I made a real action star look at my computer game fights

for the first 25 years of video game history it was pretty much impossible to create fight scenes that even resembled the cinematic ideal but the technology and ambitions of people who make games has grown and we're finally starting to see games catch up with the cinematography choreography and impact of some of my favorite action films but that's just what i think i wonder what a real action star would think somebody with 20 years of on-the-job experience somebody knowledgeable handsome my name is scott adkins and i make a lot of action films so supposedly i know what i'm talking about when it comes to action scott is being a little bit humble here he's one of the best action stars in the game he came up through the hong kong scene working with greats like jackie chan and donnie yen he's been the leading man in his own string of kick oriented masterpieces and recently he's been doing deep dive interviews with legends from the action world to try to figure out what makes good fights so good scott's schedule doesn't leave a lot of time for playing video games so i got him on zoom and caught him up on what he's been missing we started with a cut scene from mortal kombat 11 story mode and we talked about the importance of shooting in profile right let me have a look here we go i love that bit where she kicks him in the leg so she's kicked him just straight through the chest that's cool because it's almost like she gets her foot stuck in him a little bit bang whoa oh i took one oh shot him through the chest oh well why is she not not using that any sooner good bit of judo there took him down i mean it's great isn't it most of it is on a profile so you're seeing the guy the girl fighting and the zombie here and that's whenever you can make it work as a profile it's always best because that means you're filling the frame normally when you go over someone's shoulder it's easier to make a punch work because you know the the head's here and the fist goes through but if your profile like that it's much harder to make the hits work you watch a lot of young woo ping stuff this is the guy that did the matrix and crouching tiger hidden dragon he will shoot a lot of stuff at a profile but it's always a lot more difficult to make it work and yet profile is always going to be the best because you're going to fill the frame with action you're going to see all the techniques landing especially for you know kicking shooting through somebody's body right there you know you want to see that from the sides you can see the flash and then the blood coming out the front and the back yeah i mean that's what you want to see isn't it if you can see it from the front and the back well then you know best of both worlds isn't it next i showed him some heat actions from the incredibly over-the-top yakuza kiwami 2 and we talked about the highs and lows of camera shake granny's hotpot oh he's gonna steamband him nice camera shake to add to the violence and slow-mo yeah are you want them to feel something by what you do with the camera and so that shake they got there is just adding to the violence of the impact which i'm absolutely fine with because i know what's going on it's made me feel something it's when they're just shaking the camera to cover up the the badness of the performing you know it's when they're shaking the camera like in a jason bourne film just to give you the feeling of chaos but actually you're not getting the enjoyment of seeing a good fight sequence that's what really does my head we stayed in the yakuza zone for a little bit longer to talk about the value of comedy in action oh the plunger all right now i'm excited it's got some slime coming off it already [Laughter] yeah brilliant banging his head into the concrete his glasses are still on there i'm surprised about that [Laughter] straight from the backside doesn't mess about oh hang on a minute did she just stamp on his nuts that's brilliant man listen i love a good joke above all it should be entertaining shouldn't it also just to have funny moments like that made me laugh out loud um enjoying the action and uh a comedic moment i mean it's uh they're linked aren't they the excitement of watching an action sequence and then it easily goes into having a laugh at something funny after we had a bit of a laugh we shifted gears to watch something a bit more melodramatic and scott told me about the dangers of crossing the line hurry these guys lots of throws they crossed the line quite a bit so when you do that in a fight sequence um once you jump the line it takes a little bit to adjust to oh right that guy i thought it was going to be this side but actually now he's this side it's that sort of thing he's cheating he's done the universal soldier trick shirts off he's not messing now now it's fine and it's okay with this to be honest because they're wearing like he's got his shirt off and he's got this uh you know his costume is darker so it's you can easily tell who's who but if they were dressed the same especially they've both got gray hair and then it would get confusing if they're both wearing the stained comments you'd be like who's hood sort of wrestling moves in this one wwe stuff hammer first [Music] violence you see i'm laughing at the violence i'm a sick man and the mistake they're making a lot of action films is they're jumping the line all the time like if i jump the line i like to stay there for a bit because you've readjusted now let's stand that side of the line for a little bit and then if you're going to jump the line again just do it a little bit later but stayed there but when they're going back and forth and back and forth that's when it can become a bit confusing we had time for one more so i threw on the last fight scene from uncharted the lost legacy and scott talked about the value of keeping choreography kind of dirty let's finish this very coordinated like what would say about this is being picky it's very choreographed like he's trying to mess it up a little bit more he's getting a real pace then i like that and yeah she will see that was better at the end because it was she hit him and then she hit him whereas before they both hit at the same time and she didn't buy but that was messier messy enough for me to buy that last bit there the one two yeah cool if a game wants to emulate what makes cinematic action so good scott has five pieces of advice shoot on a profile be smart about shaking the camera keep it funny mind the line and don't be afraid to get a little bit sloppy and if you work for nether realms maybe give them a call that first one was the best wasn't it that one with the zombies like first of all shaolin zombies that's great that's awesome i need to be making that movie i liked it and yeah put whenever you're pulling your foot through somebody's chest or you've got shotguns for quests well that's a thumbs up from me

Channel: Polygon

Views: 67,304

Rating: 4.9589372 out of 5

Keywords: video games, polygon, scott adkins, patrick gill, martial arts, martial artist, fighting movie, fight scene, scott adkins break down, scott adkins interview, fighting scene breakdown, mortal kombat, choreography, fight choreography, how to choreograph a fight scene, jackie chan, mortal kombat 11, yakuza game, yakuza kiwami 2, yakuza fight scene, uncharted fight scenes, martial arts games, fight, best video game fight scene, scott adkins martial arts, mortal kombat fight

Id: NFPHUAi5kyw

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 22 2021