Make an Action Movie

A great action movie is a work of art. They are typically the biggest draws at the box office, they make and break the careers of stars, and everyone seems to enjoy them. But all of the success doesn't come easily. Action movies are also expensive, complex, and difficult to shoot but that doesn't mean you can't create your own, just look at Steven Spielberg!

Steps

Preparing for Filming (Pre-Production)

1. Come up with your hero. The action movie hero or heroine is the core of your movie. They dictate what "kind" of action movie you're watching (spy, heist, war, sci-fi, Western, etc.), the setting, and the general plot of the movie. A lot of the popular action movies are character driven, (Bond, Kill Bill, Die Hard, The Hunger Games, etc), which is why they get so many sequels. People love the main character in these movies, so make sure we love yours. A good hero:
   • Is competent. They will find a way to defeat the bad guy, and generally act calm under pressure.
   • Has something worth fighting for. It could the abduction of a child (Taken), or the desire to save the world and do their duty, (every Bond movie ever). In general the more specific the need, the better the movie.
   • Is relatable. You might ask how a super spy is relatable to the average person, but there is always a way. This is why John McClain is just an everyday cop on Christmas vacation, why many good heroes always seem to have a sense of humor, and all of Tarantino's action stars spend a scene or two just chatting with friends about pop culture.
   • You can write groups of heroes too, as evidenced by The Avengers, Mission Impossible, and Ocean's 11. Still, all of these movies still have 1-2 central characters that the audience can follow and bond with (ie. Iron Man/Captain America, Ethan Hunt, Danny Ocean).
2. Come up with a worthy villain. A good villain is the secret weapon of a great action movie. For evidence, look no further than Star Wars and its arguably most famous character, Darth Vader. Good villains bring out the best in your hero by amplifying the action and tension, so don't just throw in a generically evil Russian or murderous alien without trying to make your villain unique. Good villains:
   • Are challenging. They cannot be easily beaten, and usually have the upper hand for the majority of the movie.
   • Have understandable motives. The audience needs to believe that the villain has reasons for his/her behavior other than "they are evil."
   • Will do anything to reach his/her/its goals. Agent Smith in The Matrix is a great villain simply because he is unfazed even by death. He has a goal, and he will do anything possible to make it a reality.
   • Is the opposite of your hero. This makes the conflict especially poignant. Both Vader and Luke had their families murdered but took different paths out. Both Frodo and Gollum held the ring, but one resisted and one succumbed. This ying/yang is the basis of all good conflicts.
3. Understand the plot points of all action movies when writing the script. Action movies are generally unique because of their villains, settings, and heroes. They are not often known for highly original plots or stories. This allows you to focus more on original action, characters, and settings instead of plots. You'll find that 99% of all action movies follow this structure almost perfectly, even when they seem "different":
   • The Set-Up: This introduces the characters, setting, and the world of the movie. More often than not it is with an action scene showing the hero or villain at work, as you want to get to an action scene within the first 10 pages. We need to know why the hero is the hero, and why they're awesome.
   • The Opportunity/Issue: A major problem or crisis arises. The villain strikes again or makes themselves known to the hero, a mission is assigned, the team is put together, etc. This is when the movie must kick into high gear, as the mission gets started. This is roughly the 1/3 mark of your script.
   • The Point of No Return: Hot on the trail of the villain, the hero(s) have had some major successes (usually shown by action scenes) by now. They have the villain on the ropes and the conflict is escalating. This is roughly the halfway point of the movie.
   • The Major Set-Back: Something terrible happens that puts the entire mission in jeopardy -- the hero is captured, a trusted friend dies, the group fails to avert a crisis, the villain has a secret plan, etc. This moment needs to bring the hero(s) as low as they can go. This comes at the 75% mark of your story.
