How To Become A Stunt Driver | Best Stunt Driving Lessons And Training for Professional Stunt Drivers
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION – How to become a stunt driver and join the community of professional stunt drivers. That’s what we’ll answer in today’s video.
Hi my name’s Dillon Wilson with CBT Stunt Alliance. Train Hard. Perform Easy. We help actors, stunt performers, filmmakers and content creators learn professional caliber stunt training for film, TV and live action entertainment.
Learn more about Dillon Wilson
Before we get underway, if you’d like to learn how to launch your career in professional stunts, check out our highly popular ONLINE PROFESSIONAL stunt training classes at PROStuntTraining.com or click on the link below this video. You will learn stunts, falls, tactical firearms training for film & TV, sword fighting, exotic weapons and more. You can sign up NOW and START TRAINING NOW. Go to PROStuntTraining.com.
Okay. So, we get a lot of questions about how to become a stunt driver, stunt driving lessons and how to get work as a professional stunt driver. There are so many of these silly websites, YouTube videos, blog posts that give you information, most of which is wrong and the stuff does not work. So, it’s challenging to find out where to go and how to get started. So, we’re going to share with you some time-tested experience proven ways of how to do just that. And first of all, before we get in the way having an auto racing background is a big help. Like if you really want to be a professional stunt driver, exclusively, primarily having an auto racing background helps because it’s a big plus. Now, here’s the thing to understand. Though you know you become a professional stunt driver, it’s still just another skill. Right? You still have to have other skills, too. And so, getting in a s a professional stunt driver is the same as getting in as a professional stunt performer. Right? It’s just that your specialty is art is cars. It could be motorcycles. It could be an equestrian. Right? So, it’s the same.
And so, for getting into stunts, this is actually what one of my mentors taught me and has not changed. There’s pretty much three ways to get into it. One is you’re either born into that means you’re born into a family that already is known in stunts and you grow up in the business. It’s a very common way. The second way is you marry it to it. So, someone who’s already established and married them could be a lady, could be a guy and then by proxy, you’re in as well. And the third way is someone adopts you. So, you’re born into it, you married to it, or someone adopts you. Now, the adopting you thing is very common and it’s actually what would happen with me as well. And what it consists of is a stunt coordinator adopts you and takes you under their wing. And specifically, with being a stunt driver, they’ll take you under their wing in their stunt driving school or workshop and they’ll give you stunt driving lessons. And so, for many people, this is their end to becoming a professional stunt driver. Someone adopts them.
So, when you’re going for stunt driving lessons it could be one of the famous expensive $4,000 schools or a local credible experienced stunt coordinator who is willing to give you stunt driving lessons for a MUCH lesser amount. These people often have their own vehicles, gear, training locations and everything. Now, many don’t talk about this because they always talk about the famous schools that you’re paying top dollar for. Yet you have stunt coordinators who have been professional stunt driver for decades and they want extra money on the side or they want to give something back. And also make some extra money on the side. And so, contacting and talking to them, you can set something up and they’ll actually train you.
So, if you like information of stunt coordinators who’d be willing to do that, who do this already, feel free to contact us on our website, send us in the form and try not to call in because we’re really busy with it. It takes a while to get back on the phone calls. Fill out the and we’ll be more that happy to email you their information and you can reach out to them yourself.
Now when you start taking the stunt driving lessons, you’re going to learn things like forward 180s, reverse 180s, E-turns, power slides, drifting, jumps, and all sorts of things. They’ll have different things and skills that you can learn. And that’s what all are. They are just skills. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be amazing especially when it’s not your car. You’re not concerned about messing it up. It is a heck a lot of fun doing it.
PRO TIP! When you’re getting your stunt driving lessons, take plenty of video. It’s like, why would I want to take video. You want to take plenty of video because you’re going to use that video to make your stunt reel. Otherwise, you got no reel. You got no way of promoting yourself. So, make sure you take plenty of video. If you can’t, clear it with stunt coordinator first, whoever your teacher is and they’ll probably already know though and they’ll have it set up where you can actually get plenty of footage of your training so you can use it fir your reel as well.
