Screenwriting : Writing a fight choreography? by Sebastian Garcia Lorenzo

Take a fight coordinator to lunch. Read a couple of your favorite action/fight scripts to see how they did it. Then, write every piece of action that matters to the scene, characters, plot. Though writing all pertinent parts, keep 'em short and sweet. No shot angles or directorial instructions.

Definitely read scripts that have similar action to the one you are writing. Especially if the style of action is like a character. It may not make it into production, but it is great for setting tone. I have read action which had great detail like "..he lifts the unconscious guy by his collar and continued punching his face" and others with really sparse action "...they fight, Harry wins".

read Matrix and jason Bourne scripts. two contrasting ways the Writers describe ass kicking

A fight scene is an action scene and a story scene... and the key to making them exciting is reversals. I've got a book on this and have done classes everywhere on it. The important thing is not to leave it to the fight choreographer, their job is to interpret the script and if it ain't on the page they often go for generics.

I'm writing a comedy fight scene or two so I have to write the scene blow by blow because the fight actually has to be funny as well as the dialogue. This is proving to be really hard and while I have some actions that are funny I'm not happy with the whole fight. I have a feeling I'll be agonising over this for some time yet.

I think Cherie is on the right track. Be specific only if it is key to your story (e.g., Bob pushes Tim into the Ming vase which shatters, spilling the missing diamonds all over the floor.). What the set looks like and the director's preferences will probably be the determining factors.

I think of fight scenes like violent dialogue exchanges.

I also advise that you read action scripts to gauge how professional writers have handled action sequences. In addition, you may consider that readers typically only have a finite amount of mental energy that they are willing to devote to each script. They have a gas tank, and it will run empty. Do you want to burn all their gas on specific action description, or do you want to spread their attention over a greater portion of the script? Sometimes it may be necessary to get specific with action description, but if you can ration out the reader's goodwill and finite mental energy, making the script as digestible as practical, I'd suggest that you try to do so.

Cherry Check out Zorro script by Rossio/Elliot. The duo are masters at action fight comedy dialogue. pirates of carribean... lone Ranger movie script by them

Definitely agree with short and sweet. Just the bare bones, the Eb and flow, the near loss and unexpected win of the battle

Thanks Dan. If I can find it I'll have a look.

Some really good advise here, thanks. I'll start by reading some scripts as you mentioned. I'm working on a martial arts films so the fight choreography has to be very specific and detailed. I wasn't sure if I should get into all that detail in the script but that seems to be the best way to go. I'm basically going to be writer, fight choreographer and director. Would it be a bad idea to write the choreography with directions on how I want to shoot it? To me it sounds like that would save me time

Yep, if u gonna direct, it s fine writing direction, heck I would reference famous martial arts movie in script. Check out the martial arts classic, Blood N Bone starring Michael J White. Directed by Ben Ramsey (i used to know him. He s a martial arts junkie). That movie has cult status because White did all his stunts

I'm assuming you're producing the movie independently. This is a reductive explanation. If you're breaking down the fight, move by move, I think you should write a separate document that will be shared with the relevant production team members. If you had, for example, 20 pages of fight moves, that would throw off the AD who is scheduling the script. As a comparison, let's say you're writing FAST & THE FURIOUS. You wouldn't write every car race move into the script and expand it with another 40 pages or something of car race action. The race choreography would be decided in production meetings with storyboards, pre-viz, stunt drivers, etc. and expressed in supplemental production documents and visual aids.

As people might have seen in other posts, I also must respectfully disagree with Andrew BL. It's fine for a spec script to include a limited number of camera moves, songs, etc. within reason. It is the writer's job to tell the story and express your voice. However, the script is not a shot list, it's not a music cue sheet, it's not a lighting design plan, etc., so don't go overboard. I would guess that the majority of pro scripts I read include a few camera moves, and I never even blink when I read a camera move. I am certain that the majority do not include song choices. All should be within reason. You're the writer, not the Cinematographer or the Music Supervisor or the Costume Designer. But you are the storyteller and you are free to tell your story.

Quoting S32er William Martell, "There are no rules, only tools." I never before knew that amateurs needed to hear that from Martell until I read so many "rules" posts on Stage 32. For example: https://www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/POV-Format I had no idea that aspiring writers struggle with whether they are "allowed" to type "we" in stage direction. There's no issue!! I see "we" all the time, and I never blink. It's not "breaking a rule" to use "we." Now I have learned that aspiring writers are handcuffed by what they have been told are "rules." I do believe that we should all be educated and read current scripts. You're shooting yourself in the foot if you don't do your best to understand the market you're trying to break into. I work in Hollywood; I have to stay current on current projects just like you should if you want to reach Hollywood. If you want to stay indie, then you don't need to stay current regarding Hollywood projects at all. Depends on your intent.

I handle fight scenes to create a tight, terse visual. example... ADAM - Unleashes powerful punches and kicks at EVE - EVE - Parries the onslaught with practiced grace - She counters -- Throws and APPLE at Adam - BLAP! - Apple disintegrates against Adam's forehead - Knocking him out...

What I said earlier - a fight scene is a character scene and a story scene. You can't expect someone else to fill in the story or the character information for the writer. Don't abdicate the scene to someone else. If it is important enough to be in the movie, it needs to be on the page. Anything in the scene that is not important should not be on the page. Someone at the top of the thread suggested some scripts to read including THE MATRIX - which is a great example. Also look for scripts by Shane Black and Walter Hill... plus anything recent. Think story and character. If the scene isn't about those things, flush it I did a class for Writer's Digest on action scenes and used FURIOUS 7 as an example. In the first car chase scene (parachuting behind enemy lines) that whole scene was about characters and told a critical part of the story so that it could not be removed. Roman (who talks big) came up with the plan, but he is all talk... so when everyone else drives out of the plane he is afraid to. This creates a ticking clock because he could miss the drop zone due to his character. But Tej knew this was going to happen and has a back up that electronically forces his car out of the plane. But Roman's car lands in a tree on the very edge of the drop zone. Here's the cool thing about that - Roman's location ends up helping later in the chase. Meanwhile, big story & character element in this "chapter" is that Letty has amnesia and can not remember being married to Dom. But in this chase scene they end up working together and it's natural for her - the chase scene shows her realizing that she may not remember this guy, but they are in sync when it comes to driving. This scene is required for their character relationship. The other major story point in this scene comes from Brian, who is introduced as a suburban dad now. When Dom asks him if he misses the high speeds, he says what he misses the most is getting shot at. Wow! He's a real adrenaline junkie who has been forced to be a dad and husband for these past years. He overcompensates for that time in this scene by doing crazy things which could get him killed, and this scene forces him to really wrestle with who he really is - dad or kamikaze driver. That's what the actions in the scene show us - and without this scene, we loose his character story. The car chases and fight scenes in this film are all about the characters, and can't be removed without leaving a hole in the story. (Note: this is not the best film in the series by a long shot, it went through a massive rewrite when Paul Walker died and some of it doesn't make much sense, but none of the action scenes are action for the sake of action - the action scenes are used to tell the story.) In my book I look at some MATRIX scenes and look at some CASINO ROYALE scenes and even a scene from WANTED - character and story. Those stories would not work without those scenes. Any scene that isn't required to tell your story needs to be flushed.

Check out this podcast where they analysed and contrasted how verbal fights (arguments) and physical fights were done on the page: http://draft-zero.com/2016/dz-29/ They look at how the fights are written in EASTERN PROMISES, ROB ROY and THE FORCE AWAKENS. Hope it helps!

You are talking about writing a shooting script, not a first draft or spec script.