   • The Climax: Your main character(s) has a final push to save themselves and the world either by escaping or defeating the villain. This must be your biggest or best set-piece, the action scene or fight that is the culmination of the entire movie.
   • The Resolution: With the villain defeated, the last 5-10 pages show the conclusion of the adventure -- the villain in jail, the two heroes kissing, or even the brief of the next mission.
4. Recruit a cast. They don't necessarily need a ton of acting experience, but they do need to be willing to work long hours to get your movie made. Make sure they are willing and able to take orders from the director. To save your money and time, try and get actors with decent athletic ability, allowing them to sell stunts and action scenes with ease.
   • You should highly consider hiring a stunt coordinator is you want to do any large-scale stunts or professional fights. They will bring ideas, experience, and safety equipment that you need to shoot properly.
5. Put together your equipment. Making a movie takes a lot of gear, including cameras, microphones, lights, and special effects. You need to be sure you have everything you need to film before you start shooting.
   • Cameras: You'll generally need at least 2 cameras, and preferably 3. However, modern camera advancements have made it possible to film a movie with an iPhone 6, or Go Pro cameras. Most importantly, you want cameras that shoot in the same format (1080i, for example), otherwise the video quality will change with every cut.
   • Microphones: If you're short on cash then spend you money on audio equipment, as audiences are proven to notice bad sound before video. While you can use the attached camera microphones, a Tascam or shotgun mic is a great investment to instantly improve your movie.
   • Lighting: 5-10 cheap clamp lights and extension cords have lit many an indie film, but get a professional 3 or 5 piece kit if you can. However, variety of bulbs, clamp lights found at home-improvement stores, and high-heat spray paint (to color light bulbs) is a great substitute.
   • Essential Accessories: You'll need memory cards, a backup hard drive, tripods, light reflectors, extension cords, black tape (to cover or tape down wires), and computer video editing software. You may also want some fake blood.
6. Find or design your set locations. Action movies are known for eye-popping scenery and locations, which may seem daunting to an independent filmmaker. But good locations are not only on beaches and mountains. Blue Ruin, for example, is one of the most visually striking action movies in years but takes place on rural roads, plain forests, and bland suburban houses.
   • Go location scouting with a camera or a friend to find small areas that you could shoot in.
   • Adapt your script, when necessary, to fit new locations if you can't afford to go somewhere "perfect." This can lead to surprising innovations.
   • If you want specific locations, like sci-fi cockpits or spy agencies, you may need to build your own set.
7. Plan and budget your set-pieces first. Set-pieces are the action scenes. They are the 3-5 big moments in your script, from the opening action scene to the climactic showdown at the end. These are the hardest things for an indie filmmaker to put together because most set pieces cost a lot of money, time, and crew members to pull off. The challenge is to think about ways you can create a great set-piece with limited resources. From there, you need to make simple budget, see how much each scene will cost, and adapt your script accordingly.
   • Chase scenes are a staple of action movies, but filming a bunch of cars at high speeds on the road is nearly impossible without a huge budget. But running characters, bikes, or hiding from the villain in a cool location are all much more doable. Look, for example, at the conclusion of Silence of the Lambs, which is a great, tense basement chase.
   • Rescues, bomb diffusion, and other preventative scenes are a great way to build suspense on a budget. You don't need to pay for an explosion special effect or gory death scene because the hero rescues everyone in time.
   • Cat and Mouse scenes, when two characters sneak around each other, trying to get the upper hand, cost very little and are great ways to build tension before a fight scene.
   • Check out prop warehouses online for cheap ways to spice up action scenes. A great prop can make any scene much more exciting and original, and can come from anywhere. Jason Borne kills a man with a toothbrush, for example, in one of the best action scenes of the last decade.

