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Movie Theater Jean Claude Van Dammnesty

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Cartman

Bird Dogging Expert
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Minuteman
May 5, 2007
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He's always been for entertainment, not someone to learn anything about street fights from, and while I haven't seen a movie of his in many years, nor even thought twice about him, this commercial just cracked me up. Not in a mocking sort of way, but in a humourous recognition that this guy is more full of himself with a straight face than most any other actor (except Alec Baldwin, who wrote the book on being full of one's self), while at the same time not making me want to slam his head in my car door (not necessarily the case with Alec Baldwin). The Enya music rather than some macho shiz made me crack up even more. Again, not in a "you look stupid" kind of way, but in a "good grief JCVD, you don't know when to quit do you?" sort of way as you chuckle at a guy trying to act half his age while admiring that he's not doing too bad of a job of it. Hopefully this will make sense to someone other than me.

JCVD Stunt:

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/M7FIvfx5J10" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

Anyway, they're going backwards and it is a commercial for Volvo's new steering system for hauling rigs.
 
Are you sure? I would have thought the same thing about Tom Cruise going off the top of the world's tallest building -- but some office workers posted pictures of him banging into their window and waving hello.
 
It could be done a number of ways, but shot practically - no way in hell. The bond holder's insurance wouldn't even allow it and no money means no commercial.
 
Dogtown said:
It could be done a number of ways, but shot practically - no way in hell. The bond holder's insurance wouldn't even allow it and no money means no commercial.
Click to expand...

You mean the way Jackie Chan's stunts are all faked because the bond holder's insurance wouldn't even allow it and no money means no movie?

And I'm not F-ing with you or asserting I know one way or another, but there are actors for whom doing their own stunts is part of the job. And my guess is this was filmed overseas. And it is JCVD, not Tom Hanks so I'm not sure he is worth a gazillion dollars if he gets broken while a director plays with him.

Again, I'm only saying that I disagree with your premise, not that I'm sure this is real. Volvo has another ad that's part of the same campaign that involves a slack line walker. I'm sure it was planned to the nth degree, but it looks real enough.
 
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Sako man and I both work in visual effects, so we know a thing or two about this stuff.

ETA: here are some of the ways it could have been done:

1. he's shot on a stage standing on two props and then moving into the splits position. The camera is tracked and the environment and trucks are added in post. That would be a lot of difficult but not impossible work.

2. he's hooked into a wire safety rig between the trucks in motion, then the rig is removed and harness is painted out in post production. This scenario is done often, but I still think even with a harness and wire rig, it would be too dangerous for JCVD. A more likely variation on this is they use a stuntman on a wire rig and then track a plate of JCVD in over the stuntman, perhaps from the waist up and then clean it up in a Flame bay.

3. he's hooked into a safety rig that places him between the truck with his feet hanging below, then they are painted out in post and CG legs that track the movement of the of widening trucks are added. Again, this is a very common thing too.
 
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Personally, I'm thinking it's something as simple as a cable. One attached at the same point that his feet are contacting the trucks. Said cable runs up his leg, across the seat of his jeans, and then down the other leg. (notice his legs are straight)

While the steering in the trucks may be 'fantastic'... when they are apart, the tension on the cable gives him something to sit on, as well as prevents the cabs from separating further. From there, servo's/microswitches can be mounted to the cab, if needed, for even more 'finite' steering input. Or instant braking procedures. Again, if needed.

No, I'm not a stunt man. I don't play a stunt man, nor do I wish to be one. Just figuring out how I'd do it, if people were throwing money at me to get it done. As simple as possible, of course.
 
By the way, I'm not poo-pooing the commercial. It's a brilliant spot. But I did want to dispel the notion that it's 100% practical, shot as it seems.
 
Dogtown said:
By the way, I'm not poo-pooing the commercial. It's a brilliant spot. But I did want to dispel the notion that it's 100% practical, shot as it seems.
Click to expand...

If it was practical then there was a bunch of safety line roto/paint out. But I can't believe that someone would insure a stunt like that. There is more we are missing.
 
