I am the Damage Control Master!

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.

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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.

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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.

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