Deconstruction of a fight scene

Deconstruction of fight scenes

In an urban drama fight scenes tend to be used to highlight the problem of violence for young people in society. For our film opening we are considering using a fight scene as a flashback/dream so I am going to look at how fight scenes are filmed and edited.

The scene

To look at fight scenes I am going to look at a clip from EastEnders I chose this clip because it is an example of how fight scenes are used in urban dramas.

Plot

In this clip the two characters, Phil and Grant, are talking to each other about an incident that happened before this clip, where Grant's wife had a affair with Phil. Phil is trying to fix his wrong doings but Grant isn't cooperating. This leads into the fight. After the fight the shot changes to a person who looks like a caretaker, leaving a room. He walks around the outside of a building and sees a car with a smashed windscreen. Confused about why the car is smashed he goes into another room, inside we see Grant sat in the middle of the room over a hole in the floor, the camera zooms out of Grant and then shows what he is looking at in the hole, an unconscious Phil with blood coming from his head. 

Camera angles

During the conversation before the fight close ups and over the shoulder shots are used to make the characters seem on a equal level. As the fight starts mid shots are used to get as much of the action in the shot as possible. It is also a tracking shot so that the scene remains at a high pace in parallel with the action that we are seeing on the screen. The shot of the possible caretaker is a long shot showing where he is and what he's doing. 

There is then a medium shot where the unknown character finding the smashed car this gives the viewer the ability to see what the character is seeing and their reaction to the car. 

The next shot is from inside the room, starting as a close up and zooming out to show Grant sitting over the hole, as they both look into the hole the camera zooms out further. The shot then changes to zoom into a close up of unconscious Phil with blood coming from his head and items haphazardly lain around him showing he broke some items on his fall.

Mise-en-scene

The room where the fight takes place is dark and not well looked after showing how it is not an important part of the building. They may e in this room because they think it is somewhere private where they may be alone and without interruptions. The shelves in the background are stocked with boxes and bottles for maintenance on the rest of the building. This adds to the idea that they do not want to be interrupted as one of the brothers knows their conversation will end up in a fight.

Sound

The sound in this fight scene is diegetic and there is no non diegetic sound as this is a real problem and people fight in real life so not having a voice over or soundtrack makes this clip realistic. When Phil talks his voice is calm as he knows he is in the wrong and he is calmly trying to right what he has done by letting his brother do what ever he feels necessary to feel better about the situation. Grant's diegetic dialogue starts calm but as the conversation continues he gets louder and more angry as Phil encourages him to let all his anger out and "hit [him]".

Evaluation

Some of the techniques used in this fight scene example can be used in our coursework. For example the use of tracking shots to follow the action keeping the scene fast paced and dramatic. I do not think we will used the idea of someone else finding them after the fight as I don't see it necessary for the film opening we are making, it would just slow down the storyline and confuse people due to the unknown identity of this additional person.