Me + The Coherent Action Sequence = TLA
Aug. 24th, 2013 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorindaI have some writing to do today (it feels like I have ALL THE WRITING to do today), plus paying the painter later and moving some belongings and other new-place tasks. But what did I do with the part of my morning that wasn't about laundry?
Watched narrated analyses of movie action sequences, of course!
I must highly recommend Jim Emerson's series of Vimeo videos called "In The Cut". In particular, take a look at his analysis of part of an action sequence from the 2010 movie Salt, with Angelina Jolie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Liev Schreiber.
Uninterrupted Salt clip.
Emerson's analysis, "A Dash of Salt".
For anyone who's ever heard me moaning on about action movies, directors who have poor skills at directing action sequences, and the importance of spatial choreography in action movies, this is a good counterexample of a slice of a very well-done sequence. And a very well-done movie, too!
Emerson makes a remark early on about the movie like "preposterous", but screw him (and he agrees the action-directing is terrific, anyway). Salt is a tight, kinetic, well-choreographed, old-fashioned action movie in the best way. I mean old-fashioned here in a few senses: the storyline has a Cold War Movie feel about it; the direction did not fall prey to the modern WHOAH SHAKYCAM trend (plus check out the awesome old-school zoom in this clip!); and the stunts and effects are largely done with practical setups (real people in real places doing real things, with computers mostly just used to erase safety cables and other infrastructure).
Another great thing about Salt is that it stars Angelina Jolie, in a script originally written for and aimed at Tom Cruise. And in changing it over, they hardly had to alter anything! The character could just as easily have been a dude. And that's the sort of character I love: not "a lady spy!" or "a lady cop!" or "a male nurse!", but someone where the writers wrote for character first. You can really tell which writers have little to no skill at that--like when a show or movie has just one woman in it, for instance, to "Be The Lady", since of course that's a category all its own and how on earth could you write two The Ladys. *eyeroll*
Watched narrated analyses of movie action sequences, of course!
I must highly recommend Jim Emerson's series of Vimeo videos called "In The Cut". In particular, take a look at his analysis of part of an action sequence from the 2010 movie Salt, with Angelina Jolie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Liev Schreiber.
Uninterrupted Salt clip.
Emerson's analysis, "A Dash of Salt".
For anyone who's ever heard me moaning on about action movies, directors who have poor skills at directing action sequences, and the importance of spatial choreography in action movies, this is a good counterexample of a slice of a very well-done sequence. And a very well-done movie, too!
Emerson makes a remark early on about the movie like "preposterous", but screw him (and he agrees the action-directing is terrific, anyway). Salt is a tight, kinetic, well-choreographed, old-fashioned action movie in the best way. I mean old-fashioned here in a few senses: the storyline has a Cold War Movie feel about it; the direction did not fall prey to the modern WHOAH SHAKYCAM trend (plus check out the awesome old-school zoom in this clip!); and the stunts and effects are largely done with practical setups (real people in real places doing real things, with computers mostly just used to erase safety cables and other infrastructure).
Another great thing about Salt is that it stars Angelina Jolie, in a script originally written for and aimed at Tom Cruise. And in changing it over, they hardly had to alter anything! The character could just as easily have been a dude. And that's the sort of character I love: not "a lady spy!" or "a lady cop!" or "a male nurse!", but someone where the writers wrote for character first. You can really tell which writers have little to no skill at that--like when a show or movie has just one woman in it, for instance, to "Be The Lady", since of course that's a category all its own and how on earth could you write two The Ladys. *eyeroll*
no subject
Date: 2013-08-25 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-26 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-25 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-26 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-26 07:48 am (UTC)Have you ever seen No Contest? It's a C-grade Die Hard knock off but it stars Shannon Tweed in the Bruce Willis role. I would have loved for one of the higher grade Die Hard knock offs, ie Speed, Passenger 57, Sudden Death, etc... to have taken that tact. Actually now that I think about it, C grade/Direct to Video movies are more wiling to cast women as the lead/co-lead, which could be another reason why I'm fond of them.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-26 01:21 pm (UTC)