Blow by blow lets rip apart the fight scenes.
This analysis coincides with the chronological order of the scenes in the movie.
For the remainder of this post “The Man in the Mask” will be referred to as THE MASK.
P. S. Joseph Janswig portrays most of the action in THE MASK costume. He is a trained martial artist. He choreographed the fights. His top notch skills are evident.
Exterior Jonas’ & Amber’s House
The front door bursts open. THE MASK escapes from the kitchen shoot out with Otto and his crew..
THE MASK is immediately challenged by the street thug (Adrian Feliciano). From the darkness street thug (Andrew Voss) lunges for a sneak attack. THE MASK unleashed martial arts fury to escape their grasp.
The fight was a choreographed puzzle. THE MASK had to move with screaming shoulder pain. Blood was dripping from a fresh bullet wound. Full movement was hindered. THE MASK must ghost these two punks fast before Otto charges out with his crew.
Scene Reset – Exterior Jonas’ & Amber’s House
Adrian comes in too slow for the first blow. He should charge in with a burst of force. Then when he is kicked back the impact is amplified.
Andrew’s move to slip in from behind and snatch THE MASK is sharp and swift.
Overall the punches from Adrian needed to be ramped up in speed and power.
These faux pas fall under the category of direction–specifically my guidance. Nothing was wrong with Adrian’s performance. He was directed to slow down for the camera.
Special Note
Most of the cast were total rookies—no martial arts training. They were thrown in to learn fight sequences right before cameras rolled.
Ideally fight choreography drills would be scheduled a few weeks in advance. Punches would look straight-up cinematic. Every bloodied nose, sweat drop, and bruise would be captured on film.
Time was bleeding out. Cameras had to roll fast. INDEFINITE needed to wrap up to graduate college. We shot in the heat of summer. The project must roll or die by the end of fall.
The First Backyard
THE MASK darts into the darkness and melts in the shadows of trees. In hot pursuit is street thug Kyle Berg. Soon after Adrian appears again.
The strikes are crisper than the previous scene.
Scene Reset – The First Backyard
Kyle needed to tear down the side of the house. The action drifted like a lazy jog. The slow pace was not revealed until I hit the edit bay. I cranked his speed up 10% in post. Pushing further made the whole shot look cartoonish.
Option: Cut the shot of Kyle’s slow jog to the backyard. The point of the shot was to show Klye tracking THE MASK.
P.S. Every screw-up lands squarely on the director’s shoulders. We called the shots. The actors hit their marks.
Adrian vs THE MASK Part Deux
THE MASK creeps through another yard looking for an escape.
Woah. Adrian has THE MASK in a bind with a gun in his face.
The slickness of “The Mask’s” martial arts moves are seen in this fight. He is elusive without needing to exert a lot of energy.
The backyard’s terrain gave us a chance to configure actors creatively. Otto (R. Michael Gull) is seen from a higher perch. This is my favorite moment of the scene. The far-off glimpse of Otto lining up his shot adds another threat to THE MASK.
Scene Reset – Adrian vs THE MASK Part Deux
Forge the fight with more practice. Ask the actors to quicken their blows.
Stretch this scene into an all-out slugfest between THE MASK and Adrian. More bone-crunching blows. More bodies flying. More kicks of fury.
Add in closeups to see the pain from the fight.
Option: Otto takes a shot from his perch. Wing THE MASK in his other arm. Turn up the brutality. Let his injuries stack up.
The Death of Adrian & Andrew
THE MASK tears around the house. Surprise. Two snarling beasts with murder in their eyes are focused on him. Forced to turn and jump a fence he stumbles straight into Otto’s kill zone. In a flash, THE MASK wrenches the gun from Otto and turns it on Adrian.
Pop-pop! No hesitation, just survival.
Next THE MASK bolts for the shadows. But Andrew slams him to the ground. Fists fly. Andrew lands a few savage shots before tearing through pockets for the vial. That split-second distraction is all THE MASK needs.
Steel flashes. Thunder cracks twice—KRAK! KRAK!
The Mask stands over the wreckage. He wins.
This sequence is hands-down my favorite in the film.
We choreographed actors dodging and weaving, the camera gliding through the yard, and dogs tearing across the set. Every move had to be nailed with razor-sharp precision.
This is where Director of Photography Dirk van Sloten shines. His steadicam work is pure cinema. His mastery is felt through every pulse-pounding frame.
One behind-the-scenes trick we pulled: a crew member quietly swung the gate shut right after Dirk slipped through with the steadicam. That simple move amped up the tension. Now THE MASK was forced to vault over the gate to escape the dogs.
Scene Reset – The Death of Adrian & Andrew
Given how smoothly the scene played out, I would not change a thing.
The dogs we used—Vinnie and Tank—were just loveable house pets. They barely ran after the actors on cue. We pushed them to their acting limits.
P.S. This was our final yard scene we filmed. The cast and crew shined the brightest that night. This could have served as a template for other chases. See more drawn-out action with unexpected twists.
The Office Part 1: The Battle Royal
I cashed in every favor I had with actors and friends. A gang of street thugs were created to be Otto’s crew. The plan was to create a no-holds-barred brawl. THE MASK would be pushed to his limits.
Our fight choreographer Joseph, THE MASK, was one of two real martial arts badasses on set. Max Wellenstein was the other. He has a grab-bag of fighting skills. Max started in high school, kept up in college, and extended beyond. Max grinned and said, “I have a couple brown belts and some very fun mixed style combinations.”
Most of Otto’s crew were rookie actors or non-actors. The fight scene was choreographed for simplicity.
On to the fight.
Each street punk took their shot at THE MASK. They came at him in waves.
One by one, he dropped them hard.
Bodies sprawled on the cold concrete.
The true skills of THE MASK leapt out of the screen.
Editing trickery was involved in the scene. Frames were cut out before each blow to amplify the brute force.
Scene Reset – The Office Part 1: The Battle Royal
It took a LOT of editing time to hammer this scene into the final battle of carnage.
The actors moved in slow-moooooo during the shoot. We wanted every fist and kick on camera. This was a directorial mistake. My bad.
The actors should tear into each other with relentless fury. [AND follow the choreographed plan for safety.]
THIS scene above all others needed rehearsal before we hit record. Joseph, our fight choreographer, bled for this battle. He used his combat chops to lead the inexperienced actors.
With a solid week to drill Joseph could craft a real knock’em sock’em fight.
Break heads. Break truck mirrors. Break a few arms or legs in the process. [And lots of fake blood.]
P.S. This is the one scene I wish we reviewed the playback before calling it a wrap. A few minutes watching the footage would save hours in the editing room.
The Office Part 2: Inside
Jennifer Lee’s rush to smash THE MASK was hands down the standout fight of INDEFINITE. Jen hit with unexpected strikes of awesomeness.
Crash–They smash into the barrel. Boom! The scene is electrified.
Smash–Gut strike from the street thug. Down goes THE MASK!
P.S. This is the one moment where actor Joe Fransee wears THE MASK costume in a fight.
P.S.S. The fight choreographer Joseph Janswig deals the belly blow with the aluminum conduit bender tool.
Scene Reset – The Office Part 2: Inside
This was the final throwdown we shot—shame, really. This scene hit like a sledgehammer. I wish I directed every actor to bring that same savage energy.
Final Thoughts
Help the editor out. [Jason the editor screaming at Jason the director.]
Film more closeups. Zero in on faces. Catch every brutal strike.
Closeups cover flaws.
Closeups highlight emotions.
Closeups crank up the action.
Production Story Notes
After blasting through the kitchen scenes, we circled up and tore into the script. We had a mountain of kitchen footage while our chase scenes felt weak. Time to crank up the high-octane chaos.
Include more Kyle.
Add Andrew & Adrian chase scenes.
Add the van carjacking.
Add dogs.
Beef up the final battle royal with MORE street thugs.
We stretched INDEFINITE into a relentless gauntlet of martial arts chases. The inspiration was Bruce Lee movies of the 70’s.
We infused comic book realism—bright colors layered over bold scenes. But we had limits: a shoestring budget, a skeleton crew of die-hard volunteers, and the clock ticking down fast.
Filming under the cover of night gave us our edge—and pushed our limits.
The darkness set the mood.
Blasting film lights through colored gels gave INDEFINITE cinematic punch. Long jagged shadows enhanced the film. Those dark silhouettes stalked THE MASK at every turn.
Hunting for power was a constant struggle. Every time we plugged in those 1,000-watt Lowel DPs…
POP–Down goes a breaker.
We were drawing power from multiple houses nearby to make movie magic.
Big shout out to every friend and family member who stepped up—offering hands, services, and spaces. This film is only finished due to their generosity.
Co-director Christopher Kuiper’s Thoughts
Most of the fight scenes weren’t in the script. Adding them changed the tone of the project into a more action-based film. We used that to our advantage by making the movie a “comic book style” movie.
We further pushed that tone by using colored gels on the lights. The shoots were fun because we got to work in a variety of locations.
A no budget action movie is sure to have some cheesiness to it. This worked to our advantage since being comic book style, it seemed purposeful.
We were lucky to have Joseph Janswig on the production. The fight choreography relied on his experience to put together good fights with people not trained for fighting or acting.