When Yeager bails out they said the stunt guy lost consciousness from the smoke in his helmet and failed to open his chute and perished which is terrible but the footage we see is that the guy and is that the jump he made that he didn't survive? Or did they do it again? Just curious on how Hollywood handled this situation.
shareI can't give you a definitive answer about this particular case, but as I understand it, it is a tradition to use stunt footage if the person doing the stunt is killed. The theory is that if the footage isn't used, the performer died for nothing.
There's another tradition that if a stunt goes horribly wrong, the camera keeps rolling and no one intervenes for thirty seconds. That way the shot isn't ruined by rescuers running in. Again, the idea is that if the person doing the stunt is killed or terribly injured, the shot should be in the film.
Have you seen THX-1138? The motorcycle crash in that one went so terribly wrong that the crew broke the rule and rushed into the shot without waiting. Amazingly, the rider was OK.
Not only was the rider O.K., but he was reportedly pissed that the rescue crew might have blown the take by running into the shot too quickly.
shareI hope I don't sound like a George Lucas fanboy here, but Lucas himself reportedly was the one who first bolted after the stuntman with the cameras still rolling. According the commentary or documentary the particular shot was edited right down to the last frame right before Lucas appears at screen bottom.
shareThat sounds like a good tradition.
Hitler! C'mon, I'll buy you a glass of lemonade.
Makes sense
sharehttp://www.wired.com/2014/11/oral-history-of-right-stuff/
Chapter five indicates Kaufman used none of the footage.