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471 days ago
It's no secret that CGI put a dent in the industry of stunt work. In fact, I actually know stuntmen who became graphic artists just to keep up with the changing world. But the trend is reversing my friends. Oh yes, real people are making a comeback... The mid 90's saw the rise of CGI. Films like the "Congo" sprinkled action scenes with CGI lasers and gorillas. Sci-fi films like "Event Horizon" would toss in a brief shot of a CGI watch floating around for a bit of flare. And the first total CGI film was born, a Disney flick called "Dinosaurs" which almost no one saw and is all but forgotten today. But soon enough, Toy Story came out, and people were blown away by the new form of cinema. It was like introducing sound into previously silent films. Suddenly everyone wanted CGI, the more the merrier. CGI shots became the climactic swells of action movies and the goriest fun of horror. A decade later, Peter Jackson took the game to a new level with Lord of ...
520 days ago
Why is it that my vacations are filled with intense activity? I spend my days in dangerous situations. I drive fast cars, I fight, I fall off of tall places (though not so much these days with the falling, I let the younger guys do that). Then, when I go on vacation, I go rock climbing, or snow boarding, or most recently white water rafting. You'd think it would be like a bus man's holiday. Why do I go do activities so similar to what I do for a living when I have time off? Shouldn't I be on a beach reading a novel and sipping from a cup with too many umbrellas? I guess its the same reason I don't stop my caveman diet when I go on vacation. I get so used to eating healthy, living a healthy lifestyle, it doesn't appeal to me to scarf down on pizza for a week during a vacation. In fact, that sounds downright disgusting. Every day I take omega 3 capsules I bought from the vitamin shop. I do this because I enjoy the sense of well being I get from maintaining my health. Why ...
549 days ago
Beyond safety (always the most important thing), a stunt man has three goals to achieve an excellent stunt: 1) The physical act: The stunt itself. This is cinema verite at its finest. A CGI spider man can flip around and fly off of buildings and the audience is amused. But when a real person falls from a nine story building, the audience knows, and is impressed. Just watch an old Jackie Chan movie if you don't believe me. Even if its just taking a punch, the excellent stunt man takes that punch like nobody in real life knows how. 2) The tone of the film. Yes, even stunt men need to be aware of a director's vision. In a movie like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, wild fists and acrobatic leaps are fine and appropriate. But in a film like Mystic River, the stunt man who gets hit by a car is just as important and needs to restrict his movements to look like an actual average joe being run over. 3) The physicality of the character (actor). This is as important as the physical act ...
576 days ago
When I started this blog, I'd intended to post about stunt work and health. After reading over my posts, I realize I've been talking mostly about stunts, and not too much about health, so this post is dedicate to good nutrition and dieting. What's a stunt man's diet? It should be any man's ideal diet, which is to say lots of protein in whole food sources, and relatively little carbs and sugars. As amped as stuntwork is, we aren't the type of people who throw back red bulls and power bars to get juiced for a "big trick." Leave that to the skateboarders and BMXers. Probably the only significance between a stuntman's diet and the average joe's healthy diet is the water retention. One of the most common annoyances of stuntwork is bathroom breaks. We just don't get them. Stuntmen are often required to where special suits or "body armor" for various stunts, or to be suspended in air or under water for long periods of time. And when you're dangling from a wire on a ...
595 days ago
Well, the writer's strike is over, which means there's plenty of work again. There was a bit of a delay once the strike ended. Everyone still pensive, trying to figure out just where the hell they should look for work. The TV shows launched into full swing, but set work on feature films didn't pick up quite as quickly, because everything was cut off in mid development. But now the wheels have begun turning, and I'm currently coordinating stunts for a friend's independent cop/thriller/noir. The script sucks, but hey, it's wages. I it's high time I get some wages, I've got to eat! Anyway, the unfortunate thing about this whole ordeal is that we may have to go through the entire painful process once again when the actor's guild contract runs out in June. I really hope that doesn't happen. And finally, visit people search or orthorexia if you're feeling lucky.
