Behind The Scenes And on The Set With Anthony De Longis

At left - one of the castle bears trying to see what we are doing above.

The next day we started filming at Tocnik castle. Built between 1383 and 1396 by Vaclav IV, the son of Charles IV. The surrounding countryside abounded with game and Vaclav had built this as a hunting castle and favorite stopping point on his journeys from Prague to Nuremburg. The castle is undergoing restoration but still provided us with great locations. We entered the castle proper by crossing the bridge covering the moat. There was a pond on one side beneath the sheer wall of the castle. Directly beneath the bridge the home of Yarda and Bargetta, the castle bears whose home was the moat. Their current diet seemed to include lots of fruit but it was easy to imagine unwelcome guests as part of their ancestor's former diet. There was also a very friendly goat named Marek who had to be kept tied while we were shooting to keep him from wandering into shot as he greeted visitors to his castle. I went on an immediate recon of the castle starting at the upper walls. The view was glorious with the forest and surrounding farmlands laid out in all directions for the king's inspection. It's good to be the king.

At right - The drawbridge entering the castle

The bridge across the moat led up a drawbridge and through an arched portal into the lower courtyard. As we rode our horses over the bridge slick with morning frost I kept thinking, "Do not feed the bears." Inside the courtyard a bustling village market was in full swing. We had vendor's stalls filled with produce and crafts, a blacksmith's forge with bellows and hanging weapons of all kinds, the picturesque castle well, gaggles of geese, flocks of sheep, a guest appearance by Marek the goat, crowds of extras of all ages and even a juggler and firebreather to entertain the crowd on market day.

At left - cast replicas of the castle's coat of arms The entryway into the main building housed stone replicas of the castle coats of arms plus a modern rendering of the original colours. We tranformed it into the dying king's bedroom for a very touching scene between Tarak, Ariana and her father. The main room became our coronation chamber and the scene of a pitched battle between the invading forces and those loyal to the new Queen. This gave Tarak and Queen Ariana their chance to escape. Thank goodness for the action. Sometimes it was all that kept us warm. I'm here to tell you those old castles are drafty and must have been a real bitch to heat.

I received a wonderful compliment from Thomas, the "B" camera operator. Thomas is always at the heart of things, pulling focus for Yarimar on "A" camera and handling the underwater camera in the tank. He told me he enjoyed my acting performance. Thomas said he knew it would be good because he's seen my acting tape with the producers back at the studio and thanked me for being professional but also a nice guy to talk to and work with. I expressed my appreciation and told him working behind camera gave me a better perspective on everyone else's contribution. We both agreed the work was a lot more fun when the talent didn't have their nose in the air and their butt between their ears.

At right - Rena and Daniella commit themselves to this fight between their characters "Ariana" and "Tai Shan."

The final week was exhausting with full days lapsing into long nights. But we paced ourselves as best we could and the work kept us going. One of my favorite scenes took place late into the night of a very long day in the freezing underground tunnels below the castle. Lloyd, our director, had a wonderful hand directing the actors throughout the movie. This night, both Rena and I were exhausted from the long day's work and this was a very important scene. But we knew we had a good director watching out for us and the scene flowed soft and easy. As I walked to my trailer the night was cold and crystal clear. Centered just above the bridge the Big Dipper seemed to be smiling at me. These kind of days are what the work is all about.

Friday we shot the wedding sequence in the great hall under the castle. The floor was dirt and there were small slits in the upper walls that would have supplemented the torchlight for the original owners. A line of pillars stretched the length of the room. Milan and the soldiers of the usurper stood at each pillar beneath brightly flaming torches. It made a great entrance for Rena. Both Rena and I were dressed in white robes for the occasion. You'll easily tell us apart - Rena's the knockout.

At the end of the day, Rena and Marc relax with the perfect Czech sunset for a background.

Then it was time for some action. Rena started the party by clobbering Marc and body slamming him to the wedding dais. Marc hit the deck several times to get full coverage on the action. Good thing they've done this before.

I'd taught a two versus one fight to the guards that morning. One of the fighters was Roman Spacil, our armourer who supplied the production with most of its weapons. Roman also teaches period fencing at the state University in Prague. Roman has a performance group that performs live in costume with heavy period weapons and armour. When cameras initially rolled the lads were a bit excited and brought a sense of genuine combat to the first take. We filed the dings out of the blades, got back to the energy of illusion and the sequence shot very well. After killing both guards I had the second sword I needed for my double broadsword duel with Milan.

Milan and I really went to town. I'd choreographed the opening double broadsword phrases with Milan adding his personal adjustments to the recipe. Milan had envisioned two champions fighting each other through a series of weapons combinations. He disarmed one of my swords and in the course of the same phrase, I managed to take away his second sword. A knife fight followed the one on one broadsword play as the distances closed. We'd had a wonderful time putting this together and both Lloyd and Danny were delighted. Danny set up the coverage and Yarimar outdid himself on the camera.

Milan and I performed at a blistering pace. I can't remember ever fighting as fast. We trusted each other's skills and really pushed it. Before we started I'd whispered "pomalu" to urge Milan to keep our speed reasonable out of the gate. By the second stroke Milan was throwing swords 90mph and we just got faster. Afterwards I teased him that "pomalu" must mean something entirely different than what he'd told me. Through the translator Milan said he knew he'd started fast but then I'd gone faster and he'd had to speed up to keep up.

At right - at the end of his last day of filming, Anthony relaxes after filming his big fight scene and enjoys his last sunset at the castle.

During one of the double sword sections Milan deflected my sword and then began a Shaoling/Wu Shu style double sword spinning counter attack. I had to run backwards to maintain enough distance to counter each of his buzzsaw sword strokes with my own blades. I found I could even allow a bit of improvisation within our choreography. I followed my instincts and parried sometimes left and sometimes with the right blade first which changed my final thrust from left to right. I discovered it didn't matter to which blade I extended for Milan's own counter envelopment. That's how sensitive we were to each others energy and flow, we both just adjusted to whatever was happening. In spite of the pace we both felt absolutely secure. At the end of the evening Petr Drozda said it was the best sword fight he'd ever seen on film. Petr asked me if I'd ever done a better one. I realized this was my best film fight to date.

We finished Saturday night around 8pm. I was originally scheduled to fly out the next morning at 7:30am which meant being up by 5am. Happily, I'd decided to change my flight to Monday morning and spend a day sight seeing in Prague.