Tip 1 on how to become a stunt driver – You’ve got to practice
So, you’ve taken your lessons, you got to practice your stunt driving lessons if you want to be a professional stunt driver. Many people are good on one hand for you and not so good on the other. Yet many people attend the school, they take driving lessons, they get a certificate and a name for their resume. And then that’s it. They NEVER practice, they never take refresher courses. Nothing. So, they haven’t learned anything. They were simply exposed to stunt driving training. These people tend to usually never book a single stunt driving gig as a result. So, you have to practice from time to time to maintain your skills. Many schools offer refresher courses just for this purpose because they know that. I mean, if you do something one time and then 6 months pass, you haven’t practiced, you’re not going to be sharp with it. This is why again people who are professional race car drivers, they’ve done it to a different degree. They didn’t do it just for a weekend or a day or two. They’ve done it as a career. Often times for years.
So, you can also get together with other stunt performers and split the cost of renting out a private company’s parking lot and a car and practicing. So, it’s easier if you have that background because stunt coordinators know there’s things that you already know how to do that. They just couldn’t teach you. Also, what you can do is get together with other stunt performers. And you can split the cost of renting out a private company’s parking lot and a car and practice in it. That’s what a lot of people do. Hey look, you know, your clothes, you got that parking spot over there, we’re just going to come ad practice driving doing some stunt driving and stuff. And here’s my reel. We’re going to be doing stuff like this. We just need space to do it. How much would you charge us to do that. And then you go with like 3 or 4 other people and you just split the costing. You get the people and they’re like, it costs them nothing. It’s like, hey, fine with me. They’re going to make an extra money. They’re not even open that day. So, you just have to be kind of imaginative and you’ll be able to come up with ways that you can practice.
Tip 2 on how to become a stunt driver: Always be learning new skills
stunt driving lessons are not enough, being a professional stunt driver ONLY is not enough. Many stunt performers do stunt driving from time to time yet they are not PROFESSIONAL stunt Drivers EXCLUSIVELY meaning they do a bunch of other stunts too. The percentage of people who ONLY do stunt driving is small compared to the overall stunt community. Plus, it can also become pretty boring just doing stunt driving only. Like most stunt work DOESN’T involve stunt driving. Most stunt work DOESN’T involve stunt driving. To give yourself the best chance of success in the industry cross training with fighting for camera, tactical firearms training, SOOO many projects call for gun play now. Even falls, ratchets, martial arts weapons like swords, and other things, this is more your bread and butter, the type of stuff. Even joining a martial art is actually a very good investment. And any other skill that a non-driving stunt performer might need. You know all these things will be essential in growing your career.
You can also check out the professional stunt training courses that we offer. We provide COMPLETE professional stunt training courses to grow your career. Go to PROStuntTraining.com. Or click on the link below this video for more information.
Tip 3 on how to become a stunt driver – A Day in The Life.
To give you some idea of what it’ll be like when you’re actually doing it. A day in the life of a professional stunt driver is NOT what you think it is. All of the YouTube videos and articles they glamorize it and they share all these to you. All these big budget movies and like Batman and John Wick and all type of stuff. That happens yet they’re very rare that is not your garden variety. That’s not the norm. No, that’s not the norm. So, many of the stunts, the vehicle stunts you’re going to perform are pretty tame. The projects that call for those high-speed maneuvers are in the minority. They are few and far between. You can get jobs where you simply take off quickly from a stop light, you’re like waiting at a stop. This is the stunt. Right? You’d be stunt doubling an actor. Think of most of the tv shows and movies that you see. They don’t have this stuff. Those people who are doing peeling off from the light and all those are stunt drivers. So, you can just be sitting at a stop light just waiting then light turns from red to green and you can hit the floor and go really fast. That’s a car stuff. And you be cast for that type of stuff.
So, it could be taken ff quickly from a stuff light to literally driving quickly along the road. You know kind of stuff that you do already. Yet once you’re on camera, it changes. So, just down the Serpentine Road in the rain at night time, all these things add additional elements of danger to simply driving a car on camera, it’s a stunt if you’re not on a flatbed truck or something. To even driving in a formation of other cars at high speed. Pretty much anytime you’re on camera and doing anything risky something that you can get hurt, that can be considered to be a car stunt and you’ll get a contract for it. Things that you would never know. Again, these aren’t sexy things that’s why they don’t cover them in these YouTube videos. They want to cover the cars jumping over bridges, and this is the reality of it. And this is a game why people don’t just do car stunts. They do other stuff, too. Because you can imagine it’s kind of mundane and boring after a while, you’re doing that for 10 hours a day.
