Easy Pickins' NOT Easy Liftin' 

From Will Hartman

We had a challenging green screen sequence that involved hoisting an actor 30 feet in the air and keeping him there via wire-rigging.  We put a lot of pre-planning into this scene, working with a hollywood stunt man who had a body harness that would safely support the actor for as long as it took to get the shots we needed. On paper, everything looked great, and the actor was excited about doing the stunt.  

But when it came time for him to wear the harness and get pulled off the ground, we realized we'd made one minor miscalculation: those movie harnesses are built for actors the size of Tom Cruise and Orlando Bloom -- lightweight little fellas who can easily be flung through the air like Peter Pan.  For our actor,  6'2" and around 220 lbs. at the time, this harness was like wearing a girdle two sizes too small.  And when he was pulled off his feet  and gravity went to work on the straps digging into his stomach, well, let's just say he got a physical sensation akin to what a heretic on the rack probably experienced during Medieval times.  

To reduce any unnecessary "hang time," we built a 30' scaffold on wheels that the actor could rest on right up until it was time to shoot.  We also devised a "safety word" he could shout if the physical pain became too intense. I forget what the word was exactly, something like "broccoli".  But most takes we'd barely get the scaffold out of frame before "BROCCOLI!  BROCCOLI! BROCCOLI!" would resound through the room and we'd have to race it back under the tortured actor before he passed out. 

Eventually, and with much credit to the actor, who managed to use his very real physical distress to portray the character's dismay quite believably and comically, we were able to get the footage we needed.