We finished out lunch and still had about half an hour before we were needed back. I followed Brad and Paul to the stunt bags. These were specialized Jackie Chan duffle bags where all of our stunt equipment was stored. The one bag they opened had all sort of pads in them from knee and elbows pads to shin and forearm pads to pads I hadn’t even seen before.
“Do you think we even need these?” Paul asked Brad.
“Better bring them to be safe. Allen, you’re in charge of this bag. Bring it everywhere with you and never leave it out of your site.”
“Yes sir!” I said excitedly. My first job as a stuntman! I wouldn’t let Brad and Paul down. Lunch ended and we all headed into the transport van to head back to set. I clambered in awkwardly and sat down the with the huge bag on my lap.
“Putting you to work finally!” Diana said smiling.
“Yep!”
We got to set and I followed Brad and Paul off to the side where Jackie was sitting before. We stood there waiting for everything to be set up and for Jackie to arrive. We waited, waited, and waited. Then we waited some more. Finally a transport came in and Jackie climbed out! It was still surreal for me to see THE JACKIE CHAN up close and personal. I don’t think I’d EVER get used to it.
I learned very fast that asking Brad and Paul questions were useless. Not because they didn’t want to answer them (well maybe they found me a little annoying I don’t know), but because they didn’t know anymore than I did. After asking a series of questions about what was going on Brad just cut me off and said, “Look, I don’t know okay? Keep your eyes open and watch. It’s our job to anticipate what’s going on next and to be ready for it without anybody telling us what to do.”
“Okay…”
So we waited and watched. It looked like they were setting up the camera in front of the motorcycle. Brad went to the bag and grabbed some pads out. He ran over to Jackie and offered them to him but he just shook his head and waved his hand – he didn’t need them. He pointed to Claire. Brad ran over to her and helped her put them on.
They were ready for Claire and Jackie. They headed over to the motorcycle which was set up on a kind of a trolley which was attached to an ATV. I guess this allowed the actors to focus purely on their acting instead of having part of their attention on riding the motorcycle – smart! I noticed earlier that Claire’s stunt double was riding the motorcycle and Jackie’s stunt double was clinging onto her from behind. I didn’t really give it much thought, but now that it was Jackie holding onto Claire on the bike it looked rather funny! Ah…Jackie Chan humour I thought – awesome! This movie was already looking good!
Although I had seen the process earlier with the stunt doubles, now I really took notice. The camera man yelled, “Rolling!”
One of the AD’s had the marker in front of the camera, “Scene 66a take 1,”
Then the sound guy holding a big boom mic over Claire and Jackie yelled, “Sound speed!”
And then Gordon, the director who sitting by the monitors yelled the magic word, “ACTION!”
This was so exciting! This was EXACTLY like how you saw them make movies on TV except this was REAL LIFE! I couldn’t believe that I would be surrounded by all of this for the next month! I watched as Jackie and Claire did their scene as the ATV towed them along. The magic of movies was really incredible, I mean on camera you could never tell that they were being pulled by an ATV!
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