Tim Weske

Sir Ben Kingsley, Sandra Bullock, Natalie Portman, Sandra Oh, Jeremy Piven, Anne Hathaway, Martin Short, Fred Savage, and Kevin Garnett are just a few of the celebrities that Minnesota-born, Tim Weske, has worked with in his twenty plus years as Hollywood's Premier Sword Choreographer. You can view Weske's reel and full resume at Tim Weske.com. Weske has trained thousands of actors and choreographed hundreds of sword fights and fencing sequences for the film and television industry, not to mention the thousands of moments of violence he has coordinated for stage. Weske follows in the same tradition of cinemas finest Sword Masters, Fred Cavens, Ralph Faulkner, Bob Anderson, and Bill Hobbs, as a teacher and as a competitor in Olympic Fencing. With a lifetime of constant study in swordplay and the ability to translate fencing's fine movement into movement suitable for the silver screen, as well as having the ability to communicate the language of the sword and movement to actors and fight performers in order to get spectacular results in performance on screen. Through the years Weske has created a system for cinema swordplay that makes getting in front of the camera quick and safe; this saves production time and money and has had outstanding, entertaining results. Since 1992 Weske has owned and operated Swordplay, his private training facility in Burbank and in Reseda California, and has consistently worked as a Hollywood Sword-master since Swordplay opened its doors. Swordplay, coupled with Weske's extensive sports background, allows him to be in constant study of weapons, human movement, and the creative process involved in making memorable fight sequences.

Weske's personal belief is that the sword fight is about a moment in the character's life that has escalated to violence. The sequence should drive the story with creativity, safety and excitement, and should not be solely about the sword.