http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1632714912?bctid=18534104001
Michael Serapio of CityTV interviews Anna HE, a Toronto racing entusiast. Anna gave a great quote..."Any type of driving and racing especially is not simple."
I truly wish more people would understand that...driving is not simple. It is a skill that takes a great deal of attention, awareness and consideration for other people's safety.
If I can add further to Anna HE's comments ...
ReplyDeleteIt's a movie. It's entertainment and it's not real. There are thousands of people who recognize this movie for what it is, an unrealistic approach to driving using skill that maybe only 3% of its target audience may actually have. Even with all my training, I could not drive a car anyway near the handling and skill demonstrated by the stunt drivers in the film.
Even the actors ... they provide the voice and face behind the wheel, but it's someone else doing all the work.
Then there's the insurance costs.
The average cost to make and market a major Hollywood box office film was $106.6 million in 2007. The average cost of insuring a film is about 1 percent of these production costs or $1.6 million. That's just for production. This cost will increase depending on the amount of risk posed to the "talent" and crew while filming the movie.
Considering a love story carries a $3 to 6 million dollar production and talent insurance policy and the only dangerous thing facing the actors is a fall down a flight of stairs as they run to greet their lovers after a business trip, imagine the insurance on a movie like "Fast and Furious"?
Many people who watch these films don't realize it's someone else doing all the grunt work and it's someone qualified, trained and skilled enough who films the racing/driving scenes. But golly gee, doesn't Vin Diesel and Paul Walker make it look so damn easy?
This should address why this movie causes police agencies so much concern. The cars, stunt drivers and sets used in filming the movie are controlled, staged environments and mimic nothing near or close to real life traffic situations.
Mom's Honda Civic from the factory is not tuned or modified to handle half the stunts performed in the movie out on the streets of Markham, Mississauga, Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal. The cops know this and so, when people try to mimic a stunt, the outcome isn't going to have a Hollywood ending.
So as much as 'Woodbridge Joe' is rolling his eyes at the news reports that police officers who control and enforce traffic safety are concerned about the movie's influence on drivers, it's a legitimate concern. It only takes one driver out of thousands to be the one who does something stupid after watching the film and if he's not caught and taken off the streets, the potential to kill someone or himself is a very realistic problem.