Congratulations to the successful candidates of Academie Duello’s January Combat Acting course. The following students have earned their Basic Actor-Combatant certification with Fight Directors Canada:
- Sayer Roberts
Many of the other students will complete their conditions to satisfy FDC Fight Masters, involving additional hours of training and practice.
Conditional Passes
Some students receive a “conditional pass” in which the Fight Master wants to see additional work from the student before awarding the certification.
Extra hours: You may have been assigned 10 hours or more of additional work with a certain weapon. This must be with a FDC-certified Fight Instructor, Fight Director or Fight Master within 6 months of your original test. It does not have to be with your course instructor if you have moved. You can look up members of Fight Directors Canada near you at www.fdc.ca/training-events/
Rehearse and retest: You may have been asked to retest a certain weapon when you are ready. You’ll want to rehearse until you feel you can do well on the retest. You do not need to use the same partner as your original test. You’ll record a video that only involves the fight (no need to rehearse dialogue), and send it to the same Fight Master to show your improvement. Again, this must be submitted within 6 months of your first test.
Failed written test or failed one weapon: You must rewrite the written test and/or do a full weapon retest. You may send your retest to a different Fight Master, because they will be looking at a completely new scene, not comparing the new submission to your previous work. There is a $25 retest fee paid to the Fight Master.
Keep Trying
For those who cannot complete their conditions or who failed more than one weapon (and therefore failed overall), don’t give up. Many exemplars of FDC have failed one or more levels, and succeeded after more work. It is important to FDC as a professional organization that it is not a “rubber-stamp” for anyone who pays for the course, but rather an endorsement of truly qualified actors who can perform a professional fight.
Upcoming Training
We will be contacting successful Basics and anyone else who has previously earned their certification with FDC to gauge the interest in running an Intermediate course. The Intermediate Actor-Combatant requires 80 hours of study including smallsword, longsword, eastern martial arts and rapier & dagger. Due to scheduling issues in the past, we will collaboratively agree upon the training schedule with interested and qualified students.
The next Basic certification course will be another 2-week intensive starting June 15. The January course sold out with 12 students, so sign up early to ensure your spot.
Head of Stage Combat at Academie Duello and certified Instructor with Fight Directors Canada. Head of Bartitsu at Academie Duello, the longest continuously running Bartitsu program in the world. Read more from David McCormick.