Interview with Stunt Performer, Stunt Coordinator, Actor and Filmmaker Tim McLachlan

Photos Courtesy of Tim McLachlan

In 2021, at Fighting Spirit Film Festival we screened ONE FIGHT FIVE TIMES, directed by Tim McLachlan. ONE FIGHT FIVE TIMES is an Action-Fantasy Short Film about two inter-dimensional warriors, played by Andrew Stehlin and Matt Bennett, who battle each other across five different timelines. McLachlan is a stunt performer, stunt coordinator, actor and filmmaker from New Zealand. ONE FIGHT FIVE TIMES is his latest short film, which is available to watch on YouTube.

Describe yourself in three fictional characters.

Mikey Walsh, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Roy Neary.

Can you tell us how you got your start in stunts? What was your training like?

I started training myself when I was a little kid ‘cause I really wanted to be a stuntman in the movies. Unlike most stunt people I didn’t have a background in martial arts or gymnastics or a similar such skill that would translate over into the stunt industry. Instead I focused purely on training myself specifically for movie stunts - so things like film fighting and selling, high falls, ground falls, stair falls, acrobatics, wire-rigging etc. All very DIY in my backyard kind of stuff.
What is your favourite stunt that you’ve ever done and what is the most complex stunt you’ve ever done?

One of the best stunts I ever did was for “Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers” where I fell from the top of the Helms Deep wall down onto a flight of stairs and then tumbled down the stairs directly past the camera at the bottom. Unfortunately they only show the first part of me falling onto the stairs in the film and then cut the actual stair fall. A lot of cool stunts ended up on the cutting room floor in those films as they were much more focused on the story side of things rather than the action. It was very disappointing and unfortunately 95% of the big-budget projects I’ve ever worked on have ended up the same way – stunts and fight sequences were either cut or they were filmed and edited badly.

I think my favourite stunt I ever did that made it into the film was for a “48 Hour Film” project back in 2003. I got shot off the top of a building then landed face-first on the roof below and then fell from there down onto the roof of a car and then off onto the concrete. That was pretty Jackie Chan-ish and is probably my best overall stunt.

As a stunt coordinator, how do you prepare for a film or TV series as a stunt coordinator?

Preparation basically involves reading the script, finding out what action is required, getting the best people for the job onboard, rehearsing the action, and then executing it on set in the safest manner possible.

When working on a project as a stunt coordinator, how do you work together with the director to put together a scene that requires stunts?

It’s all about communication really. You find out what they’re hoping to see and then try and make that happen for them in the safest and most effective way possible. Lots of compromising and give and take. Communication is the key to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

How did you get into filmmaking?

My father had one of the first stores in my city that sold video cameras so I had access to them from a young age. I began playing around with them when I was about 6 years old and got more serious when I was around 10 years old. I was mostly filming little special effects experiments as well as filming myself doing simple stunts in those early days.

Can you tell us about the first film you ever made?

I made my first film in 1986 when I was 11 years old. It was a horror film called “Church” which I shot with a friend at a church across the road from his house. It was just my friend as the actor and me with the camera, so there was a lot of “Halloween”-style first-person stalking shots etc. It was shot on VHS and was edited entirely in camera which was difficult ‘cause you couldn’t go back and change anything and the edits themselves were very rough. In 1996 I got access to a linear VHS editing machine that was single frame accurate, so for the first time I was able to make films that were much closer to how I envisioned them. In 1998 I made a short action film called “Reunion” that was edited on an Avid, so that was the first time I was working on a professional non-linear digital suite where I could add credits and do colour grading etc. I bought my first Mac editing suite in 2000 and from there was able to start editing my projects at home.

Since 1986 till now I’ve shot around 16 short films, 2 feature films (one of which was never released), and a TV pilot for a comedy show. All of these were low-budget DIY projects except for one short film which had a sizeable budget and was Executive Produced by Barrie Osborne who was the producer of “The Matrix” and “The Lord of the Rings” movies.

You’ve been in the film industry for over 20 years, how has filmmaking/film industry evolved in the last 20 years?

I did my first stunt job for television in 1993 so actually I’m approaching 30 years in the industry - so getting old. Lol. The biggest evolution I’d say is that anyone can now become a filmmaker because the consumer equipment is of such high quality, it’s affordable, and you have platforms like YouTube where you can upload your film and potentially get a large international audience for free. That combined with the sheer amount of information available online that demystifies every aspect of the filmmaking process, and you have a much easier opportunity to hit the ground running. When I was younger I only had access to low-quality VHS cameras and no editing equipment, and there were only a few books in my local library about filmmaking in general to learn from. So basically I had to learn by just watching a lot of films as well as the occasional “making of” documentary that might pop up on TV, and through doing my own experiments.

When I left high school in 1992 there was only one professional film school in my country from what I remember and it was way out of my price range to attend. It was just very difficult back then to become a filmmaker and so very few people actually pursued it or were lucky enough to make a career out of it. Nowadays anyone can make a great-looking film and get a lot of eyes on it relatively easily. I mean we all have HD video cameras in our back pockets now, which is amazing, and something I never would have imagined possible back when I was a teenager. It’s a golden age for filmmakers right now but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a golden age for films.

Where did you get the idea for ONE FIGHT FIVE TIMES?

Photos Courtesy of Tim McLachlan

I hadn’t made a film in 10 years ‘cause I was burnt out and disappointed by my previous experiences. I decided to get back into it though after I missed out on a stunt pre-viz job on a Netflix TV series ‘cause I no longer had any equipment and was basically retired. So I decided to shoot this project as a sort of “showreel” of my filmmaking skills to try and get some stunt pre-viz work. I basically wanted to shoot a generic fight choreography in five different action styles in order to show my range. So we did a “one shot”; a 1970s Hong Kong style scene; a 1980s Hong Kong style scene; a gritty Jason Bourne type scene; and then a stylized “fantasy” scene. I bought a cheap mirrorless camera and a gimbal, downloaded Premiere Pro which I learned how to use for this project (I used to use Final Cut Pro 2 back in the day but it had since been discontinued), and then went from there.