I’ve personally done some of the professional stunt driver high speed maneuvers in some action movies as well as music videos. You’d be surprised. Music videos have bigger budgets than the movies and the same caliber stunts. What I can share with you is the most fun is when there are other drivers, not just you driving by yourself. Because in some instances, you’re the stunt driver. Everyone’s like ooh stunt driver. Yet you’re off by yourself. There’s no one else willing to talk to you about it. I remember once I was driving a vehicle like an SUV, black SUV. The sinister black SUV. And we were chasing a car and we had some of our team in motorcycles and we were weaving in and out of each other and stuff. That was so much fun because we have some we could just hang out, talk, and everything. It’s different when you’re actually doing it. And all the people that were part of that are professional stunt performers. We all have other skills. No one just does professional stunt driving.
Tip 4 on how to become a professional stunt driver: Marketing Yourself.
You’re actually going to invest about 80% of your time hustling for gigs and the other 20% is actually working. That’s how it works. And different people might get different numbers yet it’s about the same. You’re going to always spend more time getting work trying to get work than the actually working. Over time, it’ll become easier. Those numbers might switch where it’s 50/50. There you may have runs where it’s 80% of time you’re working, in 20% you’re getting gig. That’s when you really have done your market correctly. Yet just to know you should have professional business card for as a professional stunt driver. You definitely want to have a website and professional email address with your name. so, what you want to do is go in and reserve the domain name. that’s your name. Like my name is Dillon Wilson. So, I have dillonwilson.com is the one of the domain names I reserve. And that way, that’s my website and then my email address would be theoretically, it could be your name. Like your name is, let say Dillon Wilson. So, dillonwilson.com.
We’ll say my email address is Dillon@dillonwilson {dot com] And so, that’s on the business cards. And this makes you look more professional than just having a free email account. Plus, it’s secure. It’s less likely that yourself is going to go to spam. Other people’s information is going to go to spam. When you get emails and things. And it’s better from a branding perspective because you want people to remember your name and remember you. Now, A LOT of getting work in the stunt business, repeat after me ‘Relationship Building’. One more time. A LOT of getting work in the stunt business is relationship building. So very important. It will be a response more. It will get more jobs or be responsible for getting you more jobs. Anything else are the relationships that you actually built. Now, how to actually market yourself to grow your career can be a class in and of itself which every even experienced stunt performer is a class they should all be taking and they would gladly take.
Yet that’s something that we cover in our ‘How To become A stunt Performer ONLINE course’ which you could enrolls in right now. And in that course, we cover a PROVEN step by step marketing plan to help grow your career from day 1 and last for years even to the point where you don’t even age out from the business which you do. I mean men age out at one age and women age on another and we have another a blog post of website where we cover that. So, it’s very common. Everything this this is from finding stunt coordinators, producers, directors, filmmakers, how to reach out to them, what to say, how to get referrals, very important, generate gigs from social media platforms and more. It’s when you have all these different things going for you, you just have the aggregate overall effect if you have consistent work coming in. Most other performers don’t know all this. They get a few things, that’s what they do and it’s enough to grow a career, usually a part-time career. When you have a well-designed marketing plan, most of which is free just knowing what to do, you have gigs and stuff coming in consistently.
Just go to PROStuntTraining.com for more information. What we will do in this blog post is we’re going to leave you with a more commonly known strategy and that is actually connecting or contacting stunt coordinators because that’s definitely one of the things you want to be doing. There’s a lot more. It’s not just something simple we can just say, hey do.. this.. that.. and the other.. then bam! So, yet to get you started, at least you have some idea to wrap your mind around how it works. So, what you do is when you get to have a stunt coordinator’s contact information. There are different ways of getting that. Here’s an email that you can send to them. That’s the best way to do it. Just reaching out could the subject lines. There’s bunch of different things you can do and you say,
Hi! My name is Dillon Wilson.
I’m a professional stunt driver and stunt performer for TV, film, and live entertainment.
This is the message in the email that we’re sharing with you:
Hi! My name is Dillon Wilson.
(Obviously your name you put in there. You can put my name and contact me get me the gig. NO, you put your name in there.)
I’m a professional stunt driver and stunt performer for TV, film, and live entertainment. (Don’t forget the live entertainment. You know the theme parks and live shows and things they want stuff professional stunt drivers as well)
My resume, demo reels, and headshot can be seen at my website. (If you don’t have a website, you can just say)
My resume demo, reels, and headshot are attached to this email.
