Remember, a fall from 6 ft. 6 in. can be fatal or crippling. If you set up the landing zone and screw it up, you can be held personally liable, both civilly and criminally. Don't take the risk. Hire a professional.
It's actually a lot worse than that CDub. According to
OSHA records of workplace falls,
80% of falls from above 6 feet ARE FATAL.
You need a stunt or fight coordinator with proper equipment to do this safely or you should not do it at all.
There is some content in the above posts that has been deleted because it skates too close to the
edge of our TOS. The posts suggested talking to someone trained in a similar activity to get help with this stunt fall. This is a VERY DANGEROUS IDEA. The person suggested is an expert in that activity,
not in planning a
stage fall from a height. The two may be similar but they are NOT the same. Somewhere along the way that person is going to have to make
a guess on how to do it right. If that guess is wrong, according to
OSHA, 20% of the time the actor will live. That's slightly better odds than Russian Roulette with 5 bullets in the gun!
Did you read
the thread about the young woman who died in December doing a flying stunt in a church Christmas Show? She was an expert rock climber and therefore believed she could be an expert at flying people on
stage too. They are similar disciplines but
not the same. The reason she fell would have not happened if she was wearing the correct harness and had a backup
line. That's two things any
stage flight professional would have never allowed on
stage, but are considered acceptable in rock climbing. That's two experts. Different standards of what is "safe".
In the case of any sort of height related work the CB motto is: "Hire a REAL expert or don't do it"
. The standard response from many school or community theater programs is, "but we can't afford to hire a professional so we'll fudge a little." I know, I admit I did it myself while teaching high school.
It's amazing how little value we place on the
safety of student actors
and technicians. There's no way that the Actor's Equity union would allow an adult to do what you have described without extensive training and supervision by a stunt expert. The list of actors injured or killed because they didn't use proper
safety techniques is endless. Every year there are probably a half a dozen dead. Don't be a statistic!
I'm closing this thread because as it has gone on several posts started dancing way too close to the
edge with some dangerous ideas. PLEASE hire a professional or don't do the stunt! If you feel the need to discuss this further please
send a P.M. to myself or anyone on the CB Senior Team or any CB Mod.
EDIT: I received a suggestion via PM that you should be able to contact your local branch of Actor's Equity for a list of stunt experts in your area who can help you do this safely.
