Water ski. Climb the wall of a building. Street fights or karate challenges. All of these things are cool and exciting in their own right, but imagine having to do them as part of your "career". Sounds good? If so, then you could become the perfect stunt-man (or stunt-woman). However, being a stunt man isn't just about taking risks and living on a tightrope - it's about managing risks, staying physically fit and, well, working.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Developing the skills
Step 1. Develop a wide range of skills
Specialization can certainly help you find a job - if you are a martial arts expert, gymnast, or climber, it's a great thing. But the more you can do, the more chances you have of impressing stunt coordinators and being perfect for those roles that require multiple skills. If you want to be a stunt man, then chances are you already have experience in one or two fields. Here are the most common skills possessed by stunt men:
- "Wrestling": Excellent boxing, fighting or martial art skills.
- "Fall": The ability to fall from different heights, some of which are beyond the three floors of a building, and the ability to use trampolines.
- "Riding and driving": High levels of experience as a precision driver of cars or motorcycles, or experience in riding and horseback riding.
- "Agility and Strength": Advanced skills in gymnastics or climbing.
- "Aquatic skills": Excellent freediving skills, underwater acrobatics, or advanced swimming.
- "Various Sports": Higher skills in trampoline / acrobatic gymnastics, fencing or kung fu.
Step 2. Learn the slang
To make it clear that you know what you are talking about when starting your stunt career, then you need to know the terms associated with the career. If a stunt director starts talking to you about a martial art and you have a lost expression, you won't get very far. Here's what you need to know:
- Wirework: The ability to use supports, harnesses and vests for aerial acrobatics, including flight or fall action scenes.
- Acrobatics: Performing gymnastic exercises safely without using special equipment. Back and forth somersaults, somersaults, handless somersaults, falls, dips, circular and wheel overturns.
- Falls from above: The ability to fall from buildings of 3 or more floors, landing on a pile of boxes or an air mattress, without getting hurt. You should be able to perform various types of falls, such as pike, head, jump.
- Swords: The wise use of swords, foils, sabers in combat. This includes fencing or choreographed fight scenes.
- Horse riding: The ability to ride a horse very well and safely and at the same time perform acrobatics such as falls, jumping on a horse and duels with swords on horseback.
- Air Ram: An instrument that uses compressed air and hydraulic elements to catapult an acrobat into the air while flying forward, backward or spinning.
Step 3. Consider enrolling in a specialized training school
Although you don't need a diploma or official training in a gym to be a stunt, it certainly can't do harm. You may already be a pro in some disciplines, from motorcycle racing to karate black belt, but if you want to increase your skill set, then you should find a good school in your area, such as Rick Seaman's Stunt Driving School, which can help you improve.
These programs won't guarantee you a job and some may cost a lot, but if you need to hone your skills, they may be the safest way to do it
Step 4. Find a mentor
While going to school to work on your skills or learn new ones is a great way to improve and become more palatable and attractive as a stunt man, another great way to increase your chances of hiring is to find a mentor. If there is a stunt man you admire, be it a driver like Steve Kelso or Andy Gill or a Stunt Director like Spiro Razatos, then it would be an honor to be admitted under their wing.
This doesn't mean that you should be bothering famous stunt men, but that if you have them around or can find a way to get to know them, you would have immense benefits from asking for some advice on how to improve your skills. Often, this part can arrive later, after you have acclimatized to the environment; you won't have much luck finding a mentor in the stunt world if you don't have any previous experience, unless you have important contacts
Part 2 of 3: Getting a job
Step 1. Get a professional photo taken
If you want to be taken seriously as a professional, you will need a 20x25cm black and white photo. You may have to spend some money to get a professional photographer, or you can cautiously approach a talented and trusted friend with a good camera, but it will still be worth it. You won't be taken seriously with just a self-timer or a shoddy Polaroid, so be sure to complete this step. A good photo can help you look professional, and can also help coordinators and producers understand if you have the look they need.
The photo is your business card as a stunt-man; if you don't have one ready available, then how do you expect the people you meet in the environment to remember you?
Step 2. Build your resume
You might think you don't need a resume to be a stunt man, largely a physical job, but that's not the case. You should treat your career like any other, where a resume is key to helping hires figure out if you're a good fit for the part. The most important thing to remember is that you have to "be honest". Don't try to impress people by saying you have skills you don't really have, or you'll get into trouble - and probably even danger - if you get caught for the part. Here are some important things you should include on your resume:
- Your height, weight, shoe size and any other physical measurements.
- Your union membership (more on this later)
- Previous film and TV experience (if you have any)
- A list of unique skills or abilities, such as climbing, freediving, boxing or martial arts.
Step 3. Join a union
If you want to find work as a stunt man, then you need to find a union so that you can be legally hired in movies, music videos or on television. In the United States, the two main 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 need to join the Join Industry Stunt Committee's Stunt Register (JISC); search among the unions in your country if these are not for you.
- Joining a trade union is not easy. One way to get in, if you're lucky, is when a coordinator can't find a stunt that has exactly the combination of skills you have (for example, if you're 1.30m tall and can climb a mountain) and hires you for a specific job.
- Another way to get in is to try to work on a SAG or other syndicate film as an extra for at least 3 business days. Get an appearance voucher at the end of each day and bring those 3 vouchers to be eligible for admission to a union - although this is still not enough to guarantee that you will be admitted.
