On this topic - Skye's fight scene from Season 2.



As time goes by, I get more and more intrigued by the idea of fight choreography and action eras. How flicks like Bourne, Wick, Raid etc. change things. EG this scene came out within six months of Wick 1. https://twitter.com/mjoneillnoise/status/1386130137012314116

There was a real drive towards single-take fight scenes in the middle of the 2010s. You got Daredevil's hallway fight around the same time. Arrow did stacks and didn't even make a big thing of it. In part, I think it was a general trend toward single-take fetishism. (Birdman).

But, I don't think it's a mistake that it followed hyper-kinetic shakey-cam era of post-Bourne and the balletic hyper-effects work of post-Matrix. Veracity of sensation. Aside from making it feel realer, I think a single take also forced filmmakers toward better storytelling.

If you look at the Agents of Shield example above, it has a clear emotional trajectory and stakes of Skye trying to take down all these motherfuckers. You feel the escalation and desparation. Because, you're on the same journey. It works in isolation and in the series context.

Compare that to multi-take fight scenes in just about *any* of the Marvel netflix shows, where there are no stakes or storytelling; just a mess of edits. You shouldn't *need* single-take to drive storytelling, but it made it harder for creatives to ignore that aspect of choreo.

It's interesting watching Falcon and the Winter Soldier in this context. Because, you can definitely see all of these influences. Character-based choreography is *way* more prominent (see Falcon's acrobatics vs Bucky's essentialism). And, you can see glimpses of the next shift.

I think Bucky's is key to the next shift. It combines the efficiency, veracity and precision of post-Wick, but deploys that in targeted edits, rather than sustained, lengthy choreo a la Wick. The premium is on efficiency and impact, not on displays of endurance or aesthetics.

Sam's style also hints at this shift. He has the athletic displays of pre-Bourne/post-Matrix choreo, but it evolves from character, is deployed in short bursts, and is used toward combat function (unlike, say, prequel Jedi shit, which is *pure* theatre).

All of these things align with the needs and desires of a post-pandemic world and fight choreography trends, I think. We value skill, expertise, and function. But, we don't want to be confronted with the ugliness of the world in-depth. It's also cheaper and easier for COVID.

If you develop three micro-sequences between 2-3 combatants, that's easier to rehearse and shoot in restricted times, locations and ensemble numbers than a lengthy one-take or multi-take with *many* combatants. And, from a kind of socio-cultural point, it's what we want.

The single-take shift of the 2010s followed a profound detachment from reality and the rise of an era of confusion. (2000s). It was a power fantasy rooted in a sense of continuity. Think Cap's elevator fight in Winter Soldier. A bunch of dudes being smashed by a righteous actor.

Not only could you *not* shoot that in COVID restrictions very easily, it doesn't connect with our cultural psyche now. None of us want to fight the world. We want to know we can win all the small battles. That we can do it with efficiency and desperation, not massive endurance.

It's an interesting shift for action flicks and I'm *super-interested* to see if/how it'll be reflected in blockbusters like The Matrix 4, John Wick 4, and *especially* Shang Chi. People want that to be a classic martial arts style film. But, how will that choreo feel?

And, on the topic of those flicks, I should emphasise that all three have Asian leads. Furthermore, this entire thread began with an Asian lead in Chloe Bennett. I haven't touched much on Asia in this because I frankly am just a western pop-culture kid - but Asia MATTERS.

All of the movements I've talked about in this thread have a bunch of instigators or escalators in Asian cinema. The one-take stuff of 2010s etc is linked to Oldboy and The Raid. The stylised 2000s is obviously built on John Woo and Zhang Yimou's stuff.

I can't speak with any authority on the movements of non-western movies - but it's important to note that the movements of our (predominantly) white western popular cinematic culture, in action at least, are consistently led by the work of Asian performers and filmmakers.