Winners and Nominees 2023

This is the final battle between Six and Lloyd. All stunts were performed practically. The scene included an even mix between cast and stunt doubles performing fight actions. All effects were in camera including the breakaway urn.

The Fanny Pack Fight: Wires were used for the hand pull into the cubicles. Everything else was practical. No CGI other than the wire removal for that one gag. Stunt performers were cast in all roles except the lead actor role and the performers were doing their own fights and stunts. No CGI or face replacement was used. The sequence was rehearsed for a week and the fight was filmed completely in one day.

Maula and Noori fight with several kinds of weapons. On the close ups, the actors were performing facing the other stunt double, and the wide angles were performed by both stunt doubles. The shoot took two weeks to coordinate and rehearse and one week to shoot. The weapon work was very precise and required many hours of rehearsal and skill on the part of the stunt performers. There was no use of wires or CGI.

The lead actor gets trapped in a prison cubicle and must fight to survive.

For the opening scene of the film, three rock climbing specialists scaled The Bighorn Wall in the Sierra Nevada’s. At an elevation of 7600ft, the climbers traditionally scaled routes up to 5.13b, placing their own protection along the way and climbing slabs of near-sheer granite. Conditions during filming were challenging with snow & winds gusting to 65mph.

The stunt doubles perform a dive from a 27-meter-high platform into the sea while jumping over a 5-meter-long rock that lay underneath the platform. The performers did two different jumps in two different costumes. No rigging was used while performing the stunt, no CGI was used. The entire dive was done by stunt doubles.

Two skydivers exit a twin otter aircraft wearing an additional tertiary harness with an intentionally malfunctioning high-performance parachute. The pack jobs were designed for the parachute to open partially so they would spin and flail for a violent descent. Both performers rode the malfunction for 4000ft of descent, then at a set altitude, had to release the malfunctioned parachute and restart a ‘normal’ opening sequence to land safely. Everything was performed practically with the videographer capturing footage in a free fall or under canopy. Performers had to drill alternate emergency procedures due to the addition of the third parachute. Death or catastrophic injury would occur if handles were pulled out of sequence. No CGI was used, all practical skydives.

In under the span of fifteen seconds, three consecutive height-involving stunts were performed, with each being different, yet equally high quality. One stunt performer leapt from a house’s second story balcony with the camera operator also following him down for the drop. They were immediately tailed by two other stunt performers who performed high-falls involving a rapid front flip and a vampire-like landing position that resembles a scorpion. These jumps and landings were only achievable by a performer with elite contortionist ability.

Stunt sequence was performed on a series of robotic Kuka arms with boxes attached to create the illusion they are trailing behind a C17 aircraft. The Kuka arms were constantly moving and would spin the boxes for certain action pieces. They were set anywhere from 5ft to 40ft above the ground. The sequence involved the performers transferring by jumping from box to box, running across, climbing on, hanging off and falling/chipping off the boxes while at the same time fighting each other. There was a rigging grid set up to accommodate this large performance area. Wires were used to assist performers making these movements, ranging from wire pulls to assist the jumps, tracks to allow travel across the boxes and gold tails for falling down the boxes. These rigs allowed the main actor to perform most of this physical sequence and took considerable rehearsal. Filming took six weeks. The winch system not only controlled the movement of the performer, but also moved the performer through the space in between 100’s of light cables. The performer needed to be in sync with the winch positioning throughout the entire move. A cable cam winch system was also rigged to capture the sequence.

This scene involves a gunfight between two assassins, while an innocent bystander gets thrown over a rail on the 9th floor. This sequence was real. It was shot in a government building in Toronto. The building offered an open lobby that had an approximately 160-foot-high ceiling. It was a difficult venue to work in because the team had to set lines and points where needed as well as create a flexible high line system that could get an engineering stamp as well as government approval. All filming needed to be done at night because it was a functioning building during the day. A large majority of the work was done at the 50′ – 130’ foot level and went from that height all the way to the ground as the cat and mouse type fight progressed. Combinations of computer winches, descenders and decelerators were used. The performers, riggers, and camera operators all engaged at these dangerous heights. A manned camera was used to capture the energy of handheld in the space.

