My Stunts page (2)

By Gary Packham

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Triple X (XXX)

Vin Diesel as Xander Cage and Asia Argento as Yelena Are the stars in this action packed film. We had lots of fun testing the cars and bikes before the stunt men got them. When the car fired the rockets, they ran along wires an can be seen being tested here. (file size 1,037kb) . when the AHAB was being piloted up the river, it was actually a full size model on a cut down speed boat. (file size 2,107kb) . Here are three different angles of the tracking shot that produced the effect of Xander being pulled out of his car by the parachute whilst racing after the AHAB. (file size 2,990kb) . (file size 3,709kb) . (file size 2,154kb) .

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Our Cannon

We built a cannon to flip cars over for stunts, It works by releasing a large quantity of Nitrogen at high pressure into a cylinder holding a piston. When the driver is in position he just flick's a switch and the valve is opened, the nitrogen exits the reservoir and pushes onto the piston. The piston is retained with 4mm braded cable allowing the pressure to build up on top of the piston, when the cable brakes under pressure the piston flies out and flips the car or truck over. We use different pressures and reservoirs for different size vehicles. Here we played with different pressures on a rigged BMW. (file size 2,912kb) . (file size 3,185kb) . (file size 5,146kb) .

   

   

Other rigs

I have built all sorts of rigs for different jobs, this is just a selection of some of them.

Jaguar S Type company video, this rig enabled the camera to be firmly fixed to the car giving the effect of the car remaining in frame and the background moving, the car was driven at high speed around the top floor of a car park in Uxbridge in both forward and reverse and then a few "J" turns also (you normally only see this in films. Its when the car is reversing and then the front swings around, the car continues in a forward motion), the effect was amazing.

   

   

This was a rig I built to display a crashed car. It was to be shown all over Europe and so had to be able to be jacked up into position. It was advertising the Play station game Burnout 4.

 

Banking rigs are used to simulate a bike rider leaning over on a bike. I built this one in 1995 and we still use it today. The angle of the bike is controlled with a hydraulic ram that is operated from a wheel and pump. A universal joint is used at the ram end to allow for steering and undulations in the road. the "UJ" is cranked clockwise and anti clockwise by the ram to allow for banking and the whole unit clamps onto the forks of the bike at one end and the ram casing bolts to the towing vehicle at the other end. The control unit sits back out the way of the film crew. (file size 4,263kb) .

   

You would be surprised, some of the things I am asked to build. This was used as a safe in the spare wheel well of a car, Just key operated with an air ram gave a smooth effect. (file size 4,998kb) 

HGV tracking rig for pulling large vehicles for filming purposes. Allows the crew to sit on the back whilst filming into or in the vehicle.

   

   

 

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