It's no secret that CGI put a dent in the industry of stunt work. In fact, I actually know stuntmen who became graphic artists just to keep up with the changing world.

But the trend is reversing my friends. Oh yes, real people are making a comeback...

The mid 90's saw the rise of CGI. Films like the "Congo" sprinkled action scenes with CGI lasers and gorillas. Sci-fi films like "Event Horizon" would toss in a brief shot of a CGI watch floating around for a bit of flare. And the first total CGI film was born, a Disney flick called "Dinosaurs" which almost no one saw and is all but forgotten today. But soon enough, Toy Story came out, and people were blown away by the new form of cinema. It was like introducing sound into previously silent films. Suddenly everyone wanted CGI, the more the merrier. CGI shots became the climactic swells of action movies and the goriest fun of horror.

A decade later, Peter Jackson took the game to a new level with Lord of the Rings. The series blended real and CGI to an unheard of level. Whole battles played out almost entirely in digitals, an overload of of graphic details. And within earshot of the Rings' trilogy hordes of CGI battles were waiting. Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, Star Wars. If there weren't millions of little cartoons fighting, it just wasn't a summer blockbuster. Frank Miller upped the stakes by creating entire CGI movies save for the actors.

And finally in 2007, the graphical shit hit the fan. Transformers, Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Spider-man 3, Beowulf. All of the main characters for most of the time in these movies were rendered computer graphically. Audiences had had enough. The dazzling effect had worn off, CGI no longer had any sway to improve a movie, or even a scene, on its own. CGI, as with everything about film became one more element to serve the higher purpose of telling a good story. People didn't want to be dazzled by cartoons. In fact, the opposite happened, people became more fascinated than ever in "practicals," the new term for non-CGI. A "practical" movie had more merit. And who makes the practicals dazzle?...

The stuntmen.

And now we arrive at this summer. Indiana Jones, Iron Man, and the new king of the hill, Dark Knight. Iron Man's charm wasn't in the battle scenes, is was in Downy Jr.'s acting. Indiana Jones relied on good old fashioned (and I stress the old) stuntmen. And CGI was barely ever present in the Dark Knight. Stuntwork makes its comeback, the movies are better than ever, and my friends are employed again.

Finally, let's get some linking going on...
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Why is it that my vacations are filled with intense activity?

I spend my days in dangerous situations. I drive fast cars, I fight, I fall off of tall places (though not so much these days with the falling, I let the younger guys do that). Then, when I go on vacation, I go rock climbing, or snow boarding, or most recently white water rafting.

You'd think it would be like a bus man's holiday. Why do I go do activities so similar to what I do for a living when I have time off? Shouldn't I be on a beach reading a novel and sipping from a cup with too many umbrellas?

I guess its the same reason I don't stop my caveman diet when I go on vacation. I get so used to eating healthy, living a healthy lifestyle, it doesn't appeal to me to scarf down on pizza for a week during a vacation. In fact, that sounds downright disgusting. Every day I take omega 3 capsules I bought from the vitamin shop. I do this because I enjoy the sense of well being I get from maintaining my health. Why would I stop doing that just because I'm not punching the 9 to 5 (well, 9 to 9 in my case, shooting days are always at least 13 hours)? I wouldn't.

It's the same with damage control. I don't give up my good habits or pick up bad habits when I vacation. Habits are habits, it takes a long time to form them, and even longer to change them.

But, I believe the real reason I rock climb during my vacation is much simpler. I do similar activities to stuntwork during my time off because I love my job so much. I may be on vacation, but all-in-all, I think I'd rather be working.

Beyond safety (always the most important thing), a stunt man has three goals to achieve an excellent stunt:

1) The physical act: The stunt itself. This is cinema verite at its finest. A CGI spider man can flip around and fly off of buildings and the audience is amused. But when a real person falls from a nine story building, the audience knows, and is impressed. Just watch an old Jackie Chan movie if you don't believe me. Even if its just taking a punch, the excellent stunt man takes that punch like nobody in real life knows how.