Our heroes are in a truck, being chased through the woods by soldiers flying on hoverboards. Three 600′ runs were rigged through the forest to fly soldiers and camera. Approx. 90% of the sequence was shot practically. The performers flew up to 55′ per second through trees that were spread out only 5′ apart.

Eight “Dora” bodyguards are belayed down the vertical side of a large ship and engage in a massive battle. This sequence was filmed on the side of a container 48 feet high. Wires were used to control the Dora descending and climbing. Boards and winches were used for the blue people climbing up the wall. Many moving parts were used to complete this sequence and we did almost every move practically. VFX sped up a few of the shots including the Dora and Blue People. And VFX was used to create the Black Panther moving quickly around the side of the ship.

This scene involves a huge metro tram in the city of Prague with multiple vehicles attacking the tram from the outside. On the interior of the tram there is also a fight going on with everyone is trying to kill the Gray Man. CGI was used to add background trams. At the end of the sequence the tram crashes – the first part of the crash was real, then CGI was used for the tram turning over and then the tram sliding across the street and into the patio cafe was real. The leap from the Tram to the car was real. 95% of the chase involving the tram was real.

Hero Bud, the vampire slayer, is driving a beaten-up pickup truck while being chased by a team of vampires in two dodge chargers, a trophy truck, and many motorcycles. Throughout the chase all the vehicles evade other traffic, drift multiple corners, jump through, jumping over and crashing into multiple obstacles. These obstacles include fences, walls, and other vehicles. Covering the chase included using complicated camera maneuvers where the camera was mounted to high-speed drones that wove through the action.

The hero, Alban, has equipped his car with an electric harpoon. He uses this harpoon to get rid of his assailants. The shoot includes three cars that were embedded by the harpoon causing them to explode one by one at 32,000 feet from the ground. One falls on him. The sequence consisted of teamwork between the SFX team and the stunt team. The 3-villain black Renault Megane were mounted with SFX canons. The scope of work was to front flip the stunt performer driven Renault #1, blast the non-driven, stunt performer operated, remote controlled Renault #2 and blast the non-driven, remote control operated Renault #3 over the hero car to make it land on the back of the hero vehicle. Visual effects were used only to erase the SFX devices (canon) that could be seen once being fired, and to create the visual electric arc of the harpoons. No visual effects used to enhance the action. The sequence was shot using static cameras, drones, and Russian arm vehicle. For actor shots, a specific vehicle (GOMOBIL) was built and used to implement the actors in the sequence. (No green screen used). All the sequences showing the actors involved were shot live in one day.

The Carriage Chase: an escape from prison leads to a high-speed horse and carriage chase. The chase starts with the police chasing the heroes. They almost catch them until a smoke grenade is thrown. It was shot in a limited part of a forest over seven days and incorporated various techniques such as first-person view drone, horse to horse with remote head, tracking vehicle, a quad, camera bikes, sliders on carriages and handheld cameras. The carriages were engineered to have metal wheels with disc brakes so they could slide around corners. There was a ‘blind’ driver inside the carriage. It was shot while going between 18 and 28 mph which was the maximum limit of the carriage speed. The carriage had green crash bars placed on the sides as they were being banged together for real and the wheels couldn’t be damaged. The bars were removed in post. A mixture of mechanical towed horse was used for the actor and real horse which was ridden by the stunt double. An SFX wheel was used that gets destroyed and veers then off into the woods. There was a ski on a hydraulic leg so as soon as the stunt performer threw the post into the wheel it was destroyed and the SFX team lowered the keg tog giving the impression the carriage was tipping. At the end of the scene the carriage veers out of control and just before a crash the performer releases the horses and jumps off the carriage, which was now on a rail system that travelled forwards then tipped and swung sideways coming to a halt. We had a stunt performer jump from this onto the forest floor. We did it all for real and the only CGI used in the scene was the carriage wheel creation and green crash bars removal. The interior with the actors was shot on main unit with the director.

