When it comes to crafting dynamic fight scenes in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of One Piece, a multitude of elements went into their choreography. One Piece director and executive producer Marc Jobst delved deep into his experiences about how his time on The Witcher and working with Henry Cavill helped capture the intensity of those moments.
Marc Jobst boasts an impressive portfolio, having lent his expertise to several beloved Netflix series, including Daredevil, Luke Cage, and The Punisher (before the Marvel shows were moved over to Disney+), Hannibal, Hemlock Grove, Runaways, and more.
As mentioned above, Jobst also worked on The Witcher, a major Netflix series starring Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, for three seasons – that is, until Liam Hemsworth takes on the role in Season 4 now that Cavill’s run has ended. Jobst was part of the team that brought the famous anime One Piece to life with the live-action adaptation on Netflix, where he not only directed the first two episodes of the series, but worked as an executive producer as well. In an interview with CinemaBlend to promote One Piece for its August 31st release, Jobst went into detail when asked about how the fight scenes were choreographed, and what made them look so slick. He told us:
To achieve the fluidity, one of the things that I learned when I was shooting the sword fight for the pilot of The Witcher is that if you have an operator dedicated to the stunt team, they learn the choreography with the camera as well. So in Henry Cavill's sword fight, because he was such a brilliant sword fighter himself, I wanted to show that. And the more you cut it up, the less you kind of show it because it just becomes a jumble of cuts, but the more you can keep the camera going and going around the action, the more you begin to see the incredible athleticism, the choreography, the beauty of real proper fighting. And when it comes to Zoro, when it comes to Nami, when it comes to Luffy, who are the three that I was dealing with in the first two, they are all highly skilled fighters.
The director worked with Cavill in some of his intense fights in The Witcher, and explained when he was directing the fight scene of Cavill in the pilot episode of the Netflix series, he learned that having a camera operator that is “dedicated” to the stunt team is essential and that they learn the choreography, so everything flows easily. With this in mind, he used this for the opening fight scenes of One Piece.
For those who don’t know, action sequences are a major part of both the One Piece Netflix series, as well as the anime and manga that the show is based on – which is arguably one of the most popular anime in the world. It was essential in making sure the fight scenes felt real enough for the audience to connect with, but also felt as whimsical as they did in the manga and anime series.
Jobst further elaborated on this topic, where even though he learned that important lesson regarding the flow of fight scenes, he knew he couldn’t apply the same tone he would with other shows he has worked on, like The Witcher or the Marvel series’.
Instead, he focused less on the final punch of the character, and more about the “journey to the punch,” where fans get to enjoy how the fight looks rather than the killing blows:
Having shot a lot of Marvel Studio's action and having shot a lot of the Witcher action sequences, it just didn't feel appropriate to be applying the same kind of style to One Piece. So then you have to define what the difference is. And to me, it came down to the Marvel shows, which were very gritty, it was very dirty, it was visceral, there was blood, it was the punches of the slow motion and all this sort of stuff, and it was all about the punch. One piece it felt to me was all about the journey to the punch. So we wanted to enjoy the choreography of it all much more. It wasn't about getting that great hit and slamming the guy. It was about how they get to that and enjoying the dance of it, if you like.
One Piece has continued to gain hype over the last few weeks leading up to its release, and with fight scenes being a pretty big part of all eight episodes, it’s great to know that a series such as this was in good hands. To be honest, it makes me just want to watch any kind of One Piece-based media again – time to re-watch the Netflix series.
In addition to the interview, Marc Jobst asked us to state:
Marc would like to state that he supports both SAG and WGA in their pursuit of reaching a fair and equitable resolution to the respective strikes. In talking about his work - past and present - he does so with unequivocal support for the highly skilled crews that make up the different unions (SAG and WGA included) and believes all should be valued and recompensed for the contributions they make in bringing these series and films to life.
If a Season 2 comes around, I have a feeling there will be plenty more intense fight scenes where that comes from. Now, if Henry Cavill somehow arrived in Season 2 of One Piece doing his own stunts again like The Witcher, that would be the ultimate collision. Sword fights, round two?
