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VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION – Stunt man and woman training tip two. How to perform the stunt known as the car hood slide. 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 stunt training to leverage in film, TV and live action entertainment performances.
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Now we get a lot of questions about how to get started as an action actor or stunt performer. So we’re gonna share a few things with you.
Last thing before we go to the training, the video instructionals in this free video series are actually taken from our online master course.
These are meant to be done after you perform the full -body warm -up, which we teach how to do in a master course.
Slide across car hood Tip 1:
So in today’s instructional video we’re going to cover how to perform the hood slide stunt.
Now the hood slide is a classic stunt that perfectly accentuates a lot of action sequences. You’ll see it used quite as much these days in film and TV. We suspect mainly because a lot of people just aren’t really aware of it, yet it adds a good amount of production value.
Again, it perfectly accentuates any type of action sequence, whether it’s a foot chase sequence, a fight sequence, it could be a shootout scene in the past, present, or future. You know, even if it could be, instead of sliding across the car, it could be sliding across a desk.
It’s the same technique. It also works in any genre as well. Let’s see the action in the following clip.
(Get down, get down, get down, get down, get down, get down. Open up, open up, I need the pressure.)
Now, before we move forward, we want to make sure that there’s no confusion with the footslide and the kong vault.
The kong vault is a hardcore free running technique. Let’s take a look at the kong vault in the following clip.
As you notice, the kong vault is a lot more aggressive, it looks much stronger, more powerful and informs the audience that the talent has practiced this move before.
Contrast that with the hood slide, we’re going to be just a regular everyday person who’s just really driven, you know, amped up on adrenaline and just refuses to stop. So be aware of this when if it’s your core, you’re coordinating a project, you’re putting together your own content about the choices that you’re making.
So if there’s someone who’s a military trained professional or some government assassin, the kong vault would be good for them. If it’s just an everyday person, like you saw in an earlier clip, who’s like, you know, the bad guy took their daughter or their son or something and they won’t be stopped, you know, the the slide, you know, puts the bill.
You usually will use the hood slide really a lot more than you use the kong vault. Okay, the first thing we always wish to start with is prepping the area as well as the vehicle. So the key thing is you actually want to walk all around the area that you’re going to be in from the places where you’re going to start running to where you’re actually going to land.
You’re searching when it clearly rocks, cardboard, paper, you know, pebbles, broken glass, anything like that, because those things will get in your way when you actually do this stuff. The next thing is actually prepping the vehicle itself.
And that means making sure there are no attachments or accessories on the vehicle that you can slide across. Sometimes you might be doing a hood slide on the trunk and out on the hood, right? And especially if it’s a period piece, they may have cars, the cars used to have older model cars used to have antennas in the front.
Right? So if there’s antennas or anything you want to have production, unscrew them so that you don’t have anything like that. The other thing is after you do that you make sure that the vehicle is clear and we’re going to come this more we get into the the steps and actually how to perform it.
Slide across a vehicle Fortnite
You want to know where you’re going to land all right? So we’re going to land right here in this spot and this is important because we want to make sure this is especially clear especially since you see a lot of grass and stuff here it’s easy for broken glass stones broken pieces of brick.
All types of stuff to be under the grass that you can’t see so you want to sit there and you want to check each portion of that and make sure the landing area is going to be clear and that includes like the entire area those are very important to make sure that the area is prepped properly. All right so last thing we’re going to cover is additional protection for the car.
So this is the kind of setup that we use we’re training actors usually actors to do hood slides contrary to what a lot of stunt performers believe many times most times production would rather have the actors do these type of of stunts instead of having a stunt double right? So you have to realize this is why it’s very good if you’re an action actor because you offer a lot more through production.
So what this setup is the thing to note is that the hood of a car can be easily dented you can just sit on a hood of a car and it can dent so imagine you leave it in the air landing on thing and sliding across it, it can mess it up and the key thing to understand is this if it’s a big enough production.
If they’ve rented a a picture car it’s less of a concern yet oftentimes with smaller budget projects especially smaller budget indie projects it’s someone’s car it’s like the producer’s car it’s the director’s car it’s the pa’s car is their buddy’s car right and so they don’t want the thing messed up.
