nerdy tangents
One Thousand Club
Hollywood combat can get you hurt when you are learning European styles. Trust me; I know from experience. First time I tried to fight with a two hand sword I tried to block Hollywood style. Got my finger mashed as a result.
My point was I think they were talking more about scene continuity then actual fight choreography.
So like I took a drama class where they taught us how to throw a punch on stage. Obviously you aren’t going to literally hit the other person nor does the punch have to look particularly realistic (depending on the skill of the actors involved).
What does need to happen is that both characters have to ACT as if the punch lands.
And that’s the problem. If your writing a story you have to at least pretend the hits land or it disrupts the flow of the narrative.
It’s like if you went to see a play and Character A is supposed to slap Character B for plot reasons. No one thinks the actors are literally hitting each other but you want them to pretend so the story can progress,