Stuntman As Apart Of Film Production.

Stuntman as apart of film production. A stuntman is a man or a woman who works in the television or movie production industry. A stuntman is paid to do dangerous actions called "stunts" in movies or programs. Dangerous actions include jumping from a height, falling down, being in a car crash, or pretending to fight with weapons such as swords or knives. It would be too dangerous for a regular actor to do these dangerous actions, so the movie or television producers hire stuntmen to do these dangerous actions.

Action movies, war movies, martial arts movies, and crime television shows use many stuntmen to do the dangerous actions depicted in the movies or shows. Jackie Chan and the Blue Angels are examples of stuntmen. It is dangerous to work as a stuntman. Sometimes stuntmen are hurt during the stunts they are filming. In some cases, stuntmen have even been killed doing dangerous actions in movies, such as falling from a height. As well, it can be hard for stuntmen to get steady work, because stuntmen are hired do do movies and television shows. Once the movie or television show is filmed, a stuntman may have to go without a job for some time. To become a stuntman, some people go to a stuntman school. There are stuntman schools in California and Florida, where professional stuntmen teach people how to do stunts. Most people do not go to school to become stuntmen, though. People learn the skills from other more experienced stuntmen. When a stuntman first begins working as a stuntman, they do not make much money. Once a stuntman has experience, they can ask for more money. Usually, a stuntman does not work as a stuntman after they become 40 years old. Some experienced stuntmen become stunt coordinators, who plan the dangerous actions done by the film or television directors.

Stunt men and women spend years honing their skills so they can convincingly (and safely) perform stunts from a simple fist fight to elaborate car chases and explosions. In this article, we'll learn how stunt people learn their craft, how certain stunts are done, and look at the safe, and not so safe, parts of the job. One of the most famous early stunts was one performed by Buster Keaton in which the front of a house falls on him, but the window falls around him so he is left standing unharmed. This risky stunt was accomplished simply by measuring very carefully. Carey Loftin was a well-renowned stuntman who went on to perform and coordinate several great car chases, including “The Duel” and the legendary car chase in “Bullitt.” The 1959 version of “Ben-Hur” features a lengthy and intense chariot race with dozens of horses and the top stunt performers in the film industry at the time. Joe Canutt doubled for Charlton Heston and was nearly killed in a thrilling sequence in which he was accidentally thrown from a chariot and almost crushed beneath it, before he grabbed onto the frame and pulled himself back into the chariot. The scene was edited into the final cut.

While many things can be referred to as stunts, including those performed by daredevils or the feats of extreme sports enthusiasts, movie stunts are undertaken by trained professional performers known as stuntmen and stuntwomen. Their goal isn't to accomplish the highest jump, biggest explosion or craziest stunt; their purpose is to create a realistic visual effect on film by performing a carefully choreographed and planned sequence. A stuntman is called in to a movie or TV set when the scene requires skills or risks beyond what the actual actor is capable of, or willing to do. For example, if the script calls for a sword fight, it's safer and often cheaper to use a stuntman with training in stage combat than to spend weeks or even months training the actor to fight. If the main character in a movie falls from a building, stunt people not only have the training to fall safely, but if they're injured their absence won't derail the entire production. Thus, it makes financial sense for directors to use stunt people. 

Despite every safety precaution, every stunt carries some risk. California state laws and Hollywood union rules have added regulations to protect stunt people and film crews over the years, but injuries and sometimes death are always possible. In the early days of film, deaths were almost common. Modern film shoots have been the scenes of some horrific stunt tragedies as well. Several high-profile deaths have captured media attention, such as the decapitation and crushing by a crashing helicopter of actor Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese children during the filming of “The Twilight Zone,” and the death of actor Brandon Lee when he put a “blank” gun to his head and fired while filming “The Crow.” Many more are the nearly anonymous stunt actors who have been killed or seriously injured creating the high-action entertainment that film-goers love. It’s a risky business and always will be. Life on a film set for a stuntman isn't especially glamorous. The days are long, sometimes lasting 14 hours or more. A shoot can often take place in uncomfortable situations -- they might spend hours partially submerged in water or have to do a location shoot on an icy mountain or a hot desert. Pay for a stuntman can vary widely based on their experience and the specific stunt they'll be performing on a given film. Only a very few top tier stunt people make six figure annual incomes. The reason for the long hours is that a stunt requires planning, preparation, rehearsal and probably several retakes.Some stunts may need to be filmed multiple times to catch additional camera angles or because something wasn't quite right the first time through. 

However, with many stunts, it isn't practical to re-shoot the scene. If the chase culminates with an explosion and a car crash, it becomes prohibitively expensive to destroy multiple cars for the sake of capturing the perfect shot. Plus, every time you ask a stunt person to repeat a stunt, the risk factor multiplies. There's no easy way to become a stuntman -- there's no "stunt degree" you can go to school for, then show up in Hollywood and get stunt work. All stunt people learn their craft through a long apprenticeship with an experienced stunt person. But here again, there's no clear way to get such an apprenticeship; no formal method of approaching it. To work as a stuntman at all, you must become a member of the union that governs all on-screen performers in film and some television -- the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). 

Getting your SAG card requires you do some work on-camera as an extra, a challenge all by itself. Working frequently as an extra is a good way to become familiar with film sets and stunt coordinators. Experienced stunt people recommend speaking briefly with a stunt coordinator when he isn't busy (a very rare event) and giving him your resume and headshot along with an offer to assist him with any stunts. If you have the right look and skills for a stunt, you might get a phone call at some point in the future.

The History of Stunt

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The first professional stuntmen were comedians like the Keystone Kops and Buster Keaton. They still weren't trained to perform stunts, but instead learned through trial and error. If they needed a scene where a man hung from a steel girder hundreds of feet above the ground, they didn't make a fake steel girder a few feet above a padded mat -- they found an actor willing to hang from an actual steel girder. The modern action movie didn't exist yet, so most stunt work was done for slapstick comedies. 

Beginning around 1910, audiences developed a taste for serial action movies. This called for riskier stunts and the first use of dedicated stunt people doubling for actors in dangerous scenes. The rise of the western in the silent and early sound era of film gave rise to a host of rodeo stars turned movie stars and stunt people. Tom Mix and Yakima Canutt were among the most famous.The 1960s and 70s saw the development of most modern stunt technology, like air rams, air bags and bullet squibs. That technology has continued to evolve into the present. However, the biggest thing in stunt technology is something some stunt people fear could put them out of a job -- computer generated images (CGI). 

As computer graphics improve, it's possible to create very life-like CGI scenes. This allows directors to shoot stunts that would be very expensive, dangerous or simply impossible to perform with real stunt people. CGI has been used to create elaborate fight scenes, falls, car crashes, explosions and more. However, there will always be a demand for the realism of an actual stunt, and CGI has costs and difficulties of its own, so the Hollywood stunt industry is probably in no danger of dying off. There is no Oscar awarded for stunt work, although the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences does award an Emmy for stunt coordinators (not individual stunt people). The reasons given for not awarding an Oscar range from not wanting to remove the anonymity and illusion from stunt work to the academy’s desire to trim awards and shorten the Oscar ceremonies rather than adding more. However, in 1967, Yakima Canutt was awarded an honorary Oscar for his stunt career. The Taurus World Stunt Awards Foundation not only gives stunt people their own awards at an annual show, but offers financial support to stunt people worldwide who have been injured while on the job, In 2007, Gary Powell won the Taurus award for best stunt coordination/2^nd unit direction for his work on “Casino Royale,” the latest in the James Bond series.

source : Wikipedia, entertainment.howstuffworks.com