How was your experience of making ONE FIGHT FIVE TIMES? 

It was great. It was just three of my mates (two performers and one camera assist) so we had a great time. We shot the film over four days spread out over six months because one of the performers was busy stunt coordinating on a big Amazon show - plus there were lockdowns in my country and weather issues etc. The grass actually went from green to brown during the filming, so I had to do a bit of colour-grading to try and match things up. The editing took ages ‘cause there were a lot of visual effects and I’m not a visual effects guy by any means. All the effects were done inside Premiere Pro too ‘cause I didn’t have the patience to try and learn how to use After Effects.

Can you tell us about the making of the choreography for ONE FIGHT FIVE TIMES? How did you choose the weapons that were used for the choreography?

I wanted the choreography to be generic in nature so that it could translate across the five different styles, so we kept it pretty simple. I also wanted a little bit of everything for variety, so some sword-work, some hand-to-hand fighting, some basic falls, a couple of flips, a couple of kicks etc. Andy and I choreographed it in about 45 minutes one day. Matt and Andy then rehearsed the fight on set as we were shooting. This wasn’t ideal as they were not well-rehearsed, but because this was a no-budget project with everyone working for free around their busy schedules, and also ‘cause of the sunlight restrictions each day, it was a very rushed process. They did a great job though and for the most part the film came out how I envisioned it, although it’s a little rough around the edges.

Photos Courtesy of Tim McLachlan

Andrew Stehlin and Matt Bennett are the cast in ONE FIGHT FIVE TIMES, how did you do the casting for the short film?

They’re both my good mates and I’ve known them for decades as they’re fellow stunt performers. Andy is one of New Zealand’s top fight choreographers and has choreographed a number of big projects over the years like the Spartacus TV series, Cowboy Bebop TV series, and the Lord of the Rings TV series. Matt is a great stunt performer/actor and also makes his own little films for fun too. I asked them if they’d be keen to help me out with this project and they said yes.

Can you talk us through the process of designing the special effects for ONE FIGHT FIVE TIMES?

All of the visual effects were planned out before the shoot so we could move reasonably quickly on set. Even though I’m not a visual effects guy, I have a decent understanding of the various principles involved, so I knew I could use simple techniques to get some decent results which I could also use to cheat some of the more dangerous stunts. The stair-fall and jump off the building for example I knew we’d never do for real ‘cause it was just too dangerous for a small project being made for free, so those were cheated with green screen and stunt mats that were removed in post. Majority of the more “flashy” effects were just free overlays that I found on YouTube. They were stacked up and colour-graded to fit with the filmed footage. Everything was very simple like that but it did take a lot of time ‘cause there were a ton of invisible effects involved that most people won’t be aware of. Things like there was a park bench right in the centre of the location which I had to remove from many shots which was a time consuming process. Like I mentioned previously, visual effects is not my forte so I made sure to maximize the end result without doing anything too overly complicated on set.

Which was your favourite part of the final cut of ONE FIGHT FIVE TIMES? 

The final “fantasy” fight is my favourite part of the film because that represents more of my actual style. The other parts were all parodies really so they didn’t excite me as much. The 1970s fight was obviously a bit of fun and most people single that out as their favourite section in the film.

Do you have any upcoming projects that you can tell us about?

I’ve written a couple of horror feature film scripts in the last 6 months and I have a number of others I’m currently preparing too. To be honest I’m still what I would call “retired” from filmmaking, so the writing I’m doing is mostly for fun. I was planning to shoot a short film version of one of the feature scripts though as a proof of concept to try and get some funding interest, but the whole Covid thing has kind of put a stop to that for now. Anything can happen in the future though so we’ll see what happens.

Speed Round. Pick one film for each category.

What was your favourite film from last year?

I didn’t watch any films from last year as nothing caught my interest. I watch a lot of trailers though which usually shows me the whole film anyway. I mostly watch older movies.

What is your favourite film from your favourite filmmaker?

E.T. by Steven Spielberg.

What underrated film do you think deserves more attention?

Hmmmmm. I don’t know if these would be considered underrated or not, but here’s a few old gems that I think are awesome and worth a watch: 

Watch Out We’re Mad (1974) - A super-fun Bud Spencer/Terence Hill beat-em-up film. 

The Black Stallion (1979) - An amazing arthouse kids film with stunning horse action.

Son of Rambow (2007) - A great film about a young filmmaker making a Rambo movie with his mates.

Slingblade (1996) - One of the best dramas ever made and in my opinion the greatest performance by an actor ever put on film.

Moon Warriors (1992) - A cool Andy Lau/Sammo Hung fantasy/martial arts flick that kind of slipped through the cracks at the time.

What is the next film you’re going to watch?

I’m about to re-watch The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1978)

Which cinematic universe would you like to live in? (e.g. The Grand Budapest Hotel, X-Men, MCU)

I’d like to live in the world of 1980s American adventure films like The Goonies, E.T., Back to The Future, Explorers etc. I’m definitely someone who is stuck in the 80s and proud to be so ☺

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ALSO…

Make Sure To Watch ONE FIGHT FIVE TIMES

Fighting Spirit Film Festival 2022 submissions are open! The Early Bird Deadline is April 29th. If you have a martial arts/action short film or feature film, head over to our FilmFreeway and find out how to submit your film to #FSFF2022