Have any of you guys choreographed fight scenes?

[Jeff Liboiron]

if so i was wondering what process you went through, and also if you are able to upload them onto the net.

The object is not to hurt someone else, but to stop them from hurting you

[Kung Lek]

the seniors in our club and sifu used to choreograph stuff for demos.

no film stuff though if that's what you had in mind.

but , quite a few mini fight scenes that demonstrated the workings of a technique on single or multiple attackers.

yeah yeah I know, I know, but it was fun. :)

peace

Kung Lek

Martial Arts Links (http://members.home.net/kunglek)

[Jeff Liboiron]

that's cool :) no, i didn't mean film stuff, just for fun :) i wanna get a video camera and start making my own fight scenes, it would be fun.

The object is not to hurt someone else, but to stop them from hurting you

[Serpent]

You wanna know a secret about that stuff? 70% of a good fight scene is having people that can spin out fom a hit and fall really well. Flash techniques don't look like sh!t if the reaction is bad. Bad technique can look pretty good if the reaction is good. Make sure people know which way to fly and how to fall and all that. Make sure the camera is angled so you can't see the safety gap between the tech and the person being hit, etc.

Good luck!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You cannot defeat the Bronze Girls of Shaolin!

[firepalm]

There's a few scenes they did for fun as well some wushu clips. Check out 'Stuntworks' & the 'Terence Lee' clip. http://www.wccma.com/videogallery.htm

[Jeff Liboiron]

how do you guys add the sound effects?

The object is not to hurt someone else, but to stop them from hurting you

[S.Teebas]

Yeah, me and some friends went on holidays and made some fighting clips with my video camera. It's pretty fun to make and also to look back on to see how your technique was...back in the day! :)

(trying not to laugh was the hardest bit for us)

S.Teebas

[Kristoffer]

hehe :D i love making movies! In my latest, i played Bill Clinton who were kidnaped by terrorists ( this for like 3 years ago) it ends with a huge gang fight and 'kungfu' last battle between one of the terrorist and bill clintons special forces main man.

~K~
"maybe not in combat.. but think of the chicks man, the chicks!" -- someone on the subject of back-flips in combat --

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

are you kidding . ..

that's all me and my buddies chris and shawn did when we were like 14 - 17. 90% of it ended up looking like **** but it was fun as hell.

where's my beer?

[KnightSabre]

I used to do choreographed sparring with a bud in the kung fu demo's.
We made them spectacular,jumping spinning kicks into spinning sweeps and classick knockdowns.
My friend weighs about 143 and I'm about 220.He allways used to win.I remember the one time after our demo this 6 month begginner came up to us and said that seeing a little guy beat up a bigger guy like that has really inspired him.

Actually of all the thing in kung fu, I enjoyed the choreographed fight scenes the most.

"You're Good Kid Real Good,But As Long As I'm Arround You'll Always Be Second Best See".

[wall]

Hi,
I've worked on a few movies and shorts (unfortunately all very C-grade stuff :) ), TV commercials, and the usual CMA demos, both in front of the camera and as fight coreographer.
I can pretty much tell you that over 50% of how good the finished product is, has solely to do with the camerawork and editing. The remaining 50% is evenly devided for techniques,coreography and reactions.
There is lots to write on this....for live demos you obviously don't have editing nor sound, so the techniques/coreography/reactions have to be absolutely perfect because you can't cut anything out or fix it later.
If you have specific questions ask, otherwise I'll end up writing pages to cover everything.

Have fun,

wall

PS for basic info you should look at the the JC video 'My Stunts'. For great live demos look at the 3-men sets by the beijing wushu team - vids available at bilang.com

[This message was edited by wall on 11-23-01 at 12:54 AM.]

[WushuSpear]

Wall

I'm working on making an amateur film with some fight scenes. Any advice you could give in terms of editing, angles or anything would be great.

