Be a Stunt Man
Water skiing, climbing the side of a building, engaging in a street fight or a karate face-off etc. are cool and exciting enough on their own, but imagine having these thrilling actions being part of your career. Sounds good right? If so, then you may be the perfect stunt man (or stunt woman). However, being a stunt man isn't about taking risks and living on the edge -- it's about managing risks, staying physically healthy, and, well, doing your job.
Contents
Steps
Developing the Skills
- Develop a wide range of skills. Specializing can definitely help you land a gig -- if you're an expert martial artist, gymnast, or rock climber, that's great. But the more you know how to do, the more likely you'll be to wow stunt coordinators and to be perfect for roles that require multiple skills. If you want to be a stunt man, then chances are, you're already experienced in a field or two. Here are the most common skills that stunt men can possess:
- 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.
- Know the lingo. If you want to sound like you know what you're talking about when you start your career as a stunt man, then you have to know the terms associated with the career. If a stunt director starts talking about wirework and you have a blank look on your face, you won't get very far. Here's what you need to know:
- 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.
- Consider going to school for specialized training. Though you don't need a bachelor's degree or formal training in any one arena to be a stunt person, it certainly couldn't hurt. You may already be a pro in certain areas from racing motorcycles to being a black belt in karate, but if you want to improve your skill set, then you should find a reputable school in your area, such as Rick Seaman's stunt driving school, which can help give you an edge.
- 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.
- Have a mentor. Though going to school to brush up on your skills or to gain new skills is a great way to improve your abilities and make yourself a more marketable and appealing stunt man, another great way to improve your chances of getting hired is to find a mentor. If there is a stunt man you admire, whether it's a stunt driver like Steve Kelso or Andy Gill or a Stunt Director like Spiro Razatos, then you would be very privileged to be able to get under his or her tutelage.
- 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.
Landing a Job
- Get a headshot. If you want to be taken seriously as a professional, then you'll need to get an 8 x 10 inch black and white headshot. You may need to invest some money in a professional photographer, or be careful about finding a trusted and talented friend with a stellar camera, but it will be worth it. You won't be taken seriously if all you have is a selfie or a cheap Polaroid, so make sure to follow through on this part. A good headshot can help you look like a professional, and can also help stunt coordinators or producers see whether you have the look they want.
- 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?
- Build your résumé. You may think that you don't need a résumé to be a stunt man because so much of the work is physical, but that's not the case. You should treat your career just like any other, where a résumé is crucial to helping the people who are hiring you to figure out if you're good for the part. The most important thing is remember is that you have to be honest. Don't try to impress people by saying you have skills you don't really possess, or you will be in trouble -- and even possibly in danger -- if you're picked for the role. Here are some important elements that you should list on your résumé:
- 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
- Join a union. If you want to find work as a stunt man, then you have to join a union, so that you can be legally hired to perform in films, music videos, or television. In America, the two major unions are the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), which is the more prestigious of the two, or the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. In England, you will have to join the Join Industry Stunt Committee's Stunt Register (JISC); look into the guilds in your country if these do not apply to you.
- 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.
- Land your first gig. If you get lucky, you can land a gig with a great headshot and impressive résumé on a non-union project. But if you want to hit the big leagues and find work on a union project, then you have to obtain a production list from the union you've joined; this will contain all of the local union productions that are shooting near you; you will have to sent the stunt coordinator your headshot, résumé, and a brief letter, and hope to get picked for the job.
- 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.
- Be patient. You may not land your first gig right away. Or you may get lucky and land your first gig, and then there's the months-long radio silence before you hear from a producer again. That's perfectly natural. This is an extremely hard business to break in to, especially if you don't have any connections, and waiting is part of the game. Though you should continue to put yourself out there, you should be prepared to find other work in the meantime, and to stay motivated to succeed, even if you haven't gotten a gig in a while.
- Consider another career in your field. Being a stunt man is exciting work, but you may not be able to do it forever, whether you're becoming prone to injury, getting older, or just no longer wanting to be part of a risky profession. If you're tired of being a stunt man or a stunt driver but you've gained a lot of experience, then you don't have to quit your field completely; instead, you can find a way to take a more management-related role while still staying in the stunt world. Here are some other roles you can take on:
- 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.
Succeeding in Your Career
- Follow directions. You may think that your best chance of success comes from showing off, trying to impress the film crew, and boasting about all of your additional skills. Once you've become a veteran stunt man, then sure, you will have more leeway, and you may even be consulted as a stunt coordinator or producer, but when you're trying to get your foot in the door, it's important to be as agreeable as possible.
- 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.
- Be prepared for long hours. Being a stunt person doesn't mean falling out of a helicopter for three takes and then calling it a day. It can mean over 14 hours on a set, working nights, and staying mentally and physically alert throughout the process. This is a full-time job, and once you start landing enough gigs, you must be able to commit to the time that you'll need to succeed in your role. In the beginning, you may be juggling other work along with stunt work, but if you've hit the big leagues, you must be ready to give it your all.
- 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.
- Be prepared to travel. If you're a true stunt man, then you won't be spending your life filming within a thirty mile radius of your comfy home, not even if you live in Hollywood, CA. You'll be traveling to the Caribbean to film a jet-skiing sequence. You might find yourself in Peru to shoot a rock climbing scene. You might even be in Germany for a high-speed car chase. This means long hours on airplanes, and needing to get over jet lag before you hit those jet-skiis. Sure, this will be exciting, thrilling work, but you'll need to be prepared for all of the travel it involves.
- 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.
- Stay physically strong. Most stunt men are at the peak of their careers between their 20s and 40s, which means that you have to stay in the best possible shape during these years. This means not engaging in risky behavior, whether you're on the job or hanging out with friends, and avoiding overindulgence in food or drink, which can wear down your body and make you feel horrible when you show up to work. Eat healthy, get enough rest, and make sure to exercise as often as you can, doing a mixture of cardiovascular and strength training, so you're fit enough to do the job.
- 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.
- Be a master at risk management. Being a stunt man doesn't mean recklessly jumping out of three story windows, playing with fire, or crashing a motorcycle into a tree because you weren't careful. Stunt men have families, drive, and exciting careers, which means that they love what they do and want to stay alive to continue doing it. When you get training on how to fall without hurting yourself, drive without crashing, and swim without drowning, etc, you should heed those words carefully, and not go out of bounds to show off if it means risking your life.
- 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.
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Sources and Citations
- http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/07/29/so-you-want-my-job-stuntman/
- http://www.mannysiverio.com/filmbizartilce_howtogetintostunts.htm
