It is true that taking our training will not guarantee you will become a stunt person. That is what I tell people very clearly when they inquire about our training. You pursue stunt performing because you have a passion for it, much like an actor does. Taking acting classes also will not guarantee that you will enjoy a career as a professional actor. And "local stunt person," stunt coordinators are looking for new, talented people all the time. Many of our graduates have gone on to work successfully as stunt performers in the industry in L.A. and in various parts of the country, and working actors and stunt people come and train with us to improve and refresh their skills on a regular basis. And yes, Michael and I work all the time as stunt performers and stunt coordinators. Anyone questioning that is welcome to look us up on IMDb. Look for me in Drive Angry that came out yesterday, doing the majority of my own stunt driving. Look for Michael on Green Lantern playing the Air Traffic Controller then getting blown down the stairs. Mike just came back from doing a stunt actor part in Georgia and coordinating for Jon Voight in Alaska. What have you done lately "local stunt performer"? You sound a little grumpy. Give me a call and let's talk. less

I agree that "local stunt person" sounds a bit grumpy. I attended the L.A. Stunts boot camp last August and found it to be a wonderful experience. I will back Shelby up and confirm that she did tell all of us that attending their training was not a guarantee into the business and repeated that more than once during the six days we were there. Also, I can personally tell you that they are both working stunt performers. In fact, Mike received a phone call while we were in class one day from Jay Amor to work on the film Columbiana as a stunt performer. I was standing beside him as they spoke. If you really are a stunt performer, you'll know who Jay is and you can't tell me a coordinator of Jay's caliber would hire Mike if he wasn't a well-respected WORKING STUNT PERFORMER. Don't listen to someone who leaves a post like this anonymously. If you want an honest opinion from someone that actually attended the training, contact me. I have no affiliation with Mike and Shelby, other than calling them my friends and stand to gain nothing by anyone attending their stunt boot camp. My email is rjason.benjamin@gmail.com. less

I recently attended the L.A. Stunt Training Center. After working many years of Live Action Shows as well as Indie Films. I can say I knew going in this was not a place to be promised a job. It was however a place to advance my skills in the stunt industry with two very well respected and experienced individuals. I have many union and non-union stunt people as my close friends. When I told them I was going to a training center with Mike and Shelby, they were proud I was taking the opportunity to learn from very skilled coordinators. I know the stunt community is a tight group. I dislike how some coordinators and performers bad mouth others. We should stick together and be proud of our fellow practitioners. It is a tough business. I have worked as a producer and coordinator for many live shows and know I have what it takes to make it in film. I was unsure before attending the camp. I had many strengths and weaknesses from my live show experience. I went to Mike and Shelby to learn and grow. Mike and Shelby believe in me and that will get me through anything. Yes I need to work on my craft and continue to grow. To call them a joke is a childish gesture. I treasure my time with them. I fully support them in all endeavors. Another thing grumpy anonymous stunt person. What about USA stunt school, Kahanas, Hollywood Stunts? These schools, where they take 20-50 people a session for an outrageous fee. I would thank you kindly to live by the old saying "if have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all." Please refrain from bashing my good friends and mentors. For those of you out there who are working stunt performers or looking to learn more about stunts. I highly recommend L.A. Stunts Boot Camp. Having attended I know I have more ammo to help me break further into the industry. And yes "local stunt person" I know I have no guarantee of work. I do know I can get jobs if I put in the work and training. Thank you Mike and Shelby for the tools and advice you have bestowed upon me. less

