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