KNIGHT11B4 said:
Some safety equip digitally removed...

Jean-Claude Van Damme does sky-high split between two trucks | Fox News
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. So if Volvo and the article are to be believed, the stunt was real, they just erased the safety equipment. I thought it might be as JKVD was supposed to have done his own stunts in his early days and, given his ego, I could imagine him being full of himself enough to try this.

Moreover, somebody does these stunts so they do get done. I imagine you film industry guys are used to things filmed here and a big star not doing the stunts. Well what happens overseas or when the person is not a superstar? That's why I mentioned Jackie Chan. There are blooper reels of his insane stunts gone wrong and him being hurt quite badly. Many things far beyond the Volvo stunt. And I consider Jackie Chan a much bigger star than JCVD. In fact, is JCVD really still a "star" or a just a celebrity who was once a star? Haven't most of his movies in recent years been straight to video? It just didn't seem like he was so famous insurance issues would prevent this. And it was probably shot oversees. I saw a clip from the production and several people had Scandinavian accents. Given the Jackie Chan craziness I'm certain risky things are filmed somewhere.
 
Yeah, Jackie Chan does crazy stunts because he's pretty much an acrobat first, actor second. Still, the danger of this stunt is such that without any kind of safety equipment, I don't think any reasonable stunt person would attempt it. Jackie Chan or not. Sure, safety regulations are different in countries around the world, but it's just not something one could attempt to do without a harness, let alone a helmet. Look at what you're claiming: a guy balancing on the mirrors of two trucks moving a decent pace, does the splits as they separate. Far too much room for error, the result of any of which is him hitting his unprotected head on the concrete at speed. And he's also got to deliver a line on top of that. How many takes can they do? Nothing gets done in this industry without multiple takes. What happens when the shot's over? Do they slowly come back together? Do they slow down so controlled that he doesn't lose his balance from the deceleration?

If anything, I suspect movies have given you an unrealistic perception of what can be realistically done by stuntmen without any safety gear.
 
I never said there wouldn't be safety gear -- in my last post I even noted "they just erased the safety equipment" in response to my quote of Knight who said "Some safety equip digitally removed...".

I suspect, working in the special effects field, you've met so many people who have an unrealistic perception of what can be realistically done by stuntmen without any safety gear it becomes reflexive to assume everybody you meet unrealistically thinks something was done without safety gear. But I made no such assumption or assertion.

In fact, I'm not sure how this got into the question of safety gear, as you started with "behold the power of visual effects". Maybe "visual effects" means "safety equipment" in the movie and video production industries. I have no idea as I'm not in those industries. I'm just a regular guy. And I'm pretty sure to regular guys "visual effects" means CGI type stuff. Which was, it seems, was a factor here when it came to erasing signs of his safety equipment.

Which makes me wonder, how much safety equipment was there? As someone not in the industry if there were a big crane type thing above him holding him up, yeah, that would count -- by my layperson estimation -- as faked. If, however, it was a safety harness of some sort that meant if he fell he would only slam against the side of one of the rigs I, personally, would count that as real.

As for him delivering a line while balancing, look more closely.

I did go to Youtube, however, and looked up some Jackie Chan bloopers and he too often uses safety gear -- yet he and others still get banged up pretty badly.

And before I posted this I did one more search and came up with the story below. It sounds like it was filmed overseas, there was no helmet, he was not held up, just some safety lines, and it was shot in just one take.

I will concede, however, that you may be right all along and these people are lying about it to hype it up.

How Volvo Created the Jean-Claude Van Damme ?Epic Split? Video - Speakeasy - WSJ
 
It takes CGI visual effects to remove the safety equipment, thereby making it appear as though he is doing the stunt like you're seeing it.
 
Yeah no way they did that without a safety harness of some sort. That sort of thing would require more than a few takes to get right and this isn't the 1940s, if the actor falls off the roof and gets squashed you can't just replace him with another one and keep shooting.
 
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