Birth of a Prince

I got a call from S. this morning telling me that the Demo Team would need to come in at 1 today. RZA was going to guest direct a short kung fu sequence for the National Geographic doc team. We got there and we were told he would be a little late as he had gone to bed at 7 that morning but we went out to the alley where we had done a shoot once before. We had to edit some fight sets down because of the asphalt but all in all we stuck to the format we had done for the Wu-Tang Reunion at the Meadowlands.

Karina, the director of the Nat.Geo doc, started directing the opening sequence in his absence, the setup -- three men v. three women, facing off in a New York alley. The location was so dramatic, black rickety fire escapes folding up against the graffiti-laden back walls of some 10 storey buildings. Then, RZA showed up, popping edamame like popcorn out of a takeout container. And all of a sudden, things started flowing. It couldn't have been his first time directing because it was clear that he had ideas bubbling up in his head and he knew how to get us to them. He was somewhat limited to the choreography we had pre-set but somehow he was able to coax new angles and drama out of it, crazy shot-making, riffing like a great jazz musician, knowing when to let us do our thing and when to push us into the right action for the camera.

You could tell he was aiming for the 80s Hong Kong style, mannered, melodramatic and quick, not overly wrought but with a keen flair for close-ups and iconic moments. All those hours and hours of movie-watching and an intuitive understanding of their construction came into play.

All in all, the shoot lasted three hours total. It was mostly unplanned (though the fights were choreographed) but he seemed to know exactly what he needed to get, no more no less. I can't wait to see it.