2) The tone of the film. Yes, even stunt men need to be aware of a director's vision. In a movie like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, wild fists and acrobatic leaps are fine and appropriate. But in a film like Mystic River, the stunt man who gets hit by a car is just as important and needs to restrict his movements to look like an actual average joe being run over.

3) The physicality of the character (actor). This is as important as the physical act itself. A stunt man not only needs to look as much like the character (actor) as possible, he also needs to walk, stand, and jump like the actor. He needs to BE the actor. There's a reason movie stars are who they are. They AREN'T normal joes. They have affects, they are DISTINCT. Just look at one of the most stunt-shadowed men in cineman: John Wayne. He had a SWAGGER. Any stunt man playing John Wayne had to learn that swagger. Everybody's got some form of swagger, and the stunt man needs to use that.

Okay, now for the nitty gritty. Here's something about washboard abs. And here's a couple ditties about omega 3 supplements and orac value. Finally, visit the vitamin world for all your vitamin needs.

When I started this blog, I'd intended to post about stunt work and health. After reading over my posts, I realize I've been talking mostly about stunts, and not too much about health, so this post is dedicate to good nutrition and dieting.

What's a stunt man's diet?

It should be any man's ideal diet, which is to say lots of protein in whole food sources, and relatively little carbs and sugars. As amped as stuntwork is, we aren't the type of people who throw back red bulls and power bars to get juiced for a "big trick." Leave that to the skateboarders and BMXers.

Probably the only significance between a stuntman's diet and the average joe's healthy diet is the water retention. One of the most common annoyances of stuntwork is bathroom breaks. We just don't get them. Stuntmen are often required to where special suits or "body armor" for various stunts, or to be suspended in air or under water for long periods of time. And when you're dangling from a wire on a crane for an effects heavy green screen shot, the crew just doesn't have time to haul you down for a potty break (under water's a bit different, you can just wee in the suit). Thus, water retention becomes important. Hydration is extremely important in stuntwork. If you pass out, you're screwed: if you don't get seriously injured, you'll probably be fired or you just won't get hired for the next project. So, you need to retain enough water to keep hydrated, but if you but down a liter of water before you "wire up," your bladder might explode. Well, not explode, but it'll cramp up, and you'll be in enough pain that your stunt work won't be as affective.

The solution is salad. Salads usually contain a good deal of water through vegetables. Lettuce, celery, and the like are actually good ways to keep water retention high. Also, don't throw back the water before you climb into the harness, but keep the water at the ready once you start to sweat it out. Also, make sure you take the best antioxidant as well.

Finally, any stunt man's diet isn't complete without omega 3 capsules. Be sure to take yours!

Well, the writer's strike is over, which means there's plenty of work again. There was a bit of a delay once the strike ended. Everyone still pensive, trying to figure out just where the hell they should look for work. The TV shows launched into full swing, but set work on feature films didn't pick up quite as quickly, because everything was cut off in mid development.

But now the wheels have begun turning, and I'm currently coordinating stunts for a friend's independent cop/thriller/noir. The script sucks, but hey, it's wages. I it's high time I get some wages, I've got to eat!

Anyway, the unfortunate thing about this whole ordeal is that we may have to go through the entire painful process once again when the actor's guild contract runs out in June. I really hope that doesn't happen.

And finally, visit people search or orthorexia if you're feeling lucky.

I haven't chatted about vitamins in awhile, so I'm devoting this post to the wonderful and bountiful Vitamin C.

As we all know, a lack of vitamin C causes scurvy. But, getting an abundant supply of vitamin C in your diet can cause all sorts of health benefits.

Vitamin C is well known for its help in boosting the immune system, but Vitamin C has also been known to help the strength and quality of the skin as well as the teeth.

I try to take at least 2000mg of Vitamin C per day which is mostly by supplement form, but I also get a healthy dose of oranges and lime juice in my diet (I put lime juice in my diet coke, most people think it's nasty, but I love it!)

