Here
is an interestingly thoughtful article written about Zen Filmmaking, the Roller
Blade Seven, Scott Shaw, and Donald G. Jackson. This article was written in
Russian and is from a Russian website. The link is below. This is the Google Translation
of the article. Nothing was changed or altered in any manner except the Roller
Blade Seven photographs from the Russian website have been removed.
Editor's
note: We decided to take part in the action # avengarda month , which was launched by Moore (wonderful), calling
all not indifferent "to give people anew to revel in the pleasure of the
uncompromising and violent avant-garde of the last century, whether Dadaists,
experimental cinema, difficult and unusual poetry, daring philosophy , crazy
architecture, beauty of painting, outlandish fiction, shocking actionism or
avant-garde music. "
Details
of this wonderful action can be
read on the site of Moor, and our first Chapaevsky blow in this direction
will be a note of Dali Lama XXIII about such a phenomenon as a zen cinematograph
(those who are already acquainted can start to whistle softly - but this is
optional).
In
the world there were many avant-garde movements that proclaimed a variety of
ideologies - mainly, of course, declaring their main goal to change human
nature, renewal of art and other such epic and pretentious things. But there
are also a few creators who openly admit that they are engaged in art for
entertainment, making it a priority to get pleasure from the process. Not
particularly well-known in wide circles, but having its own face, the school of
"Zen-Film Directing" is the brainchild of precisely such people.
The
story of what was later christened "Zen Filmmaking" began in 1991,
when Donald Jackson, an American producer and director who directed the
continuation of his low-budget production films Roller Blade and Roller Blade
Warriors, invited Scott Shaw, an actor, musician and script writer, engaged in
martial arts, - to participate in the creation of this sequel, called the
Roller Blade Seven.
Perhaps
because the film's design can be briefly described as an action story about
samurai and ninjas on roller skates, during the stage of putting into effect
the script written by Shaw and Jackson, most of the actors hired by the authors
completely failed to fulfill their hopes (and the author of these lines in
something can understand them): in their acting out half-naked novices of the
Order of Light there was no soul and fire, and the models of samurai swords
dissected the air without sufficient enthusiasm.
After
several days of shooting, Shaw and Jackson made a fateful decision, which
instead of another boring exploit freak they came out two parts of a very
unusual film, which on profile sites continue to receive almost exclusively,
either as low or as high as possible.
Shaw
and Jackson decided to abandon the script, replacing it with improvisation:
they invented story collisions on the move, explaining the remaining actors the
general outline of what is happening and the approximate content of what they
should say, and then relying on their improvisational abilities. Soon Shaw, who
had been fond of oriental mysticism all his life, realized that this was truly
a Zen approach - so this method was given the name of Zen filmmaking; and so Shaw
found a new occupation for himself, to which he continues to devote most of his
life.
The
principles of Zen-filmmaking, formulated by Shaw after working on many films,
are as follows. First of all, the absence of a script is important. Shaw gives
two main reasons for this approach. Clearly scripted scenario, in his opinion,
deprives the creative process of freedom, restricts the creators of the film to
make changes, guided by spontaneous glimpses of inspiration. In addition, when
faced with the embodiment of his clear plan by other people, the author will
almost inevitably be disappointed that his ideal plan can not come to life
exactly as he wants. In the case of Zen-filmmaking, "what happens is what
happens."
In
addition, Shaw formulated six rules of Zen filmmaking:
+
Use any unexpected situation.
+
If you can not waste time, money and energy to create large-scale scenery - do
not waste it. Instead, find picturesque places and shoot there.
+
Just act! In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred everything will pass
without problems.
+
Let your creative vision always be more important than the plot. For
many directors, the starting point is a "good script", which they are
trying to turn into a film, but everything written in the script can not be
realized if the budget is not particularly large.
+
Zen filmmaking is a spontaneous process. Zen teaches that the attainment
of enlightenment, satori, is possible only when the ordinary mind stops its
activity: it is just as impossible to achieve Film Enlightenment by building
its film according to scenarios and clear plans - there will always be a gap
between the desired and the real.
+
Zen-filmmaking assumes rejection of expectations and desires - so any result
becomes perfect.
