All language subtitles for MasterClass Ron Howard Teaches Directing - 114 - Scene Deconstruction Raiders of the Lost Ark

[Music]

one of the things uh having grown up in

the business as an actor that I've

really had to work on as a director is

understanding action Roger Corman gave

me a very good piece of advice when I

was doing Grand Theft Auto and I

admitted that I was concerned about all

the car action scenes that I was going

to have to stage in in that one and he

said well here's a clue for you you

understand staging actors because you've

been an actor and I can see from your

short films that you're very good with

the actors and the staging I said yes he

said well they're all characters I said

yeah he said so are the cars and um ever

since then I've learned to look at all

of the elements in an action sequence as

um you know as characters really as

forces that are that are that are

interfacing uh whether they're a human

animal a monster fantasy or

machine uh but I've also continued to

try to push myself to understand the

challenges of staging and shooting

action um the where the camera should be

um the editing how does the production

planning uh influence the way the scene

is going to work how long should the

shots be and one day I was on an

airplane and Raiders the Lost Ark was

playing and I wanted to see it again I

thought well this is perfect I'm

thinking about action scenes I love

Raiders of the Lost Ark I love the

action in it it's fun it's exciting it's

all the things that I love um I watch it

and my headphones didn't work and there

were no other headphones available on

the airplane and I was really annoyed

and I but so I said okay well I won't

bother and then every once in a while I

would glance up and I became riveted and

then came the the famous truck Chase um

where uh where where indie akes over the

truck I watched the whole thing without

sound and I the minute I got home I I

got hold of what was probably then a VHS

and I just started watching that scene

over and over without sound and I

learned so much I I've done that since

then with all kinds of scenes uh music

performance moments uh uh you know um

other kinds of other kinds of action and

even dramatic moments and it's very

interesting to interesting to see how

great directors choose to stay and shoot

scenes and you are more sensitive to the

details of the kind of mechanics of it

where did the camera go how long how

long was the shot used how many times

was the same camera setup used in that

scene by forcing yourself to kind of

distance it and just watch it with the

sound off so I thought today it would be

good to uh flashback to that moment uh

on that airplane where my headphones

wouldn't work and and start off looking

at U the great Steven Spielberg action

sequence from Raiders of the Lost Ark

and let's let's look at what might have

gone into making it now I wasn't there

I've never talked to Steven about it

but um let's let's let's look at it I

think we might we might we might surmise

a few

things well that's a camera shot with a

crane it's one

setup this looks like two cameras like

an A and B camera and you can also see

that they use the double here um and

because you're kind of angling either to

a profile or or the back so that might

have been a second unit shot

Towing scenes let's stop for one

second as an actor these are the bane of

your existence uh it's very

uncomfortable and you know uh Towing

vehicles with cameras mounted on the

vehicle or on a trailer alongside it uh

a camera car that's pulling it

especially out here in a rough rough

environment uh as as they were in with

radiers of the Lost dark it's slow it's

tedious it's dangerous and I was very

interested when I was watching the scene

to notice the speed of the vehicles now

when I watch the sequence with the sound

and John Williams music playing I feel

like it's you know they're going 100

miles an hour but um you know they're

they're not now this scene is not the

action yet we'll talk some more about it

when we get to the truck but let's carry

on it's another opportunity to use a

stunt double probably a second unit

shot that's second unit also well the

reason I could see is because the stunt

guy was definitely moving his head away

so you could see it wasn't

Harrison and there's a close-up of

Harrison now let's stop for a second so

how many times has Harrison Ford been in

this sequence so far he he rode his

horse out and went around on that crane

shot the very beginning and there so how

many times do they need Harrison Ford so

far in this first minute or so of this

action sequence twice uh Steven

Spielberg is incredibly organized in

these kinds of ways he comes out of

Television himself and uh I guarantee

you that those kinds of of things were

thought of and planned for in advance

meaning certain scenes could be done

with the double could be done with

second unit freeing um the the director

Steven Spielberg to stay with the actors

in first unit Mickey Moore um is the

second unit director on this and I

