Robbie Ryan's Kung Fu Filmmaking- Part 1

One of the reasons that I got into filmmaking
was because I had been exposed to so many great
resources that broke down the filmmaking process.
In the interest of passing that along to you and others,
I present the first installment of
Robbie Ryan's Wonderful World of Kung Fu Filmmaking!


The video below was shot on our very first day. The film was cast, we had several setbacks, as is the case in any project,
big or small. We had intended to shoot the film at a high school across from my house, which was wanting to charge thousands
of dollars for rentals and insurance, which we simply didn't have. One of the actor's girlfriends knew the theater director
at a local community college and said we could use the campus free of charge. Music to my ears, friends.


So we showed up the first day, borrowed camera in hand, to shoot what would be my masterpiece (I thought this, anyway.)
I met the actors that I had recruited, although this was the first day I would meet a few of them.
My schedule was pretty arduous. I had scheduled about 10 scenes to be shot in about 5 hours. What this resulted in was
a seemingly endless amount of delays, but actually we were in good shape. Most movies shoot about a scene a day, so this was
really no sweat and we actually ran pretty efficiently.


The clip below is in 2 parts:
Part 1 was shot in a Japanese park in Fort Worth, Texas, about a block from where they shot the Logan's Run finale.
When I had scouted the location, there were no crowds and it was a pleasant, quiet, day. Of course, whenever we showed up to
shoot with Amy Jo and Kelly, it was crazy crowded. The fact that we were able to get a wide shot with them alone is an absolute
miracle. I owe a lot of that to my DP and editor, Mike Nimocks.

Part 2 was our very first scene from our very first day of shooting. We got the wides, closeups, and reverse angles in about 15 minutes,
and after that, we were certain that this shoot was going to be the easiest thing ever, and the rest would be history.
Well, that would prove to be one of the easiest scenes to shoot, but you'll have to wait for another installment.

-Robbie Ryan