The Evolution of Fight Scenes is Revealed in this 'Bourne' Supercut | No Film School

Over the years, action films have evolved in many different ways, but perhaps the most noticeable change can be seen in how action sequences and fight scenes are shot and edited. To highlight this, video essayist Kevin B. Lee juxtaposes three different fight scenes from the 'Bourne' films, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum, in order to compare how drastically different action and violence is represented on screen in the span of just 5 years.

There's no doubt that action sequences have changed over the years. In the past, filmmakers wanted to ensure that their audiences could follow what was going on in the scene by carefully choreographing fights and camera movement, shooting on wider lenses to capture more of the action, and using longer edits so viewers could follow. You can see this clearly in the first fight scene from The Bourne Identity.

Filmmakers today try to overload the audience's senses with a ton of rapid-fire action, resulting in an intense adrenaline rush that fans love and want more of.

However, things are different now—so, so different. Filmmakers today actually try to do the opposite: they try to overload the audience's senses with a ton of rapid-fire action, resulting in an intense adrenaline rush that fans love and want more of. This brand of filmmaking is what video essayist and scholar Mattias Stork calls chaos cinema, which relies on rapid editing (or what film theorist David Bordwell calls "intensified continuity"), tight shots, and disorienting camera movement.

There are advantages and disadvantages with both styles: one is clear and easy to follow, while the other is disorienting. One might be a little boring to today's standards, while the other is super exciting but potentially more confusing. Regardless of your tastes, though, it's incredible to see how something can change so much in so little time. It makes you wonder what fight scenes will look like in 2021!

Source: Fandor Keyframe

The Bourne Identity The Bourne Supremacy The Bourne Ultimatum video essays videoessays action chaoscinema fandor

What's the Hype With 'Interstellar' Revisiting Cinemas After a Decade in 70mm IMAX?

Here's Why You Need to Revisit 'Interstellar' in 70mm IMAX

Celebrate the love and hope at the center of Nolan's space epic in the format it was meant to be seen.

If we know anything about Christopher Nolan, he likes to go big. Nolan started with smaller-scale stories (as many of us do) with early noir adjacent works like Following, Memento, and Insomnia, then started going and staying big with his illusionist drama The Prestige. Since then, the scale has been various degrees of massive, with the biggest scope in his time-and-space sprawling epic, Interstellar.

While Interstellarmight not be everyone's favorite Nolan outing, there's no denying it's an impressive feat of filmmaking and his most emotional—if watching Matthew McConaughey's Cooper desperately try to reach his family through quantum space-time doesn't make you cry at least a little bit, what's going on, dude?

With Interstellar'sIMAX release, it's a great time to shed some tears in a public setting in one of the most prestigious film formats around. As we mentioned in our film gauge piece, Nolan loves shooting on film and utilizes 65mm intentionally to provoke a tone of massive scale. In that regard, Interstellar was made for 70mm IMAX. That goes without saying, dawg. That being said, other factors make Interstellar a perfect movie to revisit in theaters while you can.

Let's break down the release further below.

Keep ReadingShow less

Popular

Latest