Anyway, other than Vitamin C, I'd suggest taking a massive quantity of omega 3 vitamins. The omega 3 benefits of fish and other similar fatty acid supplements are immeasurable.

...none of us.

It has been a long debated issue in tinseltown whether there should be an Academy Award for best stunt choreography in a film. As you may guess, I am biased on the issue. Let me explain:

1)Tradition. Stuntwork has been part of cinema since the dawn of the golden age. The most popular movies of the 20's were Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd films. These men made comedies, but their talents reached far beyond funny faces. In the silent era, there was one type of comedy: physical comedy, and I emphasize the physical. Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd were the forefathers of modern stuntwork with their physical antics. In fact, one of Lloyd's most famous films is simply a get up for him to have funny and dangerous hi-jinks while he scales the outside of a nine story building. And there's no greenscreen or sets involved, the man really dangles from clocks and ropes off the side of a building. Stuntwork is as classic as animation, special effects, and certainly make-up or costume design

2) Professionalism. Stuntwork takes years to excel at. A good stunt man hones his craft over a career. There are no flukes in the stunt industry, if the stunt looked good, that's because it involved a team of well coordinated professionals working for long hours, blending the style of the movie with the technical feat of the stunt. The best stunt coordinators are revered in Hollywood just as much as the best editors, cinematographers, and sound designers.

3) It's hands down a more important category than those God Damned short fiction/documentary/animated crap. We still waste 20 minutes of the Academy Awards every year for best animated short, best live action short, and best short documentary. Shorts suck. Hands down. Nobody watches them. Nobody even gets the chance to watch them unless you're on a panel of judges, or you hang with the film festival crowd. The argument for the awards is that it gives new film makers to shine. But, THAT IS NOT THE PURPOSE OF THE OSCARS. The Oscars celebrate achievement. Ideally, an academy award is the crown of someone's film making career, not the ignition. There's plenty of festivals and awards and schools and grants to baby sit unproven talent, the Academy Awards need to cut that shit out.

4) Stunts are Classy. Here's some movies that got nominated this year:  The Golden Compass, Surf's Up, Enchanted, and NORBIT. Have I made my point. The Bourne Ultimatum and Death Proof are both very artful, classy, well made films with excellent stuntwork. The belief that stunts are only used as staples for bad, big budget sequels is a myth.

So, go ahead, prove me wrong. All I'm saying, is when Norbit is nominated for an Academy Award for best make-up, maybe Death Proof should have a chance at an award for best stunts. I don't think there's much of an argument which is the better, classier movie.

And finally, in a whole different direction, it's crazy crazy health time. This month I'm dishing you out a health blog about primal nutrition, which is the best form of nutrition out there right now. I'm also shooting you in the head with my best multivitamin power. How do you like that?!

The writers are still striking. Which means Christmas isn't going to be quite as jolly around my house.

People out here are really starting to feel the heat of the strike. We aren't exactly in the fire yet, but everyone's sweating. When the flames really start to lick, is when the normal batch of pilots don't get made in the coming new year, because no one has new pilot scripts. Pilots are the bread and butter for many of my friends. To a small degree in the stunt world, but to a very large degree in the rigging/lighting world. And it's apparent that the strike won't resolve by the time pilot season comes around, which means I've got friends honestly looking for work in different profesions. A respected gaffer I know is looking into teaching history at a community college. That's just not right.

Anyway, one fortunate thing about being a stuntman, is we give great Christmas presents. When you work near the top of the industry, you get to know a lot of people. And nothing pleases an eight year old child more than one of the practice wand props used in a Harry Potter movie. It's part of any self respecting BTL crew member to nab some of these goodies when on a studio set. I've seen a production designer convince the studio to pay for $20,000 Martin Logan speakers for a penthouse apartment which was used in one scene in the movie. The designer claimed it made the place look rich, but low and behold, those speakers now flank his 60" plasma screen TV in his very-non-movie like apartment.