Filming Your Movie

1. Get your crew together. You'll need people who can help you film, as making an action movie will be impossible by yourself. Whenever possible, get a crew that will be consistent and there every day you shoot so that you can develop a rhythm together. Positions you need to consider include:
   • Director of Photography (DP): Arguably the most important job, your DP is in charge of cameras and lights. It is incredibly difficult to effectively light a scene, set up the cameras and angles, and direct the camera man if you're also coaching actors, checking the set design, reading the script, and otherwise directing the movie. Even a friend with a background in photography is better than nothing.
   • Camera and microphone operators: Self-explanatory, but essential crew members. Look for friends or people online who have at least a little experience.
   • Make-up Artist: While anyone can do this, their main job is continuity. Unless a lot of time goes by in your film, you need the actor's face and costumes to look identical in every single scene, otherwise the audience will notice the changes. Take pictures every day of the costume, make-up and scenes to make sure it looks the same.
   • Sound Engineer: Listen to all the sound as it is being recorded, ensuring that it is right. Like the DP, the sound engineer deals with the nitty-gritty of audio recording so that you don't have to.
   • Production Assistant: These people (known as PAs) do whatever needs to be done-- preparing food and coffee, wiping memory cards, and helping set up or trigger special effects.
2. Create a shot list for every scene before shooting. A shot list is simply every angle that you need to capture each day you're shooting. This helps you work effectively and make sure all the relevant details are on film for the final movie. To make one, simply draw out the scene in basic comic book form. Show every shot that you need to capture, even if it is with stick figures.
   • Get every single detail you need, from important props (the gun on the table your hero notices) to the structure of the action scenes.
   • Movies are not shot like plays, where every scene is captured in real time. Frequently you'll shoot a 2-second clip, like a reveal of the gun on the table, all by itself. It is then edited into the final scene later.
3. Review everything in advance and plan for the worst. You need to be the first one on set and the last one to leave every day you're shooting. Things are going to go wrong when actors get sick or the weather won't cooperate, so you need to be flexible with every decision you make. That flexibility is only possible if you show up prepared.
   • Review the day's shot list so that you know in advance what you need to get. If something goes wrong you should know what scenes you can cut, move to another day, or shoot quickly.
   • Rehearse with the actors several days in advance. Fight scenes, in particular, need to be choreographed and rehearsed well in advance.
   • Review lighting and camera positions. No one wants to sit around while you fiddle with lights. You and your camera crew should have them ready before they arrive.
4. Light your shots with clear, consistent light. This is the number one mistake of young filmmakers. You believe that to get dark, moody lighting effects you need a dark set. This will always lead to grainy, ugly footage. Instead, focus on making good, clear shadows and nice, fully clear light spots -- most of the styling (like dark and grimy, or vibrant and energetic) is done in post-production.
   • Cameras need light to take smooth video. This is why you always darken the footage while editing instead of trying to shoot in the dark.
   • Use natural light whenever possible, especially the hour after sunrise and before sunset. These are the "golden hours," and it's hard to make a film look bad when shot at this time. Even overcast days are great for even, no-nonsense lighting.
   • Colored lights, specifically greens, reds, and blues, can create a wonderfully unique atmosphere for your scenes, like those used in the recent action flick John Wick.
5. Focus on blocking for each scene, especially action scenes. Blocking is where the actors are and where they go, and having movement carefully choreographed is essential in an action movie. Most importantly, it needs to be consistent. This is because most of your scenes can't be shot right in a row -- you may shoot the actor running up to a ledge and jumping off it separately, then edit it together to make it look seamless. But if the actor is always running up to a different part of the ledge the audience may notice the "cheat."
   • Fight and stunt choreography are art forms on their own, and you should hire a stunt coordinator. At the very least you should have actors or advisers knowledgeable about martial arts to set up clean, effective fight blocking.
   • Let the camera do the movement whenever possible, not the actors. The less your actors need to move, the easier your job lighting, shooting, and editing will be.
6. Shoot fight scenes up tight and close. The best way to sell a good punch is up close and personal. Get as many cameras as you can and keep them trained on moving parts, flying punches, and reactions so it almost feels like you are right in the middle of the fight.
   • Again, you need to be consistent with your fight scenes, not improvising them every time. This makes editing much, much easier.
7. Shoot your B-roll shots whenever you have downtime. The hero driving, the location she/he just arrived at, the weapons on the table -- these little shots are called B-roll and are essential to your movie. These shots are the connective tissue of your movie and they are used to create atmosphere and build the world of your movie. In between scenes, get shots of the actors exploring the set, or sitting and talking about something before the scene begins. These shots will make your life much, much easier later on.
   • You should also shoot every location without the actors. These shots are perfect to introduce a scene, such as when a character walks into a room for the first time and we "see" them exploring it through their eyes.

