Lights, Camera, Science!

Just before Thanksgiving, the John Curtis Christian Senior Honors Conceptual Physics class began working on their analysis of physics in film study. Students were asked to take the concepts they have been studying in class and apply them to the magical world of Hollywood, where the rules of physics are often bent, and even broken, for the sake of dramatic action and incredible cinema. Students were tasked with analyzing scenes from a film to identify and describe when and how physics laws were broken as well as explain what should have occurred if the laws were to be enacted as required by nature. As an additional real-world application of the themes of this project and to “pull back the curtain” on the magic of movies, the two classes were visited on Tuesday, November 22^nd, by professional Hollywood stuntwoman Ashley Hudson from Gear Up Stunts.

Ashley Hudson grew up in Louisiana and knew from a young age that she wanted to be involved in film. She has been working as a professional stunt performer for the past 15 years and has appeared in projects such as The Walking Dead, Logan, Pitch Perfect, the Fast and Furious franchise, and the Terminator franchise to name a few. She has also served as the stunt coordinator and as a director on several projects and was able to bring a whole new understanding of how actors are able to recreate, and sometimes break, the laws of physics in film. Her presentation consisted of a brief history of how she broke into the industry, a highlight reel of many of the stunts she has performed in film, a breakdown of how stunt performers recreate physical events for film, including fight scenes and falls, a chance for students to recreate a “punch” on film using Hollywood techniques, and an analysis of a few famous events and sequences from movies to explain the physics behind the action. She emphasized that stunt performers try to recreate action sequences to minimize the risks associated with the dangerous activities being portrayed but that there is always an element of danger involved when producing this type of action. Her work and stories gave a whole new meaning to the old adage, “don’t try this at home.”

The physics class is so thankful to have had the chance to learn about physics in film from a perspective not available to everyone and is appreciative of her coming to share about the techniques and applications of the class content in her field.