Stunting in films: From Its Origins to Present Day
Stunts
are a huge part of action films today and have also come a long way since the
beginning of movies. In the early
days of film history there was really no need or no thought given into stunt
acts. If there were ever someone
needed for a stunt in a movie they would just hire someone who was fanatical or
desperate enough to do it.
However, the stunts were nothing like they are today. The first stuntmen came to be
comedians, trying to make their role funnier to the audience, like Keystone
Kops and Buster Keaton. Although
they still weren’t professional trained to perform theses stunts they would
learn through trial and error.
That right there shows that stunting has come a long way, because some
of the stunts performed today you could die if you were to practice through
trail and error. Back in the day
if they needed a scene where a man was hanging hundreds of feet from the ground
they would make this fake, they would actually find someone who was willing to
actually do this knowing all the risks involved. The modern action movies didn’t exist yet, so most stunt
work was far less dangerous than what we see today and was really only done for
comedies.
Beginning
around 1910, audiences developed a taste for sequential action movies, which
also lead and called for riskier stunts, and the fist use of dedicated stunt
people doubling for actors in dangerous scenes. For example “Dynamite Warrior,” which was a Thai action
comedy set in an American’s Old West style Siam in 1910. The action consisted of different
mixing a bit of boxing with fire cracking aerial stunts. The rise of 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 he 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 break through with stunt technology is something
some stunt people could put them out of a job is computer generated images. This is the application of the field of
computer graphics or more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects
in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and
simulation generally, and printed media.
CGI software and increased computer speeds have allowed individual
artists and small companies to produce professional grade films, games and fine
art from their home computers. So
as computer graphics continually improve, its possible to create very life like
CGI scenes. This also allows directors
to shoot stunts that would be very expensive, dangerous or simply impossible to
perform with real stunt people.
For example in the new Mission Impossible when Tom Cruise is scaling the
wall of a building.
CGI has been used to create
elaborate fight scenes, falls, car crashes, explosions and more. However, there will always still be
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, but to just keep improving.
Unfortunately
there is no Oscar for stunt work which seems to be somewhat of an upset to some
people considering in today’s world some of the stunts being performed only so
many people can handle. Also with
special effects and CGI it takes someone good to produce a good “fake”
stunt. The reasons for not wanting
to give award 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 then adding more (Opinion Journal). The Taurus World
Stunt Awards Foundation however 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 (Taurus World Stunt Awards).
Even
today though it takes a lot of bravery and idiocy to risk your physical well
being in the name of a crazy movie stunt.
Although when it goes right, it can turn a ruthless action scene into a
perfectly choreographed work of art.
But, when it goes wrong, it can cost Hollywood actors and their respective
stunt doubles a lot of broken bones and sometimes their lives. And by having the stunts that work best
not being aided by computer graphics, makes it that much more dangerous for
stunt people. The actors or actresses performing the stunts have to have the
right combination of courage, physical strength, and adrenaline to bring the
scenes of the action thriller movie to life.
There
is so much that goes into stunting in a movie and there are also different
types of stunt effects. There are
the practical effects and one of the most frequently used practical stunts is
stage combat. “Although contact is
normally avoided, many elements of stage combat, such as sword fighting,
martial arts, and acrobatics required contact between performers in order to
facilitate the creation of a particular effect.” There are also mechanical effects that come into play with
stunting. A physical stunt is
usually performed with help of mechanics. For example if an actor has to jump to a high place,
he would be placed in a special harness, and aircraft tension wire would pull
him up. There are also computer
generated effects, which came about in the late 20th century, when
filmmakers turned to relatively inexpensive and safer computer graphics also
CGI. Movies like Lord of the Rings
and Star Wars are movies that display stunts that are completely computer
generated. As you can see this
wasn’t around when film first came out either.
Stunts
have become more and more popular as time has gone on. The stunts being done when film first
came out are not nearly as dangerous or intense as some of the stunts done
today. With innovation and
advances in computers, stunting has become more and more easy and far less
dangerous. Therefore being able to
make films that much more action packed then they used to be because you don’t
have actors who must do the stunt themselves. Stunting is a big part of a lot of movies today, which in
turn also helps generate money in the action packed movies that are out and in
theatres today.
Works Cited
Grabianowski, Ed.
"How Stuntmen Work" 22 June 2007. HowStuffWorks.com.
<http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/stuntmen.htm> 07 May 2012.
Anson, Jasper. "Top 10: Crazy Movie
Stunts - AskMen." Men's Online Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 May
2012. <http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/top-10-crazy-movie-stunts.html>.
No comments:
Post a Comment