{"id":22373,"date":"2025-05-06T21:14:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T21:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/movie-stunt-master-shows-students-the-ropes-at-college-event\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:12:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:12:58","slug":"movie-stunt-master-shows-students-the-ropes-at-college-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/movie-stunt-master-shows-students-the-ropes-at-college-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie stunt master shows students the ropes at college event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Tomas
Tomas Sanchez, stuntman, stunt coordinator and director, encouraged young filmmakers to pursue their passion. David Edward Albright\/Tri-City Record<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A veteran Hollywood stuntman who traded high-speed car chases for the high country of northern New Mexico shared his message of faith, safety and movie magic with aspiring filmmakers at San Juan College, where he transformed a typical Wednesday into a master class in making movie thrills come alive.<\/p>\n

Tomas Sanchez, who lives in Chama, gave an impassioned presentation to a large audience of high school students April 23 at Film and Media Day at San Juan College.<\/p>\n

Opening his talk, Sanchez said, \u201cIn the stunt business, in the movie business, or in life, you always want to measure twice and only cut once. Safety is first.\u201d<\/p>\n

With so many different things at play in making movies, Sanchez said he believes the movies would be bland and less than entertaining \u2013 if not for stunts.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, I believe without stunts in action, the movies would just be a bunch of talking heads. So I think that my department is the best. So that\u2019s just on a little bias there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to internet Movie Database, Sanchez\u2019s favorite saying is, \u201cAnything is possible when you have God and family together!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis strong beliefs in faith, culture and hard work has carried him through his 35 years as a SAG member,\u201d it states at imdb.com<\/a>. Sanchez has appeared in national commercials for McDonalds, RCA, Rocky Mountain Marine and Santa Monica Visitors guide.<\/p>\n

Sanchez established Conservation Xtreme at his ranch outside Chama, which works with Wounded Warrior projects.<\/p>\n

\"Sanchez
Sanchez showed clips from some of his stuntman and stunt coordination. David Edward Albright\/Tri-City Record<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Before showing clips from some of his work, Sanchez reiterated his emphasis on safety on the set.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I want everyone to go away with one thing, safety is first of the sets. And I know recently, we\u2019ve had some bad things go on in New Mexico, and that\u2019s unacceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to go home at the end of the day,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cSo any of these things that you see, do not try them at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advising them to seek out professional stunt coordinators in the state, Sanchez said would be happy to look at their script and help them stay safe, while accomplishing their mission.<\/p>\n

With that, Sanchez showed various projects and stunts from movies he\u2019d worked on, including one of his earliest projects with Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was probably one of my favorite movies and probably the pinnacle of my career, working with Clint Eastwood,\u201d Sanchez said about the 2021 movie \u2018Cry Macho.\u2019 \u201cBut not only that, I had the pleasure of having my son (Gabriel) do stunts with me on that show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clips included Sanchez riding a horse sitting backward, being strangled with a garrote, being shot in the chest at close range, intense fight scenes from \u201cBreaking Bad,\u201d and being tossed out of a speeding pickup.<\/p>\n

Sanchez welcomed questions from the audience, but getting none, he joked, \u201cI think everybody left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you know, making your living dying is a little different department in the business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Tomas
Tomas Sanchez shared his joy for working with his son, Gabriel, on the Clint Eastwood movie \u201cCry Macho.\u201d David Edward Albright\/Tri-City Record<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe do what we call pre-viz or a rehearsal for the director. The director will give us a scene, and how are we going to make that practical,\u201d said Sanchez.<\/p>\n

The job of a stunt coordinator is to design the stunt, keeping it safe and within budget, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s a lot of different variables \u2026 and getting the shot is key for the director,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started and you shot a stunt, you wouldn\u2019t know if you\u2019re doing that again until they saw the dailies, and then at night, you\u2019re in the hotel going, Man, I hope it did good, because I don\u2019t feel like falling again,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

With the digital technology available now, he told the audience \u201cyou can do some amazing things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need to shoot real guns. You don\u2019t need real guns on movie sets. They need to be safe,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI don\u2019t care if you\u2019re playing at home, if you\u2019re on a movie set, you never point the gun at anything that you don\u2019t wish to destroy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The No. 1 rule is to treat all guns like they\u2019re loaded, he said.<\/p>\n

Stunts require precise measurements to make sure that no one gets hurt. Pointing to the piano, Sanchez said you must map out every move, insuring the camera or the piano is not damaged.<\/p>\n

Fight scenes are rehearsed over and over, making sure landing pads are properly placed to break the fall. And, safety meetings are vital to success of the production, he said.<\/p>\n

Sanchez pointed out working with animals, such as the famous Clyde the buffalo, from New Mexico, presents unique challenges.<\/p>\n

A student asked Sanchez about the requirements to become a stuntman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, first of all, you got you do need training, and the basic one is falling down,\u201d he said, recommending gymnastics or martial arts, which teach how not to get hurt during a fall.<\/p>\n

Sanchez mentioned driving stunt schools and fireworks schools in Los Angeles, which teach the basics, but require a lot of training.<\/p>\n

His most dangerous stunts were a double T-bone in \u201cIn Plain Sight\u201d and a river crossing for \u201cSaldado, when he actually had to save a lady in the rushing current of the Rio Grande, Sanchez shared in an email.<\/p>\n

Injuries were mainly bruises and hematomas, Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn one show \u201cGambit,\u201d with Cameron Diaz, an extra moved a table back, we cleared out for a bar fight. Before action, he moved it back and when I went down in the fight scene I knocked myself out, broke the table in half with my head, resulting in a minor concussion,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

Sanchez\u2019s presentation closed with him handing out copies of the movie he directed, \u201cAt the End of the Santa Fe Trail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sanchez emphasizes safety first in film industry talk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[799,28,2378],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-san-juan-college"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77683,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22373\/revisions\/77683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22373"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}