Oldboy (2003) — corridor hammer fight one take
See our character’s iconic-scene parody →A hero freed from long confinement fights a narrow hallway packed with enemies with just a claw hammer, and the camera moves along the hallway to catch it without a single cut. With no cut to give you a breather, the audience also has to endure the fight to the end. Borrow it when you want to show action in which one person pushes through many opponents without editing.
According to Wikipedia, this hallway fight is a single take completed with 17 takes over three days, and the only thing touched up in editing was a knife stuck in Oh Dae-su's back, added with CG.
To recreate it: Make the AI version in 4–5 second sections and put the same hallway background plate as the start frame of every section to lock the space.
The camera slides sideways along the hallway, parallel to the fight. Kill Screen writes that the camera just follows and watches the action with no emotion.
To recreate it: Write only a one-direction move, as in 'the camera glides steadily sideways', and put in no other camera movement.
Putting Oh Dae-su and the many opponents in one frame means the audience never loses track of who is attacking from where (observation of the clip).
To recreate it: In crowd fights, AI easily distorts hands and feet, so cut the action to one or two moves per section.
Because it is a single take, the direction of travel is kept the same from start to finish. Kill Screen compares this picture to a side-scrolling video game screen.
To recreate it: Describe the camera movement direction and the characters' direction of travel in the same words in every AI section, so that joined together they look like one sideways move.
The original is a real single take with no hidden cuts. It is the key technique for hiding the seams when you split this scene up for AI.
To recreate it: Cut at the moment an opponent's body blocks the front of the frame, and join to the next section.
The hallway walls and light lean greenish overall, giving a stuffy, dingy mood (observation of the clip).
To recreate it: Apply the same green tone to every section so the color doesn't jump at the join.
Cinematic multi-shot sequence, 15 seconds total, one continuous side-on take. Shot 1 (3s): static wide side-on view of a narrow fluorescent-lit apartment corridor packed with men in tracksuits, a disheveled man in a rumpled suit gripping a short metal pipe at the left end; Shot 2 (5s): the camera trucks right slowly at his pace as he shoves and swings through the crowd; Shot 3 (4s): the truck continues as the exhausted man staggers through the last attackers, men slumped behind him; Shot 4 (3s): static medium shot at the right end as he leans on an elevator door, breathing hard. Consistent man always moving left to right, flat greenish fluorescent light, gritty 35mm grain, exhausted raw mood.
The camera follows the hallway with no emotion, spreading the entire fight across one frame, so the audience never loses track of who is attacking from where and endures the cut-free time as it is. This technique works only when the choreography is exact: it took 17 takes over three days, and the only thing touched up in editing was a knife stuck in his back, added with CG.
Wide side-on view of a long, narrow fluorescent-lit apartment corridor packed with a dozen men in tracksuits; at the left end a disheveled man in a rumpled suit grips a short metal pipe and steps forward; static camera, flat greenish overhead light, 35mm film grain.
Side-on view of a narrow fluorescent-lit corridor; the man in the rumpled suit shoves and swings his pipe through a crowd of men in tracksuits, moving from left to right; the camera trucks right slowly at his pace, flat stage-like framing, greenish light, 35mm film grain.
Continuing side-on view of the same corridor, the exhausted man in the rumpled suit staggers right through the last attackers, pushing them against the walls, several men slumped on the floor behind him; the camera keeps trucking right at his pace, greenish fluorescent light, gritty 35mm film grain.
Medium shot at the right end of the corridor, the man in the rumpled suit leans against an elevator door breathing hard, the metal pipe hanging from his hand, defeated men groaning behind him; static camera, flickering fluorescent light, 35mm film grain.
The original has no cuts, so join Shots 2 and 3 with an invisible cut to look like one sideways move. Cut at the moment an opponent's body blocks the front of the frame, and write the camera speed and direction (left to right) the same in every cut (match on action, keeping screen direction). Lay one piece of music from start to finish to hide the cut points for the ear too (sound bridge).
In crowd fights, AI easily distorts hands and bodies, so cut the action to one or two moves per 4–5 second section and lock the same hallway background plate as the start frame. For the sideways truck move, write only one direction, as in 'the camera glides steadily to the right the whole time', and check in the 480p draft that the background really flows.
Wikipedia — Oldboy (2003 film) · Kill Screen — Oldboy's legendary hallway scene, de-made as an NES game