EL REY

[Drunk Monk]

That Ilya is a cocky bugger, ain't he? Oh, that hair toss! Oh, that sneer!

You have no idea.  He's toned down for the show.  But yeah, that hair toss was AWESOME.  It got quite a laugh from my whole family at the bungalow screening.  Those were good cuts tho.  Cutting a free hanging tatami with a horizontal cut isn't easy.  In fact, the horizontal cut there is quite difficult.   He overshoots his cuts tho, at least from a Battojitsu perspective.  Cuts aren't supposed to travel that far offline after the swing because frankly, you don't want to take your point too far away from your target, especially if you miss.  But Ilya is trained in European sword, so they don't consider that.  

This episode had the nicest pieces.  BK&S really went all out with these.  The steel patterns on both Tizona and Zulfiqar were stunning.  The cameras barely caught the gorgeous detail of the pattern welding of Zulfiqar, despite me telling them how to set up that shot because we have shot some damascus steel here and it's a bitch - needs a single light source and high contrast.  It's really hard to shoot swords because they are so reflective.  

All of the weapons tests were shot from so many angles - like half a dozen cameras per shot. The number of targets were limited, so there weren't really that many opportunities for retakes. And there were a lot of shots cut obviously, like my mediocre test of Tizona, which was just a lunge at a dumb dummy that had not blood pack like promised.  I thrust at the head several times but all I got was red stuffing.  Not nearly as pimped up as cutting pig carcasses.  

The bottom line when it comes to the camera fest (as noted by Tara) - its a spark fest.

Thanks for watching!

One more episode.  Then El Rey has six months to decide if they want to renew for a second season.