Action sequence idea

[jussing]

Put on the music from The Rock, MI3, Bad Boys, Pirates (or whatever action score gets your juices flowing) on your MP3 player, and take a walk in the area immediately available to you, and try to see cool places to run, jump, hide, dodge cars, shoot, and do otherwise cool action stuff.

Try to get fresh angles on clichés, IE do them "with a twist". If you're just gonna run, jump and shoot you're not gonna do it better or cooler than Tom Cruise, so your only chance is to be original.

Then go home, write all the ideas on little cards and toss them in a bin. Repeat the procedure the next day, and the day after that.

Then one day, toss all the cards on the floor, and lay them out in a neat sequence. Two codecs to remember:

"Good news, bad news" - It can't be all bad for your hero, not all good either. Switch fast between going good and going bad (Indiana Jones falls in a hole - bad news. He grabs a vine - good news. The vine is loose! - bad news. He gets up - good news. The door is closing! - bad news. He makes it through - good news. He lost his hat! - bad news. He gets his hat just before the door closes - good news. The boulder comes rolling! - bad news. He escapes the boulder - good news. Belloq is waiting - bad news)
"Action, reaction" - the more connected the events in the action scene are, the better it is. Don't just film a lot of people shooting, and "work it out in editing". One spray of bullets makes the hero dodge, which forces him to roll under a table, which makes him come up another place than the bad guys expected, etc.... (Die Hard and Indiana Jones are prime examples)

Make sure the whole action sequence has a purpose that's visual, rather than just running and shooting. Meaning, have them fight over a suitcase or whatever.

Good luck. :)

- Jonas

[AngelDream]

Dunno what can I add to jussing's advices, but here's my 2 c:
I read once that everything in your movie should lead to the goal, the objective. Action sequences, if planned, should help to this too. The action sequence should be something that continues to develop the story, instead of being some fire, run, hide, jump, kick, etc.
It could be to enhance an hero character (Back to the future I, when George McFly's punches Biff), to unleash certain events (The peacemaker, beggining), to confirm the villain (spiderman 2, doc octopus in the hospital), to put an end to a long term fight (Lethal Weapon 4, scene with Jet Li), etc

[jussing]

True, true!

It just struck me yesterday that you can divide all action into two categories:

Actual suspense - your average action scene, typically in the middle, and certainly in the end of an action movie. This is the kind of action scene where the luck of the hero keeps changing, things go wrong, but in the end he barely makes it.
If the hero has a plan for the final showdown, things do NOT go according to plan, that would be too boring for a climax. We need suspense.
Symbolic badass action - typically an opening sequence, meant only to show the superior badass-ness of a hero or villain. The difference between symbolic action and suspense action is that where suspense action is supposed to make us wonder "if the good guy makes it", symbolic action is something like the opening scene of The Rock, Peacemaker (as Angeldream pointed out) or Leon (The Professional), where everything goes according to plan, there are no glitches, and no "barely making it" (although, there is a glitch in The Rock - a gas canister opens and a team member dies, but this is again only a symbolic scene meant to show us the force of the gas, which creates suspense in the rest of the movie, but not here and now - the mission is completed without any resistance).

This kind of sequence is only meant to show us how superior a certain character or team is, which is usually a setup for the rest of the movie - ie, after the opening sequence we know how badass this character is, what kind of story we're going into, what the hero is up against, or why the hero is chosen as the agent to fight the bad guys.

Not all opening action sequences are symbolic badassness - Raiders of the Lost ark and Matrix are two examples of the opposite, where we have general suspense, things almost going wrong, the hero almost biting the dust 10 minutes into the movie.

Mission Impossible II also has several symbolic action scenes for both hero and villains, and not just in the opening: Ambrose's opening plane raid, plus his entrance in Biocyte later where they just shoot guards to walk in. Ethan Hunt has symbolic action where he takes out guards like flies to enter the bad guy's island, so calmly that he even continues to talk to his team on the radio while he ninjitsues around the fortress. Once he gets past the outer defense, however, the action changes to suspense, where Ethan gets in real trouble.

Die Hard has symbolic action whenever the bad guys deal with guards and cops - because that's all part of their plan, and they are superior, and take them out with no trouble. But all confrontations between Mclane and villains are suspense, not symbolic, because both sides are pushed to the limit.

In Matrix, most action is suspense, but Neo and Trinity's raid in the police station lobby is so much a massacre that I daresay it's symbolic - they just walk right in. Most fist-fights are suspense-action, but In the end, when Neo has "awakened", he fights one of the agents with one hand on his back, and he moves almost in slow-motion. That's symbolic badassness, the agent doesn't stand a chance.

Terminator movies: whenever the terminators fight people other than the main characters, it's symbolic, and they just maul them. When they fight the heroes, they meet their match.

Bottomline:

Symbolic action: When heros and villains fight SOMEBODY ELSE, we just need to see how cool they are
Suspense action: When heros and villains fight EACH OTHER, they meet their match, and are pushed to the limit
What kind of action are you writing?

- Jonas

[crazymovies]

Hey Guys!

Next project,

I need an idea for a short sequence/short horror movie that has to be 1-2 minutes. It can be anything. Any ideas will help.

[jussing]

Uhm..... say what?

Hold on, what happened to the action scene?

Are we doing your film school homework?

- Jonas

[crazymovies]

Uhm..... say what?

Hold on, what happened to the action scene?

Are we doing your film school homework?

- Jonas

I made the action sequence off my own idea, its all done and edited, its awesome. I just use these ideas to jumpstart my brain to get ideas flowing and I have to say all your ideas helped alot!

No this isnt film school homework. I just love making movies and I want to do like every theme.
Thanks

[jussing]

Oh OK, great. :) Can we see the result, I'd like to see what you cooked up.

Good luck with the horror project,
- Jonas

[crazymovies]

Alright, Ill get it up as soon as I can.

but for now do you guys have any horror ideas?

A guy getting scared shitless from something?
A guy walking through the halls of a school and bodies are being throw against windows inside of classrooms?

Please help

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