What I'm saying, is we snag some great gift items. I've already stashed away a couple prop guns used in episodes of CSI: Miami, and I have one of the fake magazines used in Blades of Glory (the one with John Heder as "man of the year") signed by Heder himself. So at least other people will be having their jollies this Christmas, even if I can't pay for my own.

Speaking of Christmas (not really), if you want to get a great present, buy your loved one some vitamins. I suggest the Master Formula. It's made by Mark Sisson's company Primal Nutrition. They've got a few blogs related to their concept of health. If you're interested in these primal nutrition blogs, start with one of my buddy's.

It's week 2 of the writer's strike in Hollywood.

It's a funny thing because in L.A. it's on the news every night. They show clips of writers holding signs and TV celebrities wearing shirts supporting the writers. But apparently people don't care too much outside of tinseltown. It took me almost 20 minutes last night to find the op-ed piece in the New York Times written by Damon Lindeloff.

Most company strikes break price lines immediately. When the teamsters strike, business halts, and the money just pours out into the river. This is great for unions because while the individual blue collar worker is only losing $150/day, the company is losing up to a 100 million per day. Teamsters, postal workers, steelworkers, and many other labor industries have real pulling power when they decide to strike.

The writers guild is different. Writers don't make hourly wages. They get paid for completing work and they get paid residuals as their work is reused. The money a studio collects from a writer's work pays off months to a year down the line. For film it could be up to two years before the script they pay for brings in actual cash as a distributed film. You see how striking ain't so simple. When the writers go on strike, not everyone feels the burn immediately.

In fact, the last writers strike went on for 22 weeks because the studios just didn't need more material for summer programming.

Writers don't work often, but when they do, they make bank. Most writers in the guild are established and have "made bank" before. There is a good percentage that will begin to feel the burn as they can't sell screenplays are nab pilots, but again, it will be several months before this happens. Likewise, the studios have stockpiled material, so they have a few months to last before people stop watching television.

So, the real question, is whose taking the brunt of the damage.

Us.

The BTL (below the line) are getting screwed the most out of this whole strike situation. BTL includes the grips, the cameramen, the set electricians, the make up artists, and set builders, and the STUNTMEN. We are the workers bees of tinseltown, we keep the place going, and we ARE paid hourly wages. When a show goes dark, the writer has already been paid for the scripts they've turned in, the studio has finished episodes they can still air, but the BTL stops making money IMMEDIATELY.

The studios have been called greedy by everyone, and the writers have been called greedy by the studios, and people tend to side with the writers. Well I side with neither. I believe this strike is completely unnecessary. It was ordained because the contract was up, both sides are holding out over pennies on dollars that either could spare. And its easy for them to hold out because most of them don't rely on next months pay check to meet the monthly bills. I say shame on you studios. But shame on you writers too.

But don't worry, even if my friends and I all lose our shirts over this business, I'll still keep you up to date with health blogs. The Best Multivitamins and Primal Nutrition are two worth checking out.

I often get asked, "What do you do when things go wrong?"

In stunt work, things can and do go wrong all the time. Explosions don't trip, or they trip late, or (and this is the worst) they trip early. Or you're in a scene with an animal like a tiger, and I don't care how many trainers and sedatives you give a tiger, those guys just go crazy occasionally. There are certain elements in stunt work that are very hard to calculate, you try to plan for chaos, and expect things to go wrong in the worst possible way.

The most common error occurs when mixing stunt work with on-set special affects. Squibs, explosions, and car crashes. My best piece of advise for when things go wrong during an FX shot is Take The Fetal Position. There's a reason babies curl up like that. It's safe! By taking the fetal position, you minimize the surface area of your body vulnerable to whatever may be crashing exploding or whizzing by. You also cover the most delicate parts of your body, namely your head, your heart, your knees, and your balls. You screw up one of those four, and you're out of a career. My only other piece of advise would be to keep thinking. The best stunt man isn't the strongest stunt man. The best stunt man is the smartest stunt man.

And now it's link time. This wouldn't be a health blog if I didn't at least mention the benefits of vitamins occasionally. And I guess the theme of this week is life extension, considering the chances you have of living longer if you take my advice and curl up in a ball!