So what we do is we’ll put a ferny pad or furniture mat down first this protects the paint and then we’ll put a stunt mat on top of it and while you’re practicing you do it like this you should be good right? When you’re actually smooth with a technique and you’re good uh right before they actually shoot the the actual action sequence then you take all this stuff off and you’re good to go yeah whenever you’re practicing and even if it’s in your own car right you don’t want to mess your own car up uh use this setup and it’ll it’ll work very well.
For you you don’t need the ferny pad it’s just an additional thing that we do just to protect the paint job because usually the stuntman has a cloth backing or something you gotta add a minimum you want to use this stuff in. All right so let’s
Let’s get to it. How do we do this? The hood slide. So there’s a couple of things to know. Here’s the thing about stunts, which a lot of people don’t realize until they start learning it. It’s so quick when we do it.
It’s like a couple of seconds if you saw an earlier demonstration, maybe like one, two seconds. Yet the preparation to be able to do it safely because you might be doing this for, you know, 12 takes or more, right?
Over and over again, in wardrobe, in, you know, flat soles shoes or barefoot or all types of stuff. And that’s a key thing is to be able to perform it, picture perfectly each and every time without injury, right?
So that’s why all this prep and all this other stuff is important. So the first thing to do is to make sure you have enough space from your starting point to run up to the vehicle. This isn’t enough space, right?
So you want to have enough space. If you don’t have enough space going that way, curve it around. Because if there’s a brick wall or something here, curve it around this way, because you see me going towards the end of the vehicle, because I can still run and do that, right?
You’ll understand that when you’re on set, you see the scenario. Just make sure whatever you do, you have enough space to actually do it and enough momentum. That’s a key thing. Ideally, if you have enough momentum, you can leap over the car without even touching, right?
Don’t push yourself to do that. Yet if you have enough momentum, you know, you could easily do it, especially if you just use just your hand, you wouldn’t even need it. So if you think about that, it makes it so much simpler.
All right, now, the second part of it is this, you have to know your marks. So the way we usually teach it, there are five marks. Every time when you perform a stunt, there’s always going to be marks involved, right?
Starsky and Hutch hood slide
Whether it’s a mini tramp, you know, or anything, there’s going to be an air ram or something that’s always going to be marked. With this one, there are five marks. And you have to know this before you do it.
This is the only way you’re able to perform the action sequence with a stunt consistently. So, what we know, since we’re going on this side, the right hand is going to be involved and that tells us kind of how we need to set our marks.
So the key thing is this. The first mark is going to be the right foot and you see how far away the right foot is from the vehicle. Mark number two is the left foot. You see how far the left foot is away from the vehicle.
Now the third mark is going to be the hand because now what we’re going to do is we’re going to push off the ground and our leg is going to be in the air like this. And our hand gonna touch the vehicle at roughly the base of the a pillar which is the a pillar of the vehicle so about right here. Now I’m gonna get on the car and we’re going to and I’m going to show you that all ties together.
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So regardless of what’s going on here I get there could be a foot chase going on I know approaching this vehicle that my right foot needs to hit right here next to this patch of grass and that’s number one or actually in front of the grass. This is number one, my left foot needs to hit next to that patch of grass number two and my right hand is gonna land here.
And my uh right calf the calf muscle the side of the calf muscle is going to land right here in the car right? Yet the weight transfers to the right hand then lowers down on the calf muscle, right? So the uh when that happens, when the weight lowers to the calf muscle that’s actually marked four, because you’re gonna slide across the hood of the car on your calf muscle, right?
And the fifth and final mark is when our feet come together and we land on the other side those are all five marks. I’m gonna show you all five now just so you understand what we’re gonna be doing. So this is one, two, three this is gonna be up four we slide across, we get to the side, the legs will come back together, feet touch the ground and we’re gonna do five.
So I’m gonna walk it out slowly running boom boom boom boom boom one two three you see that and you see I am here, so I’m actually sliding on my hip and my right calf muscle. When you’re sliding you want to keep your chest and your back perpendicular to the car that means it’s 90 degrees.
You don’t want to be doing this because you’ll slide out of control or your feet will go that when you and you get get caught on the car or you might fall back off. So make sure you stay perpendicular the other thing is keep your, your in this instance the left hand up it helps to balance you, it’s also when you’re running with a prop gun or prop sword or something.
This is what hand were carried in and so as we’re sliding across we get to the other side of the hood and at this point is mark number five and at this point our feet swing together like this and we land on both feet, very important you land on both feet you don’t break your ankles, you don’t sprain your ankles and you don’t strain your ankles, you don’t, you don’t all types of injuries you can get when you do stunts.