happen to know that because he was also

the second unit director a few years

later on Willow and uh George Lucas and

uh Steven Spielberg had a lot of uh

affection for and respect for Mickey

Moore who was an old veteran started as

a child actor in the U silent movie era

worked his way up through Hollywood as a

as a prop man as a as a an assistant

director uh production manager and

eventually a director and then in his

retirement years became one of the

preeminent uh action directors um Mickey

directed a lot of this

sequence let's carry

on great shot dangerous shot very

difficult to ride a horse down in that

way so it's definitely double and also

difficult to time with the

truck let's stop now notice how long

that shot was it's not very long so that

tells me that they carefully set up for

just that moment when they would be

firing shots past the gun to the rider

and that makes the scene safer more

manageable and contained but it takes it

takes either storyboarding or some

thoughtful shot listing to say we don't

have to ride the horse the the truck and

the vehicle with the machine gun for you

know a th000 ft down a bouncing road

that that would be irresponsible and uh

and totally inefficient but what we do

need is this moment when the gun's

firing and the gun misses because ind's

able to ride the the horse and and and

get on the other side of the truck

that's Harrison himself no question

about that not Harrison but a great shot

but see the truck's not going very fast

if you notice let's stop for a second as

exciting as that is and it's a tricky

shot the camera's down low to help um

intensify the speed it also helps mask

the fact that it's uh it's it has to be

a stunt person it wouldn't be safe for

Harrison to have done that and um uh and

it gives you the illusion of

some speed because the road's going by

you know close to a wide lens wide

lenses always help enhance speed um but

you can still look that and see just by

the rotation on the wheels that um you

know not not going that fast going at a

at a sane measured speed and they could

perfectly well get away with it and

still make the scene exciting and much

much safer to

do okay fight scene that's definitely

Harrison let's stop um so a scene like

that of course is Towing the vehicle uh

it might not even be the entire truck

I'm sure it wasn't they probably had to

build a small compartment just for this

fight because they knew they we're going

to have a you know a great deal of

action in that fight and uh the safe way

is to plant that onto its own uh trailer

you know that you don't need to see the

front of uh of the vehicle um and it's

much more efficient if the director is

able to say here's here's what we

need to sell the int the intensity of

this action scene we don't need more uh

but we don't need less this is it

storyboarding helps amend mely with

those kinds of decisions sometimes

making a model helps just a small

version of the set so that you can you

can look at it you can imagine the

action sometimes in preparation you may

tape it out um or build a little mockup

to just make sure that you're not short

changing yourself but you don't want to

be overly ambitious again it makes

action dangerous and Incredibly uh

inefficient um and nor nor do you want

to um you know serve the needs of the

scene let's keep

going very exciting clearly second unit

dangerous driving here we're back to

that set with the fights going

on great pieces again very specific

storyboarded kind of

sequence the shot is designed to achieve

one thing let's stop whether it's a

fall uh or a

skid uh these things are not pieced

together in long runs they're they're

they're meant to be executed idea by

idea and that's what makes it efficient

and it's also what makes it uh something

that you can execute with uh consistency

and

safety they're back into our

set you can see that that wide shot

again the truck was very measured um I'm

sure all the ladders were wired it's

just a good oldfashioned and fall we're

back to our set with a different

background here we're into second unit

action here's a big

stunt probably multiple

cameras each of these action ideas set

up to accomplish the thing it needs to

and really no

more let's stop for a second often in a

situation like this it's a very good

idea to have the design shot the

storyboarded shot and yet to try to put

a a b camera or a c camera if you're if

you know if you have it in various

places they may not be storyboarded but

they may be places where you know the

truck could go by closely perhaps

something will accidentally fall in the

foreground so you're not as meticulous

about those shots but uh very often

you're very happy to have them in the

editing room

again let's keep checking the speed of

the

trucks very intense sequence but they

don't have to be going 75 or 80 mil an

hour back to that same mockup set all

the wider shots could be done with

doubles so it's possible that Harrison

only had to do a couple of days of

shooting uh for his his part of the

