Analysing the Church Fight Scene from Kingsman: The Secret Service (Filmmaking 101 - Boot Camp)

*WARNING* – This post contains videos and images that include strong bloody violence, viewer discretion is advised. This may also contain spoilers.

Task: Find a creative shot you like in a film, try and workout how it's done and work out how you could repeat the style yourself.

The creative shot that I will be analysing is the famous church fight scene (shot by George Richmond) from the 2014 film Kingsman: The Secret Service (directed by Matthew Vaughn).

The scene takes place in a hate group's church in Kentucky, U.S.A, where Kingsman agent, Harry Hart (Colin Firth), tries to uncover the evil plans of billionaire Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) and what connection he has to this church. Once Valentine sees Hart is in the church he activates his SIM cards, that are held within many of the hate group members phones, that trigger a signal to make everyone in the church become murderously violent. This then leads to insanely brilliant fight sequence, a well-choreographed scene made to look as if it was filmed in one-shot (meaning one long take that never stops). With much blood, flying bodies and many violent murders, Hart is left to be the only survivor, rightfully so as we followed him throughout the whole fight and because of his spy background and training.

The main part of the whole scene that sticks out in everyones mind (any audience members who have seen the film) is how it looks like it was all filmed in one-take, it just looks like one, long, continuous shot. What baffles most people is that it actually wasn't filmed all in one-take, as impressive as that sounds, but was actually filmed in separate takes and then edited together. The way they (editors Eddie Hamilton and Jon Harris) created this illusion was by finding joins between action take (usually shots where actors are wiping through) and then seamlessly editing them together. The way they made these cuts from scene seem  seamless was through:

• Zooming.
• Camera rotation.
• Shutter speed.
• Physical blocking by actors.

Throughout this scene, there are also cutaway scenes where it shows someone watching the action from the church on a laptop or screen, there is roughly around 23 cuts (from what I counted) that are then seamed together in editing. 

Here is an example of one of the cuts made:

 1. Agent Hart (Colin Firth) gets a hold of a man who tried to attack him. As he holds onto the man he starts to spin round and shoot others. The camera follows the movement Firth's head and the shutter speed is on high as this part of the shot is fast but also it's easy to see what is happening within the scene, no motion blur.

2. Once Firth has his body to the from of the camera, still shooting at others, once one bullet has gone off he then shoots again. We then see his hand move infant of the camera and the bullet shoot out of the gun simultaneously, this is where the camera would then cut to be able to get the actors into position for the next continuing action. Also here is a good place to cut as the camera is fully blocked by Firth, the gun and                               the bullet exploding out of the gun.

3. We then see all actors in the scene back in their same position after Firth has removed his hand from in front of the camera. The camera still at a high shutter speed and following all of Firth's movements as he rotates round, still holding the man, and then being attacked by someone else. Continuing the high amount of violence in the scene, returning to what was happening before.

As the scene progresses, the pace quickens (as well as the music) but it is usually after a cut has happened that the scene starts to fasten its pace and build up, nearing towards end of scene. The shutter speed gets higher and the zoom and camera rotation start to quicken along too, causing the scene to look more complicated as the illusion of one-take is still embedded into the audiences head.

If I were to try and repeat this style myself, creating my own shot, I would maybe set it in a shopping centre on a Friday night (just before the weekend). That way there is a lot of people going to have fun with friends and family. The shot would follow a small group of friends, all young teenagers, going in to watch a movie at the cinemas. The camera would follow them walking into the shopping centre and then cut whenever a random shopper would walk past the camera. As the camera follows the teens and getting to understand what they are doing at the shopping centre and understanding their friendship, if there is no useful information about them the camera could possibly pan over to other parts of the shopping close by to the group. Panning over to people eating at a fast food place or even people in the shops looking at clothes, music, etc or people playing games in an arcade. Once something useful comes around about the friends the camera with pan back to the group sill making their way to the cinemas to watch the newest hit blockbuster and probably meeting some other friends along the way. As filming goes on the camera will have a high shutter speed as the camera would be moving around a lot and focusing on different places and people, as well as needing clear shots. The reason I thought of setting a scene like this in a shopping centre is that they are always lively, full of people, very vibrant colours throughout and a very loud area. For example, as someone walks through the shot causing a cut in the take, the camera could still following the young group or either follow the person that walked through and see where they end up. This makes the scene more exciting as there is a lot going on elsewhere then just on the group and also giving time to make the cuts be able to seam onto another and make it look like it was just one continuous take.