When is it too much action?

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • When is it too much action?

    Hi all.
    I am working on an action ensemble script. I am in the early stages of the first draft right now and I am wondering how detailed do I need to be in the action scenes.

    I admit I have a tendency to overwrite certain elements like description so my question is how detailed do I need to explain the action/fight elements.

    Do I need to describe each character's movements during the scene down to the little things like arm/leg/weapon positions, or should it be more vague so the director can have his/her own ideas as far as details are concerned?

    I don't want to be too rigid and controlling of the scenes in the writing so any help here would be appreciated.

    As always, I wish everyone the best in their writing endeavors.

  • #2
    Re: When is it too much action?

    Originally posted by Darthclaw13 View Post
    Hi all.
    I am working on an action ensemble script. I am in the early stages of the first draft right now and I am wondering how detailed do I need to be in the action scenes.

    I admit I have a tendency to overwrite certain elements like description so my question is how detailed do I need to explain the action/fight elements.

    Do I need to describe each character's movements during the scene down to the little things like arm/leg/weapon positions, or should it be more vague so the director can have his/her own ideas as far as details are concerned?

    I don't want to be too rigid and controlling of the scenes in the writing so any help here would be appreciated.

    As always, I wish everyone the best in their writing endeavors.
    This is from Shane Black's "Lethal Weapon" script. It didn't make it to the movie. Four people are torturing a dog and Riggs decides to free it. He's spent some time picking the fight.

    -----------

    No doubt about it. We know from the look in Riggs' eyes
    he's nuts. He wants the fight, badly, all four of them
    at once ...

    And then Punk #1 springs...
    Big mistake.

    Needless to say, mincemeat is made of the four meddlesome
    dog-torturers.

    The beach is littered with their writhing forms as Riggs
    does, finally, what he set out to do:

    Unties the dog.
    "I just couldn't live in a world without me."

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: When is it too much action?

      Arm, leg, weapon positions seem a bit over the top.

      But I think I'd want to write some details just to give a flavor of how each character fights, what their chosen weapons are, etc. If someone does a John Woo slow motion dive with a blazing Glock in each hand, I want to know about it.

      Bill Martell's "Why Write A Fight Scene?" tip, http://www.scriptsecrets.net/tips/tip324.htm

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: When is it too much action?

        And at the other end of Black's minimalism is Deadpool; more granular, yet entertaining, as it *moves* quite well. Just like dialogue, the *action* should have a perpose in telling the story. Otherwise it's just stuff happening (yawn)

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: When is it too much action?

          We have on this board someone (Bill Martell) who is the master of the action film. He may offer some comments.


          Here is how I see it. I have a really good ability to see things in my mind's eye.



          But I get totally flummoxed when someone starts choreographing every move, in detail, in a script. I lose my sense of the overall action, and I get really annoyed and bored - and fast.


          So my advice is: Try to find the right balance. Years ago this question came up and somebody said, very wisely, that you cannot get away with a description like "Insert neat fight scene here."


          But I, for one, do not want to have a description of every swing, kick, and dodge.

          "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: When is it too much action?

            As ever, the answer is 'read pro scripts'.

            Whether they're minimalist like Walter Hill or more involved like Gregory Widen, they all work within the same parameters and all avoid the truly extraneous and poor.
            M.A.G.A.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: When is it too much action?

              when it's not entertaining. when it's a chore to read. when it's redundant. boring. arduous. prohibitive. confusing. unclear.

              the goal is to provide enough information that the reader "sees" what's happening, that they understand what's happening, and probably most important, that it is entertaining.

              you are writing a piece of entertainment. If it's not entertaining you're dead.

              no one can tell you how much or how little to write. it depends on the needs of the story.

              sometimes a tight-in shot requires more detail because you might want/need to create more suspense, tension, anxiety, and dread.

              a wide shot of a chase scene, for example, might require less detail with larger brush strokes.

              unless, of course you have a sweeping epic-eske, heavens and earth battle where the detail may vary as you move in and back out of shots.

              like everything with writing, i don't think there are hard and fast rules. except write only what is necessary. allow the reader's mind to fill in the blanks. their imaginations may be better than yours

              if the words on the page do the job, the best job, that's all that matters.
              "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: When is it too much action?

                This is a great question – I have often overwritten action scenes either because I felt that it was impressive to show off every little detail, or simply because I had not planned the scene the way that I would’ve a dialogue scene and therefore didn’t quite know the beats.

                My biggest piece of advice is to treat action scenes the same way that you would a dramatic scene. Does the scene turn? What are the pivotal moments? Whose point of view are we following? Is there an emotional arc to the scene?

                In terms of sheer economy nobody does it better than Walter Hill. I urge you to check out his screenplays for hard times and driver. They are riveting reads and probably the best examples of his haiku philosophy.

                He uses flashes of information and creates an almost abstract impression of the scene by writing only the most essential elements. It’s not for everyone but if you can pull it off you might be onto something seeing as very few people write that way these days.



                Originally posted by Darthclaw13 View Post
                Hi all.
                I am working on an action ensemble script. I am in the early stages of the first draft right now and I am wondering how detailed do I need to be in the action scenes.

                I admit I have a tendency to overwrite certain elements like description so my question is how detailed do I need to explain the action/fight elements.

                Do I need to describe each character's movements during the scene down to the little things like arm/leg/weapon positions, or should it be more vague so the director can have his/her own ideas as far as details are concerned?

                I don't want to be too rigid and controlling of the scenes in the writing so any help here would be appreciated.

                As always, I wish everyone the best in their writing endeavors.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: When is it too much action?

                  Originally posted by Darthclaw13 View Post
                  Hi all.
                  I am working on an action ensemble script. I am in the early stages of the first draft right now and I am wondering how detailed do I need to be in the action scenes.

                  I admit I have a tendency to overwrite certain elements like description so my question is how detailed do I need to explain the action/fight elements.

                  Do I need to describe each character's movements during the scene down to the little things like arm/leg/weapon positions, or should it be more vague so the director can have his/her own ideas as far as details are concerned?

                  I don't want to be too rigid and controlling of the scenes in the writing so any help here would be appreciated.

                  As always, I wish everyone the best in their writing endeavors.
                  What has always guided me in scenes like these - and in writing horror scenes or comedy scenes (which I also have to write occasionally) is one simple idea --

                  Action scenes (or horror or comedy or whatever) -- are character scenes.

                  If you are not exploring or developing your characters in the course of the action, then it's just bang-bang-boom-boom.

                  So what are "character" scenes? They are scenes that force the people in them (usually the protagonist or antagonist or both) to make decisions that force them to reveal themselves and make hard decisions -- often while running fast, driving fast, fighting, shooting, riding horses -- disarming bombs -- and sometimes all of the above at the same time.

                  But you should also be asking (about your character) -- what does he want, what does he need, what does he care about -- what kind of person is he -- and the answers are going to determine how he acts and reacts in the context of an action scene -- or any other kind of scene.

                  Is he going to act like Jackie Chan in Drunken Master or Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible Fallout or Tony Jaa in Ong Bak or John McClain in Die Hard?

                  The action scenes in all of these movies are memorable because they are also character scenes.

                  They really only work because those scenes need to have those particular characters in those scenes. They're not just interchangeable generic bang-bang-boom-boom.

                  NMS

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: When is it too much action?

                    Nice answer by nmstevens.

                    In going back over this thread, I followed Derek Patterson's link to a Bill Martell article on this subject.

                    Just like nmstevens, Bill brought out the point about character.

                    "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X