I have one question? Do you have to pay for the stunt boot camp? After you finish the boot camp you are trained to do stunts in all areas. Once you take the class if you are not a SAG member you will not be able to get a job unless someone Taft Hartley's you in the union which is very hard do since there are very talented stuntmen and stuntwomen already here. We train people who have different talents and help them with their skills, but without charging We do only train SAG stunt people, because it is a very hard biz to break in and a very tight group As a stunt coordinator myself and an a Asst coordinator for 10 years and learned from the old school stunt people who made this biz for us is, " If you are teaching you are not working" I'm not saying y'all are not working but, bit bringing More and more stunt people into the biz just creates less and less work for the people that were born and raised here and struggled for years when there was no work here. I can't not stop people moving here and wanting to make a living and taking care of their families. But training more people when most of us here are still working hard to get jobs. There is nothing wrong with following a dream and sometimes you need training and skills but this biz is not about talent it's a who you know biz and that's because safety is most important and I would rather hire someone I know and who has worked for me than a new person even if the guy is very talented. It might not be fair but that is how it is. I am not trying to discourage anyone from trying to become a stunt person, just giving the truth. It took me 10 years to get my Sag card and I was considered very talented and I learned very quick that it's look and luck to get into the union. Follow your dreams and never give up and if You have what it takes, you will one day get in the stunt biz, but remember if you do not have a Sag card chances are you will not get into the stunt biz! Just giving my 2 cents in and I am a true Local Born and Raised here and I struggled for 10 years until I got noticed. I know Mike and have worked with him, and it was pleasure working with him, but that doesn't mean he can Taft everyone in that takes his Classes. Good Luck and Keep plugging along Danny Cosmo Stunt Coordinator/Stuntman less

I got a email about this article and feel obligated to post First There are no accredited stunt schools. 99% of everyone that takes it will not admit they did unless they are with close friends. Rick Seamens or Bobby Ore's driving school is the only schools that people will recognize and respect. Secondly As stunt people we do not pay to train unless it is to rent a car or a gym entrance fee. We help each other and we also invite new comers to train with us . We stick together and help each other for free. I have had free training sessions at my house Third Jason, I agree with the earlier post 100%. We as stunt performers have sat around on set and watched your youtube demo that you put together at LA STUNTS and laughed our asses off. We have sat with some of the biggest stuntmen and best stunt coordinators in the business on set and watched LA STUNTS website videos and all of the You tube demos. We have almost pissed ourselves laughing. Jason we are not laughing at you doing the stunts . We are laughing at how you were taught and that everyone yells like girls as they do High falls. Why do you yell? No one I know was taught to scream like that. If you did a fall for me and yelled like that I would think you were hurt or scared. If you yelled and were not hurt or scared I would tell you to shut the F*ck up. What gives such a inexperienced stunt person like Shelby the right to teach a stunt school . She is not asked back on shows after a couple days because lack of talent. On green lantern the Asst and Stunt coordinator said shelby will not be asked back . So they hired Mike to work. Mike long only worked a day or so before falling out with a injury because he was not in shape to do the job he was asked .He knew he couldn't run and still took the job. He also almost backed into the stunt coord and Director on Hungry rabbit . He wasn't asked back On drive angry 3D Shelby only worked one day and and Jeff Dashnaw did all the real stunt driving. She keyed her radio on accident and was talking all kinds of smack and bragging to someone on the phone . The whole crew heard her talking and bragging about something she was not doing. On the Twilight auditions Mike and Shelby were laughing stocks. They kept showing the video of there auditions and laughing. And as for Terminator Salvation I'm not even gonna comment I dont have that much time. Jason meet some real stunt people and ask them about stunt schools, See what they say . Then ask about Mike Long and Shelby Swatek You will always get the same answers about them. Mike Long is a great guy. Very nice and just a good guy Shelby has brought Mike down . Ask his closest friends. "They cant buy a job in Louisiana" a quote from Mike himself So they are now gonna move to Savannah GA and still pretend they are locals in louisiana. They are the Gypsies of the movie business. They have no home just move place to place because after you hire them once you will never hire them again Stunt schools are money makers for stunt people that don't work. Stunt schools are not recognized by stunt coordinators and are looked down upon in the business. This is not a bash LA STUNTS school but it is a bash on all stunt schools in general they sell false hopes and dreams to people. Like the earlier post said stunts are hard to get in and take years to get into the right way. YOu need to be SAG TO BE RESPECTED less

