fighting camera work

[belovedmonster]

is there such a thing as the best angle to shoot impact from? ie. i wanna show someone getting punched, which angle will most diguise the fact he isnt really getting hit?

[Brainmuncher]

Position the camera (use a tripod) between and below the puncher and the punched, and angle the camera up at the puncher to make him look aggressive, immense, and scary. Cutaway to a quick shot of the fist moving, and then have a shot of the camera whirling round the punched guy to show pain and disblance. But dont wave it and knock it about to much or your viewers will throw up.

Its a pretty unusual way, so dont use it more than once.

[3n1]

I think the Best views are from behind the puncher, or the guy being punched, from these views ya can just swing your fist in front of there face & it looks real, from the side you can see the miss. although if you really need that side shot just put your fist to the side of the guys face.

[eidde]

try behind the punched guy with a zoom in.
Zooming in will make the two people appear closer than they are, so the punch can miss by miles, and still look good on camera.

[belovedmonster]

this idea that zooming in ruduces the focal length, would i get a better effect using a wide angle lense and zooming in alot, than if i was to use the normal lense and zoom in abit?

[emjen]

allright, I haven't really filmed much fighting scenes, but when I was just a little kid I always faked fighting to fool other adults with my friends, and whe had this golden rule:

Don't hit each other in the face.

Because you have to fake that. You can kick and punch eachother everywhere else, just mind the cronch area and practise a bit.

I know it's stupid for film, but if you kick and punch real it also looks real.

[eidde]

hello

no idea. Why not experiment and find out.

[Brainmuncher]

Ah my fave fight scene is the one between henrietta and ash in evil dead two. Or neo versus the smiths in the matrix reloaded.
Any body else got a faveourite?

[3n1]

fighting scenes are just alot fun to film, just a lot lot of different views, Be shaky, zoom in/out, I don't think it really matters that much.

The WORST thing you can do when filming a fight scene is to slow down the pace, try not to film a scene any more than 3-5 times, you and your cast will sorta lose the energy/insparation, just keep movin to the next shot, alot of times me & my brother go out to make like a "cool" puching scene, but end up taking so long on making each punch look good, that we end up quiting on about the 5th punch.

You make things look ALOT better in post, with editing/fast/slow motion.

Good Luck!

[Filmmaker58]

Create an imaginary line between the camera, and the person recieving the punch (called the impact line. The senders punch has to cross that line, and the reciever needs to react at that moment, and that will sell the punch. There is an excellent instructional video called "Fightscenes For Motion Pictures" available at www.kbproducts.com
(and I'm not just saying that because I produced it...lol) that shows in detail the secrets used by Hollywood filmmakers to create dynamic fight scenes. This video includes tips on exactly what you're talking about, editing tricks, etc. etc.