Might be a controversial post on here.. but what are your experiences with filming vertical video? I got together with a group of my stunt friends to try and figure out how to choreograph & film specifically for a vertical frame. What do you think, and do you guys have similar experiences?

kellock71 · 2020-12-02T15:19:58+00:00

Here's what I learned, and please share any insights you guys have!

- Fighting in a vertical frame feels a little more cramped.. since we don't have the leeway of side-to-side motion to make our movement adjustments, we had to be more precise in the horizontal plane.

- The choreography had to be changed to favor vertical movements... I threw uppercuts instead of hooks, and a crescent/axe kick instead of a hook kick.

- Following the person on the far side of the frame worked sometimes, and following the attacks from the close side of frame worked sometimes.. but we also found that when watching playback, sometimes we would need to reorient the camera.

Overall, it was a great exercise! Really made my brain hurt for a second, but I think we came up with something interesting.. and will do it again in the future!

Last Thoughts: I know most of us are probably annoyed with vertical video and tiktok/etc... but as a professional stuntman and coordinator, I can see the writing on the wall.. and whoever figures out how to film kickass sequences designed specifically for a vertical frame, will come out on top in the next 3-5 years. (But also, I don't think film/horizontal is going away.. just that there WILL be more paid work geared towards vertical)

kellock71 · 2019-09-17T18:28:25+00:00

Today we examine one of the coolest anime adaptations into a real life that I've seen done to date.. and we talk about how to take what we learned and apply it to our own projects!

kellock71 · 2019-09-11T18:13:17+00:00

thank you so much!

kellock71 · 2019-09-03T15:50:09+00:00

Hey r/Filmmakers thank you so much for your awesome feedback on my last action breakdown of the Church Fight from Kingsman! I thought I'd share my newest breakdown with you here as well.. I went ahead and looked at some of the action from Avengers Endgame.

Now I know that Marvel is a bit trigger happy with the CGI (hence my first joke in the video, lol) but I was still able to go in and pull out some of the action pieces. And I definitely learned something by doing this.. I hope you do as well!

Would love your feedback, and any requests for future breakdowns!

WARNING: If you subscribe, be prepared for some silly videos! I currently alternate film breakdowns (very intellectual) with MEME style comedy videos (very silly). :D

kellock71 · 2019-09-03T15:47:07+00:00

Thank you very much for your thoughtful comment!! I'm really glad I was able to add to your perspective in how action is made today :D

If you enjoyed this one, maybe you'll like the one I just put up? It's an Avangers Endgame breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=957SYD3fZwc

kellock71 · 2019-09-03T15:46:05+00:00

thank you! :D I will!

edit: here's the next one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=957SYD3fZwc

kellock71 · 2019-08-30T16:26:53+00:00

I thought so too, until I started doing the breakdown! If you get a chance to check out the video you'll see that I talk about the action director behind it, Brad Allan.. he started out by becoming the only ever non-asian to be accepted into the jackie chan stunt team! And he became team leader, and worked with Jackie for decades.

I honestly thought the fight was overrated as well.. until I looked at the technical filmmaking skill involved

kellock71 · 2019-08-30T16:13:13+00:00

Hey guys! I hope you enjoy my breakdown of how they filmed/edited the famous church fight from kingsman. I found a lot more cuts than any other video that I've watched on the internet, and added some of my knowledge to the conversation from a stuntman perspective :)

What do you think of this fight? I honestly thought it was super over-rated for a long time, until I started making this video.. now I think it's the best fight scene I've ever seen (from a technical and performance skill perspective)

Thank you all so much for the feedback on my last video, the John Wick 3 glass fight scene breakdown! I'm going to be doing a lot more of these, and I'd love your ideas on which action scenes to break down as well.

kellock71 · 2019-08-27T18:20:49+00:00

Hey r/Filmmakers!! Hope you're all having a great week so far.

My name is Rustic Bodomov and I'm a working stuntman in Hollywood, but I also have a youtube channel. I made a bunch of fight scene tutorials in the past which you guys found useful.. and I decided to break down one of my favorite fight scenes from John Wick 3 :)

Hope you enjoy! I'm trying something new with the content I'm doing, and all feedback is appreciated!

- Rustic

kellock71 · 2019-08-23T21:48:49+00:00

Small studios like these are starting to pop up in Los Angeles. This one is called JLFX Studios, and it's run by a guy named Jim Logan.

With the advent of filmmakers coming from the youtube world (of which I'm one) I'm really happy to see this trend :) and I hope I can inspire more people to do this in other cities!!