I think that these comments are just awful and most do not make any sense. I somewhat understand what you are saying about how stunt schools can be a rip off, however if you are new to this industry and have the desire to become a stunt person how is taking a class a bad thing. With any job the more you know the better. If anything the stunt class is teaching you what these different things are and terminology. All of you have said that these people, especially mike long has actually done stunts and some said he was good even though it may have been in the past. So if that is so, he knows what he is doing and seems like he could teach a newcomer some stuff. I think with anything you should master your craft, so are u guys saying that a newcomer that doesn't know anything about stunts should just practice on their own? Go on a set and just ask a stunt person to be their mentor? From what some of you wrote I think u would laugh in their face and tell them get away from you. Unless the stunt camp is falsely promising people jobs or not abiding by safety rules I don't see how it is that bad. Maybe you all should practice supporting one another and building each other up instead of tearing each other apart like this. I am just a reader of this article and have no desire to be in stunt world but was just appalled at how mean you all are being to these people. What have they done to you? If stunt world is so who you know and close knit and these people will never have a chance at getting a stunt job why bash them? It was only an article on their class by someone else they didn't boast then some who took class commented on how they enjoyed the class, what's the big deal? Furthermore I agree that if you have all this to say about them you should post your name why be anonymous...if you are telling the truth. less

We as stunt people hate to see people get scammed in these schools . There are stunt guys in this area that train with experienced and new stuntpeople and only pay a $10 dollar Gym fee each week. Stunt schools are giving false hope to people that may never ever get jobs in the business and most tell people that is how u get in the biz. The best way for people to start in the business is Have some skill that would benefit you in the business Be a extra and learn How a set works. Learn camera angles , what each dept does learn the who's who on the set Find out where the stunt guys train and get seen but not a pain in the ass Then u must learn to hustle , get headshots and just market ur skills that u have.( gymnasitics , moto cross , mma. Martial arts etc) Stunts schools are frowned upon. So why would u start ur career the wrong way Most people that take these schools never admit they took them and realize it was a waste of money because they learned on out of date equiptment , or learned a wrong way . now the stunt coordinator Has to break a bad habit that this new person has learned and retrain on set I have never seen might or Shelby do anything and mike demo reel is old. Nothing real current on it You must stay up on technology and the latest and greatest stunt equiptment. If I was learning a skill or trade I would want to learn from The best guys in the business. I would want to learn from a guy that is the stunt coordinator of a box office hit or that is working on the biggest shows in the business Doctors learn from the best doctors , surgeons are taught by the best surgeons They don't learn from a Doctor that has just been a general practitioner for 25 yrs. There are stunts in this business that if done wrong can kill or injure u for life. No do overs. Why risk ur life if you not trained by the best There is too much competion in this business not to come out with the best training u can get . Train somewhere your proud to say you trained . I notice that LA stunt school has to bring in people to teach because the guys that did take the school do not want to associate with them once they learn how the stunt business really works. less

Danny, yes, we do charge tuition for our training. The quality of the training we offer costs money to produce, and we do earn something for the time we put into each session, which is considerable. We rent an entire soundstage at Celtic Media Centre for the week, where we are required to have a 2 million liability insurance policy. Our training is done using our state-of-the-art equipment including air ram, air ratchet, and air bag, and we fly in and put up our stunt tumbling instructor who has been with us from the beginning for each session. Class size is small, with no more than 8 people. This next session we have trainees coming from Los Angeles, New York, and a lot of places in between, and I doubt people would fly in from all over the country and Canada if they were training in someone’s backyard or at an open gym session with little or no stunt equipment. It’s great that folks get together in people’s backyards, etc. to workout, but what we offer is at a completely different level. I have had several people state they felt our SBC tuition is low, considering what they got for their money. We refer people to Rick Seaman and Bobby Ore for driver training, but one isn’t normally going to get hired as a stunt driver if you aren’t able to also perform essential stunt skills, what used to be referred to as “all expected abilities.” Danny, I appreciate your wanting to protect the jobs of veteran stunt performers, but the fact is 20 year olds get hired to double 20 year olds, and yes, these new stunt performers may need to be Taft-Hatleyed. It happens all the time, and we have helped many of our students get their SAG and AFTRA cards going that route. Also more and more directors are looking for actors who can do their own stunts, and we have a lot of actors come to us for training as a result, many of whom already have their SAG cards. less

