How do I choreograph a fight scene?

Question:I am making a sword fighting movie in class i have the people but i want to teach them how to sword fight. I need Help and fast!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I am making a sword fighting movie in class i have the people but i want to teach them how to sword fight. I need Help and fast!

I am a professional Fight Choreographer... and I seriously suggest finding a TRAINED fight choreographer for SAFETY sake.

If you're going to do this anyway - on your own, without someone there trained in stage combat to guide and teach you... here are some things you should follow:

The rules of stage combat:

DISTANCE: the fighters should never be close enough to actually hit each other's body with the weapon. This is going to keep your fighters safe. If someone messes up and swings their weapon in a way they're not supposed to - if they have DISTANCE - the other person will not get hit or hurt.

PLACEMENT: This is how and where you move your weapons. NEVER swing a sword across someone's body and especially their face. There is nothing scarier than seeing someone's sword point at your face. With placement - this is an added SAFETY feature - so if someone messes up and they forget to keep DISTANCE - but they are keeping their PLACEMENT - the other actor won't get hit or hurt.

Placement for stage combat sword fighting: When attacking your targets are always OUTSIDE the body (about 8 inches) - not the actual body itself.

Low-line attacks: the target is 8 inches outside the hip (left and right).

Low-line parries (blocks): you place your sword with your point toward the ground slightly in front of and outside your hip (at about 45 degrees from your body).

High-line attacks: the target is 8 inches outside the body at ELBOW level. When attacking the high line, be sure that your wrist is higher than the point of the sword, creating a slight downward angle with the weapon. This way, the point will not accidentally cross the face.

High-line parries: the blade is straight up and down - perpendicular to the floor - with the point to the sky. Your wrist should be lower than your elbow (otherwise the person attacking is going to start attacking higher and closer to you face level.)

Attacks to the head: The target is 8 inches above the head - like you're going for the top of a tall hat.

Parrying the attack to the head: Your sword should be parallel to the ground like a table top in front of your stomach and then you lift it straight up, like you're opening a window, making sure your blade remains flat. This should be slightly in front of you and slightly above your head.

NOTE about parries: All parries should start from the inside of your body - out. Meaning that if someone is attacking my left elbow - my sword actually starts on the right side of my body and I move it leftward to meet the attacking weapon. Think of it as pushing the other weapon away - even though there is no pushing motion, since you are both going to your targets outside the elbow and meeting there in a nice clean *ting.*

If someone is attacking my left elbow and I bring my sword from the left to try to parry the "attack" I'm actually quite likely to trap their blade and force it into my own body - which is not good or safe. You don't want to help your "opponent" to win. This is especially something to pay attention to with cuts to the head - because a lot of new fighters tend to try to parry those from the outside - in which is just asking for someone to slice your face open. It's quite dangerous - so just make sure your actors parry from the center of their body out.

NOTE about attacks: Contrary to popular belief, you do NOT hit your swords together HARD. It's not like swinging a baseball bat. And this is not what makes a fight look good or dangerous. This is how people get hurt. Even historically, people didn't try to hit weapons hard, like you're going to use brute force to kill your opponent. Their metal was not tempered to take that kind of abuse. This is how you break weapons.

If you have ever tried to just stab a fork into a piece of raw chicken, it's actually kind of difficult. But if you take a knife and use a slicing motion, it's much easier to penetrate the piece of meat. This is what people did historically (it's easier to slice through a suit of armor - and the person inside - than it is to bash it.)

In stage combat, we also go with the slicing motion - not only because it's going to look better, be more accurate historically, and save your muscles, but also because it is much, much SAFER.

Just as a weapon should never go across anyone else's body, no FORCE should ever go toward anyone's body, either.

When attacking with a sword, the energy should go past the other person - so if you were to accidentally let go of the sword at the end of the attack, your sword would fly past them instead of into them.

The best way to really visualize how to do this is to think of fly fishing. Like you're casting a reel into the middle of a lake. The energy is going toward the middle of the lake. Try it with the cut to the head - cast that reel - the sword should feel like it could fly OVER the other person's head, rather than into it. There should never be any weight on the parrying actor's sword.

TIMING: is the next rule of stage combat. You have your safe DISTANCE, the actors know their PLACEMENT, and now it is a matter of working out the timing so it looks like the parry is coming just in the nick of time. If the parry comes to early... the actor looks a bit psychic and it's not believable. If the parry comes too late, the person throwing the attack looks a bit lame if the other person hasn't parried and they're just hanging out there waiting for the other person to remember to parry (even though it looks silly - this is what you should do if such a mistake happens - there is NEVER any improvisation in stage combat.) It takes work to get the timing right - but the timing will make or break a fight - whether it's exciting or whether it just looks sloppy and amateurish.

