i've done a lot of kung-fu action movies, and you don't have to plan each camera movement, but you have to plan the fight itself. rip-off other action movies if you have to, but if you just improvise on the spot its going to be really bad.

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How about planning out the path they take and some dramatic scenes, and just letting the people flesh out the rest? Honestly these guys have never used swords before in their lives. Hmm, This is going to be interesting...

Or do a little storyboarding to plot the action.

??Goofy Horace??

If it's a couple of your friends just goofing around, you could get away with just running with it. Someone could get hurt, so be aware. However, if you are using people who know what they're doing, they will carefully choreograph and rehearse each and every move.

I have shot several stunt scenes and fights, you want to watch the fight scene over and over and you want it to be exactly the same each time so you can plan and shoot great coverage.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

If they are your friends, and you are serious about this film, make sure they do not just play around with the swords if you are trying to plan it. Trust me this has happened to me before. If you are being serious about this short, just make sure your actors don't start goofing around and not pay attention to you.

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When the script writing is done, the work has just begun. When the filming is done, the work has just begun. When post-production is done, the work has just begun. When the distribution is done, you decide if the work is done.

i worked with guys that had 10+ years of martial arts experience, and a lot of choreography/camera movement had to be planned out, and a LOT of film-coverage had to be done to make sure that everything was caught properly.

trust me, there is nothing worse than a bad fight scene.

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The lesson I learned directing is that Action scenes are hard (at least for me). Get what you think you need and then get it again and again and again from different angles because you'll want lots to work with in editing.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Not only would Choreography be important for shooting the fight scene but the composition of the shot is also important. There are some camera angles that you can use to make the fight seem faster based on the length of the lens you use, this is even true for digital cameras as well.

So to plot out the fight scene completly from start to finish as well as plotting out the elements and the composition of each shot for the scene will make the shoot better and the edit easier.

Michael Rogers
McRogson

I've studied martial arts for 20 odd years including about 18 years of Japanese sword fighting. I'd go for rehersing again and again.

The most obvious mistakes are when the person receiving an attack anticipates and moves so early he gets the block in before the attacker has cut. You'll never lose this without experienced fighters or rehersals.

The next stage is when the timing gets better, but both still move at the same time. The result is that they look like they are trying to hit each other's swords, not their bodies.

The last stage is when the attacker attacks and the defender seems to react, just in time, and manage to block the sword by the skin of his teeth.

For what it's worth, my advice would be to keep it simple, have the actors pause between cuts like they are really trying to get inside the persons defences, then launch and parry. Not everyone was a brilliant swordsman. Some won by muscle. Nick the best moves from anywhere and pace the action with dialogue, feints, missed lunges, swearing, mistakes, whatever.

Good luck and hope you don't have any injuries.

Hi there, I happen to be a sword fighter who has been doing live displays and is now gearing up to do my first sword fighting movie, and my advice to you if your fighters don't know anything about sword fighting is not to focus on the sword play at all. Hollywood does this all the time, because their actors don't know what they're doing either, and non-swordfighters can't tell.

Focus more on the mental game, close-ups on faces during combat so you can't see the technique or exactly what the move is, but still capturing the intensity.

Of course you still need wide shots but use them sparingly or quick cuts.

Quick cuts are the other hollywood technique, that makes noobs look like they can fight. Get as much footage as you can and then put the fight together how ever you like in the editing room, you'd be surprised how much you can play around in the editing room.

A good fight needs its own story, it is a mini story inside the overall story arc. This how you draw an audience in, the characters need to have good enough motivation that the audience will give a crap enough to watch, unless of course you have Tony Jaa. The moves are just like lines of dialogue exchanged between your actors. Every move tells your audience more about your character just like every word he says. Is he brutal and menacing, is he defensive and light on his feet, is a cocky and acrobatic?

Once again instead of focusing on the sword play, focus instead on the space, have them run around, jump off things, play to your actors physical strengths. Can they wrestle? Can they kick?

Just remember what your limits are, you can't do this in the Hong Kong style, with wide shots and big long takes of choreography, go for the choppy choppy hollywood quick cutting style, with lots of close ups and cut aways.

Cheers and fight safe.

Prepare to Fecht!