![]() Why would a Hollywood stuntman recommend a camera flyer who works with outsiders? So I miss out on some work, but overall my reel is strong, mostly because the performers I film are terrific flyers. Some say I “shot myself in the foot”, and its true to some degree. I was advised early in my career to keep things “in the family” by some of the stuntmen I met along the way, but I saw things differently and ultimately “broke the code” as it were, to bring in trained jumpers who I knew from the competitive circuit. Bummer for those who train! So I’ve been campaigning pretty hard to promote trained flyers. When there’s skydiving in a production, they call in stuntmen. In productions, when there are surfing stunts, producers seek out surfers. There are skydiving stunts, no doubt, just like surfing stunts, but skydiving itself isn’t a stunt. Skydiving is a sport, much like surfing or skiing and skydivers are practicing it on all different levels and making thousands of jumps to better their skills. That’s the only time I’ll give in…just kidding!Īfter my rant about SAG, now I say skydiving isn’t a stunt, but bear with me. ![]() Sometimes I’ll get a call from a producer who just wants to know if I’d consider working without a SAG contract, and I’ll know that they’ve reached the same impasse with one of my competitors. A producer might stick to the off-camera argument and that’s that, we reach an impasse.Īs much as I want the work, I don’t bend on this issue. There are plenty more arguments like this, but they don’t always work. Imagine telling the second stunt driver he’s not on-camera, so he doesn’t get a SAG contract. The shot requires a chase vehicle with mounted cameras to follow behind and make the same jump. Picture this: A stunt driver flips a car over a river. Camera people sometimes hang off cliffs or race along in cars following the action, but they don’t actually perform the stunt, nor do they need the kind of training that goes into flying a camera. ![]() I ask them when they last hired someone to perform a stunt off-camera. When a producer balks, my argument is simple. When I bid a SAG job, my terms include that I will be treated as a performer, just like the rest of the skydivers on the project. The most valuable tool at this point is my rolodex. Sometimes I’ll deliver a bid in an hour, sometimes it will take days to complete. They need me to see the logistics behind the story and to bid accordingly. When the producers call me with a story to tell. Suddenly the project requires riggers, custom equipment, ground crew, ground transportation, landowner permission for some parking lot or rooftop, FAA paperwork and permits, police to keep the landing area clear, ground to air communication, sometimes green screen and studio facilities, and especially in the USA, endless and often impossible insurance issues. Most of the time, however, projects call for something more.Ī skydiving sequence for a commercial or movie might call for two hidden rig jumpers grappling for a briefcase over downtown Los Angeles. ![]() The basic bid for a skydiving project includes the location, aircraft, pilots, and skydivers, simple enough if the project requires a couple of jumpers in free fall over the local DZ. All things going well, her boss will call. Her job is to get numbers as quickly as possible, and my job is to give her something that she can take to her boss, some rough numbers, ideas, and a few of my own questions to pass along. But the researcher doesn’t need an earful from me about how little he or she knows about the sport. Most of the time I can tell that what I’m being told is probably far from what’s actually needed. He or she explains the aerial sequence, or some version of it, and then asks what I’d charge to do the job. The first call from production is normally from a researcher who’s never jumped. In this article, I’ll try to give you an idea of what goes into bidding, planning, and filming for a production, and some of the things that can happen along the way.
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