Hello follow Steemites, I'm new to whole Steemit platform but see that this is future, I created a lot of content on Youtube @ Leon Butcher Channel and glad to find somewhere else to showcase my adventures. For those that are interested in following me I will be documenting my journey towards gaining stuntman acreditation in the United Kingdom. The Stunt industry is currently undergoing some serious revisions.
Around a year ago I started out training towards the UK Stunt Register having participated in the recent remakes of Mary Poppins and the Tomb Raider films performing cycling stunts in both movies. After shooting my enthusiam towards gaining a career in the stunt industry grew and I had a clear set of goals to work towards which included being professionally competent in 6 different disciplines. Although it was demanding I thought that within 5 years of dedicated training I could get onto the Stunt Register, I had choosen and begun working towards my 6 disciplines which included, Competition Rally Driving, Kung Fu, High Diving, Rock climbing, Competition Motorcycle Trials and Swimming, I was feeling happy with the progress, also worth mentioning that I along with many other stunt trainnees have invested large amounts of money on private training in the 6 various disciplines required for the Stunt Register.
However, during an industrial meeting at the end of 2017 the UK Film and TV industries main bodies BBC, ITV and SPACT (the people responsible for employing stuntmen/women for Films and TV shows) announced that they will no longer be working with the Stunt Register to source their stuntmen/women as incidents had occured due to registered stunt performers not being up to the desired standard on quite a few occassions. At the meeting the Film and TV industry could not undertand why the Stunt Register had required professionalism in 6 different disciplines from the applicants and instead suggested that they will be employing performers directly from their field of expertise rather than the register from now on. The response from the British Stunt Industry was cost, meaning that the Film and TV budgets apparently do not allow for a raft of specialist to be drawn in for a production, instead one stuntman should be able to do it all - great at precision driving, motorcyle tricks, can ride a horse like a pro and fall off buildings performing olympic grade dives whilst being able to swim like a fish. The view from those at the top of the Film and TV industry was clear, your not going to get the best from a registered stuntman/woman if they're spread themselves across the 6 required disciplines and expected to be pro at them all. So now the old Register is trying to re-brand itself as the British Stunt Register, promising to up the standards and make the 6 disciplines even harder to achieve, but with that there are not any guarantees that the Film and TV industry will use the new register to employee stunties from.
The new syallbus was supposed to be released in the new year of 2018 and now its April with no sign yet of the revisions, meaning a couple of hundred UK trainnee stunties are in limbo awaiting word from the British Stunt Register as to the new layout of the register.
As a result I now feel that the best opportunity for me is to focus in my areas of expertise which is Trials Riding, Precision Driving and Kung Fu, the whole experience has proved to be frustrating a year into training to find that what your training towards isn't relevant but on reflection the stunt work I have gained so far has been through self promotion anyway.
To summarize when spending £200+ million why scrimp on getting the right people in for the job, as Disney did with my Mary Poppins role (not on the stunt register but an expert in riding a bike) otherwise you end up with people who are not as proficient at what they are being asked to do and end up either slowing down the production or causing harm to themselves and/or others.
I will keep you posted on future productions that I get involved in, many thanks for your time