Local stunt guys, what is scary is you probably actually believe some of the things you wrote. You mention getting a good laugh watching our Stunt Boot Camp promo video, which in fact is ironic, as a lot of working locals here in Louisiana would do well to learn the skills we teach. I hear that a certain local stunt guy is telling people who want to get into the business to go out and do stunts and have a friend film it. Does that really strike you as a good idea? Must make for some fun viewing. You go on at length about how much you dislike me, but the truth is as far as you are concerned, the best place for any woman in the stunt industry, or in any industry for that matter, is on her knees. You go on at length about how Mike and I have moved several times in recent years, and apparently feel we don’t have the right to do that. Strange indeed that you feel you have a right to an opinion on our personal business. Get this. I have lived all over the United States and Europe, in a total of 15 different places, from Honolulu, Hawaii to Florence, Italy, and many places in between, including Los Angeles, New York, Boulder, Santa Fe, and Miami. I speak French and Italian in addition to English. Mike and I recently visited beautiful and charming Savannah, Georgia, and are considering moving there. What’s it to you? Maybe it’s that experience with different cultures and environments that enables me to tolerate the misogynistic blowhards we sometimes have to deal with in this business. Onto responding to your diatribe, let’s start with Drive Angry, which obviously is a sore point for you. Drive Angry was an awesome experience and gave me the chance to drive alongside some of the top drivers in the business for 3 solid weeks in the role of “Truck Driving Woman,” first unit, second unit, back and forth and ND stunt driving in between. You are certainly welcome to call Johnny Martin or any of the stunt guys who worked on that show, including Henry Kingi and Jeff Dashnaw, to ask them about my work. I let out an exclamation after several particularly exciting runs in which Johnny had me come a few feet from t-boning a car then veer off at the last second, and got corrected on that, duly noted. Your version is not correct and sounds third hand at best. I didn’t “talk smack” about anyone, but when the A.D. asked why I was slowing down on one set up, I told him that I had to in order to not to hit the car in front of me that was going 3 miles per hour when we were all supposed to be going 15. Remember that? I was asked to adjust for this individual, which I did, repositioning myself 100 feet back. That was his last day on the show, and not because of anything I said. It was my first day and I was there for another 3 weeks. Michael didn’t work on Drive Angry. You mention the Twilight audition, and it turns out it was a sucker setup to show that there is no local stunt talent in Louisiana, yet the stunt coordinator was impressed with Michael’s skills, as was I. He certainly was a lot better than most there, who were decades younger. Mike is agile for his age and years he’s put in hitting the ground, and knows his stuff. My kickboxing kicks and punches were nothing to write home about, but I doubt they made for endlessly entertaining viewing. You mention Green Lantern, and Michael first worked on that as a stunt actor in the control tower in an explosion and doing a stairfall, with an extreme close up and dialogue, and I was surprised he even got called back for as long as he did, since he was previously so clearly featured. The filming downtown with heat factors of 120 degrees was abusive, so I was glad to have him home after a week of sprinting endlessly in those conditions. He lasted longer than some stunt performers. I enjoyed my week of work in another scene, but when two guys got sent to the hospital, I didn’t join in the knee slapping laugh fest others shared with the stunt coordinator, who apparently thought it was one of the funniest things he had ever seen. That may have been my ticket home once the scene was over, so be it. In my 20 years in the business, I have never been fired from a job, have been hired by some of the top coordinators more than once, and have excellent references. Really not sure why you think you know anything at all about my work on Terminator, yet you say you could talk about it at length. Have you ever even been to New Mexico? less