special. To try this feat, I looked up an old friend of mine.
Robert Savala is an amigo I've known for years. He has always been into MMA and trains fighters. A few months back, mid-August, I decided to shoot him a message and ask if he would be interested in training and choreographing fights for this project. I was surprised to have him come back with a yes. It was something he has never tried and figured he would give it a go. I sent Robert the script and we discussed the break downs of the fights. Robert suggested that he work with Benny to get him a little conditioned for the fighting. I then informed Ben Banks about our plan to put him through a boxing "boot camp." Ben was stoked and agreed. Two weeks later, we were on the mats.
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| Robert Savala. Mas chingon. |
Every Saturday, for the next few three months, we would get together and start training. Robert would start with the basics of boxing and do light sparring with Ben. He would also invite some friends over to spar with Ben. Nothing to heavy. Just enough to keep Ben moving and on his toes. Robert would also throw in some jiu jitsu to take Benny out of his comfort zone. Even though we have been sparring and practicising for months and have not yet choreographed anything, I feel that this training has been invaluable.
We are still working on the fighting and will be for a while. The next step is to start heavy sparring. Robert's philosophy is that training is great and teaches one a lot, but all that can change the second a real blow is landed.
Example: this one kid Robert trains is an amazing technical fighter. This kid can work a bag, has some of the best foot work and in a light sparring session, can dance and fight his way out of any situation. In one heavy sparring match we watched, this kid came out doing all his technical know-how. Robert took a few jabs, bobbed and weaved, and gave this kid a false sense of security. This is when the hammer came down. Robert gave this kid a hard left that took the kid out of his game. Once the shock of the hit wore off, this kid loss all sense of technique and rushed Robert throwing wild hay-makers.
These are a few of the pictures I snapped over the course of our first few sparring sessions. I, being a dumb ass, forgot to bring a camera or anything to document the journey.
**EDITORS NOTE - NO ONE PICTURED IS AN ACTUAL UNDERGROUND FIGHTER. This is all normal MMA training and this location is not a school/training ground for bare knuckle fighters. The training is for a movie. It is all for make believe. Thank you.**
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| It is on. |
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| Robert handin down the knowledge bombs. |
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| Throwin down. |
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| This kid, Francisco, was great. Lightning fast and Mexican. The opposite of Ol' Benny. |
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| Don't let the smiles deceive you, they are killers. |
These are from the first couple times of our sparring. I will update with pics or video of all the times we spar just to show how much work we are putting into this project. These pictures are just the tip of what we have been doing and hopefully show the time and effort we are putting into this project. Choreographing a good fight scene takes a lot of work. Even though our budget is basically zero, I believe that we can make OotGG look a lot better than it actually is. By putting in the time to train and focus the actors off-camera, the hope is it will translate on-camera.
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| Movie magic. |
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