Whose Scene is it anyway?

Most of you guys have probably seen me post this animation before. I know at least some of you guys are interested in film form and visual storytelling so I wanted to make a post about how I think about setting up action scenes.

So when you guys first watch this clip, do you have an idea of whose scene this is meant to be? To be more accurate, whose emotions are the viewer supposed to feel? Let me give you a hint;

These three frames should be enough to tell you who the "main character" of this sequence is. Actually, with just the center and right frame you should be able to tell who the "main character" is.

When I was putting this action scene together, I'd been thinking back to one of my favorite youtube video series Every Frame a Painting. There's a particular video essay that really resonated with me. It was a video about how to construct a tense scene when the only "action" happening on screen is dialogue. This particular clip showed me how you can force the viewer to feel the emotions of particular characters. 

Going back to the animation;

I show an extreme close up to make the viewer empathizes with this character. Though briefly, you get a good look at his facial expression so you can't help but feel what he feels.

Here's the important frame. In this frame I make sure to show the character's facial expression, he looks up, and the camera angle is looking down on him, showing that he's in a position of weakness.

This camera pan is emulating the "main character" lifting his head. In this shot, we're looking through the "main character's" eyes. We're looking up at his opponent who is looking right into the camera, and we get a glimpse of motion from the towering opponent. As soon as the viewer can think "MOVE!" we cut to the next shot where the "main character" jumps away from the attack.

An important thing to note here is, if there are 2 character in a scene, and 1 character looks directly into the camera, and the other doesn't, the viewer tends to think they are the character that DOESN'T look into the camera. As viewers we find it easier to empathize with a character unless they look directly into our eyes. Once we make eye contact with someone, we've evolved to recognize the fact that we are not them. And instead of empathizing with them, we start investigating them.

I think something a lot of people miss who make action scenes is that they forget the best way to make a fight dramatic is for the viewer to feel the emotions of the characters that are fighting. If you guys are interested in making fun action scenes, I encourage you to look at mediums that can take nothing more than dialogue and turn it into a gripping drama and steal their techniques!