PRACTICE: Stage combat - sword fighting for stage and film is very complicated and can be very DANGEROUS - and that is why you need a TRAINED fight choreographer to teach you and correct mistakes. It takes a lot of practice, just as you do if you were going to choreograph a dance. Stage combat is a dance of implied violence. You need to think about all of the same things as you do with dance, but now you have the added complication of a weapon (or two) involved.

A general rule for stage combat is: for every SECOND of fight you need to have an HOUR of rehearsal. That's a lot of practice. And it's important to have a safe and well-executed fight.

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Despite my stressing that you need to have a fight choreographer and that a sword fight should not be attempted by people who don't know what they're doing... you are probably going to do it anyway.

My advice:

Follow the above rules.

Take it slow. A fast fight isn't necessarily a good fight. In my experience, inexperienced people will try to fight fast, thinking that this is what is going to make the fight exciting. It just looks horribly sloppy when you fight faster than you are capable of. It also makes the fight really dangerous.

A fight that is slow, but precise, well timed, and well acted - is going to be a thousand times more exciting and more interesting to watch - than sloppy fighters just trying to be fast.

Remember, in film and on stage - you are telling a story. And you cannot get that story across if the audience cannot follow the action. Make it clear who is attacking - with a clean attacking motion and a fully extended arm toward one of the targets mentioned above.

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Make it clear who is defending, by making sure the parrying person's sword is straight up and down.
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Keep the choreography short and simple.

Person A Person B

1. cut to left hip -----> parry low line left
2. parry head <----- cut to head
3. cut to right him -----> parry low line right

Now you have a 3 move fight. To make the fight longer, just repeat these moves, but have the other person start it.

4. parry low line left <----- cut to left hip
5. cut to head ------> parry head
6. parry low line right <----- cut to right hip

Now you have a 6 move fight, but it's simple enough to learn and get it well rehearsed. You can repeat these moves more if you wanted to. Play with the rhythm of the attacks, once you feel comfortable with the distance and placement.

The attacks and parries don't have to be evenly paced. You can have something like...
quick, slow, quick... quick, quick, slow
And something like that right there is going to make the fight more interesting, because the audience can't anticipate exactly how things are going to happen.

Remember, that in a staged fight, there are no actual opponents. Just partners, so you want to work together. One actor should never try to trick the other actor as to when an attack is going to come. It should be so carefully choreographed and timed and cued so that everyone knows what exactly is going to happen. That way the actors are safe and can act the fight anyway they want without fear that they're going to be surprised or attacked for real in anyway.

Everything is choreographed. NOTHING is ever improvised. If a mistake happens. Stop. Regroup. And start again. It's perfectly fine, to even yell out what move is next. It's much better to be safe and do that, than try to improvise and have someone get hurt.

As for what to fight with - do NOT use any sort of plastic sword. Especially the kind that are hollow inside. These are not made to fight with. If you end up hitting too hard, plastic will break and splinter leaving sharp bits of plastic - and sometimes these shards will fly and hit the actors or even the audience.

Do NOT use metal swords that are not specifically made for stage combat. Decorative swords are not made to be used - and often times they will have sharp edges and a point. In stage combat you don't want anything with a point or anything that is sharp.

You could use wooden dowels - you can find them in most hardware or hobby shops. Not too thin, though. Again, you're not going to hit hard with these, because they can break as well and sharp splintered wood is not a good thing to have flying about. For the most part, they are rather sturdy and I use dowels when I teach beginner students.

The bottom line is SAFETY at all times.

watch an old pirate movie for dome pointers

start slow (like even slow motion) use sticks to start then move on to heavier "swords" just make sure that no one gets hurt thats the most important part :Dremember slow motion fights look great on stage..numbering peolpe works well u can go ok number 5 swings now, number 3 now, etc...decided who wins and make a short story of how tey get there...if you use slow motion make sure they have huge facial expressions and are happy to get involved :D
hope that helped
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Use sound effects of sword fighting and just show their faces.

You'll need to teach them (or someone would need to) how to do actual swordfighting, at least just the basics. This is how a swordfighting scene is made in movies. If the actors doesn't know anything about swordfighting, you'd be sure to make swordfighting scene that looks odd, unnatural, and looks like a made up (well unless you're creating comedy, which would fit just great).

PS: Face closeups only and sound effects only works for light sabers in Star Wars, they won't work for regular swords

You're going to have to break it down to three, maybe four moves and shoot it in short pieces.

Thrust/block

In feature films actors often train for weeks before shooting starts and work with other actors and student doubles.