Ben Cooke - Stunt Coordinator, 2nd Unit Director

Team Deakins

James Ellis Deakins

Tv & Film, Filmlighting, Deakins, Movies, Filmmaking, Production, Film, Cinematography, Film Interviews

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2021

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

EPISODE 96 - BEN COOKE - Stunt Coordinator, 2nd Unit Director

Team Deakins looks into the world of movie stunts with Stunt Coordinator and 2nd Unit Director, Ben Cooke (MULAN, 1917, SKYFALL, CASINO ROYALE). We learn about the different areas of stunt work and the different experiences of being a stunt double or a stunt coordinator on a film. He talks about his experience of stunt doubling Daniel Craig in the Bond movies and tells us all about the huge stunt in Quantum of Solace and how learned he was doing it just the day before. We also talk about the stunts in Snow White and the Huntsman. Other areas we covered were working with locals in a large stunt sequence, the most undervalued aspects of a stunt job, dealing with an actor who wants to do all his own stunts, and creating stunts that fit into the tone of the movie. As he was the stunt coordinator on the film 1917, we dived into that experience in detail. We learned a lot about this area of filmmaking in this episode - don’t miss it!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to the Team Deakin's podcast. This podcast is a dialogue between Roger and
0:10.9	James Deakin's often joined in the conversation by a guest. It's very informal and we never
0:17.4	know where it will go. We're connecting through Zoom so bear that in mind when you hear
0:22.5	the audio. If you'd like to submit a question or topic, please do so by e-mailing pod
0:29.8	p-o-d at RogerDeakin's.com. This episode is sponsored by Ari. More than just the manufacturer
0:39.0	of the film industry's top camera and lighting equipment, they are also the innovator behind
0:44.6	cinematic lenses such as the master prime and signature prime lenses. Ari, truly cinematic.
0:53.1	This episode of the Team Deakin's podcast supported by Company 3, the world's leading post
0:59.2	production group dedicated to collaborating with both emerging and established filmmakers.
1:07.7	Today we're talking with a stunt coordinator. We had the pleasure of working with him on
1:12.3	Skyfall in 1917. His list of credits is long including Snow White and the Huntsman, Fury,
1:20.1	Jupiter Ascending, Thor and Mulan. We're happy to have Ben Cook with us today. Thank you, Ben,
1:27.2	for doing this. Thank you for having me. Wonderful honor to be here. We'd like to start with
1:33.6	how you got to where you are today. Is it something you always knew you wanted to do as a child
1:39.4	where you're jumping off roofs and running into walls? Was this just a natural inclination for you?
1:45.2	Do tell us. Not really, but from a little boy I was kind of a keen advert, martial arts advocate.
1:53.1	I started training in New Zealand from like about eight years old and I used to kind of get
1:59.3	myself jeered up watching Hong Kong cinema and that sort of stuff and you know back in the day.
2:05.2	And I then went through a phase, you know, I took it quite seriously and it was all I thought
2:10.8	about every weekend, after school every night, all that sort of stuff. I started to compete quite a
2:17.2	lot and this was sort of from maybe I competed for about sort of 10 years from 15 years old to 25
2:27.0	and I was competing in a tournament and a stunt coordinator, kind of the guy, the main guy in
	...

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