Doc Bernard
Indie Arms Member
So yesterday was the big event, providing weapons, tactical gear, and a team in Irvine for a big Indie production. I get on set and the first question I was asked by the director, "who is stunt-trained?" That should give an idea of how the day went for me and my team.
I am the only one who was really trained in our team, but one of my actresses/tac team took one of the classes I had, so I included her in speaking with the director for some of the minor stunt stuff. First scene involved really manhandling and dragging the lead actor off camera while still holding a weapon. The actor definitely played his part in resisting us, and we weren't too gentle either. But after every take we all made sure we were ok.
Most of the scenes we were in, though, we were just eye-candy. Which is fine. But that feeling of "why the question on stunts?" still nagged me all day. The last scene, I got my answer. We had to tackle another actor in preventing his attempt to blow up a building, we succeed in the tackle, but not in the explosion (yes I die). And to acheive this we set up a fall mat, where I run after the bomber and tackle him onto the mat. When we hit the ground, the bomb he's carrying goes off.
At first we ran this as a two person team doing the take down, but on the third to last take, the bomb guy got really enthusiatic and shoved my teammate, who rebounded into me and knocked me off course. Normally, no biggie. But I failed to mention to show the explosion, we were using a good sized debris cannon loaded with Fullers and cork. Well, me being off course and off balance, I fell right in front of the cannon with my head about a foot away, and as I did, I knew exactly what was coming next (I still cringe when I think about that feeling of "Oh my God, this is going to really hurt". And it did!) The SFX guy, following his cue, us coming in, fired it and I took the blast to the head from about a foot away. The pictures people took were actually pretty funny, this "explosion" that is mostly blocked by my head. I soon as I get copies, I will share them. The production stopped right then, because people were thinking I needed an ambulance, but I was cool (hurting, but cool). The director asked if I could do it again, but without the second team member, which was "cluttering up the shot" (and made things more complicated) I told him "Hell yeah, let's go again" over the din of my ringing swollen ear. I was wearing safety goggles for the shoot as part of my costume, so I was good there, and lucky for me, I was wearing my earbud in my left ear (side hit).
So much fun!!!!!!!!!!!! (But my ear is still ringing a bit and still is a bit swollen), but it is going away. Thank God were weren't using real pyro or I wouldn't be here talking about it!
I am the only one who was really trained in our team, but one of my actresses/tac team took one of the classes I had, so I included her in speaking with the director for some of the minor stunt stuff. First scene involved really manhandling and dragging the lead actor off camera while still holding a weapon. The actor definitely played his part in resisting us, and we weren't too gentle either. But after every take we all made sure we were ok.
Most of the scenes we were in, though, we were just eye-candy. Which is fine. But that feeling of "why the question on stunts?" still nagged me all day. The last scene, I got my answer. We had to tackle another actor in preventing his attempt to blow up a building, we succeed in the tackle, but not in the explosion (yes I die). And to acheive this we set up a fall mat, where I run after the bomber and tackle him onto the mat. When we hit the ground, the bomb he's carrying goes off.
At first we ran this as a two person team doing the take down, but on the third to last take, the bomb guy got really enthusiatic and shoved my teammate, who rebounded into me and knocked me off course. Normally, no biggie. But I failed to mention to show the explosion, we were using a good sized debris cannon loaded with Fullers and cork. Well, me being off course and off balance, I fell right in front of the cannon with my head about a foot away, and as I did, I knew exactly what was coming next (I still cringe when I think about that feeling of "Oh my God, this is going to really hurt". And it did!) The SFX guy, following his cue, us coming in, fired it and I took the blast to the head from about a foot away. The pictures people took were actually pretty funny, this "explosion" that is mostly blocked by my head. I soon as I get copies, I will share them. The production stopped right then, because people were thinking I needed an ambulance, but I was cool (hurting, but cool). The director asked if I could do it again, but without the second team member, which was "cluttering up the shot" (and made things more complicated) I told him "Hell yeah, let's go again" over the din of my ringing swollen ear. I was wearing safety goggles for the shoot as part of my costume, so I was good there, and lucky for me, I was wearing my earbud in my left ear (side hit).
So much fun!!!!!!!!!!!! (But my ear is still ringing a bit and still is a bit swollen), but it is going away. Thank God were weren't using real pyro or I wouldn't be here talking about it!
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