Staging and Shooting a Fight Scene
(c) 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.
Copyright (c) 2000 Peter D. Marshall / All Rights Reserved
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