ODENTON, Md. (AP) — Ready. Action. OK, do it again. And again.
Would-be actors who signed up for a two-day training session, Act Tactical for Film in Odenton over a recent weekend, spent a lot of time doing it all over again.
Repetition brings muscle memory, which turns to looking like you know what you are doing on film.
Brawnlyn Blueitt, who works full-time at the Department of Defense, lives in Odenton so she didn't have to travel as far as most of the participants.
She's always wanted to try acting and has been busy at it in her spare time, performing on stage at the Bowie Community Theatre and with the Wolf Pack Theatre in Prince George's County.
"But I want to get into film, as an extra in action movies," she said during a brief lull in a session held at Annapolis Defense and Security, a firm specializing in weapons and unarmed training, such as hand-to-hand combat.
"I have been training to get in top condition and this class adds to my resume, it gives me extra skills," she said.
Getting similar training, for real, in the military, provided some challenges. "I have unlearn real habits to apply the skills for film," Blueitt said.
Learning weapons skills the right way, whether for film or not, is the core lesson, the 20 participants learned.
Safety first. Always keep your weapon pointed down, unless you are in an exercise. Don't pull the trigger.
"We teach them as if they are using real weapons, safety is first," said Matt Clanton, the founder of Act Tactical for Film. He's been teaching full- time for three years after being injured as a law enforcement officer in Georgia. His company teaches weapons use and tactics but also fighting, self-defense and knife skills for actors. Headquartered in the Atlanta area, he also teaches in New Orleans, and has held sessions in North Carolina and soon, in Miami.
"I grew up analyzing film. My dad, a firefighter all his life, was a film buff and photographer," Clanton said.
"I have had some acting jobs, but my real interest is in teaching actors," he said. "My biggest reward is seeing people's confidence change" when they finally get it right.
And that comes from repetition.
During the morning session teams of two trainees repeated "slicing the pie," a method to scan a room with potential targets, read bad guys, before entering the room to clear it in a police or military film scenario.
Each pair did the move several times over, learning foot work, communication, and proper positioning of the toy M-15 rifles they used.
Later it was learning three ways of ejecting and reloading handguns. Pressing the magazine release, pulling it, reloading, slapping the magazine with the butt of the hand, and returning to firing position.
Over and over again. Clanton walked up and down the line of students, stopping to check a hand position, smooth a technique, and always eyeing safety.
The weekend class was under the auspices of the D.C. Stunt Coalition, a group of up-and-coming stunt performers and actors that formed on Facebook a few years back.
After chatting back and forth, someone suggested they do a meet-up, and the coalition grew from there.
"That first meeting we just spent the first hour talking about safety," said Dylan Hintz, a founder of the group. From there they began meeting wherever they could find space, usually at a dance studio or gym where they could find open time at affordable rates.
Then Hintz happened upon MarVaTots and Teens Gymnastics in Rockville.
"I went in and was talking with the owner," he said. "I told him what I was trying to do. And he gave me the keys."
The stunt group was able to get Sunday evenings for free for a few months, then for a very reasonable rate.
"We meet every Sunday and work out for a few hours. It's like going to church," Hintz said.
His stunt career is beginning to take hold. He had work as a stunt performer in the first season of AMC Network's "Turn" now called "Turn: Washington's Spies" and was recently a stunt double in "Black Mass," the Johnny Depp movie about Boston mobster Whitey Bulger.
The facility in Odenton teaches weapons and hand-to-hand tactics. A classroom area is used for teaching and also reviewing video from all the training. Each room in the facility has cameras, and student and their instructors can review exercises, which the ActTactical group did first thing that day.
Annapolis Defense and Security founder and chief instructor Joe Lynch realized "Uncle Sam had provided me all this expensive training" that he could in turn use to instruct others. About two years ago he set up shop training civilians and law enforcement officers tactical methods.
"We have taught some Anne Arundel police and plan to do more," specifically in small hand-to-hand techniques.
"We want to teach them right. We emphasize safety and responsibility. We want the (negative) things you might read about in the paper to be rare, and that comes with training," Lynch said.
He assisted a bit with some of the class, tweaking a technique or two.
He stressed keeping your finger off the trigger "until you are ready to fire." The reason? "You want to make the decision, not have the gun make the decision for you."