During the production of the movie The Karate Kid, director John Avildsen kept footage shot of the blocking and rehearsals. And now those recordings have been uploaded to YouTube for your enjoyment.
What Avildsen has posted, in 13 ten-minute segments, is the rehearsal that he and his actors conducted before principal photography began. The footage is grainy and wobbly. Much of it is shot on location, but several scenes unfold on a sparsely appointed soundstage, with the actors pretending to turn on an invisible leaky faucet or drink an invisible glass of pungent Okinawan tea. Some of the scenes closely resemble their counterparts in the finished film, but others remain rough, with Avildsen and his team still working out how to frame the action. We see alternate approaches to scenes we know and love from the finished product. We also hear Avildsen discussing the challenges each scene presents, offering suggestions to the actors and discussing camera set-ups with his crew. Perhaps most exciting of all, we see the actors rehearsing scenes that did not make it into the movie, and several of these provide insight into plot holes that have long frustrated students of the movie. (Among the questions addressed by the footage: How did Daniel’s mother end up working at a restaurant, not at a computer start-up? And how did Daniel prevail over Dutch in the early stages of the All-Valley Under-18 Karate Tournament?)
Those questions get answered and more. So you don't have to wade through all 13 segments, Slate has posted a synopsis of each, with links, do you can pick and choose which part you want to see. Link -via mental_floss