Staging and Shooting a Fight
Scene
Peter D. Marshall
Almost every film today has some sort of
obligatory fight scene between the good guy and the bad guy. In this
issue, I will share some tips on how to stage and shoot a simple fight
scene between two actors.
SCENE: Goodguy enters a dark room and looks
around. Badguy steps out from the shadows behind Goodguy and points a
gun at him. Goodguy stops and raises his hands - he does not turn
around. Badguy walks up to Goodguy and shoves the gun in his back. They
talk. Goodguy turns around quickly and knocks the gun from Badguy's
hand. They fight it out and after a few punches, Goodguy wins and walks
out the door.
1) Prep - make sure you have a meeting with the
Stunt Co-ordinator about the fight scene. You should give him as many
details about the fight as you can so he can go away and work out some
moves for you.
2) Shoot the beginning of the scene first
-following the block/light/rehearse/shoot scenario, you block and shoot
everything up to the fight first.
3) Blocking the fight - on the set, the two
actors, two stunt doubles and the Stunt Co-ordinator block out the
fight sequence with everyone watching. You then discuss the first shot
with the DOP and rehearse that specific shot with the actors and/or
doubles. Once this has been done, the DOP will light the shot while the
Stunt Co-ordinator takes the actors and stunt doubles off set and
practises the fight.
4) Off Set Rehearsal - the Stunt Co-ordinator
practices the fight scene with the actors and the doubles. You should
watch this rehearsal process for specific camera angles and make
comments
regarding action and movement.
5) On Set Rehearsal - The Stunt Co-ordinator
shows the crew the fight sequence with the stunt doubles and the
actors. He then sets up the first part of the fight and you rehearse
that with the camera.
6) Shooting - you shoot the first part of the
fight and continue through the process until the fight is done. You
then shoot the ending of the sequence where Goodguy walks out the door.
SHOOTING TIPS - Here are a few tips on shooting
a stylistic fight sequence using the least amount of set-ups. (I will
use the 35mm aspect ratio for reference):
Tip One: shoot two takes of every set-up and just change the lens size
and speed of both cameras for each take. This means you can shoot each
set-up twice (assuming no technical problems) and give your editor 4
different angles to choose from - without moving the cameras! This
technique is a good way of shooting a well covered action scene with
only a few takes and without spending a lot of time.
a) use 2 cameras for each shot
b) For Take 1, Camera A can have a 25mm lens
(wide) at 24fps. Camera B can have a 75mm lens (tighter) at 40fps
c) for Take 2, reverse lens size and speeds on
each camera. (You don't have to move the cameras.) So, Camera A is 75mm
at 40fps while Camera B is 25mm at 24fps
Tip Two: try and shoot from at least three
different positions for your fight using 2 cameras. That could be as
simple as two over-shoulders and a 2 shot. By using the techniques in
Tip One, you will have at least 12 different angles, lens sizes and
camera speeds to choose from!
Tip Three: punches look the best from
over-shoulder shots (OS). Make sure you always shoot "overs " with your
2 cameras.
Tip Four: If you have two cameras, you should
also have two monitors to watch. For Take 1, you should watch one
monitor and have someone else (DOP, AD, Stunt Co-ord) watch the other
monitor. After you cut, you discuss each shot. If the shot worked, you
switch monitors. This gives you a good look at both shots since action
is, by its nature, very fast and you may miss something if you try and
look at both monitors at the same time.
Tip Five: slow motion creates an action
sequence that has the qualities of a ballet (re: John Woo). As long as
you have the exposure to shoot slow motion, shoot slo-mo on the set
with your cameras. You can also shoot normal speed on the set and slow
down the shots in the editing room but there is a different quality of
the picture when you do this. (it has a certain "ghosty" look to it.) I
usually have the camera with the longest lens (closer) shoot slo-mo.
Tip Six: Once the camera rolls, everyone's
adrenaline pumps up and a actor may be afraid of hitting the other
actor or of hurting themselves. One way to solve this is to use the
Actor/Double stunt system when shooting a fight. Say you have an OS
shot of Goodguy as he punches Badguy. What you do is shoot the two
actors first then switch Goodguy (he has his back to the camera) with
his stunt double:
a) first: shoot Goodguy-Actor OS as he fights
Badguy-Actor Then switch Goodguy-Actor with Goodguy-Stunt:
b) second: shoot Goodguy-Stunt OS as he fights
Badguy-Actor
When your turn around for the reverses, you
repeat the process:
a) first: shoot Badguy-Actor OS as he fights
Goodguy-Actor Switch Badguy-Actor with Badguy-Stunt:
b) second: shoot Badguy-Stunt OS as he fights
Goodguy-Actor
You can see how this process works by looking
at the end fight scene in "Bird on a Wire" between Mel Gibson and David
Carradine when they were swinging on the ropes in the zoo. We had each
actor fight each other then we did the switch with the doubles. This
worked very well here because the actors were also attached to ropes so
they had a lot on their minds.
| If you are a Film or
Television professional and would like to contribute your
expertise with filmmaking articles, tips or special reports, please
email me at: pdm@actioncutprint.com |
Copyright (c) 2000-2008
Peter D. Marshall/www.actioncutprint.com
pdm@actioncutprint.com
All Rights Reserved