For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved swords and sword fights. I often cite my older siblings’ love of the original Star Wars trilogy (which I’ve been watching since before I can recall memory), the first Highlander, and The Princess Bride (my siblings are children of the 80’s if you can’t tell) as the genesis of this love and obsession.
When I was living in Paris eating lamb, drinking wine and doing all the things you do if you are fortunate enough to live in Paris for a time as a young man (for it is a moveable feast), I watched a documentary called Reclaiming the Blade. One of the small segments highlighted a group based just outside of Atlanta where I’m from (but is all over the US). The group studies the original texts and manuals combined with strenuous and studious application to learn the art of swordplay as it was intended—not for a sport application but as a serious and necessary martial art.
When I returned to the States in the summer of 2010 and moved back to the Atlanta area, I looked this group up and joined the Atlanta chapter led by a guy named Joey. The first day I learned tons of basics, got my ass kicked, and it was glorious. It was like coming home…after coming home, and I studied with the group until I left Atlanta the next year.
When I moved to Los Angeles in early 2011, I naturally brought my Albion Liechtenauer, one of the best training swords made, with me and stashed it in my room.
I was working G&E (Grip and Lighting ie film lighting) with an Israeli guy I had met named David (Dah-vEEd). Just starting out myself, I really appreciated his work ethic and desire to pass on his skills to make those working under him better as opposed to just competent, and we started recommending each other for jobs. Turns out his girlfriend, who despite her misplaced Alabama football leanings is a lovely woman and talented cinematographer, lived just down the street from me, so David and I would often carpool to jobs talking about movies we liked, why, and what we wanted our own projects to be about and look like. As anyone who has worked nights can tell you, these late night conversations would often get intense. We found that we also shared a common language and aptitude for storytelling, and in the wee hours of the morning, on the empty (or as empty they get) highways of Los Angeles, a partnership was formed.
David was in our house one day and by this time knew of my sword fixation. He saw my Liechtenauer and told me that our common friend Bryce had a story idea about two brothers who decided to have a duel to the death with swords. I thought it was an interesting idea and placed it in the back of my mind.
Around this same time (2010-2011), my parents were both diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. My mother told me she was experiencing a tremor in her left thumb and went to have it checked out (her father had Parkinson's in the 1970's and one of her older brothers also has PD currently). In the appointment, the Doctor surprisingly suggested my father might also be tested. Dad had been suffering from a bad knee for many years (In typical medical Doctor fashion, he had been putting off his own knee replacement for as long as possible), and it had been slowing him down. My mother’s doctor said that that the movement resistance in his leg and arm could also be symptomatic of early onset Parkinson’s disease though complicated by his bad knee and eventually my father was also diagnosed with PD (he also finally got the knee replacement).
Later that year in 2011, I was injured on a show and decided to take a break from working in lighting. I loved working grip side but I never wanted to make my career in it. With constant work though, it is easy to stay in it forever, but with my injury forcing me to take time off, I decided it was time to start concentrating on making my own projects. David had come to a similar decision a little bit before and had starting working as a director of photography (DP for short and also sometimes called a cinematographer).
The sudden rest after constant work on shows forced me to deal with my parents’ diagnoses that I had subconsciously pushed aside. I wrote my first feature scrip (that is really going to be something great after a bit more revision), a couple of treatments for other features, and a few shorts but nothing really came together.
I remembered Bryce’s story idea of the duel between brothers and sort of automatically projected my parent’s Parkinson’s onto those two characters. Maybe they didn’t want to fight to the death because they hated each other as is so often the case, but because they desperately loved each other. They would go through it alone to spare their brother from having to go through the harrowing end stage of Parkinson’s.
In a nerve-wracking meeting, I asked Bryce if I could use the premise of his short and go with it in my own direction. Bryce very kindly told me to go for it (he’s working on a feature called Primal/Ethereal that starts shooting next year).
The first draft came together in a matter of hours, and now here we are.
[Note: I am unfortunately not being paid to promote Albion, nor do they have anything to do with this production YET! If you are interested in one of their swords (I have one of their Stewards too and I love it), Mike is the greatest and will answer any questions you might have.]
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