Another
important feature of Zen movies is editing: in the era of video clips, any
footage suits, if you apply imagery to it. Shaw warns, however, that the
spontaneity of the Zen film process does not mean ease, and compares it to
sit-down zazen meditation: just as it is difficult for people to truly realize
that they are already enlightened and possess the nature of the Buddha, it's
not easy even when shooting a film, just letting it take place. In general, the
ideology of Zen filmmaking can be characterized as the elimination of the maximum
possible number of obstacles in the filming of the film - and the author's
expectations are among the obstacles; The film process should become free and
natural.
Guided
by these principles, Shaw and Jackson constructed two parts of the film from
the footage, the Roller Blade Seven (for which there is not a very distinct
translation from the nineties with the appropriate nasal dubbing) and Return of
the Roller Blade Seven, which the author of these lines believes, perhaps ,
their most outstanding achievement.
How
does Zen look from the outside? Of course, to some extent both parts of the
film resemble something like the movies of the studio Asylum, where the
emphasis is on the savagery, to some extent - the actor's cabbage or the LARP
session. But thanks to many factors, the story of the travel of the unruffled
action-hero Hock, played by Scott Shaw himself, into the Roller Zone and about
battles with weird villains looks like an excellent example of surreal cinema.
Roller
Blade Seven and Return of the Roller Blade Seven from ordinary low-budget
thrash movies are distinguished by easy and unconstrained
"dreaminess" and unpredictability of what is happening, which is strengthened
by the hypnotic soundtrack (the author of which is again Shaw) and a very
unusual montage: for example, some action - scenes are shown many times from
multiple angles at different speeds with small variations, which makes the
banal fights turn into a fascinating spectacle reminiscent of duels of wizards,
where everything is not what it seems.
Roller
Zone with its inhabitants, moving almost exclusively on rollers and
skateboards, is perceived as a psychedelic limb, the land of the dead, who have
not yet realized that they are dead - the old rocker who played himself asks a
gentleman in a cylinder in the middle of the desert where he can find Buddy
Holly. Here are representatives of the forces of Light and the forces of
Darkness, starting negotiations with a polite exchange of courtesies, several
minutes send each other three letters, sitting at the table. Here against the
background of the American flag raves about the skateboard villain Pharaoh,
chained to a wheelchair.
In
addition to Jackson and Shaw, obviously enjoying filming in their own film,
other actors, some of whom are very famous - like Frank Stallone, Sylvester
Stallone's younger brother, or Karen Black, portraying a fortune teller who
shares a mushroom trip with Hock and his mentor, "Father Donaldo." Return
of the Roller Blade Seven is compositionally more meditative and more saturated
with fan service: oh yeah, sometimes boobs are shown here, like in the
co-operative cinema of the nineties, so that the viewer does not relax.
Try
to believe the author of these lines, who watched a lot of bad and boring
low-budget films: both parts of the Roller Blade Seven only formally belong to
the "next thrash of the nineties", and (unlike some Samurai Cop, just
made fantastically bad) thanks to the creators' love they blossom real art -
and their example is able to inspire and teach something new. However, no,
never believe anything on what is written "Zen", check everything
yourself!
I
focused on two of the most outstanding, in my opinion, Zen works of Shaw and
Jackson. However, Shaw has shot many more films, both alone and in
collaboration with the now deceased Jackson; many movies are not so easy to
get, but you can order through his site. Also, this site is full of notes on
many aspects of Zen philosophy - and as the Real Zen Master, Shaw appears as a
figure that is difficult to say if he is serious when he is shooting films such
as "Beverly Hills Vampires-Bikers" or "Guns El Chupacabras
", or maybe all this is a grandiose rally or trolling ... If you are
interested in this figure, you can undertake further research yourself .
In
the future, perhaps, the author of these lines will finish the Russian
subtitles to both parts of the film; but due to the general dream of what is
happening, the translation here is perhaps no more important than in films like
Jarmusch's "Limits of Control". Due to the underground nature of both
parts of the Roller Blade Seven, the existing rips in the network,
unfortunately, do not have a high image quality; However, when was the
situation different with Enlightenment?
Dali Lama XXIII
