Extended Fight Scene

When making the draft for our fight scene, we realised that the scene was much shorter in the final edit that on paper. Due to this, we decided to extend the scene. We also taught the second actor the choreography as he was unavailable to shoot the previous draft. While filming, we made sure that both actors were comfortable with how the scene pans out to ensure that they could act it properly, without worrying about accidentally hurting themselves. We also practised recording high quality Foley for the scene.

Below is the full version of the fight scene, followed by a version with no audio to show how important the audio is.

When shooting this scene, we only filmed from one angle as the goal was to extend the fight and teach Dom the choreography, not experiment with angles. Because of this, some of the punches thrown clearly do not make contact as, when we film the actual opening, we will film from angles that make the punch appear to connect - this connection will be strengthened by shooting from far away, with a zoom lens. Doing this will give the impression that objects are closer together than they actually are.

To achieve the tackling to the ground effect, we made the actors act out the tackle up until they would fall over and then we cut. We then brought in a crash mat and had them fall onto the mat, while trying to keep the mat out of frame. Then, to finish off the effect, we filmed the actors holding themselves a few inches off the ground and then falling and then we edited them all together to achieve the appearance of a tackle.

Once we had edited the fight together, we took one or two frames out of the points in all of the hits where they are about to make contact. This made the punches seem much faster, giving the scene a more violent look.

Once we had shot and edited the scene, we decided to practise making and timing the Foley we will use in the actual opening. To do this we recorded several layers:

• Punches
• Clothes moving
• Footsteps
• Background noise (birds etc.)

Before recording the sounds, we set up a mattress, bent around the area we were recording to absorb any background noise.

Punches

The punches had several layers:

• The 'thudding' noise
• The 'cracking' noise
• The contact with the tactical vests

To achieve the thudding noise, we took a cushion and covered it with a towel. We then hit the cushion with a wooden spoon to achieve the low-pitched thud.

Once we had recorded the thudding noise, we moved onto the cracking noise.

To achieve the cracking noise, we kept the same set up, but we added a lettuce leaf and covered it with a damp cloth. This gave us the slapping noise as well, as if the punch had hit the skin.

This helped to achieve a feel that the punches were very powerful.

To record the sound of the hits on the tactical vests, we took a vest and punched it.

Once all of the punch sounds were recorded, we layered them in varying volumes to make the punches sound like some were more powerful than others.

Clothes moving

To record the sound of the clothes moving, we took one of the tactical vests and recorded it being rubbed against itself at varying speeds. We then applied the sound to the correct parts of the video to achieve the correct feel.

Footsteps

To achieve the footstep sounds, Tom held the boom pole, aimed at his feet, while walking outside on the grass. We used these sparingly to subtly add to the realism of the piece.

Background noise

To record the background noise we just recorded roughly 40 seconds of footage outside, with no one talking. We did this to help blend all of the other layers together. If we did not do this then the punches would have been obviously overdubbed. 

None of the audio in this fight scene was recorded on the set - it was all Foley. We decided to recreate all of the audio in post as this would help us to achieve a high quality sound. Recording each layer separately allowed us to use each layer when needed. This gave a more realistic and natural sounding fight.

Nathan