Tom Connolly is without doubt one of the busiest stunt coordinators in movie and TV. His credit for performing and growing a number of the most insane motion sequences of the final 20-plus years embody Daredevil, Arrow, Jurassic World, John Wick and Logan to call however just a few, and whereas he’s undoubtedly probably the most in-demand consultants of his type, the chance to make his mark on Season 2 of the ultra-violent crime drama, Gangs of London was an opportunity that he merely couldn’t move up.
M&F sat down with Tom Connolly to study how these Gangs of London motion sequences come collectively, and why he merely couldn’t say no to this thrilling mission.
“I was an athlete at the U.S. Olympic training center in Colorado Springs and started doing a couple of commercials for my sponsors,” says Connolly, who practiced Taekwondo. “I realized ‘this is kinda fun,’ this might be something I can do after I retire from competition. The commercials led to acting and I was asked like ‘hey, can you do a couple of stunts?’ and then a fight scene, and I realized I’m kinda good at this, and I enjoy this, and here I am today.” In reality, “kinda good at this” is an understatement, since Connolly’s resume is a stunt professionals’ dream. He’s even doubled for the likes of Gerard Butler, Vin Diesel, and Ben Affleck. But along with being seen on digital camera, Connolly has constructed a repute as a premier stunt and combat coordinator too. Gangs of London, however, posed a problem even for Connolly; partially due to the optimistic manner that followers had obtained the primary season, and likewise as a result of every combat scene is designed to look as actual as doable, making it about as far faraway from a Marvel film as you may get. Fortunately, he loves to combine issues up.
Tom Connolly relishes the problem of making memorable motion
“It’s a challenge to do something different from what’s kind of out there as the norm, right now,” says the 6-feet-1-inch stunt professional. “And something that brings you into the action, and makes you feel almost like you are participating. (In Gangs of London) When everybody’s tired in the action, you feel tired too, versus… you know, I think some of the Marvel action, they do some amazing things and some new, great camera work, a lot of CGI, but you walk away and you don’t remember anything from the action. It’s just a lot of moves and a lot of visual stimulation. That’s the big thing, I think, with [Gangs of London] type of action, you have those memorable moments and you plan them carefully and when you walk away, people remember that stuff and they talk about it.”
💥💥🔥 A . C . T . I . O . N . 🔥💥💥
Shout outs to the grasp of mayhem @timconnolly & his unbelievable stunt staff & Alex Gunn & his @arcadiasfxIt wouldn’t be doable to make @gangsoflondon with out their dedication to pulling off excessive carnage.. pic.twitter.com/RzpqSjoLTe
—CORIN HARDY (@corinhardy) October 25, 2022
Indeed, there are quite a few motion sequences in Season 2 that can keep in your thoughts for fairly a while. In a selected grizzly second, a person is hooked by the neck and dragged alongside a window sill that’s adorned with damaged glass. While such scenes are brutal to look at, you possibly can’t assist however respect the creativity that comes up with such mind-blowing ideas. “It’s a collaborative effort,” says Connolly. “So, when we come in and design something like that, Corin Hardy (the lead director) has an outline of what we want to do. So, we’ll sit down with him and go over everything, and then once we get into our rehearsal space, that’s when the real creative juices come out. That’s when you can find things in that environment to make it feel very realistic.”
The success of an motion sequence is all within the preparation
“I think it’s different with every director, and that’s the amazing thing about Corin, he’s so visual,” says Connolly. “If Corin gets an idea, he doesn’t necessarily try to explain it to you. He’ll sit down and draw it at a professional artist level, right in front of you. It helps so much, because what we do is such a visual medium. Usually, within the action, we’ll work on some moments and we’ll shoot it as a pre-vis and that becomes the real story board.”
The previsualization is shot with stunt doubles, and with stunt actors too, since actors who can carry out their very own stunts might be solid within the present and don’t must be edited out later. This saves time, particularly on a mission like Gangs of London that makes use of prolonged combat scenes. Camera’s are in a position to concentrate on the actors within the majority of the pictures as a result of they’re doing their very own stunts. Connolly says this not solely provides to the realism of the scenes, however provides the digital camera crew extra freedom to experiment with completely different pictures and angles. “We can be a little bit wider on the camera and we can do longer takes,” he shares.
When it got here time to finish the scenes with the headlining stars, Connolly discovered that he had a staff that had been greater than keen to contribute. “Every cast member that came in, put it all out, they were amazing,” he says. “I’ve never worked on a show where every cast member was so excited to come in and do the action. You have Sope, there’s nothing that he cannot do. He’s so physically gifted. Everybody just put it all out there.”
Tom Connolly loves that ‘Gangs of London’ is ‘outside of the box’
The stage of violence in Gangs of London is so jaw-dropping that there actually is nothing like this present on tv. For Tom Connolly, selecting a favourite scene is like choosing a well-liked youngster. “It’s tough, because of the behind-the-scenes moments that go into this,” says Connolly. “The underwater sequence, to try to do a longer take under water presented some challenges that made it really interesting to do. It’s something that was very enjoyable for me to try and pull off. I don’t know that I have a favorite. I think they all offer something special. We thought we were going to fail, because of the schedule. Each one of those scenes is a feature level action scene. To do that for television is great and the reason I took the job is because ‘Gangs’ is one of the few shows that has such strong action-drama, because they don’t live in a box. They were able to think outside of the box, and do things that were unexpected. I think everybody is excited, and everybody is proud.”
Season one of many BAFTA profitable collection is offered to stream by AMC+ with Season two dropping on Nov. 17.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXmGyAQLo9E