Independent research 2 (fight sequence)

 during our opening of our film it will consist of quite a violent part when it will involve the villain beating up the victim in the chair. To accomplish this and to make it look believable as possible i have decided to go and research how make a fight scene look real on film.

One massive important part of making a scene like ours look as real as possible, the main point that you have to remember is to sell the punch so that it doesn't look cheesy and bad. This consists of a few things, 

Firstly: To be on Target and out of distance. For example when our villain is going to throw a punch at the victims head or body, The actor has to be at far enough distance where the punch will not fully connected but the punch has also got to be on target with where you are looking to punch. 

The prime distance that you want to be from each other is where your knuckles will be touching each others. Around the 2 characters you are going to want to imagine a semicircle connecting both actors so even when moving around you will be at the same distance. 

When going to throw the it should be like "arm on a shelf, reaching out then across" this may look silly but from a certain camera angle will look affective on film, for example behind the shoulder shot would look real with the reaction of the victim.

THERE IS NO REASON TO BE HIT!!!

Unless it's a body shot as you need something to react too.

With filming a body punch it is a lot different as you are going to be making contact with the other actor in our case the victim. To do this you are going to punch with a loose fist, and slap your hand on their belly but make sure its a good enough hit so they can feel and react to it. From the victim's
 point of view you want your legs to drop a bit as your legs normally go out from under you when being punched in the belly. Remember to also shake your head along with it. 

ALWAYS MAINTAIN EYE CONTACT whilst on camera, if you don't maintain that eye contact with each other, while your on camera in a fight scene you will see your partner's brain shut off when they forget the routine then which resolve in a actor getting hit. So with our sequence we have to make sure as it is very one sided the victim knows exactly how he is being hit and how to react, because as off right now i don't know if the camera will fully see the victims face within the shot which may help so the actor can watch how he is being punched and be fully aware.

One part of making a fight sequence look more real and helps the editors job to make it look really believable to the audience is to VOCALISE! for example making groans, moans and sound that act like you are throwing punches. Now i have gone through this i now need how to do this with a camera involved.

A good way to help when filming with a camera in a fight scene is you want to imagine there is plane flying out and going straight directly to the receivers end face. A good way to remember this is by "breaking the Plane" if you throw the punch on the left side from this angle you will clearly see that the punches are not going to connect. But if you throw from the right side all the way throw to left it will look as if to the camera that the punch has connected. So our actors must be aware of our camera positions at all times so the actors can adjust. 

Now if you are filming from behind the victim like we will do you want to make sure that the puncher steps out to find the camera and then go through with the punch through. If the camera can't see the punch its a waste of time.
 

even at low angles always play your punches to the camera. As it translates well to the screen as we will use a lot of low angle shots in our sequence. The actor who is most at risk of being hurt in the scene tends to be the one who is in control which in our scene will be the villain. 

When filming a choking scene which we will be using for our opening you want to make sure who is in control of what while performing this, the person choking will want to be pulling away while the victim will be pushing the hands away in the opposite way so no one can be injured.

When using props we use a pair of knuckle dusters which luckily won't have to be used when the punching is going on unless it looks bad. i also think the use of sugar bottles might be cool as they shatter so easily and are harmless.

As the beating goes on the tension needs to build until it looks like the victim is actually about to die in the film. with doing all of this WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT WE TAKE ALL THE SAFETY MEASURES REQUIRED FOR THE SCENE.