Customer Reviews

Basic Stage Combat DVD

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While I cannot fault the producers of this film for making it, we all have bills to pay after all, I must stress to anybody considering buying this; You Cannot Learn Stage Combat from a Video. Just like you can't learn to dance or act or fly a kite.

Now, none of the information in this video is grossly innacurate, but neither is it dead on correct. This video will show you some neat stage tricks and some basic moves. Stage Combat is a skill that all actors should learn a little of at some point. Violence in everywhere in drama. It's a fact. But once again, you Cannot Learn Stage Combat from a Video. If you're interested in learning Stage Combat, please, save your money, go to www.safd.org and find a class to take near you. Or hire one of the hundreds of qualified teachers all over the country. I cannot stress this enough.

I've been studying stage combat for nearly 10 years now and I can say I don't know it all. I probably have nearly 1000 hours of class time under my belt and have been teaching and choreographing for 4 years. Trust me when I tell you, this video is not a safe way to get the job done. You really need a trained choreographer to safely create a fight for your production or a trained teacher to show you the moves, styles and safety systems.

This DVD is dangerously inaccurate. I teach stage combat and was looking for something to give me perhaps a new idea for a lesson. Oh My God - even the names of the punches are incorrect. This DVD shows a hook and calls it a round house. The groin kick is totally incorrect and very harmful. This DVD shows a straight snap of the knee straight towards the groin. When in the heat of an acting moment, this move will result in a real kick to the groin and an actor that can not complete the performance. The production values are terrible as well. It seems to have been shot with a poor DV camera and no lighting. This is a High School workshop that is being video taped. Certainly not a very high training element. It is a pity. It would have been nice if someone from the SAFD had done a real step by step demonstration of basic moves. This isn't it. Don't buy this DVD unless you have a lot of insurance for law suits from hurt students.