Percy Jackson Action - How To Do it

Hello, my name is Ephraim Belnap. I’m an amateur filmmaker, fight director, critic, and gamer. I’ve also been a passionate Percy Jackson fan since 2011 who’s read everything up to Trials of Apollo. 

Like everyone else, I was gravely disappointed by the original film adaptation and spent countless hours figuring out how to make it good. This has been a habit of mine, in fact, since 2011 and it’s grown into a habit as a screenwriter and doctor for franchise treatments. I’m active in my local film circuit (Central Utah), I’m familiar with the industry, decently educated on larger film operations, and deeply invested in helping make quality work. All that said, I’d like to give some pointers at the outset about things to avoid and embrace when it comes to crafting the action of Percy Jackson. 

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The Importance of Action In A Story 

First, some words about why action matters. What most people don’t realize is that when the story is action-oriented, effective action is the heart of the storytelling moment-by-moment. Luke fighting Darth Vader, Harry Potter fighting Voldemort, Jackie Chan fighting Brad Allan, all distill essential elements of the story and characters into sequences of character and push and pull upon which the entire story can rest. This is why good action is essential to a great action story, and why films that are bad often misunderstand good fundamental action. 

Good fundamental action has a few things - Clear stakes, comprehensibility, and skill. You need to understand why they’re fighting, what’s at stake, be able to see what’s actually happening, and for there to be some actual skill or athleticism on display. Shaky cam or lack of character is frequently to blame for a lack of these when misused. Un is having a long pan of the space in which the fight occurs, so that the audience has a minute to drink in what the space is gonna be like. This means that any subsequent fighting, maneuvering, and action occurs in a setting that the audience already understands. They don’t need to worry about worrying if the hero’s gonna trip on a stone or reach the edge of a platform, and if they do, it’s because they already saw it in the set-up. That’s probably the most important thing that can be said about the shooting style. The second most important thing has to do with the weaponry. 

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The Weaponry 

 

The majority of the fighting in Percy Jackson occurs with Greek-style swords. The majority of that fighting occurs with Percy Jackson wielding a leaf-shaped sword identified as a xiphos, a one-handed double-edged sword. It’s generally believed to be a maximum of two feet long, although some artistic license on our part is not inconceivable. Especially as the actors grow, it might be conceivable to add some length to the swords, which could be justified as magical weapons growing to suit the dimensions of their wielders. For the moment however, the storytelling seems to suggest that Percy wields a standard, unlengthened xiphos, and so we encounter an issue. 

There’s basically a few ways to wield swords in film. 

The medieval, two-handed style. 

The swashbuckling, one-handed style. 

The Jedi, two-handed style. 

None of these are a two-feet sword. We only have a few popular examples of two-feet sword fights in Hollywood. 

1. 300
2. Spartacus: Blood and Sand
3. Jason and the Argonauts 
4. 300 (1962)
5. Immortals (2011) 

As these show, there aren’t very many examples of shortsword fights in Hollywood, and most of them don’t look as great compared to their peers. This isn’t because there’s anything less exciting about them, it’s because longer swords are easier to handle without risking the actors. What’s often typed as “Flynning” means that the longer the blade, the easier it is to disguise distance that prevents injury, as well as easier to excuse slow strike speed with the excuse of the swords’ weight. The shorter length means that shortsword fights essentially have the expectations of sword fights but limits closer to knife fights. But the good news is that there’s a number of ways around this. 

Probably the most famous example of good shortsword fighting is 2004’s Troy. Achilles Vs Hector. This has the advantage of being performed by two great athletes and adults who had months to train and prepare themselves. But we see some good principles. There’s a lot of creativity being applied, and they use their environment and not just their swords. Most importantly, it’s very rooted in the characters in the moment, so everything in the fight reflects that. But there’s a few specific take-aways that I think we can apply and benefit from right now. Let’s get at it. 

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The Basics 

First of all, at the most fundamental level of an entertainment sword fight is blade-on-blade. Two actors doing moves that end with them clashing together, usually with one attacking and the other blocking, often followed by a counterstrike from the blocker, and continuing ad nauseum. 

The fundamentals of that are basic strikes and blocks, and there are a number of schools of real fighting that teach that. But for now, I think the simplest thing to do is come up with a number system of strikes and blocks that will let you chain together routines quickly. For example, 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for strikes 

And 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for corresponding blocks

Then you can chain together a routine with actors like 1-5-2, 1-5-2-6-4, and so on. 

Then, once we have that, we have a means by which to overcome the potential dullness of a shortsword fight. There are basically three ways to do this. Every half-dozen strikes or so, we introduce one of three things: a change in positioning, an environmental element, or a unique piece of swordplay. 

1. Change in Positioning 

This is the most basic change, but one that works very well. A change in positioning is trying to move to one side in order to reach a side not defended by your opponent. This could be as simple as a shift of your feet, or a lightning-fast lunge, or a jump, or jumping off of something in the environment. It’s simple, but positioning is a means by which many professional fighters gain advantage on their opponent. Since Percy Jackson sword fights occur so many times in so many places, positioning is a quick way to make the fighters look skilled and intense. It’s a vital element. 

1. Elemental Element 

An environmental element could be coming up against a drop, or tripping on a rock, or scratching a pillar, or being endangered by something falling. An EE basically means something in the setting disturbing the characters and requiring a quick change. This ties in with positioning but also storytelling, since the setting of the fights is often important to the plot. An environmental hazard is a quick way to make the story exciting and pepper up a sequence.  

1. Unique Piece of Swordplay 

A unique piece of swordplay is anything that falls outside the strike/block system. It’s a good idea to have these, and it’s where more technical swordfighting systems can come into play. From blade locks to ducks to kicks to wrist grabs to conventional martial arts moves, there’s all sorts of things. And it’s something that can be dialed in from very low to very high levels of complexity, so it can be tailored to the fighters’ ability and time constraints. 

With these three elements, we have a solid suite of tools to help us craft quick, exciting, character-driven shortsword fight choreography that can be dialed up or dialed down to suit a wide variety of skill levels and be made more complex with an increasing level of familiarity. 

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So, those are my thoughts. I hope the series succeeds. I have a lot of enthusiasm for it. The truth is based on just the Percy Jackson books, Rick Riordan has one of the best minds for writing action out there, and I just wanna help convey that level of skill and quality to a large-scale screen adaptation. Every little bit of expertise and attention helps. I know there’s a dedicated team of people working on it and a lot of people dedicated to making it succeed, but I hope at least a little of what I say gets applied.