For a few weeks, I’ve been working bit by bit on a scene study of an action scene from the film 3:10 to Yuma (the remake.) I saw the remake first and really loved it. It seems to be one of those movies I watch over and over. As a matter of fact, after this scene study, I may have killed it.

I watched the original film a few weeks ago and really enjoyed that one as well. To quote Mr. Miyagi, they are “different but same.” If you haven’t seen the remake, don’t read any further. This post makes no sense if you haven’t seen the remake.

Also, see Cop Land which was meant to be a present day 3:10 to Yuma. Don’t let Stallone keep you from watching that movie. He does a good job. The remake of 3:10 and Cop Land were directed by the same guy – James Mangold. (He also directed Walk the Line, another of my favorites.)

Back to the scene study.

I always pick a scene based on a fascination with what was in the director’s mind when shooting it. I’ve never directed an intense action scene so I chose the stagecoach robbery scene. First, I counted how many shots. Then I imported the footage into Final Cut and labeled each shot with the shot order number, the shot number, and a correlating letter of the alphabet the way they do it in the movies. (Somewhat.)

If the video doesn’t show on your feed reader, click here.

The video above is the scene with the shots labeled. As you watch it, notice how certain shots are reused. And notice how quickly it cuts from one number to the next.

This scene runs 3:51 and has a total of 118 cuts in it. That tells me that each shot runs an average of 2 seconds.

So I’ve learned something right there.

When shooting an action scene, shoot a LOT of shots. (There are exceptions depending on the style of the movie but for the point of discussing bigger budget action romps, use lots of shots.)

Also, plan only to use a snippet of each one.

Elaborate camera moves that last many seconds will get cut. The camera can be moving but make sure that the shot can be used at any point in the move rather than the shot only working if you use the entire move.

From there I created a table in Excel. I recently discovered the sort-able list function in Excel and I’m making sort-able lists for everything. The headings I used were shot order, shot number, shot letter, shot type, description (what happens in the shot), camera location, and observations.

It took me a LONG time to fill out this list but in the end, it is worth it. I get a bird’s eye view of how the director shot this thing.

You can view my excel list by clicking here.

So now I can sort the list by shot number and see just how many times certain shots were used. I can also sort by location such as – show me only the shots inside the coach or up on the hill.

Once I finished the list, I copied the description column and formatted it to be in script form.

Click Here to view that document.

Now I don’t know if all this was written out in the original script. If it was, then Mangold might have just correlated a sentence with a shot. If it was more generic than this, then he created this on the fly.

For me, what I learn from seeing the script written out like this with every sentence or two corresponding to an actual shot is that the more detailed the action scene is written, the easier it is to shoot.

In the future, when I am prepping to shoot an action scene, I now know to write out EVERY little thing that I want to happen on screen. Then along with the storyboards, the script acts as a literal instruction manual on what to shoot.

It seems like a simple lesson but it took me working it out, deconstructing it, to realize that an action scene is the same as any other scene. At the very least, shoot what’s on the page.

The thing that scares me about shooting action is getting stuck without a shot. But after doing this study, I’m not as afraid any more when it comes to doing a scene like this. If I shoot what’s on the page, there’s nothing else that I’ll NEED to cut to.

After writing out what I think was the script, I evaluated the entire thing as if I were the Assistant Director and figured out what to shoot and when.

There were 89 different shots in this sequence. From what I can tell, a typical day is anywhere from 15 shots to 25. That’s dialogue. Action is probably 10 shots a day. But I’m just guessing. On Dangerous Calling, our first feature film, we were doing something like 30 shots a day but I don’t recommend such a breakneck speed. (We were attempting to shoot 5-6 pages a day. Most films shoot about 3 pages a day. Again, that’s for dialogue scenes.)

To get 89 shots shooting 10 shots a day, it would take 9 days to shoot. This is a four minute scene. This tells me only to expect half a page of action per day. So now I know how much time to budget for future projects.

To further break it down -

7 shots inside the coach
18 on the Low Hill
4 on the High Hill
60 on the trail (Only 15 of those are static. The rest are either riding on the coach or moving along side.)

You get the idea. Now take my data and make your own discoveries and send them to me or post them as a comment.

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It takes a lot longer to shoot action than a dialogue scene, but the principles are the same. Tell the story visually. Make sure every shot is there for a reason. If you aren’t sure, go back to the script.

Before doing this study, I probably would have shot every piece of action from every point of view and angle, sort of like coverage when shooting a dialogue scene. Now, I’m much more informed. And that’s why I do these things.

On a side note about the story – The biggest thing that hit me while watching this scene was how Ben Wade sat up on the hill watching his outlaws do the grunt work. He only got involved when he saw it wasn’t going well. Deciding to push those cattle into the path of the coach was his way of using his head rather than his gun. It SHOWS us why he is the leader of the gang. A brilliant use of action to setup his character.

PS. Check out this good article by David Bordwell (if you’ve been to film school, you’ve probably read or seen his books.) It’s all about 3:10 to Yuma – past and present.