Movie Dojo
Master yourself in the art of film making.
(A book.)
"Why me? Why do I struggle to make movies? Is my thinking flawed? Do I lack mental or even physical strength? Or am I simply passive?" You may or may not have these types of questions. I too asked myself: "why can’t I do it? Why does it appear so effortless for others?" Martial Arts pulled me through, and I will share everything I learnt by applying its principles to my filmmaking journey.
This book explores how Martial Arts has profoundly stabilised and grounded me—and how I’ve applied its core principles and technical structure to my other passion: filmmaking. Can the film industry adopt lessons from Martial Arts? The answer is certainly yes—but how?
At first glance, Martial Arts and filmmaking may seem unrelated. They operate under different rules, disciplines, and languages. Aikido, the martial art I practice, is both a physical and spiritual discipline. Filmmaking, by contrast, is a creative and logistical process that moves from an initial idea through development, scriptwriting, shooting, post-production, and, if all goes well, distribution and release. Yet despite these differences, Aikido and filmmaking share something essential: both can be learned, practised, and eventually mastered.
We should resist the temptation to draw vague or superficial parallels between the two. Instead, Movie Dojo offers something more concrete: a new system. It invites us to imagine a dojo of our own—one shaped by the ethos of Martial Arts and populated by our network of fellow filmmakers. The goal is to design a system that supports an optimal learning curve tailored to each filmmaker’s unique journey.
For instance, someone might tell you to write a script—but not how. How would you figure it out? You might browse tutorials online, read books on screenwriting, or attend film school. But is there another way?
This book introduces a peer-to-peer learning strategy based on observation, interaction, and shared practice within your filmmaking community. Sounds simple? It is.