The Bourne films are notorious for their fast-paced, thrilling fight sequences, and the films were pioneers in advancing the quality of them. Therefore I think that it would be appropriate to analyse a fight sequence from a Bourne film, so that we can get a higher understanding of how to choreograph a good fight sequence. In the preliminary task we had a few fight sequences, but they were very quickly choreographed and we didn't have enough time to work them out properly due to there being loads of fights. This time, however, we can take a lot more time in choreography so that we're ready and we can operate much quicker on the day. We have measured out the lift in Trafalgar Square using a scarf, so that we can choreograph according to the shape which we'll be fighting in.
The first feature that I noticed about this fight sequence is that it is ver gritty and brutal. You can clearly see that the actors are properly getting into it and really throwing themselves at the opposition. This adds an extra degree of realism; without this the whole sequence would lose all it's impact and seem weak and ineffective. We want our characters to be battering eachother as if their life depended on it and they should be physically breaking eachother down in the most brutal ways possible. All the punches and kicks in this fights sequence hit their target or are blocked and there are no hits that obviously miss. This is the biggest mistake in fight sequences - when a blow is supposed to look like it hits but it obviously doesn't even come close. There is clearly none of this in the above clip.
Another interesting part of this fight is the way that Jason Bourne makes use of his surroundings in the fight and will use anything as a weapon. This shows the characters's resourcefulness and shows that they are very professional about what they do, and are very experienced. In this case he manages to use a pen to disarm the character of a knife by stabbing it into the antagonists' hand. It also adds an extra level of brutality to the sequence and it really makes the audience cringe as if they were getting stabbed by a pen. This little part with the pen is dragged out a lot in a good way, to emphasize how he is using the pen, as if he were to use it effectively straightaway, then the audience would be confused as to what just happened. When he picks up the pen there is quite a long time between his hand searching for the pen and when he finally picks it up and takes the lid off. In this very long amount of time, the opposition only manages to run across the room! However, this is only discovered through lengthy analysis, so would not be obvious the first time of viewing. This has to be done to emphasize that he is picking up a pen and that it is going to be of importance later in the fight, without this the audience would be left confused and the pen would lose all it's power as an interesting weapon that shows the cunning of the protagonist.
Normally when I think of fight sequences I assume that it cuts at a rate of about twice a second, so that the audience is caught up in a blur of action. The fast cutting makes it more exciting and seem more fast paced, and this is a technique which I have always employed. However, in this case, there are some very long cuts, and the camera doesn't cut around nearly as much as I thought it would. This is probably because the fight sequence is very well rehearsed, and the actors have been fully trained in fight choreography. We do not have this privelege, which makes it harder for us to keep a long shot going with all the punches looking decent. Quick cuts have, for us, become a necessity, as we have to at least cut every hit in order for every hit to look as if it hit the target. Just one missed punch could ruin the whole sequence. I think I can take away from this that we should definitely rehearse our fight sequences a lot more, and be able to do them fluently and realistically in order for us to get some longer cuts in. Longer cuts here do look a lot more impressive, as it shows just how well choreographed the fight is, and is something that we should aspire to do.
Overall there are a lot of things we can pick up from analysing this fight sequence - trying longer cuts, choreographing fights more intricately, using the environment, playing around with time, fighting brutally with all our strength, and make every blow hit home.
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