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Behind The Stunts CANDY The Stunts as Performed by Ian Van Temperley & Andy Godbold Jon Auty 1/8/2013
Behind The Stunts
CANDY The Stunts as Performed by Ian Van Temperley & Andy Godbold
Jon Auty 1/8/2013
The latest single from Robbie Williams tells the story of a guardian angel who is trying to
protect a pretty girl. His character, wearing a pink suit, can’t be seen by the young lady
and he does everything he can to get her attention, but to no avail.
The video was directed by Joseph Kahn who has directed videos for many top recording
stars over the last ten years including George Michael, Chris Brown, Kelly Clarkson, The
Pussycat Dolls and two award winning videos for Britney Spears.
The story of Candy calls for Robbie to undertake many action scenes. For this British Stunt
Coordinator Ian Van Temperley was called in to not only supervise the set pieces, but also
to perform the stunts on Robbie’s behalf.
It is safe to say that Ian earns every penny of his fee on this shoot which took place over
two days in August 2012 in the Spitalfields Market area of London.
Robbie starts his video trying to keep the girl, Candy, safe and sound. She is played by
actress Kaya Scodelario who had previously starred in the TV series Skins. A defenceless
old dear and her husband stroll along the pavement and find themselves in the path of an
oncoming Robbie who punches the lady in the face…as you do.
Then a car is seen approaching at speed. Robbie jumps onto the bonnet and is knocked
down. Ian performs the stunt and really takes a beating. Arriving at an angle he
approaches from the driver’s side and leaves via the passenger door area.
The impact throws him over the passenger door area and dumps him on the road. A very
fine knockdown.
Here we see some shots as Ian rehearses his knockdown with another vehicle.
You can clearly see the padding on his arm as the initial impact is punishing.
A knockdown of this nature is usually performed between 20 – 25mph and the final shots
were very possibly a touch faster. As seen below.
The end result is an excellent knockdown, beautifully performed and nicely edited giving
the audience the impression that Robbie is doing the stunt himself…another job well done.
But that was only the start of it. Up next a highfall.
Sitting atop the Halifax Building Society in Spittalfields in London, stuntman Ian Van
Temperley checks out the landing area for his fall.
An assistant holds Ian’s legs as he gets up onto the edge of the building just before getting
action from the director. He keeps his eye on the target as he falls and hits the box rig
with perfect accuracy.
Now we should consider our next stuntman in this video. Mr Andy Godbold. Andy is our
bike specialist and for this video he can be seen riding a bike that hits Robbie’s angel and
is thrown off his bike into a pile of wooden pallets. The pallets were created digitally, but
the fall was done for real.
This photograph, taken by someone
visiting the set, shows the fall and the
size of the box rig. Plenty of boxes and
mats placed on top for support.
A shot does appear in the video from the
roof, but no photographs are available.
The final edit shows Ian passing through
shot and ending up as Robbie sat at a
table outside a coffee shop with Candy
who is updating her status…as you do.
Many high falls these days use airbags,
but the height of this fall allows for a
smaller landing area. Box rigs were the
stable diet of stunt professionals
throughout the sixties and seventies and
only falls over a hundred feet we
considered ‘air-bag’ material. In 1983
stuntman Mike Potter fell 80ft into a box
rig no bigger than the one pictured here.
As we can see from these on set photos Andy
rides his bike into the crash mat and flips over.
The bike flips and could hit him in the face so he
must be aware of the bikes position at all times.
Andy is also seen in another section of the video.
Andy can be seen here in the yellow top taking part in a series of scuffles in the street
with Robbie in the thick of the action.
Now the major stunt in the video takes its pride of place. The other stunts, all very
exciting and very challenging, but the next is extremely dangerous and visually stunning.
Robbie bursts into flames and he dances across the road. Something that could have been
done in post-production, but it just wouldn’t have worked. So Ian Van Temperley steps up
and performs a dancing full body burn.
Robbie is filmed doing his dance steps across the road as Candice,
oblivious to what he is having to put himself through, walks on
ahead. Everything needs to be timed to fit in with the steps. Andy
realised this and worked in the high arm swing to create a
swaggering march.
Dressed in the unmistakable pink suit, Ian strides across the road. Flames 3ft above his
head, his body engulfed in flame. He crosses the road, walks along the pavement, drops to
his knees and then flat on his belly. This is the signal for his team to come in and put him
out. Absolutely stunning.
