In the Entertainment business, Movies are always considered the highest form of entertainment even when the country has a rich taste in enjoying music, sports, and many other art forms. Movies are simple and show the exact nature of human beings through the character which makes them more relatable in every sense. But in this modern day of filmmaking, filmmakers gave more importance to action movies because they make a lot of profit. The soul of these action movies is the stunt team that disguises in the suits of the actors or actresses in these challenging sequences of a film. Let us know about “Salaries For Stunt Man”
Stunt man in any film set gets a huge paycheck at the end of the day for all the explosive and terrifying stunts they are going to do on the set. An average amount of $70,000 can be the annual wage of a stunt man. But professional stunts man can earn up to $250,000 in a year because the stunt they are doing will be that risky. The Risk Factor in the stunt increases and the amount in the paycheck also increases.
But this is not the case in the situation where a stunt man is an amateur. They can only receive an annual amount of $5000. Obviously, this is not the exact value but you can expect something around this. It will not be a crucial scene in the action movie if the wage is too low. It is actually difficult to afford any good living from that.
Action Movies
The significance of action movies in the Movie business industry started from the Chinese Martial Arts movies, back in the 70s. Even though in every industry they try to make a good or even professional action flick, they could not perfect it or match it as they did in Hong Kong or in China. One of the reasons that made this work out in the East is the roles in the film. They used professional Martial artists and real fighters to do every scene in the movie, not just the stunt.
For Example, Bruce Lee is a professional Martial Artist who mastered the Kung Fu style called Wing Chun. He is considered one of the earliest pioneers of combining real-life stunts with movies. Then came a generation of stunt men who are considered heroes in the movies such as Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao. Soon Hollywood started to adapt most of these techniques and gave rise to movies and action stars such as Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo, Bruce Willis’s Die Hard, and Van Damme’s Bloodsport in the 80s.
Stunt Man And Stunt Double
Many people think that a stunt man and a stunt double are the same. No, they are not the same. They are doing the same job as a profession but the responsibility is different. To be a stunt man is to be anyone who does a stunt on set with all the necessary precautions taken. It can include driving stunts like drifting and flipping a car in the air. It can even be an extra who gets a hard hit when the hero strikes. They can even be the ones who fall from a height and mostly they are composited far away from the shot.
A stunt Double is someone doubling or twinning with the actors to do the stunts. They can be exact ditto of the actor or have some significance with the actor or actress. They are also important because some stunts are more complicated and an actor could not be able to pull that off on the set. And they have to be somewhat identical because the camera can be close to them to make it more original.
Injuries
Injuries can happen on a film set even when you obey all the precautions or if you did not. But it is a risky process as a whole. You have to train to familiarise every single action. If one person messes it up many things can go wrong. Timing is one such thing you have mastered when you do stunts for a big production movie and most of the movies are big-budget studio films.
Especially for stunt guys who take falls from whatever height it is, it is always mentioned not to hurt your spine. Even the professionals look for these small details that will not land them flat on their back. There are safety measures that they take to make you less hurt like taping all the sharp edges and adding rubbers or cushions for hard surfaces. There is much protective gear to protect your knees and elbow and all other joints from a hard hit you can hide it properly and not get caught on camera.
Lifestyle
As I said earlier, not many Stunt men get a huge salary after every stunt they do. Only a few are considered so professional and have the voice to ask how much for a stunt to the producers. But many don’t have that even to say no to some dangerous stunt. They are fine with the wage they are offered at the beginning.
In some of the stunts they know they will be injured after that and some have to make that sacrifice to get the shot that is going to get the audience in the theatre. With the limited range of wages, they could not even afford injuries if anything happened.
Conclusion
Life as a stunt man is challenging as the stunts they do to acquire some money. Even if they finished a project and got a salary, they have to find the next job to get money. There is no security and it is your own responsibility to not get injured. If you get injured you will miss other opportunities. But for all those who are in the industry, it is fun working in a stunt department. If they keep coming back to do stunts just because they love what they are doing.
Q. What is the highest ever paid for a stunt?
In 1982 a stunt man named Dan Robinson completed a jump from the top of CN Tower in Toronto which is 1815 ft. high. He got paid $150,000, which is the highest ever a stunt ever costs.
