Ever imagine landing a cool move in a fight scene? FOOL!
Ever imagine yourself executing a sweet block in a movie fight? NO? INCONCIEVABLE!
You can see the EXTENDED VERSION of this video here - it's one of my favourites:
https://youtu.be/XyiKj9S…
Ever imagine landing a cool move in a fight scene? FOOL!
Ever imagine yourself executing a sweet block in a movie fight? NO? INCONCIEVABLE!
You can see the EXTENDED VERSION of this video here - it's one of my favourites:
https://youtu.be/XyiKj9SfFHs
Every time a hit lands you have to wait for the character to recover; too many hits and the fight scene becomes more of a recovery scene. Literally. The audience will spend more time watching the characters recover than watching them actually fight.
This is what happens when a fight choreographer or martial arts film director thinks about hits instead of blocks. Don't believe me? Let's check out the ratio of blocks to hits in some rumbles that won Best Action Choreography at the Hong Kong Film Awards over the decades.
One of the things that makes fight scenes like the ones featuring Star Wars Rogue One’s Donnie Yen, Drunken Master's Jackie Chan, and other talented martial artists so entertaining to watch is how they treat hits versus blocks. If you're trying to figure out how to do action comedy, it takes more than random punches and a gag (the joke kind, not the ball kind).
Most people instinctively think of aggressive hits, huge kicks, and other brain damage inducing acts when thinking about elements of the best fight scene ever. Big hits and comic book style sound effects are flashy and fun, but components of the best fight scene ever they are not.
In fact, as productions like Jackie Chan's Project X-Traction and Wheels on Meals will prove, hits hardly matter at all. I know, weird, right? But take a look at these movie fight scene breakdowns. Fight scenes that are actually entertaining to watch for more than seven seconds lean heavy on the blocks, and showcase few actual hits. Why? It's not solely because hitting someone over and over again really isn’t that much fun to watch. It's because every time a character gets hit we have to spend time watching them fall down, recover, get back up, and get back into th..
