How to Choreograph an Awesome Fighting Scene

[Omeganitros]

Me and my home boys are big on making silly movies. Well, now I have a kickass studio with everything needed to edit a movie, and an awesome $2000+ camera, we wanted to make a (at least somewhat) "serious" movie about...er....ninjas fighting.


Now, I've seen alot of fight scenes. I think some of the fighting in Blade 2 was nicely done (when Blade gets his first encounter with the main enemy), and I thought the big fight between Neo and the Smiths in Matrix Reloaded was lacking, while the fight between Neo and the thugs of that guy who's a big fat metaphor of the devil was great. And that's just mainstream movies, I've seen a ton of really small films from China and Japan that are hardly known of here that are supercool.

I can't seem to figure out what the secret is to making a truly awesome scene that really entertains you. One part of me says that you can't bore the audience with moves that are too fast to comprehend, like "punch flurries" and crap. The moves should be believably quick, but exaggerated in power. But then I watch Sockbaby, which had some of that fast stuff, and I'm not bored at all.


GTG, finish this up later.

[GuidoHunter]

Well, it wouldn't be appropriate for a ninja movie, but the fight scene at the end of Ravenous was chock full of awesomeness.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[nickadeemus]

Have lots of fight scenes between two people and then later on have the viewer realize that it was really only one person fighting himself with appropriate flashbacks minus the second fighter. </FC>

I love fight scenes where people die or get injured by unique weapons/props (see Go Go Yubari).

[hatakikakashi]

Slow motion = cool

Ninja = cool

Include slow motion ninja action and I think you'll be alright.

[Tasselfoot]

I'd recommend having some form of martial arts training... otherwise your moves just won't look right.

[Starshot]

Make sure to make it a bit comidic

[Omeganitros]

Okay. I think I have a little list of things to do and not do making a good fight scene:

1) No ridiculously fast nonsense. I'm not talking about being quick, I'm tlaking about where all the attacks and blocks are taking place at a tempo too fast for the audience to comprehend anything.
2) Greatly emphasize power in your fighters, when the scene calls for it. Make it believable. Case and point: Blade 2, when Snipes walks out of the pool of blood. It makes it look like he's all pumped up, ready to beat the living crap out of everyone, and then in the fight scene that follows, all he does it hit each guard once or twice and they fall down. It was not a good fight scene. The Matrix, on the other, hand, was consistently awesome with showing power in each blow that landed a hit. In both Morpheus Vs Smith and Neo Vs Smith, you really felt that they were getting the crap beaten out of them.


This is ridiculous, always being intervened by the universe. I will continue my theory on choreographing a good fighting sequence, when the universe stop bending it's will on me to stop typing.
Good lord. My last 5 posts have been consistently interrupted, now.

[Tank101]

The most important things that I've learned from attempting to make fight scenes, is that the fighters need to be on-sync with eachother. I mean sure, if you want to make one person faster than the other so that one gets the crap beat out of him, that's great. But it looks really stupid when one person is throwing a punch, then the other person quickly blocks and throws a really fast kick. It has to have a rhythm to it like on Sockbaby.

[Omeganitros]

3) Make events happen. A change of scenery, the tide of battle turning, whatever it takes to keep the fighting from just going back and forth at each other for too long.

4) I was already a large thought in my mind, but Sockbaby just confirmed it: Good sound effects are a must. And good music doens't hurt either.

Now, I think this one is the most important you want to make a jaw-dropping awesome scene:

5) SURPRISE THE AUDIENCE. Keep them on their toes. No matter what it takes, have something that will make them go "Whoa! Did you see that?" Case and point: Star Wars Clone Wars, Chapter 13. Mace Windu owns the crap out, like, 100 droids without using a lightsaber. It's my favorite chapter.


Tass: I took Karate for 4 years, and my friends have some knowledge too. Plus we'll have an asian kid on the set as chief advisor. =P

Anyone worried about it look real: I think we'll end up solving this issue Ong Bak stlye; we'll just hit each other for real, so there won't be as big a worry about it looking good. We'll still have to exaggerate, but when you really hit someone, it can look good.

[PsYcHoZeRoSk8eR]

I'd have to agree with what most people are saying, but i think that you are forgetting about the camara angle. I don't know if you have a good angle to shoot from or not, but multiple angles make it look good. I don't know too much about the Choreographing, but most movies (that I have seen) can make bad Choreographing look much better with good manipulation (sp) of the camara.

[jewpinthethird]

Make sure a lot of dust flies from people's hands and feet everytime they make contact with the enemy. It's a classic effect. And think brutal...make the audience think "Oooow. That probably hurt so bad...so bad..."

And originality is always a plus. And interact with the environment. Blood splatter is a cool effect.

Just whatever you do, don't use the "batman begins" camera shake to add action to the fight scenes. Really good fight scenes focus on the brutality, not the fancy camera work.

[Omeganitros]

Lots of dust. Gotcha.

[igotrhythm]

Here's my suggestion: it's probably close enough to Halloween that novelty shops in your area are selling costumes. Try getting a few of those. It doesn't matter how awesome the action is if the fighters have no sense of style.

And I think actual hitting is not a good idea. But if you really want that, at least have people exaggerate how far they're knocked back to give a further impression of "DAMN, that was a good shot!" Rolling with the punches is also something you might want to incorporate. For example, if someone takes a shot to the head, the victim turns his head to both reduce the actual impact and make it appear like there was more force behind the blow.

Using camera angles to make it look like there was an actual hit when there wasn't will usually convince seasoned movie-goers or fans of pro wrestling that people aren't actually getting hurt. And one more thing: nobody, but NOBODY makes a Foley sound effect when they take a hit.

[Omeganitros]

Thanks for all the feedback so far. If there's mroe you'd like to say, keep it coming. I'll get back to you guys when I talk to our "Director" about what we can use, and what we'll do.

[Jam930]

I was really impressed by the fight scenes in the first 'The Bourne Identity' movie... very crisp and coordinated.

Maybe you should check that out. =)

[Bursurk_Lurk]

Seriously. Sexy Commando has the best fighting scenes every made by man. I love that show.

[Tasuke]

Originally Posted by Bursurk_Lurk

Seriously. Sexy Commando has the best fighting scenes every made by man. I love that show.

As true as that comment totally is

You should have people constantly cough up blood.
That makes it looks hardcore, like totally hardcore

[jewpinthethird]

Pay hobos in sandwichs to beat eachother up and film it.

Wait...don't.

[Chromer]

My opinion? Watch movies such as Red Dragon and Kung-Fu Hustle to get a good idea of impact hits. If you want style, I suggest watching some scenes from the first Matrix, mainly the Dojo scene with Neo and Morpheus, and the Subway scene with Neo and Smith. For hardcore brutal action, I would suggest watching the Jungle fight sequence from The Rundown feat. The Rock.