Regardless of it being a professional or amateur production, an action movie has a distinctly fast-paced and action-packed nature. Viewers expect many scenes are shot using varying camera angles, distances, movements, and compositions. Often times these expectations lead to filming many more shots compared to movies coming from other genres like drama or comedy.
When making your own action movie, take into consideration how practical it is to make your story come to life onscreen. Base your decision on your available filmmaking resources. You must first acknowledge the budget constraints and equipment limitations in your non-professional shooting setup. From here, make a creative story that doesn’t require shooting very demanding and complicated shots. An effective storyteller can still make a good action movie even when avoiding stunts, fights, and chase scenes that are too technical, dangerous, or expensive to shoot.
1. Write a one-liner concept for your action movie, then expand this into a storyline. This storyline is a single-page or a few pages that summarizes what happens in the story in paragraph form. After finalizing your storyline, expand this into a full script.
2. Write a script breakdown, an itemized documentation of the key information in your script. These production requirements include the locations, characters, props, sets, and special effects for each sequence in the movie. As an organized list, the breakdown allows you to make more effective plans of when and where to shoot your scenes.
3. Complete your movie crew. When shooting an action movie, it is almost impossible for you to shoot it on your own, unless you have a very simple story that involves only a few characters and very convenient shooting locations. More often than not you need a handful of people to work with you in the production. Aside from you being the writer and director, you would typically need a producer, cinematographer, and production designer in your team. You may also need a fight choreographer, stuntman, or even an action/martial arts consultant.
In home movies, it is often the case that members of the production team multitask and get more than one work designation. Make sure the people you hire understand your concept, script, production setup, and budget. Depending on your agreements with them, they may be paid allowances or work for free. If you have a decent budget, you may hire professional and experienced crew and pay them with industry or discounted rates.
4. Finalize your shooting locations based on your breakdown.
5. Finalize your cast. Like your crew, make the necessary arrangements for the type of work they should do and any payment you need to provide for them.
6. Conduct production meetings with your cast and crew. Discuss, organize, and finalize the requirements for each shooting day. Address all concerns and issues before confirming the shooting schedule. Double-check your production requirements and budget, which typically includes location permits, production equipment and accessories, props and sets, food, transportation, communication expenses, and other major and petty expenses to incur during the shoot.
7. Set up each shot based on your shooting schedule and breakdown. Before filming, rehearse each shot. Carefully plan fight and chasing scenes and other action-packed sequences not only to avoid making them fake- or cheap-looking but also to ensure people’s safety. Complete all shots you need. For a short movie, it is possible to shoot everything in a single day. For longer movies, the shoot can take anywhere from a few days to even a few months.
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