Orange County Uechi-Ryu Karate
Welcome To Our Movie Theater!
We've got a bunch of mini-films lined up for you this evening!
Sit back, grab some popcorn, and let us entertain you!
Now Showing
The Wado-
Ichimora
("The Movie")
The Highwaymen
Dojo Of The Dead
Crystal Of The Dragons
The Lemonade
Stand Part 1
Now Showing
The Lemonade Stand Part 2
How NOT To Play Videogames With Others
The Almighty
Amulet of Death
The Bug Movie
The Curse Of
The Sunglasses
Use the Arrows to Scroll Left or Right to Find the Film you'd Like to Watch.
"The Wadou Ichimora "
"The Movie"
" Three Warriors battle to the death over a legendary sword!"
Starring: Brendan Worl, Cody Emrick, and Cory Walker
The Story Behind "The Wadou Ichimora"
This was our very first movie! We started this project on a whim to avoid boredom during a session of Karate Day Camp. Enrollment was very low that week and all of the participants had attended previous sessions so we skipped all the planned activities and went to work on this.
All of the dialogue was spontaneous and it shaped the story line as we filmed it. Unable to agree on a hero, we ended the film as such. The simple unimaginative title of "The Movie" was fixed to the project because, honestly, I never anticipated making another. It was later renamed "The Wadou Ichimora" after the legendary sword they are fighting over.
"The Highwaymen"
Starring: Jeffrey Sadangsal, Vance Gosselin, Anthony Rosales, Brendan Worl
The Story Behind "The Highwaymen"This project started out with 6 participants. I wrote the original storyline based on those 6 people. On the 1st day of practice one participant decided not to participate but supplied a substitute for themselves. I had to rewrite the storyline because the new participant did not fit the character.
After a few rehearsals, 2 participants quit. Once again a rewrite was in order and all parts were changed. A day or two before filming another participant decided not to show up for rehearsal without notice. Fearing that they wouldn't return, we rewrote the storyline again for 3 people.
On the day of filming, the 4th participant returned. Although we spent several weeks on this project, the resulting movie is based on 2 1/2 days of practice, thus the reason why it is so short.
To their credit, all of the stars in the movie adjusted very well to the constant changes to the fight choreography.
"DOJO OF THE DEAD"
"A student arrives to class with a mysterious bite mark. When the Instructor leaves the room to call her parents. . . .all hell breaks loose."
Starring: Jeffrey Sadangsal, Cody Emrick, Judy Budai, Daniella DiFlorio, Wendy Cruz, Jacqueline Salvador, Brendan Worl, andSensei Bill!
The Story Behind "Dojo Of The Dead"This project wonderfully became so much bigger than I had wished for after the Emmy Award Winning Make-Up Artist, John Maldonado, decided to do the make-up for my "Zombies". The kids really liked the fake blood and wound effects a lot . . . . too much in fact because for the next month I kept finding it in the oddest places around the dojo. One challenge we had with this film was when we were notified that Julie "the first zombie" was most likely going to miss the 2nd day of filming. We had to rewrite the original storyline and cleverly "stick her character in the closet" so that if you didn't see her character again it would make sense. She surprisingly was able to return for the 2nd day which is why she is seen again at the end of the movie.
This movie, by far, has the most bloopers of any of our films and all of them were included in the DVD I supplied to the parents. Also, f you look really closely during the fight scenes in the backyard you will see the last recorded image of one of Cody's teeth. He dramatically spit it out as he was hit. However, we lost the tooth after the first take. We never anticipated looking for it in the grass.
A third alternate ending was never shot due to time restrictions. It was actually supposed to be "the" ending of the movie and it involved me becoming a zombie. However, applying the "zombie" makeup took far longer than anticipated, nearly an hour for each kid. Since, everyone on the last day of filming was to become a zombie. . . well, that cut into our filming time and we already had two endings so I opted out of the makeup
.Fans of this video refer to it as,
"Ninja Zombies with Shovels"
"The Lemonade Stand"
"Kids team up to rid themselves of a Bully who is terrorizing their Lemonade Stand."
Starring: Genesis Nino, Timothy Bravo, Brendan Worl, and Sensei Bill
Guest Stars: Delilah Resendiz, Cody Emrick, Cory Walker, Anne Walker, Jenny Corriveau, Jeff Wood, "Brandon". .
