Getting involved in media work

What the parkour/free running athlete should be aware of when starting out in film production

By Julie Angel, interviewed by Shi.

One Sunday afternoon in Southbank London, I sat down with Julie Angel on the sunny terrace of the Queen Elizabeth Hall where scenes of Jump London were filmed years ago. The conversation turned towards how many traceurs/traceuses and freerunners were interested in taking part in paid media work. Having spent many years in the parkour/freerunning media field, Julie was open and shared her experience in the field and what someone should be aware when involved in parkour or free running for paid media work. Below is the transcript from a recording made on the day.

Hello, this is Julie Angel talking to Shi about film production. For any athletes who want to get involved in any media work, advertising, stunt work, dramas, documentaries, 2 main areas really.

Understand the contract

The first thing is to know and understand what it is you’re agreeing to. So whether you have an agent or want a manager or whether you are negotiating it yourself, you have to be able to understand every single line of an agreement that they’re giving you. That’s not to say that you’re always going to need a lawyer but if you’re not prepared to take the time to understand it, that could mean that sometimes you might have to pay for media lawyer or somebody like that. Basically you have to be able to understand every single sentence of the agreement so if someone’s read it back to you and said to you, “Explain that to me, what exactly does that mean, what are the consequences of that” that you really fully understand it and are you agreeing to it.

The main kind of things that would happen in contracts are the limitations such as if you are signing over your image rights to someone to be able to use in any way possible and if can you sub-license some of that content. Basically you have to weigh up the options yourself. So say you got paid £500 to be paid in a viral web video but at the same time in that license have you agreed to or signed over all your rights to all that content. This means that someone could then sub-license all your content to say, a Nike advertisement.

So would you be happy to see yourself to be seen in a BBC ident that you only got paid £500 for even though you only agreed for it to be in a viral video. By not limiting the image usage, you therefore allow it to be used for other things. The whole thing is a bit of a minefield but basically, understand what you’re agreeing to and know what you’re happy to do and what you’re not happy to do. If you don’t want it to be broadcast or if you don’t want it to be used in any other way, be safe and say it and say that it’s not allowed to be used for that.

What happens during the production

The second important part is the reality of the production. So a lot of this generally comes down to a lot of what’s in the risk assessment for the production. Because of the nature of parkour having an impact on the body, the nature of filming means that you may get the move right but the person filming or another element on it may not get it right. So you should have a good dialogue with all the production people as to what it is that you’ve agreed to do in that production. So ask for a “recce” (reconnaissance) day so you go over what moves you’re going to do and then you’d be able to give the person some idea of how many repetitions that you’d be prepared to do of that move or actually whether you’re not prepared to do that move at all.

And of course you’d have the flexibility that on the recce day, you look at something and maybe it’s a bit big or more risk than you’d want, but you think “yeah, if I feel it on the day I’d be happy to do that move”. But you also have to be able to say on that day “I’m not feeling it right now, I’m not going to do that move” because at the end of the day, with all the best people in the world, and they’re all probably quite nice people who are making these things. You’re called the talent , you’re not called Shi, Tracey or Stephane. You’re called the talent and that’s what they’re commissioning for you to be.

So you have to be happy to walk away with an injury that you could be stuck with for a year for the sake of 3 days work even if it’s well paid work. And that’s where it really comes down to what you’re prepared to do and how the production is supposed to run. So even things like the schedule has to work around you to some extent. So for example, it’s easier for athletes to do loads of moves in the same place once they’re warmed up rather than going to 5 different locations in 1 day because each time you do that, it’s stop-start-stop-start, warm up again, stretch down again, when are you going to eat during the day.

So all of these things and also, directors and cinematographers can put a lot of pressure of people. They can be very nice people but at the end of the day their job is to walk away with the footage of you, doing whatever you’ve agreed to do. And sometimes it’s not easy for people to speak up and say “It’s not reasonable and I’m not going to do that 10 times”. It’s about having systems in place and having the paperwork to what you’ve agreed and what you’ve not agreed to do.

Stamina for productions.

If people want to do media work they have to be able to have the stamina for that. This means that it’s completely different than the stamina that you have for your normal training. When you do your normal training you’re doing it on your terms, you’re doing it because you feel like training the upper body or training your lower body, it’s really on your own your own terms. But when you’re on a media production you’re no longer on your terms even though this contradicts what I said earlier.

You want to try to make it on your terms even though you want the production people to work with you. For example, you may be doing one move although it may not be a particularly difficult move however you may have spent 1 ½ hours walking around to some locations and waiting. It’s amazing how tired you can get from walking and waiting and suddenly, bang, you’re supposed to be able to flip a switch when the camera’s rolling. So those are the kind of times when you need your real core strength and your training for and to have the kind of mental ability to be able to do that as well. Especially for travelling productions as well, you need to take jet lag into consideration and you also need to budget for travel days, recce days.

What can seem from the outlook as a fast track to fame and fortune is something that kind of doesn’t happen. If you get well-known, it is generally because you get well-known for many things not because you did one commercial. There are reasons why the stunts register is so hard to get on and you need to have proved yourself in so many ways. That’s because the kind of work of a stunt person is extremely complex and demanding.

In summary, here’s what you need to remember:

1. Use contracts to your best advantage. Understand your contract including what image rights you’re signing over and what you’ve agreed to do.
2. Do recce (reconnaissance) before filming to go over your moves and also to get an idea of the risks involved, what you will and won’t do and how many times you will be able to perform something.
3. Filming is hard work, so budget your energy for the entire length of the production. Different filming conditions will affect your stamina and ability on the day.

Julie Angel is an independent filmmaker who’s been at the very beginning of the British parkour media storm. Julie has worked with many prominent parkour and freerunning athletes, producing parkour/freerunning documentaries (Jump Westminister, Gogirls, The Outside In: Karen Palmer) and travelled overseas for parkour workshops and advertising campaigns.

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