Weapons - Halberd (Ji)  (continued)

11/16/2020. It was not raining. The air was relatively clear of smoke. I had just hauled three new halberds and a new spear on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit - the San Francisco California Bay Area's light rail system) for 70 miles from Kung Fu Direct in San Jose. KFD is now conveniently located less than one mile from the new North San Jose/Berryessa BART station). In all the excitement I neglected to check the wild chill factor. The cinematographer, as it turns out, had not checked the weather either. This was a serious error although it remains unclear what either of us could have done about the conditions. The first challenge was that a few feet north of the proposed shooting location there was a dead mouse on plastic tray. If a neighbor dropped this over the fence they should get full marks for sticking the landing. Less positive feelings about hygiene. Initially, the plan was to record five or six repetitions of the Chen Family style Tai Chi Chuan Kwan dao set.

The classic green dragon style Kwan dao. There are 30 movements in the Chen Family style Kwan dao set. There are six duplicates so 24 unique movements in all. The original plan was then to take 24 photos of the set performed with each weapon. Then we were made very aware that, while the sun was shining, it was mid-November. The sky was largely clear, but there was a very cold and strong wind blowing intermittently. This chilled all the humans, caused somewhat chaotic movements of the garments, and would mean the audio would be largely useless due to the whistling of the wind. The new plan was improvised on the spot. Three stances: attention (beginning the set); single whip with the direction reversed to compensate for lighting; and an en garde ready to lunge or parry.

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