# Serenity Bar Fight rehersal



## Andrew Green (Feb 19, 2009)

[yt]Dt9F2iyJLCw[/yt]

and the finished product:

[yt]3FJatsqNdf4[/yt]


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## arnisador (Feb 19, 2009)

Cool!


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## astrobiologist (Feb 19, 2009)

Browncoats unite!

Firefly was an awesome show.  Too few episodes though.

That was a pretty cool fightscene in Serenity.


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## Andrew Green (Feb 19, 2009)

I just wish well lite and continuous shot was a little more standard in the finished version of fight scenes.  Rather then jumpy camera, cut every 1-3 seconds and close ups so that you can't actually see the action clearly...


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## zDom (Feb 19, 2009)

Andrew Green said:


> I just wish well lite and continuous shot was a little more standard in the finished version of fight scenes.  Rather then jumpy camera, cut every 1-3 seconds and close ups so that you can't actually see the action clearly...



A-freaking-MEN!

WTF has got into directors/action directors over the last couple of years??

I am SICK to DEATH of the quick-cut, jumpy hand-held camera shots panned in way too close  and yes, poorly lit.

By my recollection, it started with the new Batman and has ruined the action sequences in countless movies since then. (The latest James Bond movie was the worst... I couldn't tell wtf was going on with ANY of the "action" scenes, car chases included).

Why spend days working up awesome action scenes and then use these idiotic techniques to obscure everything they worked so hard on?

/end vent.. for now.. I'm SO pissed at Hollywood action directors ...


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## Steve (Feb 19, 2009)

zDom said:


> A-freaking-MEN!
> 
> WTF has got into directors/action directors over the last couple of years??
> 
> ...


It's a trick that started much earlier than that.  The quick cuts and cut on action has been a trick for years.  The jumpiness, extreme close ups and poor lighting was used heavily in Bourne Supremacy, too.

These clips are great.  Firefly was AWESOME and so was Serenity!!!


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## exile (Feb 19, 2009)

My own take on this is that the success of the _Aliens_ series has a lot to do with the way in which action sequences have been shot over the past couple of decades.

If you look carefully at the first two_Alien_ and _Aliens_you'll notice that a lot of the creature's terrifying nature was suggested by the brutally abrupt shifts in camera angle, deliberately avoiding the detailed effects of, e.g., that horrible tongue and harpoon-like tail, and the followup damage from its attack was mostly projected by the look of uncomprehending radiant fear on the faces of the onlookers. I suspect that the effectiveness of those methods was learned a little too well by action scene directors, and the MAs are only one domain in which we're seeing that...


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## David Weatherly (Feb 20, 2009)

Nice sceen!  Thanks.


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## Cryozombie (Feb 21, 2009)

In adition to some of what has been mentioned, When shooting fight scenes, for the saftey of the people involved, a lot of camera tricks are employed along with the action and the choreography so they dont always have to use stunt doubles.  Tricks like setting the camera back from the action and zooming close create a "flattening effect" that make two (or more) actors look closer together so punches/kicks being thrown dont look 2 feet away, but appear to connect when they don't in reality.  Also those jump cuts and blurred camera movments work to hide the slower motions the fights often occur at, and by changing the angles it makes the fight more Chaotic as well.  Plus it can serve to hide saftey gear that may occur if panning and tracking motion durring the fight such as crashpads on the ground.


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## Cryozombie (Feb 22, 2009)

Heres a little somthing for you guys...

The guys from Indy Mogul and Backyard FX (a webcast for low-to-no-budget special effects) teach some secrets to staging a decent movie fight for nothing.

Enjoy.





 
(Clip contains Some language, BTW)


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## Cryozombie (Feb 22, 2009)

Oh, and here is a cheesy tutorial on using the foreshortening technique to make the actors appear closer.  These guys arent the best, but it was one of the only tutorials I could find.

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/v...oting-by-crunching-the-depth-of-field-164749/


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## zDom (Feb 23, 2009)

Cryozombie said:


> In adition to some of what has been mentioned, When shooting fight scenes, for the saftey of the people involved, a lot of camera tricks are employed along with the action and the choreography so they dont always have to use stunt doubles.  Tricks like setting the camera back from the action and zooming close create a "flattening effect" that make two (or more) actors look closer together so punches/kicks being thrown dont look 2 feet away, but appear to connect when they don't in reality.



A lot (most? nearly all?) of those tricks can be used just as well with a stable camera and panned back to see what is going on.




Cryozombie said:


> Also those jump cuts and blurred camera movments work to hide the slower motions the fights often occur at,



Yes. "Work to hide." Translation: easier. But you don't have to do it that way.




Cryozombie said:


> and by changing the angles it makes the fight more Chaotic as well.



Bingo: this is the reason they are REALLY doing it. They *think* it looks cool. And some people are buying into it and agreeing.

Not me. I pay to SEE what is going on  not be dazzled (and made motion sick) by a bunch of half-glimpsed action clips edited too closely together.

I can't wait till they get over this industry fad.

(FWIW  it WORKED it Alien. It was horrible in Batman, Quantum of Solace, etc etc etc)


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## Kreth (Feb 23, 2009)

You can thank the directors that got their start making music videos back in the day when MTV actually played them.


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## exile (Feb 23, 2009)

zDom said:


> Bingo: this is the reason they are REALLY doing it. They *think* it looks cool. And some people are buying into it and agreeing.
> 
> Not me. I pay to SEE what is going on &#8212; not be dazzled (and made motion sick) by a bunch of half-glimpsed action clips edited too closely together.



Ditto down the line. When they do it to extremes, and all the time, you get the impression that they're relying on _you_ to create the actual fight in your own imagination, by connecting the handful of dots the actual shots given provide. Sorry, but if I want to use my imagination to construct a visual scene based on elusive description, I can read any of a number of excellent books. The strength of an action movie is precisely its ability to deliver high impact graphics on a huge scale.



zDom said:


> (FWIW &#8212; it WORKED in Alien. It was horrible in Batman, Quantum of Solace, etc etc etc)



I agree: it _did _work in _Alien(s)_, brilliantly. That's the damned problem with the film industry: everybody sees one terrifically executed example of something and decides, hey, me too&#8212;and they can't bring it off!


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