• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

Action Sequences

When doing simple action scenes, it is quite easy to describe what is happening without it going on for too long, but once the scene becomes a little bit more complicated like an end fight or martial arts script, how much detail is needed? Obviously, it's a good idea to check out some proper action scripts, but thought I'd see if anyone here has any words of wisdom on the subject.
You see even with the complicated action scenes, I can see it in my head and can describe it, but I've always wondered how much of the work is left for the director and fight choreographers
Thanks
 
ngoh hai bin-goh a?

I am starting a Forum on www.studioarchitect.org/case, which is up now, and will be starting properly next week. Sorry, indie, please don't censor me like a power-lord. lol

-------------------------

Basically, the director will orchestrate his concepts for first unit; ie, shot-list +/or storyboarding.

---

The second unit may get continuity notes, but the second unit is autonymous: has its complete own crew sometimes (usually).

I report to the 1st A.D. usually, or get my cont guy to.



Case Ash
 
Hey

Hi.
I recently shot a scene for a film I'm DOP on. It was a fairly 'simple' scene - people walking, car speads towards them, one gets hit. It's totally no budget but a guy working with us, Lightning bear, got a mate to come up from London who has a company called Zero-g (www.zero-gfilms.com) He had a chat with the director, myself and Bear and we went through what we wanted. He basically went off and 15mins later had storyboards and camera positions worked out and was asking us wether we wanted him to go through the windscreen or over the car - it was nice to have the option! Although the scene in the script reads quite simple, we obviously knew it wasnt going to be when it came to filming it. Then when you get professional stunt co-ordinators and stuntmen involved, you realise how difficult and complex these things are. 9 hours later we had a beautifully smashed windscreen and a guy lying on the floor who had just jumped off the top of a car. It was great.
The best thing I can suggest is that you try and do the same as we did. If you can contact a stunt coordinator, he will probably have the experience, crew and skill to help you out.
Good luck.
Dave.
 
That's all good advice, but my main issue is that if I make the fight scenes too simple then it may affect how my script is perceived. Altho I'm not martial artist from watching plenty of films I have a good idea of how it looks and how I see it in my head. Obviously, no matter how complicated the writing on it is, there will always be a certain degree of SFX and camera techniques used to enhance it.
Thanks anyway though, I'm sure I'll learn more when I get down to it
 
They Fight?

Read a stack of produced scripts to see how they did it:

http://www.script-o-rama.com

You'll note that they don't say "they fight" - they tell you what happens in the fight in the most exciting way possible. The car chase in the script for BULLITT runs 7.5 pages,,, the actual scene runs almost 10 minutes.

Which is one reason why you'll want to write out the scene - for scheaduling.

Another reason is STORY, because any good action scene is telling the story and REQUIRES enough information to get that story to the audience/reader. An action scene is just like any other scene - if it isn't telling us the story and exploring character, it's outta there.

Here's a tip I did on that:

http://www.scriptsecrets.net/tips/tip 170htm

Look at any of the action scenes in THE MATRIX (the good one) - they are all CRITICAL to the story. You could not remove them from the script and still have a story. They also explore character (because story IS character). So Neo is at his office and Agent Smith & cops show up. Neo races to the empty office, goes out the window to that ledge, starts climbing around the building... but reaches a point where it becomes difficult and just quits. Folks - that's CHARACTER. We learn from that action scene that Neo doesn't have faith in himself and when the going gets rough he quits.

Later there's a scene where Morpheus fights a bunch of cops while Neo and the others crawl through the inside of the walls to escape. It's a long fight scene - and every minute is critical. Because this is the scene where we SEE how much Morpheus believes in Neo - he sacrifices himself. He must keep getting back on his feet and getting knocked down until Neo is safely away...

But Neo hesitates. Neo knows he's not the chosen one - he knows that Morpheus is going to be killed for no reason - because Neo is a fraud and wasn't strong enough to tell Morpheus what thge Oracle said. But when Neo hesitates inside the wall... Morpheus has to get back on his feet and get pummeled even more! So Morpheus believes in Neo, but Neo's lack of belief in himself is gettuing his friend hurt. The more Neo hesitates, the more Morpheus gets beaten up. That's all story! You can't remove that without losing critical information that the audience needs. And it's also critical character information. It shows us how much Morpheus believes in Neo.

The third reason why you'll want to write out your fight scenes - You want the script to give the reader the same experience as watching the movie. If you're looking to sell the script - that's critical. If you're giving the script to a distrib for funding, it's critical. If you're looking for funding, that's critical. At this stage, the script IS the movie - so you want it to represent the movie - be as exciting to read as the film will be to see. Even if you're making the film yourself, if you're looking for crew or actors to work for free you'll want the script to read the same way the movie will look so that these people get an idea of what you're doing (and give up their free time to help you). Before the film is made the script IS the movie.

Will the fight scenes be exactly as you've written them when this thing goes to screen? Probably not. Just like any other scene - things change. The location and cast and direction changes things when you get out into the real world. But if you don't have a good idea of what the scene is supposed to be, you'll end up with some generic fight scene that has nothing to do with the story or exploring character.

Remember - film is a VISUAL medium... stories are told through the actions of the characters. Action scenes are part of the actions of the characters. I cover this in my class (blurb in Classifieds section) and I'll be doing a Visual Storytelling class at Screenwriting Expo in 2 weeks.

The visual information is more important than the dialogue - so make sure you have it on the page!

- Bill
 
Bill,

that's some good advice and it is true that scripts should be exciting and like you say they are the film at that point in time.
The problem I find with produced scripts is that these scripts have been tweaked, director notes added, things changed - also the style many people write in is exactly how we are told NOT to write.
For example, Aliens, Pulp Fiction and many others are written almost as if the script is half novel, half script - the action is more description than action. Now i know these are established names but many of these people started somewhere.
Although I was confused I still found the script far more exciting to read and the picture in my head was far clearer.
I find it hard to believe that all the fighting in Matrix or even Matrix Reloaded was written in an interesting way which didn't get confusing to the reader. I'll try and get those scripts to have a look.
At the moment, i don't have to worry about it too much as im not doing my action stuff for a while.
Anyway, thanks everyone for your tips :D
 
Back
Top