TALES FROM THE SET

Second Unit (Day 26) : Second Unit Director was Guy Norris, originally a stunt performer in "Mad Max 2 : The Road Warrior" (one of the Mohawks), working his way up to Stunt Co-ordinator for "Quigly Down Under", "Red Planet" and "Moulin Rouge". The Main Unit filming (already in the can from another day's shoot) was set in an industrial warehouse loft, where 'The Monk-With-No-Name' trains 'Kar' in martial arts exercises, saying things like "Its not about anger. Its about peace. Its not about power. Its about grace. Its not about knowing your enemy. Its all about knowing yourself ..."

Suddenly a helicopter looms into view and shatters the loft windows with a hail of machine-gun fire. As Monk and Kar run for safety into the stairwell, they are spotted by two 'Heavily-Armed Badass Mercs' coming up the stairs.

The Monk goes into action and 'Merc 1' falls down the stairwell (stunt #1 - Second Unit). The Monk and Kar dive for cover as the Mercs open fire. The Monk races back into his studio, then leaps up through an open skylight and swings himself onto the roof, followed by Kar (stunt #2 - Second Unit).

SECOND UNIT : (on the day)

Monk (stunt double) and Kar (stunt double) stare helplessly as a dark Mercedes SUV screeches up to the curb on the street down below. 'Pedestrians' react as 'Nina' (Victoria Smurfit) grabs up THE SCROLL which is lying in the street (?!). Nina gets back into the car and speeds off down the road.

Suddenly 4 police cars pull up to a stop in front of the warehouse. The cops charge inside the warehouse and race up the stairs to the roof-top. The cops smash the rooftop door wide open, and look around. But Kar and The Monk are gone ...

Season 1 of the SHOWTIME TV series "ODYSSEY 5", during a 'Stunt Unit' shoot for Episode 112 "SKIN" :

'Skin' is a new 'synthetic', evolving from a martial arts computer game. It literally imparts super-human fighting powers to whoever is its 'programmer'.

The location for the shoot was Toronto's Downsview Airforce Base, where various interior sets had been constructed.

This particular scene was a 'redneck bar' at night, during a flashback sequence.

The character 'Kwon's Programmer'(Tommy Chang), described in the sides as a 'petite Asian-American' quietly sips his beer in a crowd of thugs, confidently WAITING for the right moment for someone to DARE give him a hard time.

Suddenly Kwon is savagely attacked from all sides by tough-looking leather-jacketed dudes.

Kwon punches and kicks with spider-like senses as breakway glasses smash across faces, breakway chairs splintered over heads, etc.

During the action, an off-screen character ('Chandra') says : "He levelled sixteen of them. Poor guy was five-four, never took a karate class in his life."

They filmed the scene 3 times and got it perfect on the last take ...