Comedy - Ninja Talking Tree

DESCRIPTION:

Ninja Death Warrior is on the hunt as he tries for his third attempt on beloved Karate hero, "Sensei Bob". The Martial Arts Master trains in Ninja Forest when a small tree begins talking to him. The tree begs Bob to help it grow. Believing he can communicate with all nature, the Karate expert fails to realize he is being tricked. Ninja Death Warrior hides behind the small tree waiting to pounce.

Original Title - Random Ninja Attacks From A Little Talking Tree
Production Date - November 2009.

CREDITS:

Shot, Cut & Directed By Ryan Golding
Music By Jason Fyfe
Produced By Amrit Singh, Kyle Strohack, Ryan Dhanraj & Ryan Golding

This video is uploaded in Ninjavision "High Definition" "HD".

Video filmed with the Canon 5D Mark II camera.

Jay's Channel: http://www.youtube.com/crazycat1984

BLOG NOTES:

This was our final outdoor video produced in 2009, and may very well be our last Martial Arts comedy related video (Anything else yet to be posted here, or uploaded on Youtube was filmed before this one). It was a difficult November day, we were already running late and didn't have nearly the amount of light we had in summer. The four of us got to location with just a few hours of daylight remaining, had a difficult time finding a parking spot as it was a popular tourist spot, and then had to trek uphill for about 25 min to get to the area in which I wanted to film.

It was then that we found out Amrit (Ninja Death Warrior) had forgotten his ninja boots, only having big white running shoes with him. Luckily I had black slipper like shoes on, so we exchanged and things were shaping up. However, it was somewhat cool outside, Amrit didn't want to take off his t-shirt, which in all other cases would be fine, except for the fact that it was a bright neon blue color. If you watch closely you can see it pop out from under his ninja uniform at times.

The next problem was that no ones mind was in it, there were no ideas and no contributions, mainly complaints. Bob (Kyle) didn't want to roll on the dirty ground, which was the planned spot in avoiding the first ninja attack, Dhanraj whom usually comes out to make sure everything is in order and that we're sticking to schedule was instead caught up in playing with ninja stars and mini prop throwing knives. They proved to be simply props and not the real thing when one of them broke in half. Due to this, another planned spot had to be removed from the video. I myself felt tired and couldn't think straight either. This day really wasn't working out.

Things would only get worse though as people would continually walk by as we were trying to get filming done, not to mention the loud motorcycles roaring by on the roads just below. The highlight of the day, if you can call it that, came when Bob and the ninja were just beginning to battle. Amrit swung his sword over Kyle's head, Kyle ducking perfectly. But that's when it all went wrong.

The spot was supposed to see the ninja swing his sword downward with Bob front kicking it from his hands. This was to be done with Amrit purposely swinging to the side of Kyle in order to cheat space within the side camera angle we were getting. Kyle would, at the same time, throw a front kick that would actually be further from the camera then the sword, just behind it in fact. This would create the illusion that the sword was coming at him as he kicks it away. Instead though, Amrit actually came right down on Kyle's head, quickly dropping him and putting us all in shock. I remember thinking that blood would begin gushing at any moment. Thankfully that didn't happen, although I knew that filming wouldn't quite be the same with Kyle after that. More can be read about this incident in the blog - FAIL - Ninja Assassin Movie Fail.

Ultimately we continued filming and managed to put together some kind of makeshift ending. There was supposed to be a much longer fight scene, as we had been building this series episode by episode, adding a bit more action each time. But it's just as well though, after that botched spot none of us really wanted to be there anymore. We left soon after and got Kyle some ice for his head. Actually it was a bag of frozen corn. It was decided that we'd take a break and hold off on filming for a few weeks. A few weeks became a month, and a month became more then half a year. We've been breaking ever since, now well into July, it looks like Sensei Bob, Random Ninja Attacks and the like are all but done with.

The post production of this project went rather well. Instead of immediately doing the sword kick spot I figured I'd have some fun and actually show Bob taking it to the head. We had a held closeup shot of Kyle, which was actually just some leader footage of him waiting for me to call action. I used this shot immediately after he got nailed in the head to show that nothing affects Bob. His blank facial expression makes it work perfectly. The effect with the ninja coming from behind the tree was some simple compositing. We filmed the shot with Amrit coming from behind the small tree, and then filmed it again with nothing in view. Then I simply masked in the blank shot over everything to one side of the tree. Overall it was a terrible project to film, but a very easy and fun one to edit. Hopefully there will be more in future time, but for now we're thinking of beginning completely new content for the channel.

Ophion Digital
http://www.youtube.com/ophiondigital