Step 4. Find your first job
If you're lucky, you can get a job with a great photo and a respectable resume on a non-syndicated project. But if you want to be successful in Serie A and find work on an official project, then you have to get a list of the productions from the union you joined; this list will contain all the local productions that adhere to your union and are filming in your area; you will need to send your photo, resume and a short letter to the stunt coordinator, and hope that he will hire you.
- If you are not hired as well, the coordinator will still have your resume on file for future work.
- While you wait for the call, you should try to gain additional experience on sets (exclusively from the union), to get an idea of what the job is like.
Step 5. Be patient
You may not get your first job right away. Or you might get lucky and get it, and then there are very long periods of silence before a producer calls you back. This is absolutely normal. It is an extremely difficult professional environment to break through, especially if you have no hooks, and waiting is part of the game. Although you should continue to throw yourself into the fray, you should be ready to find other jobs in the meantime, and remain motivated to be successful, even if you haven't found a job for some time.
Step 6. Consider another career in your field
Being a stunt man is an exciting job, but you may not be able to do it forever, whether it's because you become more injured, or older, or simply no longer willing to have a risky profession. If you are tired of being a stunt man or a pilot but you have gained a lot of experience, then you don't necessarily have to leave your field completely; on the contrary, you can find a way to get a more managerial role by always staying in the stunt world. Here are some other roles you can dedicate yourself to:
- Stunt Toolmaker: To be a toolmaker, not only do you need to be a highly experienced stunt man, but you should also have a good understanding of the mechanics involved in the related equipment. You should have safety as your primary concern, and you will be called upon to perform a multitude of tasks, from testing and dismantling equipment on the set to positioning landing platforms for falls and the correct placement of cables and harnesses.
- Stunt Coordinator: 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 if necessary. The stunt coordinator thinks about the ideal stunt men / women, hires the technical staff, manages the budget and makes sure that all stunts are performed safely.
- Director of the second unit: The person in charge of shooting the risky scenes, complementary to the coordinator, who instead takes care of the organization of the scenes with the stunt men / women. As the second unit director, you'll shoot stunt scenes in action as well as outdoor shots of scenes that can be used in post-production. While these directors may have experience as stunt men, they must also be qualified to film and direct.
Part 3 of 3: Having a successful career
Step 1. Follow the instructions
You may think that your greatest chance of success comes from pulling yourself off, trying to impress the staff, and bragging about your additional skills. Once you become an expert stunt man, then you will have more freedom, and you can even be consulted as a stunt coordinator or producer, but as long as you are on the verge of trying to enter the environment, it is essential to be as flexible as possible.
- You want to be remembered as someone who is easy to work with. Because? In order to be hired again.
- When following directions, it is important to be courteous and reasonable in your interactions with staff. If you really have a doubt about how a stunt should be performed, just ask, but don't focus on every little detail / don't slow down the process.
Step 2. Be prepared for busy schedules
Being a stunt man doesn't mean jumping out of a helicopter for three takes and then going home. It can mean more than 14 hours on a set, working nights, and staying mentally and physically focused all the time. It's a full-time job, and once you start getting enough jobs, you need to be able to take the time to be successful in your role. At first, you may have to round up with some other chores, but once you reach the big productions, you need to be ready to give your all.
This means that you will need stamina to be successful professionally. If you feel exhausted after an hour of fighting or feel ready for a nap after rock climbing for an afternoon, then you need to work on your physical and mental strength
Step 3. Be proficient in risk management
Being a stunt man doesn't mean unconsciously jumping out of third floor windows, playing with fire, or crashing a motorcycle into a tree because you weren't careful. Stunt men have exciting families, impulses and careers, which means they love what they do and want to stay alive to keep doing it. When you train yourself on how to fall without hurting yourself, driving without crashing and swimming without drowning etc., you should heed that word very carefully, and don't overstep by pulling it, if it means risking your life.
- A study conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago showed that 37 stunt men and stunt women lost their lives on movie or TV sets between 1980 and 1989; a study by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) showed that 4998 of its members were injured between 1982 and 1986, mainly due to stunts. It's a dangerous job, and you'd better stay rational and focused if you don't want to become a statistic.
- Even if you weren't hurt by displaying reckless attitudes, you still don't want to get a reputation for being reckless, otherwise no one will want to work with you. What producer would want the reputation of having a dead or badly injured stunt man from a fall on his set?
Step 4. Be ready to travel
If you are a true stunt man, then you will not spend your life shooting movies within a 5km radius of the comforts of your home, even if you live in Hollywood. You will leave for the Caribbean to film a scene on jet skis. You may find yourself in Peru to shoot a climbing scene. You might even be in Germany for a high-speed car chase. This means long hours on the plane, and the need to manage jet lag before you can get on those jet skis. Sure, it will be a crazy, exciting job, but you will need to be ready for all the journeys it will entail.
As you age, moving around could become complicated because you will have to think about how to dedicate time to your family, if you have one
Step 5. Stay physically fit
Most stunt men are at the peak of their careers between the ages of 20 and 40, which means you will need to be as fit as possible during these years. So you will not have to be too risky, whether you are at work or with friends, and you will have to avoid both culinary and alcoholic exaggerations, as they can deteriorate your body and make you feel terribly at work. Eat healthily, get enough rest and make sure you exercise as often as possible, mixing cardiovascular and bulking workouts so that you are fit enough to work out.
- Another way to stay fit is to keep working on your skills, whether it's practicing karate or swimming.
- If you want to keep yourself physically, then you also need to keep your mind trained. You can't let professional dangers distract you and you need to stay focused and positive if you want to be successful in the long run.