So okay I didn’t break my ankle, I didn’t sprain my ankle you telling me I strained my ankle, right? So don’t want to do that, so make sure you land, you land both feet on the ground it absorbs all that momentum because you’ll have a lot of it. And if you’re running and you have to continue running you take a single step, so those are the five marks.
And this one, once again we we’ll do it with a progression, right left see that? Very simple when you break it down to the steps, I’ll slow it down again and do it, one through five, I’m gonna walk it out, one two leap three four sliding across pivot five just like that. Now there is a variation instead of a five count there could be a four count and a four count is if we take the hand away, right? So instead of I’ll do the five count first with the hand and I’ll do the four count without the hand.
So here we’re running, right? That’s the five count, now we’ll do without the hand, you could have a carbine, a riffle, a sword, do the same thing very simple and that’s the hood slide. Now a couples things to know is a sixth step if that’s the hood slide finish which we’re gonna cover in the moment broken down step by step to ensure that you learn it safely,
Dukes of Hazzard hood slide
Now we’ll finish up by sharing a few bonus pro tips with you. And yet the key thing is to perfect the five steps first.
The other thing is I’m going to do it from the other side as well because we always teach all of our students to be ambidextrous. The action sequence may call for you leaping over the car, pursuing someone or leaping over the car and getting it to the passenger door.
Or it may call for you leaping over the car, getting a driver’s side and driving off. And now they’ve morphed a foot chase sequence into a car chase sequence. So I’m going to do the same stunt from the other side.
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You’ll see the hook slide coming from the other direction. And then we’ll take a break and review. One more time. And that’s it. It’s pretty simple when you break it down step by step. And you notice I could keep doing this all day without injury.
And the ground here is uneven. There are little pock marks in it. And so each time you land, the landing is not really the same for you. Landing on asphalt or something is different. Yet these surfaces are more risky.
All right. Stop the video now and give this a try. Remember to go slowly at first, right? And as you improve and get smoother, you can pick up the pace. Remember the old saying, slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
That’s what you want. So you want to go, you don’t think about going fast because believe me, especially on shoot day, you’re going to go plenty fast. You’re most likely to go too fast. So just think about doing it slowly and smoothly and you’ll have it.
So stop the video now and give this a try. Pro tip. So now we’re going to cover hood slide finish variations. Oh, the sixth and final step that makes the hood slide magical and pop. Because that’s the whole thing.
The hood slide by itself isn’t the most groundbreaking and exciting stunt. It’s usually added on to something to a foot chasing usually. And that’s what makes it exciting. Don’t just think of the most boring, traditional thing. There’s a bunch of stuff that you can do, right? Variations of the hood slide finish could be you do the slide and you keep on running. Another one is you do the hood slide and then you run and get to the passenger side door or the driver side door.
Even that could be like the cool way you get into it. Another way is you could just do the hood slide and take a knee behind the vehicle because people are shooting at you. You don’t have a gun. You just hide it, right?
Another way is there’s a gun fight. They’re chasing you, you’re running. You do the hood slide, take a knee behind a car and come up and return fire. And we’re gonna demonstrate each of those now and call it out as you see it.
We may mix up the order. We’re gonna demonstrate each of those now. Once you’re comfortable, you get a feel for it. You know, you can do this and you get a feel for it. That’s when you want to remove the protection for the car.
Sliding Across the Hood of a Car
The stunt mat comes off because you know now all the mechanics, you know where you’re gonna land and everything else. So go ahead and take everything off and you’re gonna do it live. On set, they’ve made this.
way for you to do this when they’re actually going to roll. If you’re practicing on your own, only take the protection of the vehicle off once you’re comfortable with it. So we’re going to go ahead and demonstrate that now.
All right with this knowledge, you can craft the perfect hood slide stunt for the project you’ve been cast for or that you’re producing. Make sure you like this video and smash that subscribe button so you don’t miss out on our future video series.
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Lastly, if you’d like more information on our highly popular online master course, the Stunt Performer Bootcamp, go to stuntperformerbootcamp.com or click on the link below this video. Prepare to have your mind blown.
Again, my name is Dillon Wilson with CBT Stunt Alliance. Train hard, perform easy. Don’t miss our next video. We share with you another professional stunt performer training tip. See you next video.
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