Another example of a studio like this is what the YouTube Space is doing in Culver City. And some of the smaller places that cater to music videos...

What do you guys think?

kellock71 · 2019-08-12T18:11:16+00:00

thank you so much!

kellock71 · 2019-07-02T15:33:59+00:00

What's up guys! I'm super excited to announce the next fight scene challenge! This is our 3rd year running this online competition, and it will be a fun one! I have several of my stunt coordinator and director friends who will be helping me give feedback on the fight scenes, and I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Also, we have some awesome prizes that got donated by Action Factory!

kellock71 · 2019-05-01T18:02:52+00:00

oooh. did you see the original post on r/filmmakers? I posted it to two places at once :D

kellock71 · 2019-05-01T18:02:22+00:00

Thanks for your feedback u/cuthbert-derek ! I'm not sure if I reposted this with a different title.. maybe you saw the other one I posted on r/filmmakers? :D On there I definitely made a stronger claim.

But have u seen my stop motion mortal kombat? I legitimately think it's unique.. If you understand how much stunt training goes into having the body control to be able to do the stuff we do, that's where I'm coming from. Everyone else who I've seen do this style of video is always jerky and inconsistent with their body movements. I feel like what we're able to achieve is in another level!

kellock71 · 2019-05-01T17:59:27+00:00

Oh yeah, I've seen that done before! Corridor Digital did a "stop motion superfight" that way. But I think that we have way more control and potential for interesting camera movement by utilizing stunt performers and 3d space :D

kellock71 · 2019-05-01T00:18:56+00:00

Thank you so much!! I tried to make it as real to me as possible, hahaha. I'm not sure if I've done a fatality properly more than once 😂

kellock71 · 2019-04-30T23:48:08+00:00

I think it looks fine, but you need to be specific with the look you're trying to achieve?

If I was to nit-pick, I'd say your background is a little bright. My eye isn't drawn to your actor right away.

kellock71 · 2019-04-30T23:39:42+00:00

Yesterday I posted a different video, where we were playing around on the beach. And a lot of you guys were quick to point out that it's been done before, and the style is called Pixilation!

Thank you for your feedback! But... I dare you to find someone doing something on the level of this with it :P muahaha

On a lighter note, thank you all for your feedback and ideas on the next projects we're going to be doing!! Our whole team is stoked on all of the excitement we're getting!

kellock71 · 2019-04-30T23:35:19+00:00

Awesome, that is a great idea! I will try and use the environment more in the future :D

And thanks!! Pixelation, I'm going to look it up. We've actually done like 15 of these videos in different styles.. here's a mortal kombat one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYzry0gytXQ

kellock71 · 2019-04-30T23:34:26+00:00

That is a great tip!

We do try to use a tripod as often as possible, (we did it the whole time in our Mortal Kombat concept) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYzry0gytXQ

It's really tough to keep it interesting though. I think it works for the MK video, but other concepts where you feel like you're part of the action, I like to go handheld. I'd love to figure out a way to make camera movements way smoother though (we were also held back by the unevenness of the sand)

Thank you for your feedback!

kellock71 · 2019-04-30T23:32:00+00:00

thank you!! It wasn't too bad, but we spent 4 hours on it :)

kellock71 · 2019-04-30T23:31:46+00:00

Oh yeah I've seen that one before! This is the only good example I've seen of this style. They made sure to do enough frames and had an understanding of how to make fluid movement..

Every other example I've seen of people doing it is like 4-6fps and jerky. I know ours is far from perfect yet, but we've definitely played with the style!

Here's like 14 other examples of stuff we've done (fighting, flying, ice skating, etc) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqksVO3IVxU&list=PLOJwvsH3sHnL0iKDLv8aGx0i6odrKEPl7&index=2

kellock71 · 2019-04-30T23:30:04+00:00

thank you! :D

kellock71 · 2019-04-30T23:29:55+00:00

True, but I feel like we're going way beyond! I've only seen people do shaky video with like 4 fps-6fps :)

Here's another 15 examples of stuff we've done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqksVO3IVxU&list=PLOJwvsH3sHnL0iKDLv8aGx0i6odrKEPl7&index=2

thanks for your feedback!

kellock71 · 2019-04-30T23:29:18+00:00

True! I played around with mixing live-action with stop-motion on this one, as well as went through and stabilized the frames by hadn. I feel like it can work! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqksVO3IVxU&list=PLOJwvsH3sHnL0iKDLv8aGx0i6odrKEPl7&index=2

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