Advice for those looking to book Stunt Experiences/Courses

Within the UK, any company / individual can set up stunt courses/Experience’s and they can be taught by just about anybody who 'claims' to have stunt experience. There is no law in place to stop inexperienced individuals or people who are not even on the stunt register offering and instructing these stunt services, which, in the wrong hands, can be potentially dangerous, and life threatening.

There is no recognised stunt qualification outside the JISC Stunt Register in place to teach stunts to general members of the public so if you want learn how to do professional stunts like high falls, wire flying, combat, fire work, car knockdowns, please make sure you are in the hands of a total professional who is a current FULL member of the JISC Stunt Register.

Instructors – what to insist on

The workings of the stunt industry are not widely known to the general public and because of this, some of these inexperienced instructors / companies play on peoples lack of knowledge to their advantage; remember that knowledge is the best tool to keep you safe.

When booking any Stunt Experience/Course the instructor should currently be on the JISC Stunt Register AND a FULL member (Stunt Co-ordinator). A full member means that they have a minimum of 7 years work experience with stunts on productions and are full Stunt Co-ordinators; therefore they are qualified and experienced to set up and co-ordinate dangerous stunts for others and themselves effectively and safely.

Be warned, there are some companies offering instructors who are inexperienced and not FULL members of the register (Stunt Co-ordinators) as instructors. Please note that probationary / intermediate members of the stunt register are not allowed to set up stunts for other people on any production so they should not be setting up stunts for members of the public.

If you want to learn how to do stunts safely, you should be in the hands of an experienced, currently working Professional Stunt Co-ordinator.

What proof of the instructor’s skills / experience should I insist on?

Any company offering credible Stunt Experiences/Courses should be able to send a copy of their instructor’s page in the 'Official Stunt Register book'. This book is a list of everyone who are currently on the Stunt Register and it also categorises them into ‘Probationary, Intermediate and Full members’ we strongly advise only the use of companies with instructors who are full members of the Stunt Register.

In many cases we have found that companies have told people that even though their instructors are not on the register, they are still professional stunt performers. We would like to clear this up. Production companies only employ stunt performers from the stunt register so the ONLY PROFESSIONAL STUNT PERFORMERS ARE ON THE REGISTER.

We strongly advise you to ask for the instructor’s page in the Stunt Register Book to be emailed or faxed over to you before you book any experience/course.

Also a good place for checking out instructors experience is IMBD.

Remember, the more professional & experienced your instructor is, the safer you will be.