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I've tried them before but never really got any feedback on if they were good so what is the perfect formula for writing good action fight sequences?
I don't care about car chases, fights like in the old Jean Claude films or as recent as say Ong Bak, how would you write those and have people while they read think I can literally see this happening?
Two great scripts to look at are Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. Perfect examples of how to write an action movie. Not sure about any martial arts examples, I guess most of it is choreographed on-set and the scripts are hard to find.
William C Martel has a good book on the subject, I think it's called "Secrets of Action Screenwriting". It has some great techniques for writing fight scenes.
Fight coordinators are usually brought in for movies. In writing a fight sequence, you write a general overview of the fight. Your fight may be used for the sake of pacing (how long the fight will be), to show the type of fighting (skilled martial arts or brawling), and what weapons or props (knife, bar stool) will be used.
There's no way you can write a fight sequence blow by blow. A one minute fight would take ten or fifteen pages to write. Rent a Jackie Chan film and try writing one of the fights in that, blow by blow. Your head would explode before you finished.
See but I need the other type of action (Fighting) I am not worried at this point in time about the action film genre itself.
I was looking for some of the film screenplays I've seen that have fighting action not the type you mean, old Jean Claude films, Ong Bak the fighting martial arts but doesn't have to be that type.
I don't know, it seems they don't release these screenplays, even Mortal Kombat could help me to see how they're written (The fights)
Anybody know if Rambo has a lot of fighting action? I also noticed Rush Hour is on the main site in the database and if I remember correctly it's packed with fighting action.
Thanks requiem though for attempting to help, anybody else think of anything to add please by all means.
(Thanks Dogglebe that gives me something to think about while reading Rush Hour)
If you want a good fight sequence without martial arts, you can always go further back. Look up Clint Eastwood's "Anywhich Way You Can." Or the old Charles Bronsan movies. He played a street fighter in one or two films.
Rambo, IIRC, doesn't have any great fights in it as Rambo outclassed all the hick deputies.
I don't know if you'd want to refer to Jackie Chan movies as he always went for flamoyant and comical fighting.
If your action is guns and action sequences like car chases again it won't help me, I can read Rush Hour and most likely get exactly what I need. The fighting action not the action action of action films ha-ha if you know what I mean.
I take inspiration from John Carpenter’s "They Live", great fight scene, one of the best. No kung fu,no wire works, no CG just two guys beating the shit out of each other in an alley. I wish I could get a hold of that script.
Though earth and man are gone, I thought the cube would last forever. I WAS WRONG.
I wouldn't say that movie was that good. It was good, but not THAT good. I never did like stories where the hero is an antagonist. THis is part of the reason why I hate Steven Segal movies.
Roddy Rowdy Piper was a big antagonist. He was trying too hard to be tough and cool.
The fight between Nada (Roddy Piper) and Frank (Keith David) was only supposed to last 20 seconds, but Piper and David decided to fight it out for real, only faking the punches to the face. Carpenter was so impressed he kept the 5 minutes and 20 second scene intact. Interesting...
Though earth and man are gone, I thought the cube would last forever. I WAS WRONG.