Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

19 June 2016
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

The only thing I have left

hyams zen I bought my copy of Joe Hyams’ Zen in the Martial Arts in 1992, while I was in London¹.
The friend that was with me in the bookstore dismissed this beautifully illustrated book as

typical Yankee-a##hole mystical crap

and he was completely off the mark – but he was a very self-centered person, the sort that gets a kick out of making feel bad the people around them.

Anyway…
In his book, Hyams relates a discussion between himself, Bruce Lee and screenwriter Stirling Silliphant², about time. Continue reading →

6 October 2014
by Davide Mana 7 Comments

I already discussed action sequences and combat and whatnot in a previous post. but we got talking, with my friend Claire, and I described how I use a spreadsheet to plan my scenes.
So why not share it, too?

Now, to me choreographing an action scene in a story is a fine balance of three processes