Stunt and Fight Skills
Credits
Equipment List
Background
Articles
FAQs
Gallery
Hall of Fame
Auditions & Workshops & News
Recommended
Links
Recommended Reading
Recommended Viewing
Post: PO Box 47178, Camp Street, Trentham, 5143,Upper Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand. Mobile: 021-167-1837
Before emailing me: if you want to become a
stuntperson,
have a good read of the Workshops, FAQs,
Recommended Reading, Recommended
Links and Recommended Viewing sections
of
this site first! Most everything you can ask is answered in those areas
of this site. I also strongly recommend reading
Inside Stunts magazine
and watching the Double Dare documentary on DVD.
2012 Workshops
Prop guns, daggers, swords,
etc. for hire at the Equipment page.
Skills
Fights and fight choreography
All types of fight scenes e.g.
unarmed street fighting and brawls. Experienced in the use of medieval
swords, sword and shield, rapier, quarter staff, nunchakus, baseball
bats,
axes, etc. Fights for live shows include the following themes: western
or cowboy, martial arts, wrestling, medieval sword fights, pirate sword
fights, and Three Musketeers sword fights.
Falls
Falls down stairs, crashing
through
windows, leaping off buildings, climbing high structures, bicycle and
skateboard
crashes, etc.
Fire
Partial and three-quarter fire
stunts (without breathing gear).
Cars/Vehicles
All types of car stunts. Riding
on roofs, clinging onto bonnets, jumping out of cars, being hit by
cars,
etc. Also car crashes, rolls, chases, etc. Fight scenes on, falls from,
and transfers to/from boats, trains, etc.
Other
Skateboarding, juggling, actor
tuition (basic gymnastics, falls, fights), First Aid.
Credits
(NB: Stunt performer or stunt
double
on all film/TV/video credits except LOTR, Chicken, Facelift, Atlantis
High,
and the Enid Blyton Adventure Series)
TV
Sensing Murder
Man's Work (stunt coordinator,
fight choreographer, location scout)
Seven Periods With Mr
Gormsby
Hercules (2004)
Facelift (fight choreographer)
Atlantis High (fight
choreographer)
The Tribe (fight choreographer)
The Semisis
Crimewatch
Forgotten Silver
Enid Blyton Adventure Series
("Sea
of Adventure") (fight choreographer)
Typhon's People (stunt
coordinator)
Shark In The Park
Short Films
Sean's Big Send
Off
Stupid Cupid
Waiting For Gordy
TVCs
Mizone drink ("Applause")
Primo drink ("Skateboarding" x
2)
Land Transport Safety Authority
("Rural Bus Stop")
Panasonic Cordless Phone ("House
on Cliff")
Woolworth's ("Fresh Fish")
Video
St. John's First Aid video series
(stunt coordinator)
Music video "Tag Along" by Simon
Raby (stunt coordinator)
Charity
Telethon
Cloud 9 Charity Open Day
Royal New Zealand Ballet Fund
Raising
Event Night
Equipment
Medieval swords, rapiers, battle
axes, staffs, nunchakus, bull whip, etc. Trampoline, mini trampoline,
gymnastic
mats and pads, fire extinguishers, back protectors, body padding,
juggling
balls and clubs, fire staffs, fire poi, etc. I have a wide range of
prop
weapons (daggers, swords, axes, sledgehammers, etc.) available for
hire.
They are a mixture of real metal with blunt edges, painted wood or
plastic,
painted foam, or painted rubber prop weapons. Click
here for more details.
Background
Peter developed an interest in
stunt work when a teenager. He answered a classified newspaper ad for
stuntmen
and women in 1979. Peter was trained in the techniques of car stunts
and
fight scenes, then let loose on the live show circuit as a member of
the
Los Angeles Hell Drivers stunt team. None of the team were American. A
couple of years later Peter learnt the basic techniques of fire stunts
from a fellow stuntman. He also worked for the L. A. Hell Drivers stunt
team (none of them were American, either!).
After moving from Auckland to Wellington in 1989, he broke into doing stunt work for the local television and film industry. His first job was for a Woolworth's commercial about fresh fish - Peter doubled an actor who wasn't too keen on the idea of being hit by hundreds of gallons of water from a big dump tank. Since then Peter has performed and coordinated numerous stunts. On the TV series Crimewatch he has portrayed a drug addict who accidentally set himself on fire, and a heroic man who leapt on a stolen car's bonnet and was taken for a wild ride.
In Peter Jackson's feature Braindead (a.k.a. Dead Alive), as well as being the film's stunt coordinator Peter personally performed numerous stunts such as falling down stairs and crashing through windows. When the zombie mother does a stunt alone it is Peter; when the mother and son are doing a stunt, Tony Wolf plays the mother and Peter plays the son. Peter met stage combatant Tony Wolf shortly before getting the stunt coordinator job on Braindead. They worked together with kick boxer Damon de Berry to create the kung fu priest vs. zombie bikers cemetery fight scene. Peter and Tony doubled for zombies, and Damon doubled for the priest. The actors also did a fair bit of their own fighting.
In addition to his film and TV industry work, Peter has performed over 250 sword and staff fights and more than 50 fire stunts for live shows. He regularly teaches stage combat classes and workshops, and trains actors to do fights and falls.
Most recently Peter has performed live shows for the Festival of the Arts and worked on a reality TV series called Real Work teaching presenter Ashley Haymes how to be a stuntman!
Warning
The information on this site is not intended to be an instruction manual. Any individual reading information at this site should only attempt to do stunts with the assistance of an experienced stunt person. Stunts can be very dangerous. Even professional stunt people working on movies and TV shows have been seriously injured or killed. A link to a site from here is not a recommendation or endorsement for the reliability or safety of the information, equipment or training there. Individuals must use their own judgement when seeking training or equipment.
Thanks to: Vince Martin-Smith and Peter Cook for photographing my exploits, Hamish Rose for technical advice and inspiration, Nigel Rowe for teaching a computer illiterate how to use Netscape Composer to create this site, Marc Angelo and Harley D'jekic for behind-the-scenes photos, and Basil Kananghinis for studio photography. Leon Shippam, Frank MacSkasy Jnr., and Stu Wilson for scanning photos. I am slowly adding all the book covers, etc. Stu has scanned to this site. Lastly, thanks to contributors who have given permission to use articles here: Rick Barker, Scott Rhodes, Manny Siverio, and Scott Witt.
All content on this site is Copyright 2000 - 2012 by Peter Hassall. Please ask permission before non commercial use. Commercial users should email me to negotiate an appropriate payment and credit before copying any material here. I encourage links to this site. Let me know you've linked to me and your site URL so that I can link back to you.
Articles
FAQs
Gallery
Hall of Fame
Auditions/News/Workshops
Recommended
Links
Recommended
Reading
Recommended
Viewing
Site History