Stunt Falls 101: How to Shoot Them & Remove Wires in Post Once You're Done

On the logistical side, you've got to hire trained stunt professionals, rent all of the safety gear, and plan your shoot wisely. On the creative side, you need to have an understanding of what makes an action sequence dynamic, from camera angles to lighting. Here's Film Riot's Ryan Connolly to explain how he went about organizing and shooting stunt falls for his short film High Fall.

Connolly makes a lot of great suggestions that you should keep in mind:

• Shoot your stunts first, because they tend to take up most of your day.
• Find out where the safest place is to do the stunt; then set up your camera.
• Set up your shot while your stunt people are practicing so you have a real-life reference.
• Don't be afraid to move your camera.
• Listen to the creative suggestions of your stunt team.

Ryan's team goes more in-depth about all of the logistical and creative decisions they made for the short in the video below:

So, now you've got some great footage of your stunt people falling from high places, but there's still the issue of getting rid of all of those wires. In this tutorial, Rampant Design's Sean Mullen walks you through wire and rig removal in post:

Again—stunts are no joke. There is so much more that goes into successfully capturing great stunt falls, so before you try them in your own project, do as much research as you can. Furthermore, if you don't know what you're doing, hire a professional stunt team, and if your professional stunt team doesn't know what they're doing, scrap the whole thing because someone's bound to get hurt. Safety first, y'all.

Source: Film Riot