Last week we talked about how I directed a pivotal scene for Wild Boys. We went through part 1 of the day, which had a lot of dialogue. Today let’s go through the rest of the day where we shot the chase scene and talk about how to shoot action scenes without action movie budgets.

We’ll talk about:

• How to plan and prepare for action scenes
• How to use the camera to sell the action
• How to pull off stunts with your main cast

Action scenes on an indie budget can be daunting. Many filmmakers avoid them or are unable to capture action scenes that live up to their expectations.

The reason is that they try to recreate action scenes from their favorite movies, without the resources to do so. What they end up with are cheap copies that fail to live up to the standard they’re aiming for. But once you understand how to use your lack of money and resources as a creative tool, you can plan and execute exciting, story-driven action scenes that elevate your film.

Let’s roll.

Focus on what you CAN do

As an indie filmmaker, a lot of action movie essentials are going to be out of reach. Instead of trying to take on Hollywood without the budget to do so, we need to think differently.

Don’t ask: how can I make this look like Mission: Impossible or Marvel? Ask, how can I create the most exciting, thrilling, and awesome action scene with the resources I have available?

When we stop trying to mimic big-budget movies, we allow ourselves to be more creative in the way we tell our stories, especially action scenes.

The most important part of any action scene is the story.

That fact never changes.

So if you’re planning an action scene, start there. How does this scene best tell the story?

Using a specific POV can be great. Often, what you don’t see can elicit a stronger emotional reaction from your audience than what they actually see.

We’ll talk more about specific tactics later, but for now I want to give you the #1 tip that has helped me shoot action scenes for ALL my films:

Schedule more time than you think you need.

Just because it’s only a few lines in the script doesn’t mean you can shoot it in an hour.

Action takes a lot of preparation, rehearsal, and careful coordination. Shooting action scenes is the opposite of watching them. It’s methodical, slow, precise work.

Give yourself time to do it right.

Running into trees

Back to Wild Boys.

Where we left off last week, we had just shot 10 pages of dialogue before lunch. Phew!

The rest of the day was dedicated to shooting the first part of the scene, from when Kate first sees the Wild Boys until she runs smack-dab into a tree.

We broke this scene into three separate sections:

• Kate sees the Wild Boys on top of the big rock
• Kate runs from the Wild Boys
• Kate runs into a tree

The main reasons were locations and safety.

The location where Kate first sees the Wild Boys is on top of a steep incline. When Kate struggles to get up it, she doesn't have to act much. Getting up there with our camera gear, and also getting the shots we needed for the first encounter was way harder than it looks.

And it was supposed to be the easy part!

Even though we hadn’t planned for any “action” in this part, the Wild Boys decided to jump off the rock and give chase at the end of a take. It ended up looking great, and we kept it.

But I’ll admit my heart was in my throat when the Wild Boys leapt out of frame onto some pretty sketchy rocks.

For the running part, we needed a flatter location. We found a service road that ran parallel to a flat part of the forest, which worked perfectly.

Our camera operator, Zac Chia, would run with the camera rigged on a gimbal on the service road, while the actors ran through the forest next to him.

A useful trick when filming running scenes like this is to use foreground elements to create the illusion that everything is moving at a greater speed than it actually is.

We had a good amount of brush and trees between the camera and actors that worked well for us.

The hardest part of the scene was the end.

We needed Kate, our main actress, to run into a tree.

We weren’t even halfway through our schedule; if anything happened to her, we were screwed.

So how did we deal with the situation?

For step one, we have to rewind a few weeks to before we started shooting.

I’m in a local park with Kate and our stunt coordinator, Bryan. We couldn’t afford to have Bryan for more than one day on set, which would be later in the schedule. Kate needed to learn how to perform the tree stunt without Bryan’s support on set.

To keep Kate safe, we had a mattress pinned to the tree to protect her from impact, and a mat on the ground where she could fall.

Bryan showed Kate how to “sell” the impact without actually hurting herself. She was going to look over her shoulder right before the impact and only turn back at the last instance to catch herself.

This took a huge amount of trust on Kate’s part.

To build that trust, we did the only thing we could do: practice.

Kate spent time with Bryan rehearsing the motion until she felt comfortable that she could do it on set.

Once we got to location we ran through the same rehearsal in the spot where we were shooting.

Step two of executing the tree crash was figuring out the camera movement.

I knew I wanted to track with Kate, and have the impact be as surprising to the audience as it was to Kate.

The most important thing you can do with the camera when filming an action scene is making the actors look good. The way you compose the frame and place your actors determines how good the action is going to look.

We needed to make it look like Kate ran into the tree without her actually running into it.

Here’s what we did:

• Camera moves with Kate, ahead of her and at about a 30- to 45-degree angle.
• Foreground action: we had branches and one of the Wild Boys pass by in the foreground to make it seem like we were running faster, and that the danger was escalating.
• We used the tree to hide Kate’s impact: By passing the tree before Kate, it covered her impact so she could catch herself.

The lesson to take away from this is to be smart about how you approach your action scenes. Use your camera setups to sell the action, and make the actors look good.

Having professional help, even if it’s just in the rehearsal phase, is amazing. A stunt coordinator can help you build a scene that will look great on camera, even if you don’t have stunt performers.

The last thing we did to make our stunts and fights feel real was embrace the fact that none of our characters are fighters. We let them be clumsy, we let them fight badly, and because we’re making a comedy, we tried to make the action funny.

Oh, and if you were wondering, we got the shot, and Kate was safe.

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