A different viewpoint, but one in some ways quite close to writing; filming a simulated battle in multi-camera. Or, being me, recording the sound for a multi-camera battle scene.
One camera is fixed, giving a high angle, overall commander's view. The pieces are small, dehumanised by distance. The fight is colour against colour, attacks are the ground covered, not the blows delivered or the blood spilt. I hope this is from a hilltop, or tree top: a tethered blimp wipes out so many camera angles for the other, and a helicopter - suffice it to say that as a sound man, I hate and detest helicopters with rare vehemence. The microphone is a fixed, surround sound pickup, getting the ambient sounds of the musket volleys, the shouts, the orders and war cries (yes, this was pike and musket, not very fantasy, but as accurate as research could make it, documentary rather than fiction)
Next, a shoulder held camera following the main character around; he's got a radio mic on him, and the other channel of the audio is taking the camera mic, whichever direction it happens to be pointed.
Another telephoto lens, beside the field on a tripod, swinging to pick out particular clumps of disorder, but on a human scale, not regimental. A hyper-directive microphone combined with a near omni.
finally a chest mounted steadi-cam, going wherever there was action, and me , trying to balance three more radio mics (on characters who had specific dialogue), my boom mic (on a pole almost as long as one of the pikes, but much lighter) and a couple of fixed mics( for particular effects, including muskets and the scene round the flag when the duke is wounded) into a portable four-track recorder.
See (or hear)? A mixture of "in your face" immediate effects (that someone there might have experienced) and overview (which only becomes apparent after the battles "lost, and won".
The author can hear, through the clamour of battle, the blow of a particular sword on a particular breastplate, while I have to put a radiomic on it, or add it later in post production. The author can get into the head of any of the combatants; the steadi-cam operator can, at best, get next to him or his opponent…
Reality is edited after a real battle, just like the video, because reality is the sum of the experiences of all the survivors, and, no matter what the abbacus, that sum never comes out the same twice.
These things are carefully choreographed so no-one actually gets hurt, but when you're trying to maintain formation, watch your back, listen for orders and avoid some nutter swinging an axe, everything gets very intense and your entire world contracts to a very small space. Confusing doesn't even begin to describe it.