(Just put the links and stuff. Attach the resume there. Put the links to your demo reels. Upload the demo reels to one of the video sharing platforms like YouTube or Vimeo. Do not send a video file. And a lot of the newer people do this. We’re not going to read them. We don’t want to download your virus infected video files onto our computer or phone. And some people do that. If I guess you’re too lazy to put it on YouTube and they’ll just keep it in their phone and just like, what are you doing? I’m not going to download your video and then watch it. So, make sure you’ve uploaded to YouTube. You can set it to unlisted if you don’t want wish other people to see it. And then that’s what you include in the body of email itself. So, you attach the resume, the headshots – those are your pictures, and put the links in to your video. Then we continue.)
I specialize in stunt/precision driving.
(We won’t get into precision driving. It’s still under stunt driving)
I specialize in stunt/precision driving but I’m also familiar with fight choreography, falls, air ram, ratchet, and action acting. (You can even include if you’re union or nonunion) I’m also union (Or I’m nonunion. Say it. Be upfront with it. And let them know what you are doing.)
Please keep me in mind as you book gigs that may require additional drivers or performers. I’m local to the XYZ area, yet am willing to travel.
Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions you may have. I hope to hear from you soon.
Now, you send this to stunt coordinators and they’ll respond to you. Especially, send it to a bunch of. What’s really going to do it is you’re real and especially if you look like an actor that you can stunt double, that really helps. There’s some actor out there and again we cover this in the other course that we referenced earlier. If there’s actors that you look like, you always won’t be mentioning that. One of our team and a buddy of mine, looks like a bunch of different actors. He gets a bunch of work stunt doubling. All kinds of stuff, I mean like really good money doing nothing. Literally sitting in a car all day because the actor doesn’t feel like sitting in the car said stunt double comes before. So, if you look like an actor that you can stunt double or something, include this in the email as well. And they’ll respond to you. They’ll say, hey listen, I actually have something coming up. I did a nonunion project. They’re looking for somebody. Or I got a project coming up. Maybe we’ll talk sometime next week. Stay in touch with me, something like that. And now, you’re on your way. It can be that simple. And many people get their start doing just that.
Now, if you like a copy of the actual email to send to stunt coordinators, contact us on our website and we’ll send it to you free of charge to help you. There’s no charge. Our main thing is it can be challenging enough getting started in the business and we’re more than happy to lend a hand. We don’t think of it as paying forward. We think of just investing. Reinvesting. People were there for us to help us and we make sure we’re there for others as well. So, if you’d like to have a copy of the email message that we shared with you, go to our website and remember don’t call us on the phone. Send us a message through the website forms and we’ll more than happy to send you that email for free. And you can reach out to stunt coordinator on your own and start booking gigs.
Alright! So, that’s pretty much everything for today. If you have any questions about how to become a stunt driver, stunt driving lessons or anything else that we covered today, post them in the comments below or contact us via our website like we mention before. Also, make sure to also sign up for our email newsletter to get PRO stunt tips in your inbox.
Lastly, if you’d like more information on our highly popular PRO stunt training classes, go to PROStuntTraining.com or click on the link below this video.
You can also find helpful info at our blog:
https://cbtstunts.com/category/stunt-training-tips/
Again, my name is Dillon Wilson with C.B.T. Stunt Alliance. Train hard…perform easy.
Don’t miss our next video where we share another PRO stunt training tip for actors, stunt performers and filmmakers. See you next video!
How to become a stunt driver, stunt driving lessons, professional stunt drivers.
Frequently Asked Questions about
Professional Stunt Drivers
Q: When becoming a stunt driver, does it take a long time?
A: It doesn’t take long to complete your training. Yet building a career takes time. How determined and focused you are will influence that.
Q: How much do stunt driving lessons coast?
A: Many of the big name schools charge anywhere from $2,200 to $4,000 for their courses. Yet private instructor charge a lot less.
Q: Is there a lot of competition among professional stunt drivers?
A: Yes. Because SO MANY people have taken stunt driving training. However, most of them do NOT practice. So the better you are with your skills the more you will stand out.
Q: Is there a lot of work for professionals stunt drivers?
A: Yes. MANY, many projects need car stunts performed for them. Though many stunt driver gigs are not the amazing, exciting stunt you see in the movies.