Editing the Film

1. Watch and takes notes on every action movie you can get your hands on. Editing is where a bunch of random footage becomes a tense, well-wrought adventure, and the best way to learn is from the masters. One suggestion is to take notes not only of what happens, but the minute it happens on. When do action scenes occur? How far apart are they? How do editors build up the tension to keep you on the edge of your seat?
   • You'll notice that most action movies have a very specific rhythm. The build excitement and energy from the get-go with quick scenes and lots of movement, but temper it with 3-4 moments of quiet, allowing the audience to catch its breath before the next big action scene.
2. Build dramatic irony in your scenes to create tension. Editing is when dramatic irony becomes your best friend. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that the character doesn't. We might see the outline of the villain, but the characters can't. Master director Alfred Hitchcock talks about having a bomb under the table the characters don't know about. By cutting between the ticking clock, the action hero rushing to save them, and the unawares victims, you build great tension and suspense. Just blowing up the bomb is surprising, but only for a fleeting moment.
   • Think of the climax of The Dark Knight, as we cut between the boat with the Joker's victims, Batman, and the police's desperate attempts to do something.
3. Use quick cuts to make your action scenes sing. Unless you've got dedicated stunt people willing to take a real punch, you'll need to be an expert editor to make an action scene look good. Go for quick cuts, rapidly cutting between the tussling bodies, as this leads to a frantic, high-energy fight or action scene the moves along quickly. Watch any action movie and notice how short each shot is -- the faster the cut, the faster the action feels.
   • If you can, however, pay to go slow. The Borne Ultimatum features a now-famous fight scene that hardly cuts at all. The result showed the brutality of the fight, as if even the camera/editor couldn't flinch and turn away.
4. Add in your special effects. This is the hardest part of any action movie, as modern adventures are shot with millions of dollars of poured into special effects. This can make it nearly impossible to get any great effects, but that doesn't mean that some work with Adobe AfterEffects, Maya, or any other effects software would hurt if you have some experience. You can also put any footage on your green screen now to complete it.
   • Play with the built-in effects, including screen distortions and filters, especially in key moments. One common one, for example, is to blur/shake the screen when someone gets punched.
5. Correct the color and add you credits and effects. Remember, however, that effects like explosions and fire can look tacky and out when done poorly, so stick to color correction and grading, compositing, or ambient effects such as fog or dust particles. You can use free programs, like DaVinci Resolve, or Adobe After Effects to handle the color and put basic effects into the movie.
   • Color grading is when you make the whole film have a similar color pallet. For action movies, you can go two ways -- dark and gray, like Behind Enemy Lines or Saving Private Ryan, or you can go vibrant and energetic, like Mission Impossible, or Smokin' Aces.
   • You can buy pre-made color gradings, called LUTs, that are incredibly helpful for getting a specific look to your film.
6. Use sound effects to build the world of the movie subtly. Sound design is absolutely crucial to movie-making. The best sound design, however, is usually unnoticed since it fits into the fold of the movie. In order to make a good action movie you'll need much more than cool effects -- you'll need realistic sound effects to back all your images up.
   • This includes music as well, which is often loud, triumphant, and fast. If you cannot record the music yourself, be sure to use "royalty free music," which can be found online and is free to use in a movie without worrying about lawsuits.
   • You can sign up for sound effect libraries and databases online, many of which have professional quality sounds to use.
   • Many first-time directors can get more bang for their buck sending the film to a sound-production facility, which will add sound effects and mix your dialog so it sounds natural.

Tips

• Take your time with the script -- good action movies are much more than a bunch of good action scenes. What makes a good action movie is how much the audience is invested in the outcome of those actions.

Warnings

• If you are using a video creator/editor on your computer, constantly save your work. Otherwise, you have the chance of losing all your hard work just after finishing it, and being forced to start all over again.

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Sources and Citations

See also

• Write a Script
• Make a Commercial
• Make a Short Film
• Make a Movie With One Person
• Make a Movie Set
• Create a Storyboard
• Make a Movie
• Write, Direct and Edit Your Own Movie
• Make Your Own TV Show
• Direct a Movie

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