[Chang Style Novice]

The most important thing to remember is, if it is fake it will look fake. So, make sure everything is done for real. Does the script call for a decapitation? Then someone had better lose a head. Don't worry about the police, they'll understand that it's all for art. This extends into less hazardous stunts as well. Everyone should actually take the hit they appear to be taking, and it should be shot in such a way that there is no doubt the blow actually connects. Audiences eat that stuff up! If someone is knocked unconcious or seriously injured during a fight scene, no matter what DON'T STOP! As you can read from my comments in the "Great Movie" thread, the longer the shot lasts the better and nothing else matters. So, shoot the entire fight scene in one continuous take, and if someone flubs simply start over from the beginning. This is exactly the way real professionals work, and always have. For "Matrix-style" rotating freeze frames, it is not neccesary to use complex and expensive computer special effects and wires. All you have to do is get your actors to levitate themselves with their qi powers as the camera circles them. If they can't do it, screw 'em, they aren't good enough martial artists to appear in your movie anyway, not like real masters such as Drew Barrymore and Carrie-Ann Moss. Send them back to practice some more and tell 'em to come back when they have some skill worth showing. Remember, realism and simplicity are the key!

I hope you have found this helpful, and please ask any questions you like. ;)

_______________________
I am the Grand Ultimate Silk Pyjama

[zen_celt]

I've choregraphed a few fight scenes for friends and school projects before. It is a helluva a lot of fun to do. My biggest problem recently has been to find people physically capable of doing the stuff they want. I was helping a friend work on some light-saber scenes for some jedi thing he wanted to do for his website but no one in his group was able to move the way he wanted. It was still lots of fun though. If you have a mac(I hate imacs but they're all I have for this) try to get the moviemaker because that can help polish a lot of stuff if you have a digital recorder. At least in terms of amateur filming.
-Z

"The thorn *****s only those who would harm the rose."

[Nich Gunn]

Yea, my friend and me are doing one for the end of the year. It is our senior year and we ahve like a high school retreat we do.

It is very helpful to be double jointed, my shoulders are double jointed so it looks like it is dislocated... should be fun to hear the groans and moans as we "dislocates" my arm.

[wall]

I'll write some stuff to you on monday.

Have a good weekend,

Wall

[WushuSpear]

Thanks Wall

I look forward to it. Enjoy your weekend.

[wall]

.....I'm a bit tight on time today but here are a few points to start with, then we can get into more detail as you need:

1 - planrehearse everything before, off location (moves and coreography) and then, once you've got the movestiming right, on location, to adapt to terrainpropslightetc

2 - as the on-location time is a hassle (equipmentpeopleweathercostsetc) try to do as much coreo and rehearsing in a gymbasketball court or such place for days, and then only go on location for scouting and then to shoot

3 - as at the start you will have trouble knowing from which angle to film which moves try to have 2-3 cameras rolling from different angles, so you can then select the best bits from each when you are editing

4 - reactions are vital to sell the moves, and they are not something that we practice in MA class, so it's probably the thing that the fighters will be worst at. Thay might be able to do all the moves but have hopelessly bad and out of timing reactions, so work on those the most. You'll be amazed at the difference they make.

5 - use props that are pre-broken and then lightly glued together shoes with flowertalcum powder on them, etc. Things breaking and dust flying off when you hit somethingsomeone adds to the effect of power and hit.

6 - warm up heaps!!! It's amazing once we are in front of a camera in the excitement we forget all the stuff we normally do in the gym before we practice. Between takes people cool down etc, so before each shoot make sure everyone warms up well and stretches or it's a recepy for injury disaster, particoularly as on camera everyone would be giving it their best and doing the most difficult stuff.

7 - wear pads under clothing, put matrasses just off camera where a fall lands etc..... it has to LOOK real and painful....but not FEEL real and painful.

have to run now, will try to post more later.

Have fun,

Wall

[nightair]

I did for a couple of diffferent people when the needed to get a film done for their college classes...but nothing professional.

---------------------------"uh oh, what is going to happen next?"

[WushuSpear]

Thanks for the input. I'll get cracking on what you gave me and I'll tell you how it goes. Thanks again.