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Friday, September 21, 2018
What's it like being a 'Stuntman'? Eddie Braun doc gives insider look
www.usatoday.com: It’s a stunt performer’s job to bolster an actor’s performance, add pizzazz to an explosion, dramatize a fall. As Eddie Braun says in the first line of his documentary “Stuntman,” which premieres Sunday at Los Angeles Film Festival, “I’m the face you never see.”
Until now.
3 comments:
Rebecca Meckler
said...
I have mixed feelings about what Eddie Braun says in this article. Though I’m glad that he is so devoted to his art form, I personally don’t think that anyone should be dying to create movies. I don’t like the idea that Braun has to get hurt to do stunts. I don’t see the need for SWAG, especially the wild ass guess part, in stunt work. Especially now that we have CGI, we should be doing everything in our power to make sure that everyone is safe on film sets. At the end of the day, it's just a movie. That being said, I’m glad he's taking precautions, like tattooing his body and having a helmet with crucial medical information on it. Also, it's nice to hear that actors are so appreciative of Braun’s devotion and work. My differing opinion from Braun’s aside, I would love to see the movie ‘Stuntman”,
What an incredibly fascinating and terrifying article. Firstly, I'd like to motion that we start calling WAG passes, SWAG passes. We definitely have a science to estimating, so I think it's fitting. Secondly, how the heck does this man do what he does?! Clearly to be a stunt person you have to have a real passion for it, but gosh I had no clue to what extent. I don't think art is ever more important that the safety of someone's life, especially for some cheap action movie. However, it really does seem like he takes pride in some of his more daring stunts, which is fantastic, but I don't think I could mentally handle the stress of knowing the inevitable accidents. I thought the article was good to bring up the relationships between actors and their stunt doubles. I've read about it before in the relationship between The Rock and his stunt double (he bought him a beautiful car for their 15th movie together). Clearly the actors must have sincere gratitude and investment in their stunt doubles, but where are the lawyers in this equation. When these stunts are happening, who is taking liability and are there engineers involved in the process of planning stunts? I'd love to learn more about the action film industry and how stunt people operate; hopefully in the movie!
Eddie Braun seems like a cool guy, except for one thing. He literally seems to be attempting a life threatening stunt because it’s cool. He risks leaving his wife and kids to a life of grief because it looks “cool,” let alone that if he died his death looks more like suicide than accident. How can he justify his actions when they risk so much? It reminds me of similar thoughts I had when reading “An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth.” In the book the relatively egocentric astronaut talked about what happens at NASA when some astronauts inevitably die. He echos a similar plan down to who would comfort his wife. This was hard to read, I knew the astronaut was changing the world around us with life changing research and multi country diplomacy being conducted, but it was very hard for me to read how his family has to just roll with it, especially because throughout the book he was constantly rooting up his wife and kids to move to a new place as well as leaving them for months upon months at a time. There is a huge difference to me in these two rocket projects with similar risks: one is based on billions of research dollars on what is most important to research in the realm of space exploration and one looks “cool.” Now I can recognize Braun may have other reasons for attempting a risk of this size but he doesn’t seem to have enough justification to majorly risk his life. I can grapple with the risks of an astronaut but I hope the need for action is not dependant on life or death like it seems to be here.
3 comments:
I have mixed feelings about what Eddie Braun says in this article. Though I’m glad that he is so devoted to his art form, I personally don’t think that anyone should be dying to create movies. I don’t like the idea that Braun has to get hurt to do stunts. I don’t see the need for SWAG, especially the wild ass guess part, in stunt work. Especially now that we have CGI, we should be doing everything in our power to make sure that everyone is safe on film sets. At the end of the day, it's just a movie. That being said, I’m glad he's taking precautions, like tattooing his body and having a helmet with crucial medical information on it. Also, it's nice to hear that actors are so appreciative of Braun’s devotion and work. My differing opinion from Braun’s aside, I would love to see the movie ‘Stuntman”,
What an incredibly fascinating and terrifying article. Firstly, I'd like to motion that we start calling WAG passes, SWAG passes. We definitely have a science to estimating, so I think it's fitting. Secondly, how the heck does this man do what he does?! Clearly to be a stunt person you have to have a real passion for it, but gosh I had no clue to what extent. I don't think art is ever more important that the safety of someone's life, especially for some cheap action movie. However, it really does seem like he takes pride in some of his more daring stunts, which is fantastic, but I don't think I could mentally handle the stress of knowing the inevitable accidents. I thought the article was good to bring up the relationships between actors and their stunt doubles. I've read about it before in the relationship between The Rock and his stunt double (he bought him a beautiful car for their 15th movie together). Clearly the actors must have sincere gratitude and investment in their stunt doubles, but where are the lawyers in this equation. When these stunts are happening, who is taking liability and are there engineers involved in the process of planning stunts? I'd love to learn more about the action film industry and how stunt people operate; hopefully in the movie!
Eddie Braun seems like a cool guy, except for one thing. He literally seems to be attempting a life threatening stunt because it’s cool. He risks leaving his wife and kids to a life of grief because it looks “cool,” let alone that if he died his death looks more like suicide than accident. How can he justify his actions when they risk so much? It reminds me of similar thoughts I had when reading “An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth.” In the book the relatively egocentric astronaut talked about what happens at NASA when some astronauts inevitably die. He echos a similar plan down to who would comfort his wife. This was hard to read, I knew the astronaut was changing the world around us with life changing research and multi country diplomacy being conducted, but it was very hard for me to read how his family has to just roll with it, especially because throughout the book he was constantly rooting up his wife and kids to move to a new place as well as leaving them for months upon months at a time. There is a huge difference to me in these two rocket projects with similar risks: one is based on billions of research dollars on what is most important to research in the realm of space exploration and one looks “cool.” Now I can recognize Braun may have other reasons for attempting a risk of this size but he doesn’t seem to have enough justification to majorly risk his life. I can grapple with the risks of an astronaut but I hope the need for action is not dependant on life or death like it seems to be here.
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