sequence although there's some pretty

intense stuff coming up

look at the way Spielberg keeps using

that closeup of

Harrison well in the in those days those

were

models uh Miniatures thrown off of a

real probably off of a real Cliff or or

a smaller

Cliff great suspense build up back to

that set with Harrison

he jerks a fake steering wheel one way

and the stunt double does

it again look at the speed of the

truck you don't have to be going that

fast with those

Riders that's a controlled

fall Another Not So controlled fall but

it wasn't an

accident no wires on these

guys still that set

that they're using that's not that set

that's a real

truck with the double back to the set on

with

Harrison that looked like a and b

cameras side by

side you can begin to see if you watch a

scene like this you know how

storyboarded and planned it might

be and how careful it would be and

therefore the execution winds up

becoming

efficient back to our

set that's a particular set piece same

with

that um so that Harrison could safely be

in the

shot that one as well and that was

Harrison dragging his feet along the

dirt this is mimicking a famous scene I

think it's from John Ford's uh Stage

Coach famous uh stuntman invented this

idea and went under the stage coach

I can guarantee you that wasn't

Harrison but you can also see how

specific shots are that is Harrison of

course so it's not like he got off you

know Scott free

what a sequence this is back to our

set Harrison again more fighting

you can see that that there shots

through uh each door and then through

that windshield and that's basically the

way that set is used here's that set

that we saw earlier with Harrison that

set up that stunt fall they did it that

way probably so they could have pads you

know they framed out the ground so you

see somebody fall but you don't see them

hit that's much safer because it meant

they could put padding

down That Could Have Been A and B

cameras it's

possible and Indie makes it to the other

side I'm

exhausted and I didn't have to do a darn

thing except watch it um it just gives

you an idea about the value of really

analyzing what excellent directors have

done in the past it doesn't mean that

you will choose to make your next

sequence um follow the Aesthetics or The

Cutting patterns uh or the staging of um

you know Raiders of the Lost Ark or any

other action scene you might watch

watching this sequence from Raiders of

the Lost Ark over and over again in

informed me in a number of ways but I

think the the number

one lesson that I

learned was that um taking the action

in

controllable bits in

moments and having the patience to plan

it and shoot it idea to idea to idea in

a thoughtful enough way that it could it

could it could be seamlessly edited was

a far superior way to approach a

sequence like this rather than um just

staging a lot of action and trying to

shoot it over and over again M Mad Max

is an interesting one to watch so is

Matrix you know fascinating when we

start getting into the world of CGI and

really slow it down looking at the uh uh

you know the Marvel movies today it's a

it remains a

fantastic um exercise in terms of just

giving you some Clues and insights into

into the way others have done it then

it's the director's job to use it um

only for its its its inspiration uh and

and and also for some practical uh

suggestions if you want to do something

like this um here's the way you may want

to approach it if if this if this sort

of impact on the audience is what you're

looking for these are the building

blocks that at least worked in this

particular circumstance and uh but again

um you know it's it's it's it's it's not

to do anything but excite you excite

your imagination and and uh um you know

and

stir um a kind of a menu of

possibilities for you to draw upon

because there are always many many

different ways to present a dramatic

idea an exciting idea to audiences when

Paul Greengrass stages a big action

scene in Born identity he does almost

entirely the opposite he comes from the

documentary world he wants a different

kind of aesthetic he's not going for

this sort of uh movie movie action

sequence and in that case he does use

multiple cameras he carefully stages the

action they they they they work on it

they they plan it the camera operators

have an idea as to what it's going to be

but they begin shooting in a in a more

of a documentary style they stage it and

shoot it they still break it down into

um uh action

moments uh but it's not as choreographed

in appearance and the shots are not

composed

necessarily uh or at least they're

they're not meant to feel as as uh as as

composed and organized and presented as

um an action sequence like Raiders of

the Lost Ark both incredibly effective

but aesthetically very different and in

both instances you can learn a lot by

finding the scene that impresses you and

uh watching it over and over again

eventually turning the sound off and

beginning to understand how do how those

pieces came together