Best Fighting Angles

- Use angles that hide the fact that the hits don't really connect. Over the shoulder shots of either opponent works well for punches to the face.
- Use lots of coverage (same moves shot from different angles) in order to make the fight tighter if need be (or hide jump cuts). The more choices you have in editing, the better fight you'll come up with.
- Get close to your fighters from time to time. Too many amateurs use only wide shots.
- Try to make the fight original; if you can't think of some really cool moves, then keep the fight short. Think about pacing; vary the intensity and try to end with an explosive climax. There's nothing worse than a lane ending to a good fight.

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"May the Force be with you."

One way to be sure you don't see an "airball" is to only have one character in shot. For example your villian throws a punch past the camera's field of view and you cut to your bloody hero stumbling back. Bridge the edit with the sound of impact.

By the way, my best friend, my brother and I just finished a movie today. It's called
Bright Fight (because it was all shot in daylight, and I couldn't think of anything better)!

It looked great. One of the punches looked so real, I had to convince myself it was fake after seeing it, since I was the one getting hit...I just didn't know we were so good at this! hehehe, j/k around, but the reason we were able to do this so well and realistic was because of you guys comments...thanks guys!

Oh, and I figured out another way to make punches and such look more real...ZOOM! In one scene, my enemy kneed me in the face, and it would of looked so fake if it weren't for the rapid movement and zoom of the camera, which went in perfect harmony with the take. So perfect!
I want you guys to know it's thanks to you. Thanks so much!

*If you're in for a truly realistic fight scene, watch Grosse Point Blank. Those hits sure seem to hurt. They're not overly athletic, and there's NO SPFX! Also, they're not ready for what to come next, which give it a sense of non-choreography, doing very well in this kind of movie.

*I'm not so sure about close-ups in fights. They really mostly seem to "cover up" for bad fighting. You don't see a close-up of Jackie's fists. Also, what they usually do, is that they film one exercised situation with two or three cameras, which makes it very easy to cut and make fluent.

*Don't exaggerate too much with angles, dollying and camera movement. Let the focus rest on the fighters and not the camerawork.

What's cool about the fighting is that it is not just high/fast kick- and punchcombinations, but rather a change among the different distance that is usually covered in any martial arts system; They move from distant fighting (kicks) to closer fighting (punches) to grappling/infighting (chokes and jointlocks).
All in all it makes a really neat fighting sequence that could *almost* be for real. (What makes it utterly cool is that it is so well done in a moive of this kind).
As for angles; there isn't really that many changes in angles. What they do (if memory serves me right) is that they change the camera-distance according to the fighting distance; close-ups when it is grappling, etc. And when they change from on distance to another, they also change angle so that the action is best covered (which may include over shoulder shots to "hide" the non-hitting).

Anyway, watch it! It is a nice change from the usual film-fights (if You want somethgin unusual that is). Nice to see Benny "the Jet" again too :-)

Another thing that must be added, though it makes me sound like the old nag I'm turning into (23) and though this isn't the subject, a fight scene is never interesting if there isn't any emotions envolved, and emotions only come when you've come to know a person, or in best cases, both fighters.

These emotions can be anger, vengeance (so overdone), fear (perhaps the best), pride, too-much-adrenaline, sorrow (which makes a rather slow and futile fighting style, I guess) or unsecurity. I'd play a lot with these, even if it's a comic or a purely actionbased fight scene.

I usually plan out simple angles like to the side and facing dead on both targets, no stylistic stuff. But that is the way I do it, everybody has their own style.

I hope that I have helped you out a little.