High Fall Air Bags
The creation of air bags were developed in the 1970s to practice high falls. The technology of the air bags has changed dramatically through the years enabling stuntmen and stunt women to increase the height from where they fall. Today standards you are now able to use an air bag from 40ft to 200ft and above. The stunt coordinator would be the one to rent the air bag from a stunt equipment rental company and with his stunt safety team, set up the air bag. To perform this specialized stunt it takes a trained high diver or stunt performer to be able to do a free dive into an air bag. To alleviate danger it takes a stunt safety crew and the supervision of a stunt coordinator to set up the fall using the air bag system.
The process to engineer the perfect high fall could take a couple hours depending on the complexity of the shot. The take off position will have to be prepped and may take a couple days to secure the safety of the high fall stunt player. Having an experienced high faller will decrease production’s risk of having an accident. Many variables come into play and wind is a dangerous one when the timing of the actual jump will happen.