Breaking the window shot

By Kevin Woodhouse, August 15th, 2012

In Hollywood during the 1930s, the term "window shot" was used when the final shot of the day was filmed as performers, crew and cast alike, would then proceed to a window to receive their pay packet for their efforts.
Nowadays, the window shot is used for the final take of the shooting day and sometimes actors or stunt performers will note their own window shot if they are not set for the entire day.
Recently, on a Montreal film production, up and coming stunt performer André Givogue gave a whole new meaning to the term when he was cast as a looter in a post apocalyptic type earth where his objective was to crash his crowbar into the window of a vehicle carrying survivors desperate to escape.
This past Sunday, under the bright sunshine and set that was made to look like hell on earth complete with rusted out cars, flaming wrecks and tons of debris making driving very difficult, Givogue was assigned with the role, along with two other "looters", to approach a moving vehicle with the sole intention of stealing it and killing the passengers.
Jumping over mounds of debris and swinging a prop crow bar was easy for Givogue who has a long background in martial arts and has performed in such films as Immortals and recently did stunt work for the upgraded Nikita series as well as playing a soldier who dodges a 25 foot high fire ball that was done live on the day and not on some green screen.
What was stressful for Givogue was when it came time to commit to breaking the passenger window with a real crowbar, with the actors safely out of the way of course.
The scene had been worked for about six hours and Givogue had one try to get the break right as a reset for a window was not cost efficient and the light would not have matched.
"You have to stay calm because panicking will not get you anywhere," said Givogue who took direction under the watchful eye of stunt coordinator Alex Cadieux who made sure that the take was successful in creating movie magic without ever endangering the surrounding crew.
Givogue's years of training had taught him to stay calm because when action was called, there could be no room for errors.  Needless to say, Givogue was able to shatter the window shot, much to the delight of the director who was able to go to lunch knowing the entire sequence had worked. n