Balancing realism with safety

[jghenderson]

Hey everyone. In ~2 weeks I will be directing my first action scene ever. I am excited to venture into this new territory, but i'm getting more worried as the pre-production process goes along.

The fight itself will be 30-45 seconds long. I want it to take place in a back alley location I found that is really great. The basic concept is that the main character is trying to take something from the second character, while the second character is mostly trying to escape. To really express this I want to use some grapples and trips. My main concern is that the location I want is kind of shoddy, with old broken pavement. Obviously something that would be painful to fall on.

How do I find the balance between the realism of having ground fighting, and not wanting to risk the actors getting cut/scraped, etc. I am very lucky in that my main actress is a trained martial artist, and the guy she will be fighting is a highly trained martial arts instructor (who actually owns his own karate studio). But even with training like that, it would obviously still hurt to be tripped onto ground like this.

I know the perhaps obvious answer is to get padding they can fall onto, and just use a lot of closeups and fast cuts to hide this. Is there any way to avoid this? I like fights that are as uncut as possible, but I just don't know if we have the necessary tools and training to make that happen, especially in a location like i've chosen.

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[Cassius]

For similar shots in the past (tripping on a sidewalk) I've been hired to replace blue colored mats (think gym class) with a background slate of the ground from the same angle. It takes some roto work to clean up but I was able to get it looking pretty decent.

 

[novicemonk]

Hi JG

You are right to be concerned about your actors' safety - it's good because some ambitious directors really don't care. I know you don't want to hear this but firstly TRY to get an experienced professional stunt or fight coordinator to help you. You may think this is impossible, but you never know. A pro stunt performer who wants to move into coordinating may be happy to come down and help on the day. You will doubtless benefit from their experience. To be honest (and blunt), I was a bit concerned when you wrote " am very lucky in that my main actress is a trained martial artist, and the guy she will be fighting is a highly trained martial arts instructor (who actually owns his own karate studio)." Having martial arts experience can obviously have benefits for performing action (ie Judoka knowing how to breakfall), but it's no substitute for real film experience. Sometimes martial artists with limited film experience can be over-confident when on a a film set. This can lead to accidents, or performances which don't work for the camera. Don't get me wrong - I write this as a stunt coord/performer with almost 25 years in martial arts.

Reading your post, my response - the same any stunt person would ask - is "What are your actor's wearing?" If you can - pad your actors. If you can't pad the floor - pad the actors. So if they can wear loose costumes which cover knees, elbows etc, they can wear motorbike/skateboard pads. Other "tricks" stunties will use are 1) having rubber matts which match the ground. 2) establishing something on the ground like flattened cardboard box, then shooting fight action with matts under the cardboard. 3) If it's dark, hide the judo matts under a black cloth in shadows.

I'm sorry if my post seems in any way patronising - that's not the intention. It's just that if you haven't already, you really should consider/try getting a professional stunt person's help . They do this stuff day in , day out. If you hope to shoot more action/fight scenes in your career, you will will have to get used to working with stunties. They don't all cost a fortune and live in LA. Best wishes with your shoot.

 

[jghenderson]

Thanks for the responses.

I don't think doing roto work would be feasible with my resources, unfortunately. Getting as much in camera as possible is the route i'm going to have to go.


I would love to hire a stunt coordinator, but unfortunately I have no budget for that, and the area we're shooting in is not a production hub (though only a few hours from one). I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try though, maybe i'll get lucky.

The wardrobe for the talent will be pants and jackets, so there is definitely room to pad them. I really like the idea of the cardboard boxes, it would definitely fit the location. I think that could definitely be used for part of the fight, at the very least for one fall.