The Story Behind "The Lemonade Stand"The idea behind movie was originally for me to take a stab at a more serious line of anti-bullying videos I had in mind for the future. My original storyline got hijacked by the kids though, but that's okay, it's their movie too.
Our "prop" lemonade stand actually attracted customers while we were filming! That was great for me because we all had a bad habit of eating and drinking the props and I needed to replenish our stock quite a bit.We ran into a lot of technical difficulties filming this movie. We were using two cameras (our first movie to do so). The "settings" on one of them was completely wrong for filming outside and we lost a lot of great footage because it came out too dark. I rescued what footage I could but. . . . . more or less it was a whole day of filming down the toilet.Brendan was supposed to play two characters (a good Brendan and a bad "bully" Brendan) and I intended on him fighting himself too but we canned the idea after Cory never showed up for more filming (where did you go Cory?). So we have one set of shots with me and my "toadies" at the beginning of the movie and that's the last you see of them.I found it really hard to be a "PG rated" bully in this film. I wasn't too sure of what "curse" words would be acceptable for use in this film. I actually asked the parents what they felt was acceptable and went with their suggestions.
"The Almighty Amulet of Death!"
"Three Kids try to Rob others in the park"
Starring: Cole Rothelisberger, Derek Brown, Rosemary Lagunas, A.J. Olivas, Anthony SebboThe Story Behind "The Almight Amulet of Death!"This project was done by the participants of the first "Stunt Fighting Class". The kids chose the theme of the film as well as who was going to be the "good guys" and the "bad guys". The title of the film was a compromise between two popular suggestions, "The Almighty Amulet" and "The Amulet of Death".Filmed at Stoddard Park in Anaheim, Ca. We had a rough time with the audio during videoing because the wind was so constant that it would "block out" anything that was said. Much of the dialouge is voiced over.The fight scene during the credits was an impromptu battle they all had. It seemed to finish the story nicely so I kept it in there.
"Crystal Of The Dragons"
"Students seek to avenge the death of their Master and the theft of their prized possession, the Crystal Of The Dragons. Apparently, not all is as it seems. . . or is it?"
Starring: Cody Emrick, Brendan Worl, Celena Toral, and Rudy Toral.
The Story Behind "Crystal Of The Dragons"
This was a week long venture that we started during the following year's Summer Day Camp. The idea was 3 days of practice and 2 days of filming. On the first day of filming ,early in the morning, we made the hour long drive out to the San Gabriel Mountains. Afraid that the camera battery might run out of power while we were filming deep in the woods, we wasted time and shopped for a second battery (it was never needed). It's a 1 1/2 mile hike to Stutervant Falls with 800 feet of elevation gain/loss and it was hot! The only fight scene that was shot that day was the Bo Staff fight at the waterfall because the ground was too rocky for the kid's to fall down onto. However, we did shoot a lot of other footage out there.
Pressed for a location to shoot the fighting scenes, I took a chance and drove us out to the garden/park area at the Huntington Beach library. As a ploy to finish up the fight scenes as quick as possible (we still had to shoot the ending back at the dojo) I promised that if they finished by a certain time that I would take them to see "The Simpson's Movie". It worked. However, we never had time to shoot the ending. I mustered up some sort of conclusion (confusing, I know, if you don't hear all the dialoge) with the voice overs and extra footage that I had.
One other challenge we had at the library was Cody working through a very painful pulled muscle. .. . . . . . in his butt. He pushed through like a soldier though.
"How To Play Video Games With Others"
"Two boys show you how NOT to play video games with each other!"
Starring: Cole Rothelisberger and Noah Broadlick
The Story Behind "How To Play Video Games With Others".
This short project was done at the completion of a special "Stunt Fighting" class I put on. The original idea was for the boys to show off their fake fighting skills as we comically played video games.
The movie was filmed at the Sandalwood Mobile Home Park in and outside of their Clubhouse Building. In the T.V. room inside the Clubhouse, they stored a generous amount of Halloween Decorations. Unfortunately, Noah was a little creeped out by the decorations, found them highly distracting, and most days didn't even want to enter the room. Even more unfortunate was that Cole liked to tease Noah over the whole thing and would seek ways to torture him about it.
Luckily, on the last day of filming, Noah just happened to bring to class his portable hand-held video game system. This inspired me to quickly come up with the "outside" scenario that is shown at the beginning of the movie and FINALLY the two boys started to get along with each other. In hindsight, I wish I shot the entire movie outside, the boys really came alive once we did so.
"The Bug Movie"