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Word of the video began to spread and we began to give thought to a design for the cover. The sound man who worked with the group CAPITAL STEPS suggested a photographer, Maloof–Maloof lived on the shore of the Wicomico River south of Salisbury with his wife, MSMaloof. The timing of our production was in line when David Carradine, the KUNGFU star was advertised in Parade Magazine promoting his own tai-chi video. Professor was impressed by this because of the impact the TV series had even in Academia for the philosophical aspects even though Bruce Lee was passed over for the part because of our national racism. Academia being interested in really fake TV shows other than the pure entertainment value was a pretty scary insight.
The multi-cultural aspect of our tai-chi video was something we were proud of though the marketing of an Asian exercise taught by an Italian to music we had chosen which was German classical with a Polish director was not even on our radar. We paid a musician to come up with his own arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon using a synthesizer since intellectual property rights was something we wanted to honor–a recording of someone else performing the popular dead composer’s music was out of the question. Professor was also intent on keeping the length of the short form at seven minutes.
The weather finally broke steady in our favor. I had to rent a camera from TCI Cable TV Company in Ocean City since we were actually leaving the immediate area and school was in session. Professor performed the form on grass with the river in the background and our recording off to the side for his timing. Over and over Professor performed until the 69 year old man thought he got it right. That’s what he did: tai-chi ch’uan, mathematics, riding his bicycle and caring about the environment.
The river shoot took several days since we had to coordinate other sections of the video in the river setting including the principles and stances and the five sections from the side angle view. The water business was exploding and time was diminishing. I again had the three quarter video transferred to VHS with time code and created an edit decision list with a rented TV with a recorder and another recorder. Some of the sound from the river was distorted but summer was coming on quickly and there wasn’t time to re-shoot anything. The sound man promised a voice over session in his home studio down the line. I booked twenty hours of late night editing at TCI cable in Ocean City and had a workable print as water flowed enough that I was driving to Richmond twice a week and Fort Meade once.

With rough cuts pasted together on VHS and the decision made to include the entire group for student participation with different levels of expertise on display we decided to introduce the group by name at the end each doing a section of the form. True Dancer wore shorts and leopard skin on the first decent day in the spring for our shoot in Salisbury Zoo Park. Spring break at the university provided us with the free use of a camera one last time. Number one student was the shooter for the day and we were able to compensate him with a few dollars. Fortunately the water business was finally beginning to support itself with an increase in cash flow though it was always out as well as in just more.
Section three of the form included a posture called repulse the monkey; True Dancer’s jungle garb was appropriate and a bit of independent rebellion after having spent hours and hours in the studio in beige and black with a blue background. Professor Wife was fair lady at the shuttles in section four. Professor’s second, Duke of Earl, who was an expert in his own right, having many students of his own, was given section three the second most difficult in degree and added his individual signature with an MRDUCKS tee shirt and a hand wave. Professor ended the program with section five and the sun cooperated with a wink at the very end in one of the several takes.
There was still a lot of shooting left with Professor explaining principles and demonstrating the complete form and a side view since we wanted to cover all angles, but work with the group was finished.