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The Director, Dan required a
very young stunt artist to play a secretary falling backwards through a window.
As most of the UK stunt girls are 20 plus in years, a decision was made to use
my daughter Montana.
Montana’s; first stunt can
be seen at the age of 4 (Rod’s showreel) a very quick clip of a little girl
running over the road (BBC Casualty) the only way the BBC would allow such a
stunt to take place with such a young girl, was if I drove the car that crashed
into the phone box. Health & Safety having moved into the planet (total
insanity) would now never allow such a stunt to take place.
Cosmopolitan Girl of The Year
2004 as Risk taker, Montana went on to perform the final jump in the opera Tosca
(Kent International Opera Society) all over the UK to gain her Equity Card. A
stunt career from 4 -17; she has now retired from stunts to study as a DOP and
has recently been accepted into the pioneering Metropolitan Film School at
Ealing.
The Gag: A funky ‘making
of’ edited by John Mills; gives a fun insight into the final footage achieved.
The technical problem for
Montana was to run along a totally black corridor and perform a complete cat
twist in a very short space of time to hit the window completely backwards, The
testing on the making of shows how difficult this was in the light, let alone a
thin black corridor and you can see early tests where her arm breaks the window
instead of her back or back of head. The Director did not want to see the face
and wanted her completely backwards and it is not for the stunt team to give
excuses or relate technical problems to a Director, but to give him a solution.
Montana being a sprinter and
long jumper assisted the potential of making this shot exactly to the storyboard
and Director’s vision.
Sugar glass can be dangerous
when hit at slow speeds; so high energy impact would reduce the potential of
danger. With only a few minor cuts – the shot was achieved and my thanks to
Julian Richards for his safety concerns in the entire prep of this action. The
first assistant’s director with any stunt artist is crucial and Julian was
aware of the creative requirement and the technical and safety aspects of the
stunt side and brought a harmony to both.
Cinematically; the low wide
angle footage at around 750 fps I thought was absolutely beautiful. It was an
extremely brave decision to track with such a shot; knowing that the light burst
had to time with this track and with an exact cue to the stunt artist.
A collaborative stunt; for
film makers world wide to learn from and inspire.
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