Choreography

[Shadar Al'Niende]

You all have probably already seen this, but now i really wanna meet Nick Gillard:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pysbJ3rlvYo&feature=player_embedded

According to Gillard (who would later go on to perform a cameo role in Revenge of the Sith), various lightsaber combat styles were devised for the prequels and intended to further characterize their practitioners.

I developed different styles for the characters, and gave each of them a flaw or a bonus. So with Obi, for instance, he's got a very business-like style — when he was younger he could border on the flashy and might twirl his lightsaber a bit, because he was taught by Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon was brash, that rubbed off on Obi and Obi then taught Anakin, who was way too old to learn anyway...I think the style really worked well. The Jedi style of fighting is an amalgamation of all the great swordfighting styles. Melding them together is the difficult part — to move from a Kendo style to, say, Rapier requires a complete change in body and feet movement, and this must look effortless. The style moves seamlessly between the different disciplines, but remains technically correct throughout. It's unlike any other style of fighting and I think it's beautiful to watch

[Novastar]

Nick Gillard is pretty cool.

Not to poo-poo anything he does (he's awesome!), but--to broaden your range of knowledge, you should also look at the Eastern choreographers. What I mean by that would be (specifically) people like Yuen Woo (sometimes "Wo") Ping, Jackie Chan, Tsui Hark, Sammo Hung, and John Woo. Just to name a few.

Better yet, check out most any flick by the "Shaw Brothers". For example, The Five Elements.

There is something to be said for the Eastern styles of choreography... without hesitation, it can be seen that both the actors and directors far surpass most western styles.