Fighting: Expert level skills in boxing, combat, or a martial art. Falling: The ability to fall from a variety of heights, some of which are over three stories high, and the ability to use trampolines. Riding and driving: High-level skills as a precision driver of cars or motorcycles, or expert level horseback riding skills. Agility and strength: Superior gymnastics or rock-climbing skills. Water skills: High level skills in scuba diving, underwater stunts, or advanced swimming. Miscellaneous sport: A superior skill level in tumbling, fencing, or wirework.
Wirework: The ability to expertly use rigs, harnesses, and vests to perform aerial stunts, which include flying or falling action sequences. Tumbling: Performing gymnastics feats safely without using specialized equipment. These include front and back handsprings, somersaults, shoulder rolls, break falls, dive rolls, round-off back and front handsprings, and cartwheels. High falls: The ability to fall from three stories or higher, while landing on a box catcher or an airbag, without hurting yourself. You should be familiar with a variety of falls, such as twisting falls, headers, and step outs. Swordplay: Skillfully using swords, foils, or blades while in combat. This includes fencing or choreographed fight scenes. Horsework: The ability to ride horses skillfully and safely while performing stunts such as falling, jumping onto a horse, and engaging in swordplay while riding. Air ram: A device that uses compressed air and hydraulics to catapult a stunt person into the air. It’s usually used to create the effect of an explosion, propelling the stunt person through the air as he is flying forward, backward, or somersaulting.
These programs will not guarantee you a job and some may cost a pretty penny, but if you need to hone your skills, this may be the safest way to do so.
This doesn’t mean you should annoy famous stunt men, but that if you are around them or find a way to know them, you would benefit greatly if you could ask them for advice on improving your skills. Often, this part can come later, after you’ve gotten your foot in the door; you won’t have much luck finding a mentor in the stunt business if you have no experience whatsoever, unless you have some powerful connections.
A headshot is like your business card as a stunt man; if you don’t have one readily available, then how do you expect people you meet in the business to remember you?
Your height, weight, shoe size, and any other physical measurements Your union affiliation (more on this later) Film and TV credits (if you have any) A list of skills or special abilities, such as rock climbing, scuba diving, boxing, or martial arts
Getting into a guild is hard work. One way you can get in, if you’re lucky, is to get waved in in case a stunt coordinator isn’t able to find a person with the combination of skills and build that you have to do a certain job (for example, if you’re four foot five and can climb a mountain). Another way of getting in is to try to get work on a SAG or other union film as an extra for at least three separate days. Get an extras voucher after every day and turn in those three vouchers to make yourself eligible to join a union – though this still doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get to join.
Even if you don’t get picked, the coordinator will have your résumé on file for future gigs. While you’re waiting for a call, you should try to get some more experience on (union-only) sets, to get a feel for what the job is like.
Stunt rigger: To be a stunt rigger, you should not only be an experienced stunt performer, but you should have an understanding of the mechanics of stunt equipment. You should have safety as your first priority, and will perform a variety of tasks, from testing and tearing down stunt equipment on the set to arranging landing pads for falls and positioning wires and harnesses correctly. Stunt coordinator: This is the head of the stunt department, the person who works closely with the director to create the action sequences in the film, or even to suggest alternative stunt scenarios when it is necessary. The stunt coordinator designs the desired stunts, hires the stunt crew, manages the budget, and makes sure all of the stunts are performed safely. Second unit director: The person in charge of filming the stunt scenes, as opposed to the stunt coordinator, who is responsible for staging the actual stunts. As the second unit director, you will film scenes of the stunt performers in action as well as exterior shots of the scenes which can be used in post-production. Although these directors may have experience in stunt work, then must also be experienced in filming and directing.
You want to be remembered as someone who is easy to work with. Why? So you can get hired again. When you’re following directions, it’s important to be polite and reasonable when you interact with the crew. If you genuinely have a question about how a stunt should be performed, ask away, but don’t nitpick everything that’s happening or slow down the process.
This means that you’ll need endurance to succeed at the job. If you get winded after an our of fighting or feel ready for a nap after rock climbing for an afternoon, then you need to build up your mental and physical strength.
As you get older, all of the traveling may become more difficult because you’ll have to find a way to make time for your family, if you have one.
Another way to stay strong is to continue to brush up on your skills, whether you’re practicing karate or swimming. If you want to stay physically strong, then you have to keep your mind strong, too. You can’t let the dangers of the job get to you and you have to stay focused and positive if you want to succeed in the long run.
A study conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago showed that there were 37 fatalities on film or TV sets between 1980-1989 by stunt men and women alone; a study by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) showed that 4,998 of its members were injured between the years of 1982-1986, mostly because of stunts. This is a risky business, and you need to stay rational and focused if you don’t want to become a statistic. Something can always go wrong, on the set of a Harry Potter movie, Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double David Holmes was left paralyzed and suffered serious spine injures, after a test run for a flying scene went wrong. He is set to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Even if you don’t get hurt while demonstrating reckless behavior, you don’t want to develop a reputation for being reckless, or no one will want to work with you. What producer would want the reputation of having a stunt man die or fall to serious injury on his set? You need to work on your risk-management skills, not your risk-taking skills. Being a good stunt man is all about being safe, not risking your life.