This is how your week goes:

MONDAY is your first call day. They're shooting an elaborate fight sequence, it'll take all week, and you're one of five keys along with the two film stars. Both stars have opted to do their own stunts. Of course, this is against the wishes of the director, the producer, the stunt coordinator, the insurer, the set medic, and most importantly the costumer. But screw the rest of us, stars will always have their way, as it should be, because head magic is involved in doing their jobs correctly.

You've trained with the stars for a few weeks. The day starts with warm-ups. You finally start shooting, the actor goes into a "zone" and while in that special acting zone, accidentally pops one of the stunt leads in the jaw. The stunt lead is a trooper, he smiles and shrugs it off. Good job, stunt man.

TUESDAY is a bit more of the same. The basic block and tackle stuff. You can tell the two stars are sore from yesterday, but they'll never say anything, which is a blessing. Stars usually don't complain about stunt bruises because, quite frankly, they don't want to look like pussies. Half way through the day, star number two, goes into the zone, and drops a reverse too soon, chipping another stunt man's tooth. No problem, no problem, it's a story for the kids and the mags, right?

WEDNESDAY is the day when you realize certain movie stars need to learn how to deal with stress. And let me tell you, on this set it's gonna take more than omega 3 vitamins. Both stars are landing full blows on the stunt leads. They think they've finally got the "stride" of the fight sequence, but really they've just lost their timidity, not realizing humans aren't built to take repeated blows to the face. Two of the stunt leads' faces are swollen by the end of the day, and they have to be replaced for the final two shooting days.

THURSDAY is when things start to turn sour. The trickiest sequences are shot on Thursday, leaving Friday for whatever isn't finished. The wire stuff, and the glass breaking stuff happens on Thursday. Unfortunately, this is the day the stunt coordinator realizes the fight sequence he planned is a bit too difficult for the stars. Star number one insists he's "almost got it, man!" But it is apparent to the whole crew the he never will. Props eventually runs out of fake windows for the star to practice falling through, and a "special meeting" is held to discuss what to do. This, in my opinion, is where the director makes the biggest mistake. NEVER DASH A STAR'S CONFIDENCE. Once a star believes he doesn't look cool doing stunts, his performance goes right out the window. The fight scene will fall flat. What should happen at this point, is that the director should do a few more takes, exclaim "perfect!" and then move on, cutting the awful window crash sequence during editing. But what usually happens is the director and stunt coordinator decide to dummy down the fight scene, so the star can handle the shots better. This leads to...

FRIDAY. The start arrives, having mended his ego, the only way he knows how: He proclaims that the reason things weren't working yesterday was because the whole fight sequence was planned improperly. An entirely new fight sequence needs to be arranged, one he will design with the stunt coordinator's help. You will begin this new fight sequence on monday, and it will take a week to shoot.

I swear this job really is one of the most exhilarating things to do for a living. But be prepared to deal with a little stress.

Today I'm talking stunt gear, and body supplements and there's one piece of advice I give every new guy (or girl!) entering the industry:

SPEND THE MONEY. GET THE BEST EQUIPMENT.

If you work in an office and you have a shitty computer, chances are you'll still get the data entry finished at the end of the day. If you are a personal trainer and you only have a couple hand weights instead of an Equinox gym, if you're good you'll still come up with a routine your clients can use to get fit.

But if you're a stuntman and you've got a hand-me-down, chinese made safety harness, you could  very well end up impaled on the sharp end of an industry standard C stand. I've seen a man take a nose dive through a glass windshield because he'd decided to build his car harness rig out of SCRAP WOOD. I've seen a lovely young woman end up in the ER with a nasty facial scar because she didn't get the tredded-sole stunt shoes for fight sequences. Hospital bills are infinitely more expensive than the best of stunt equipment out there.

And the same goes for the regular upkeep of the human body. Make sure you're getting the best quality foods, the highest standard of supplements, and the best multivitamins money can buy.