I am having some trouble editing my fight scene, and getting continuity match. A lot of pro filmmakers prefer quick cuts in fight scenes nowadays, but how quick is too quick? I was timing quickly cut fight to the Bourne Ultimatum and noticed how most shots are only a second long, and some are less than a second. One seems to be two shots in a second. So that's about 12 frames a shot maybe. One of my shots, in order to make it flow continuously, is only 6 frames for example, thereby only a quarter of a second. Is there a rule on how many frames cause 6 is cutting it a little too quick maybe.
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How many frames can a shot be minimum in a fight scene?
- Thread starter harmonica44
- Start date
Here's the edit. Does any shot look too weird or anything that will be too much of a problem? A guy who has written and produced movies says he wants to see my final edit, and might consider working with me, so of course, I want to make it as good as I can.
http://youtu.be/LRdaLBaInCU
http://youtu.be/LRdaLBaInCU
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Nothing in this edit looks too weird.
However, we have a shot of the woman getting pushed upwards, colliding with the towel bar, and then falling back down. When the woman is pushed upwards, the next cut does not convey any of the motion to get there. She is already at the towel bar, about to fall down.
So either the push clip needs to end later... or the colliding clip needs to start earlier. This assumes that even if you have the extra frames, that the action on them matches up anyway.
Even if you don't have the extra footage to really sell that upwards motion, it's not a big deal. It would be nice to have, but the scene still works without it.
Don't lose any sleep over it, but if you can improve it... do so.
The quick cuts made it look better, I find new filmmakers actually tend to not have enough quick cuts in there action scenes. Many action scenes nowadays have shots that are 1/3 of a second.
Im just glad its not an action scene that has to long of cuts
nice job
Im just glad its not an action scene that has to long of cuts
nice job
Okay thanks. Yes that's the shot. The towel bar shot. I had to cut it short so the continuity matches up better. I will play around with it more and see what I can do. Funny how some shots look great even though they are only just a few frames, but some are almost incoherent in action scenes. But it's good to know it works okay without it, cause personally I cannot tell what happens in that quick of cut. I was told before that shots that go out of focus, should be an automatic cut, so that really limits my choices in the editing. Thanks a lot though. Any other tips on editing a fight scene would be great!
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The quick cuts made it look better, I find new filmmakers actually tend to not have enough quick cuts in there action scenes. Many action scenes nowadays have shots that are 1/3 of a second.
Im just glad its not an action scene that has to long of cuts
nice job
I think that you are correct and I believe the reason why that seems to be true is because most indie filmmakers don't get enough takes. It requires a fair amount of variation to be able to effectively cut in that short of a time-frame. Maybe I'm wrong though!
It's not the reason for me. My reason is that I storyboarded the action sequence, to be edited old school style with longer takes. So I think the final edit comes from how you storyboard your angles in the first place, to a degree that is. I actually don't like the new school style of action cutting. It's too overdone in my opinion. If I edit this fight scene old school style, will contacts who look at my work think of it, as "amateur"?
