Story by Jeremy Fry • Photography as Credited
It is as near to an actual, literal switch as you can get. I make a conscious decision to flip this switch and stop thinking about all of the things that could go wrong–of the reasons not to crash this car–and to only think about what exactly I need to do to accomplish …
i regret that i have but one thumbs-up to give
jfryjfry - can you provide more details about the structure strapped on top of the car? Is that a remote control setup so you can drive while the pretty faces act?
Thats a great article!
Wait, that looks like John Wick and Baby Driver, did you drive for thoses movies?
Can my 14 yr old son have an autographed piece of a car from a big time movie....PLEEEZ?
Just told my son about this as we just rewatched Baby Driver last week (killing time during lock down) and sent him the link. He is very hopeful about my request
I really enjoyed reading the article and I too want to know is that Flying Bridge unit Truly a Flying Bridge to control the car?
Well done! I recall an ancient issue of Car and Driver where Pat Bedard was talking about stunt drivers in his column.
"The Harlem Globetrotters never won an NBA Championship, but you don't hear a lot of people saying they can't play basketball."
I know that I need to remain impartial (actually, do I?), but I totally loved this piece.
Super fun article to read. If you are ever in a small movie and invited to Cinetopia, come- I'll buy you a drink. Rarely to stunt people come to film festivals.
A question I may have asked before, exactly how does one become a stunt driver? I can't imagine it's on indeed or shiftgig.
Vise grips to pinch off brake lines works pretty well... but around here the trick for blocking off one end of braking or the other quickly is a small nail, like a drywall nail or small siding nail (brass tacks would be better) installed in the line at the right flare fitting. Just unscrew the fitting, drop the nail in and put it back together.
Totally reversible, and cheap, with no worry about damage from vise grips, or vise grips coming loose. Only risk is overtightening and wrecking the flare, and of course the safety issues from disabling the brakes.
I promise I have never ever in my life attempted to drive anything with a previously leaking brake line around on the street.. ever..
In reply to ronholm :
That's a good trick. But don't assume the film industry cares if they damage the car.
They care about the shot.
Just ran across the thread.... glad my ramblings weren't terribly nauseating. It was nice to exercise my journalism degree a little after all of these years.
I can expand later, but how to get in the business? Know someone. I knew no one so I moved to Los Angeles and starting asking around.
there is actually a sidebar in the print magazine about getting in
and there are several shots of pod cars in the spread. They are a removable (usually) driver's pod that has steering throttle and brake. Sometimes shift and sometimes start. I like having a horn and mirrors too.
I don't enjoy driving them much. Risky, heavy, challenging and valuable cargo. And rarely built well. John wick's pod was great but I didnt drive that one. I didn't even drive the baby driver one. That pic was snapped when I jumped in it to move it. Hence no helmet.
and an autograph?? I don't know why anyone would want one, but I don't have any pictures! Maybe I could print one out..... shoot me a pm!
Mndsm said:A question I may have asked before, exactly how does one become a stunt driver? I can't imagine it's on indeed or shiftgig.
Did you check out the attached sidebar to this article? It's on the right side of the page (or below on mobile).
In reply to jfryjfry (Forum Supporter) :
I still think you have the coolest job on the forum.
Unless there's someone lurking that does crash safety testing and never mentioned it.
In reply to jfryjfry (Forum Supporter) :
What you do is WAY cooler than what most actors do. And how many of them write bitchin' articles for us?
Tom Suddard said:Mndsm said:A question I may have asked before, exactly how does one become a stunt driver? I can't imagine it's on indeed or shiftgig.
Did you check out the attached sidebar to this article? It's on the right side of the page (or below on mobile).
I did not
Ok, I have another question. Seems like you've worked on a lot of cool movies (I love the John wick series, and I actually just watched baby driver again)....Is there a movie or stunt scene that you've done that you're particularly proud of?
I enjoyed reading the article. If you come to the challenge, I'm sure you will have many folks asking you to sign the issue!
In reply to Mndsm :
It sounds lame but baby driver was an amazing job for many reasons. My family came out, I got to coordinate second unit, my good buddy was directing, we were allowed a lot of input (vs. ring told what we had to do) and we got to do some cool gags.
my favorite single gag? The jump drift on john wick 2
the show that nobody watched that had some fun driving? The Last Stand with Arnold Schwartzeneger.
jfryjfry
You mentioned that the stand alone hydraulic handbrake is nicer than a passthrough. Can you elaborate on that? Is it a question of caliper size or do the passthroughs just not work as well as everyone might hope?
In reply to matthewmcl (Forum Supporter) :
For whatever reason, most of them - if not all - take a very large effort to get results. Vs a standalone system that usually (and always when set up correctly) works with very little to medium effort.
the pass through works much better when you preload the system by pressing the main brake first, then hitting the e, and then releasing the brake (while continuing to hold the e). But it scrubs a little speed which and takes a little extra time which could be undesired.
But most of the time we get the pass-throughs and the technique to use them isn't hard to learn to do quick.
but now the big issue isn't the ebrake setup, it's the electronic nannies that continually fight us. Sometimes they win, sometimes we win.
In reply to jfryjfry (Forum Supporter) :
Huh. So does that ever impact the choice of car used? I guess related question: is the choice of car usually strictly dictated by the script?
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