Rolling WithThe Punches in "Savage Instinct" part 3

During my next three days on location in the Santa Cruz mountains, I was called on to tackle alot of semi-stunt driving. My stunt double had a full beard (I don't) and was about 50 pounds heavier than me. This meant I had to do all my own midrange and close-up work in the car. In fact, the only shot where I wasn't behind the wheel was where you see our vehicle drive off and roll down a hillside. If you freeze the frame on that shot, his beard can be seen. This shot had to be captured in one take since it pretty much destroyed the car. I'm happy to say, the stunt guy did everything right and was able to crawl out and walk away from the scene unharmed. Now you know why it didn't matter that I had put a small dent in the side during the shooting of an earlier scene.

Patrick Donahue hired some of the best stunt people in northern California (including his son, Mike Donahue) to work on the film. While they performed the more potentially dangerous physical feats (jumping out of windows, dodging cars, ect.) in the long shots, Debra Sweaney, Brian Oldfield (the 1972 Olympic shot-put champion), Sean P. Donahue, and myself did all the close-up work. This meant getting quite a workout crawling, running, fighting and taking pratfalls (falling down). In fact, Savage Instinct was shot in a way much like the action films of Hong Kong (cheaply & fast). I'm no Jackie Chan but I gave it all I could.

My final afternoon on the set was at a San Jose kiwi farm, where I spent most of the day falling out of a closet over and over again so the cameraman (DP) Mike Pierce could capture the scene from every angle imaginable. I must have fell at least 30 times. I'm happy to say I walked away with only a badly bruised rib, thanks to some valuable words of wisdom from the stunt crew, "Always insist on padding." Considering all the car crashes, falling, and staged fights, it's amazing we wrapped without anyone getting seriously hurt.

The movie was picked up by a major distribution company and has played in US and foriegn theaters, late night cable, and can now be rented at many video stores. Since its release Pat Donahue has gone on to produce several more of these quickly knocked out action, adventure epics with the help of his sons.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic