AS Media Fight Scenes Source Of Inspiration

Fight Scenes Source Of Inspiration

Brief

Inspired by the urban issues like violence commonly seen in both psychological thrillers and urban dramas, I wanted to explore fight scenes in both genres as we are still undecided of our genre.

Consequently, I will look at "8 Mile", "Fight Club" and "The Purge" which are shown below:

Genre

"Fight Club" and "The Purge"  are psychological thrillers and hence in these fight scenes there appears to be more gore which is conventional of this genre. However, "The Purge", "Fight Club" and "8 Mile" include more urban confrontational scenes, including locations like urban streets, alleys and urban car park complex. In "8 Mile" this seems to be more like a gang rivalry, where as in "The Purge" it appears more like a mass of crimes over an area. Both of which use stereotypical urban areas and conform to some conventions of urban thrillers or dramas. On the other hand, "Fight Club" in this scene portrays less urban drama conventions compared to the rest of the film which includes crime and urban night life. 

In "Fight Club" it conforms to conventions of psychological thrillers by having the fight between the narrator and their alter ego Tyler Durden. This presents the instability of the narrator's mind, a convention of psychological horrors. From my previous blog, where Elliot is unaware of his alter ego of Mr. Robot, this unawareness of the protagonist's instability is what us as a group wanted to portray to create an original opening unlike common 'slasher' horrors, hence why I furthered my research to corresponding fight scenes. However, this may be a complex plot for such a short film opening scene. Also, to include a fight scene like "Fight Club" at the start of the film may give too much a away as thrillers build up to usually a plot twist. 

Nevertheless, I deconstructed ways that this fight scene shows instability of the mind and compared to the fight scenes of the different genres and plots in the other films.

Production

As discussed all clips include somewhat urban locations. Yet, in "Fight Club" and "The Purge" these are seen as more remote creating isolation and emphasises the feud between victim and perpetrator. In "Fight Club" juxtaposition of Tyler Durden and the narrator increase the vulnerability of the narrator to the stronger, dominant and more confident alter ego. In "8 Mile" there are more group shots presenting the fight as a gang rivalry, a more common convention of the urban drama genre. Also the characters include black Americans, conforming to representations that male black Americans are involved in crime.

The gang wears hoodies, associated with criminals as also seen in "The Purge". We cannot see the faces of those in "The Purge" because of these costumes, creating a more eerie, fearful effect where anyone can be seen as murderers. Furthermore, the prop of the gun conforms to conventions by presenting violence and crime in urban dramas. Although there is physical fist fighting, the gun is a weapon which produces quick death and less gore, and so is more stereotypical in urban dramas than horrors where gore is more present and so emphasised by lengthy extreme close up shots of brutality extended through punches and kicks as seen in "Fight Club".

Post-production

In "Fight Club" the use of CCTV effects portray the truth of the situation showing that the fight is potentially happening in the narrator's head. This sense of realism is also seen in "The Purge" through the use of the CCTV distortion effect. Unlike showing instability of the protagonist, the CCTV adds credibility to the attacks in "The Purge", creating a sense of fear for the victims compared to feeling sympathy towards a vulnerable protagonist that fails to understand their insanity. As influenced by my urban issues, if we were to do a psychological horror, we want the audience to see the protagonist as vulnerable in their situation to raise awareness of mental illnesses in gangs. Therefore, the use of visual effects etc. in "Fight Club" would be more suitable.

The use of CCTV also indicates crime in both of the films, another convention of both urban dramas and psychological horrors. This difference in perspective through visual effects is not seen in "8 Mile" though. This could be because it is an urban drama, where conventionally there is less visual effects. However, the lack of seeing the fight through CCTV perspective creates a more character driven plot, a common convention in urban dramas. This helps us connect to characters and connect with them rather than being voyeuristic and analysing their instability like in the other clips.

In all clips fast paced editing is used to create tension. However the editing in "8 Mile" becomes slow paced with the introduction of the gun. Again this emphasises the surrender of the characters compared to prolonging the gruesome tension of victims being murdered and beaten up in psychological horrors.

In "The Purge" the horror and disgust towards the coldblooded murders is enforced by the contrapuntal orchestral slow-paced music, which is tranquil to the crimes. This juxtaposition between the events and non diegetic soundtrack makes us as an audience feel uncomfortable and disgusted by the somewhat disrespectful peaceful soundtrack completely opposite to the violence.