very short action short

The best advice I can give is to just jump in EN MEDIA RES (in the middle of the action). A lotta short filmmakers waste too much time with exposition. Give your audience some credit!

Also: just go shoot it. And then shoot another one. And another one. Don't try to make the perfect film on your first go round.

B.
 
Here is a 5 pg script I wrote for a writing class. It's the 1st 5 pages of an Indiana Jones movie. It's not very good as far as Indy goes, but it has quite a lot of action. You could easily change the settings / characters to make it work for you. It has gun fights, hand-2-hand, and the start of a car chase at the end. You could cut a lot of the dialogue, which gets wordy toward the end.

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/10663/1176830905.zip
 
It's not my first film. It will be my first action-packed film. I want it to be just a bunch of chaotic, exciting, intense action. But shouldn't there be a reason? Or should I just make an acion sequence with no plot?
 
srproductions said:
It's not my first film. It will be my first action-packed film. I want it to be just a bunch of chaotic, exciting, intense action. But shouldn't there be a reason? Or should I just make an acion sequence with no plot?
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It doesn't need to tell a story, but there should be, at the very least, a suggestion of a story. You need to know the story when you are writing it, because what happens in your short needs to consistently follow whatever story logic you have built into the world of the short.

Story isn't hard to create in an action movie. If two groups of people fight over a briefcase for five minutes across various settings, that is a story. It may not be the most interesting story in the world, but it is a story. That's basically the story to the film Ronin, and I love that movie.

Look at the construction site chase scene from Casino Royale. That purpose of that scene isn't really revealed until the very end, when Bond looks at the message on the cellphone, but it does have a plot: Bond needs to catch that guy, and the other guy doesn't want to be caught. Yet again, that is a plot.

Now you probably need more of a plot than just two people wanting the other person dead, because having 2 people shooting guns at each other for five minutes with no goal would get old pretty quick.

Action plots are easy to create:
3 guys w/ guns run out of a bank. The cops are there, but the getaway car pulls up first.

Bob steals a briefcase from Steve, and Steve chases Bob down.

Bob is a terrorist who needs to get a suitcase bomb to his target, and Steve needs to stop him.

Bob sees drug-dealer Steve kill somebody, and Steve sends his goons after Bob.




I can go on and on.
 
Here's my idea. What do you guys think?

It opens up with the hero speaking into his "revised video iPod" and showing a guy in an office. They have a very short conversation and the small army attacks. Chaotic action for a few minutes. He escapes them and gets a video message from the atagonist, saying that if he doesn't give up the tape, he will kill his daughter. More chaotic action. The twist is that he gives up the tape and gets away, but he had loaded the tape into his iPod, so the guy already has what he needs. I will explain more in detail later. What do you guys think?
 
As long as you remember that what you wanted was to execute some great action scenes. I hope you realize that this limits your ability to make a "good" film. So it really boils down to how your going to show the action in the final cut. Hope it turns out wicked, keep us posted.
 
How does it limit the ability to make a good film?

I am seriously considering just making some chaotic action with not much of a story.
 
Then go for a cliche! Revenge. "You killed my brother, now i've got to kill you to." and your hero fights his way through a whole camp of bad guys until he gets a boss. That should save you a lot of trouble!
 
srproductions said:
How does it limit the ability to make a good film?
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What I mean is, this isn't going to be Vertigo or anything, simply because its mostly chaotic action with a plot to tie it all together. You can make this very technically advanced, but it wont be prime cinema. Which, dont get me wrong, is definately fine I wasnt trying to bring you down or anything, i was just pointing out a common misconception among most amateur flmmakers that i know: that a cool flick=great film. Cant wait to see how it comes out.
 
Oh no, i just think it's the nature of the genre. You want to make it as great a story as possible while still being visually stunning, and you shouldnt have to sacrifice one for the other. This is just a short, so your working in a very forgiving medium. But historically these hollywood action movies dont have a lot to drive them and dont tend to fall under the category of my favourite films.
Although simplicity is an under rated, I think you could do with a nice twist to spice up the story, and at the very least, trick the audience in thinking they watched a much deeper story than they did.
 
srproductions said:
So, should I go for something simpler? Maybe no twist?
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I think his problem is with the "chaotic action" description. It sounds generic, when the action should derive from the story. You could make any plot fit your description: Plot pt. 1.....lots of fighting......plot pt. 2.....lots of fighting.....plot pt. 3
 
srproductions said:
How could I do this?
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You do it by creating the sense that the world is bigger than just what you have shown in the short. You create the sense that the plot is bigger than just what the audience has seen. Hints at a larger story. Hints that the characters exist outside of the film. If you want more suggestions, write it, and then we'll tell you what we think.
 
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If you have ever seen Memento there is a scene Which starts with Guy Pearce Chasing someone but he doesn't know why (He's lost his memory) and it quickly transpires that actually the other man is in fact chasing him.

Not suggesting you rip this off but starting in the midst of action and letting the protagonist work out what's going on in the middle of the action will bring your audience in with them. (A soldier shell shocked in battle finds himself amidst the enemy but doesn't realise it)

Maybe have you protagonist completely unconnected with the force against them (friends hiking abroad stumble on a rebel camp. One friend is killed and the other is hunted).

Have an innocent become the victim of a crime. (Person walking home from a party late at night is set upon by a street gang)

Or have no plot at all. (Make the art house Die Hard) Just glory in some style over substance MTV generation eye candy.
 
You can't really have people come up with your ideas for you.

What is a point you want to make? Now, how could you show that?
 
You could adapt a story from another medium (comic book, video game), or recreate an action scene from another film (tea house shootout, anyone?)

I wouldn't really recomend the latter, though.
 
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