Hello Writers,
A person’s voice is an individual and intimate thing. It is influenced by so many things, such as your genes, your upbringing, your age, your mindset and values, your eating, drinking and tobacco habits, your emotions, professional training and so on.
The voice can be very revealing and tell your audience a lot about your characters no matter what they actually say. But you can use the character’s voice to reveal information even more effectively when you do not let them utter understandable words and sentences but only noises.
There are two main reasons for this which are basically the same. The first one is that noises speak a universal language everybody understands. To put it bluntly, it’s a language that dates back to when we were animals and draws upon our instincts. So, the second reason is that this language seems to circumvent reasoning to some extent. You understand the noise and are influenced by it before you even have the chance to think about it. And that makes it a great tool for martial artists, filmmakers and writers, of course.
In this article for the Immersive Action Writing Method, we’ll dive into the use of shouts and noises in martial arts tradition and their use in hand-to-hand action scenes.
Now, in martial arts, probably the first shout that comes to mind is Karate’s famous KIAI. Ki means energy, Ai means harmony or focus. Screaming Kiai while attacking serves to harmonize body and mind to focus on the strike thus lending it more power. It serves to keep focusing on the fight after you land a hit so you don’t lose your concentration to the joy of incomplete success. A scream can also intimidate the opponent and make him/her lose heart.
However, for an experienced martial artist, the Kiai opens up a veritable gap in the defense of the shouting fighter when the attack is blocked or evaded. Because for a fracture of a second, the “harmonized” body and mind take away the fighter’s ability to adapt to the new situation, and a fracture of a second in fighting can mean life or death.Imagine a Karate Fighter who has practiced the art for years and cultivated the Kiai with breathing exercises and countless hours of meditation, only to get beaten up by a street-hardened thug and then return to the dojo with the Samurai spirit he/she internalized. I’d love to watch a movie beginning like that.
In self-defense, shouts are mainly used to hurt the opponent when shouting directly in the ear to attract the attention of others who might help.
In my Kung Fu training, we learned to use different sounds that match certain fighting techniques. While Kung Fu most of the time is a silent art - except for the sounds of clothes in Hong Kong movies from the 70ies - there’s a lot of noise and sound science. In animal styles, for example, noises are used to immerse yourself even more, tap into your instincts, unsettle the opponent, be less predictable and get rid of the human fear.
There are also fighting forms dedicated to including clapping, snapping and stomping into your attack and defense patterns to direct the opponent’s attention and open gaps to exploit. You can see for yourself if you watch Chinese Wu-Shu tournaments.
Remember Indiana Jones just shooting the yelling saber guy?
Yeah, that could never happen to Bruce Lee whose iconic sounds you knew had to be included here, didn’t you? I love his sounds – and as a teenager even practiced them in my room – because they seem to comment on the fight and are an emotional dialogue with his opponents and himself.
The sounds seem to say: Not this time, my friend. You don’t stand a chance. You better don’t try that again. Suffer! It’s over! You can do it. And this, and that, I knew it, and (Pow) I got ya…
There are a lot of humiliating noises a fighter can make to drive his opponent insane or test his/her composure: The sound of yawning, kissing, applauding, sighing with pity, whistling a song...
In boxing matches, you quite often see fighters smile or hear them laugh after they receive a hit. It’s to tell the opponent: That all you got? You’re going down, champ!
A woman can drive a man insane with erotic noises. It’s nothing new to film to have a woman ostensibly seducing a man only to set up her murderous deed. But what about a female fighting expert using these noises during a fight to expose and vanquish a male aggressor?
During my Kung Fu training, women AND men learned a set to distract the opponent with sexy moves, handsome smiles and little noises, all to enter his/her mind and get the upper hand. A fracture of a second can make the difference…
And of course, we’ll cover talking before during and after the fight in the next article.Where’s my exercise you ask?
Here you go:
Make a martial arts noise when you do something absolutely normal.
It may seem ridiculous but trust me it's not. :-)
Closing the fridge – Hua!
Cutting fruit – Ya! To! Haiya!Parking the car backwards uphill – Whooooo!
Paying for a coffee with cash – KIAI!
Typing the last letter of your script - …
Yours
Till
