Stuntman with a couple of questions

I hope to see video of the stunt. Let us know when you are able, like on film release date.

 

OMG !! They're remaking DUAL !!

 

Splitting gears is kinda like when you go buy a drink do you buy a Coke or a Pespsi ? You can choose to split or not split according to the way you drive and the grade of the hill/ mountain, i personally change according to the grade if its small yes i may just split a gear if its steeper i don't worry about splitting them cause you'll definitely need to go down a few gears so splitting won't work unless your already in a very low gear and you've got an 18 speed and your in say 5th high and it might just need those extra few revs which it can't do in 5th high then i'd spilt it to 5th low to get those extra few 100 revs.

 

No splitting needed empty .. if you want stunt advice go to the swift or fedex forum . Those guys do some pretty amazing stuff in a truck

 

That doesn't really qualify as stunts I don't believe.

 

Usually the guy that brings the truck to set but of course I'd rather not need to go to anyone.

It's only driving down the road and pulling over next to people on the side of the road. Any truck driving on set requires a stunt driver. So it's not going to be very exciting but it's a show on USA network.

Is that the skilled driving competitions? Those guys are great but yeah, not really considered stunts.

 

He was referring to the number of places and positions they put trucks that trucks are not meant to go; under 11'8" bridges, walking paths, Atlantic Boardwalk, McDonald's drive through, upside down, 100' off the road in the bushes...

 

Ternimator has a great series of heavy truck stunts in the movies series. The cyro cold tanker for example or the crane etc.

On of the first stunts I believe is that they dropped a RV off a cliff in a jungle movie and I researched why the wheels were not behaving correctly back there and it turned out tha they may have been modified just so inside the axles to give them a chance to buy the stuntpeople actors inside enough time.

If you are driving up to some spot and stopping for the camera, splitting is excessive. I don't think you will be loaded. You will find there might be enough beef to skip but just drive it the way you think best and it will look fine. If it did not, I suppose they will have to reshoot it.

My thought is just drive it right and you will be fine. If you got into shows that play on television you might find a number of small details that are over done for the drama value. Pulling glad hands without popping buttons first is one example.

Splitter to me means low range first 5 or so gears then the next range set of gears high range for 9 and when you get above that in you are in over drive. 13, 15 and 18. The 15 I had was low, direct and over. Just rotated the shift knob for the necessary shifting.

Now when you get into certain trucks with underdrive and overdrive this is a feature where when you have lost RPM on the upgrade lift your foot a moment and floor it, it will shift underdrive one time to give you half a gear more before you have to physically continue to downshift by using the clutch and moving the gear selector down to the next gear.

 

I think one of the best truck stunt movies is Sorcerer, directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection) and starring Roy Scheider. Many consider this movie to be Friedkin's masterpiece, better than The French Connection. Unfortunately it was released at the same time as the original Star Wars, so it never had initial box office success.

The stunts weren't CGI. No big chase scenes or flying trucks, just white knuckle driving on dirt "roads" in the Andes Mountains in the jungle...oh, and with a load of old dynamite with sweating nitroglycerin.

 

Some of the older movies featured some driving without any computer support or effects like you stated. Duel would be a minor movie with some stunts, the location where they did the running the car into the fence across from the eating place stop is still there to this day I believe.

Smokey and bandit shot many scenes along Arkansas roads generally in the north part of the state. certain intersections and one subdivision entrance etc are all still there some changed some not changed to this day. Unfortunately the bridge jump was burned some years back in Georgia and other scenes along I-20 etc.

We had a instructor in school who essentially behaved as if he taught god to make mountains for us truckers to drive over once we learned to build and run em. He would stunt a tractor trailer on what is about two acres of gravel next to the dock from time to time for our pleasure. Once it got away from him and headed for all of us sideways. He managed to get it settled before it all thumped into the entire dock we were standing on on it's entire length gently.

I think at least one told him that he hit the dock etc or some other things and his response was classic, I aint hit *&^%. He's probably passed by now. But once in a while I wondered how he managed to straighten up enough and then settle her where it settled while all the wheels had no traction on that gravel in what amounts to be dual tractor and trailer jack knife at the same time.