About this episode

The episode explores the paradox of practical action's popularity among emerging filmmakers amidst fears of AI and digital stunt doubles.

As a stunt coordinator on student films from nearly every film school in NYC and guest lecturer at the School of Visual Arts Masters in Directing program, our co-host Stephen Koepfer has noticed that up-and-coming filmmakers seem to be more attracted to practical action than ever before. This seems contrary to what one might assume to be the case in today’s film industry. There is a weird paradox in the action filmmaking community. Practical action has never been more popular. It is actively used to promote and market big budget productions. Behind the scenes videos go viral on social media. As a result more people are trying to become stunt performers than ever before. Young filmmakers are craving practical action. Yet simultaneously, existing performers in the industry are petrified of being replaced by digital stunt doubles, generative AI, declining numbers of productions, etc. So, we wanted to dig into the issue of practical vs. AI and the future of action film. To do so we invited a group of emerging filmmakers on the show. Joining us on are Darren Tun and Jeffrey Colangelo of Code 10-10, the NYC stunt team that won the 2025 installment of 87 North’s prestigious Stunt Design…

People in this episode

Host: Stephen Koepfer

Guests: Darren Tun, Jeffrey Colangelo, Bryan Uvaldo, Amanda Whyte

Topics covered

• future of action film
• practical action
• AI in filmmaking
• stunt performance
• emerging filmmakers

Keywords

• stunt coordinator
• practical action
• digital stunt doubles
• filmmaking
• NYC film schools

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: School of Visual Arts, Code 10-10, 87 North, Art of Movie Making Film Festival

Books & works: Playin’ Around

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