Thursday, May 02, 2019
“In the Advanced Portion of the Class, We’ll Set You on Fire”: Stunt School at Age 33
Filmmaker Magazine: I have a Master’s degree, but my return to school as a 33-year-old wasn’t to chase a Ph.D. In my re-entry to so-called academia, I didn’t even crack a book open. The extent of my reading came in the form of reviewing consent waivers that outlined how I couldn’t take legal action against anyone who set me on fire or threw me off of scaffolding.
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2 comments:
I thought this article was an interesting overview of the training process to get into stunt work. It’s clearly not a job that you can just show up and learn as you go due to the danger involved, so it makes sense that there should be facilities dedicated to training new stunt performers. When I was younger and still heavily involved in gymnastics, I looked into stunt work as a way to keep using my skills in the future, and while it looked fun and exciting, I was turned off by the danger involved even with all the safety measures in place. The line about the machine that could break your legs if you were even a few inches off was definitely a scary one and really speaks to how stunt performers risk their bodies and their lives every day to create entertainment. This thought process reminds me of the mantra that we keep repeating here- no project and no performance is worth more than your health and safety.
I appreciate the tone of this article as fun and light. Especially considering the life lartering risk this article points out. I wonder how people truly make a living this way because this author certainly makes it seem like there is very little way to be doing this day after day after day. I also am curious if two week training was even close to enough. How can you safely fall off a burning building and how can you learn that is two weeks. The comment about directors always wanting to speed up the car to 20mph highlighted a gap in policy in the industry. If it is so unsafe why is it allowed in the first place. Although trained stunts people should know their limits there should be a difference in telling a director you are uncomfortable with a certain stunt and telling the director no you can't do that you will severely injure me. This is a situation where no amount of money and persuasion should be allowed to coax a decision.
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