Two skydivers exit a twin otter aircraft wearing an additional tertiary harness with an intentionally malfunctioning high-performance parachute.  The pack jobs were designed for the parachute to open partially so they would spin and flail for a violent descent. Both performers rode the malfunction for 4000ft of descent, then at a set altitude, had to release the malfunctioned parachute and restart a ‘normal’ opening sequence to land safely. Everything was performed practically with the videographer capturing footage in a free fall or under canopy. Performers had to drill alternate emergency procedures due to the addition of the third parachute. Death or catastrophic injury would occur if handles were pulled out of sequence. No CGI was used, all practical skydives.

The Firestarter, Charlie, makes her way through the secret government facility blazing everyone in her path. Stunt doubles perform a very dangerous full body burn that completely engulfs them. The performer stands motionless for 18 seconds fully engulfed. Charlie continues down a hallway torching the heads of a swat guard. She makes her way into a concrete room where five military contractors confront her. An 80ft flame thrower fills the room, spraying everyone in front of her. Heat temperatures hit 800 degrees and was completed in five takes. A military grade flame thrower was used and purchased from the military. Because the fire suits worn by the stunt performers were not designed to take hits from a military grade flamethrower, specialized undergarments and additional gel and air assist also had to be used by each performer. No CGI was used.

For the opening scene of the film, three rock climbing specialists scaled The Bighorn Wall in the Sierra Nevada’s. At an elevation of 7600ft, the climbers traditionally scaled routes up to 5.13b, placing their own protection along the way and climbing slabs of near-sheer granite. Conditions during filming were challenging with snow & winds gusting to 65mph.

Cat woman jumps on her motorcycle, knocks a performer over, does a 360 spin around the performer who is now on the ground while at the same time grabbing a bag. This was all executed while under large amounts of SFX rain. No CGI or wires were used to enhance this sequence.

Our heroes are in a truck, being chased through the woods by soldiers flying on hoverboards. Three 600′ runs were rigged through the forest to fly soldiers and camera. Approx. 90% of the sequence was shot practically. The performers flew up to 55′ per second through trees that were spread out only 5′ apart.

Bike Stair Fall: The Hero character pulls a rider off the bike and then the stunt performer gets on and rides the bike through two crowded alley ways narrowly missing a falling light fixture and exiting onto a footpath. As she does this, she passes a staircase, her bike gets shot and she falls off and goes flying down the stairs. The stairs were concrete with metal trim. The first few steps were rubberized and there was a tether on the bike so it couldn’t land on top of her. Stunt performer did multiple takes. There were approx. 30 steps. After falling down the stairs the performer then immediately gets up in the same shot and runs to the subway.

A red Audi chases a speeding tram through the city of Prague. The car is shot at and swerves around exploding cars, bullets, and fireballs. The Audi evades other exploding cars and drives underneath a car that flips over it. When the car gets next to the speeding tram to save Gray Man the scene requires that the driver must work in concert with the actor to kill the bad guys coming from all sides. The Gray Man climbs on the roof of the tram and runs as car stays alongside him. As the tram crashes and flips over, the driver places the car alongside the tram so the Gray Man can land on the hood safely. The whole sequence was practical even when the tram jumps the tracks and turns over. The jump onto the hood was done on a sound stage but it was also shot as an overlap with the double on the hood and the stunt driver hitting a mini ramp with him on the hood to simulate the impact of the jump.

Cat woman jumps on her motorcycle, knocks a performer over, does a 360 spin around the performer who is now on the ground while at the same time grabbing a bag. This was all executed while under large amounts of SFX rain. No CGI or wires were used to enhance this sequence.

Two brothers have a fight and then one brother hits the other with a car. No wires were used.

Flying Deadman: Stuntman takes out two vamps as one jumps off a table towards him. No CGI was used.

Jack is hit by a car while running to Nellie’s aid. No CGI or wires were used.

Motorcycle comes to a sudden stop by an electrical field deployed by an Alien Spacecraft. To affect a sudden stop by an electric field an electric motorcycle was flying down a dirt road at 45 MPH. The front wheel was driven into a ditch and rock that stopped it immediately. The stuntman flew airborne for about 50 feet before hitting the hard dirt road and tumbling to a stop. A one-inch pad was used on the ground.