The Key to Writing (Meaningful) Action Scenes [Reupload]

I love how Bloopus uses a sword, a simple but very straight and effective weapon, reflecting his straight no-BS true-seeking nature, while Bleepus has a nunchakus, a flexible but powerful and difficult to control weapon, reflecting her passion to protect her friends no matter what. Great characterization.

“‘It’s a movie’ (story) isn’t your free pass to treat everything as unimportant, but it is your free pass to decide what’s important.” I love this quote so much.

"god doesn't play dice. And as a writer, you are god."

I have a feeling that at some point, some studio-head was like, "What do you mean she's just called 'the lady'? Who ever heard of a main character without a name? You will lose the audience; the character has to have a name to be relatable! What? What does Clint Eastwood and some Italian guy have to do with this? We're selling Western films here, not some Spaghetti-loving art house film: I'm talking AMERICAN WESTERN. Give the broad a name by next week or lose her, I don't care which!" And that's how I imagine Sharon Stone came to be credited as 'Ellen.'

Like the old saying goes, “Early bird catches the peak writing advice to propel the, past the competition, securing their future as the best writer on the face of the planet. Be on the lookout for INFINIUM.” Thanks Local script guy 👍🏾

I think probably the best example of this principle is martial arts films. No one ever wins just because they're better, everyone is good at fighting so there has to be some reason your protagonist is gooder. Usually there's the premature showdown to demonstrate the protagonist isn't ready yet and gets their but kicked, then they learn and grow and because of that growth they win

This is so good I'm gonna put an action scene in my romantic drama, can't wait for my female lead to go to battle with an alien invader.

When "making characters fight" it's important to create a situation that is impossible for both characters to benefit from. Only one character will succeed and that's what creates the conflict, otherwise they'd just compromise and avoid a fight.

Bloobus LOSES A POUND OF FLESH.

Where most would just shrug or lie awake one random night feeling anxious about the video essay that didn't live up to its full potential, this guy puts his money where his mouth is and DOES OVER, like he promised he would. Outstanding. The rigor, ethics and dedication to your craft is a goddamn example to us all and I shall never again clash my character action figures randomly together - unless that's somehow a selfaware plot point. Also did you just call me a fornicator?!

The video is great, but I'm especially glad because you BROUGHT UP THE PEACEMAKER FIGHT AGAIN! I've been wanting to respond to that shit in a way that works with the emotional variables in this video. The Suicide Squad doesn't actually use conviction as the primary variable, it's actually the value of action in the face of death. And in this way Rick losing because of luck is thematically sticky to how the others die in the film, but Rick's death actually has meaning in driving Peacemaker reflect on his convictions and its possibility of being wrong, in spite of his victory.

My only counter-point to this really good essay is that the 'winner' of a fight isn't always the character who's still alive by the end of it. If a good action scene is one that's linked to the psychological development of the characters involved, then so is the determination of who the victor and the loser are in that action scene as well. While the tile-shard-thingy is definitely a convenience, Rick dies firmly believing in his ideals while Peacemaker's conviction in his own ideals weakens, resulting in his inevitable fuckening. There's also the possibility that both sides in an action scene can 'lose' the fight, regardless of the physical outcomes. If a story's theme is 'A' (what the writer/god believes is 'right') and the two characters whacking each other over their heads believe in 'B' (what the writer/god believes is wrong), then the winner would have to deal with consequences that mimic the pain that the loser experienced. A good example of this would be (spoilers for The Last of Us Part II) Ellie killing Nora. Nora gets tortured to death and Ellie gets the information she wants from her, but Ellie's actions result in her own mental torture.

So nice, I'll watch it twice.

I thought I had hallucinated this upload when I went to watch it last night. Good to know that my brain is functioning perfectly in every way.

That character sheet has been helping me a bunch in realizing my two main characters wouldn't act like I had planned for the story, so I'm really looking forward to a second version that goes into more detail!

Crazy how I was in the middle of writing a fight scene and this video came up What a happy coincidence

When making action scenes for my comics, I start from "moments" first to create structure. Think about your "big panels" first, which are the equivalent of a big, panning slo-mo shot or a pause in the action for speech, rest or tension. Then run in these staccato small panels/shots/ moments that build the tension up to them (side note: modern long scroll comics are often bad for action because they don't use small panels effectively, everyshot is a big full-bleed panel and it just drags). I find that showing the emotional reaction to every action really helps add narrative power and ground the fight, stopping it being like watching action figures bashed together. Rhythm and emotional payoff are key!

Dude ur vids are great

Your videos are insanely helpful man. I've been trying to flesh out the main character in the comic I'm starting but I was struggling to tie his detachment due to his fear of death and suffering into the overall plot. This video helped me to not only tie this struggle of his into the ultimate conflict of the story, but also immediately allowed me to flesh out his relationships with both his romantic interest and friend in a way that is not just likely to be more engaging but also really drives home the themes of the story. The story's themes focus on how different people respond to suffering and cruelty, specifically the main character and his fear of those things, and with this one video you've helped me make sense of the way in which every aspect of this world I'm making relates to each other haha. You're doing great work, thanks a million.

"Funko pop people" got me rolling on the floor. Thank you.