Anatomy of a Shoot Out
General Hospital has become widely known as The Sopranos of daytime and a lot of work goes into the shooting those complicated action sequences. Steve gives us some inside knowledge on what it takes to put those those scenes together.
Digest: There's a lot of choreography that goes into those actions scenes, right?
Steve: Absolutely! I love doing stunts and action stuff. I've done a few action movies, bad ones of course (laughs) but we've done alot of action scenes on the show. (Director) Scott McKinsey has probably done some of the best action sequences on the show. He's the one who did the Church shoot out (after Faith was revealed to be the kidnapper of Sonny's children), which was awesome.
Digest: How does a complicated action sequence like that come together?
Steve: Alot of it is his vision first. He'll discuss the action that's going to happen first with Tim Davison. Tim is the stunt coordinator and he is great. He has done all of the best stunts for us. He comes from the movies and does alot of movis still. He knows I love to do action and he loves it too. So, they talk about it and then Tim and I will go to the set and go through everything and we'll work out all of the action. What Scott does is, he'll shoot action scenes like a movie. He doesn't shoot it like a normal soap. He gets those crazy angles and all of those crazy, different shots, so it almost feels like you are doing a movie because you are doing so many different set-ups. That's why the sequences look so good. I love to direct and edit myself so it's actually a learning experience.
Digest: What do you think when you watch the finished product?
Steve: Most of the time, I don't like watching the acting stuff but I will watch the stunt stuff. It's cool man
Digest: What has been your favorite action scenes?
Steve: There were two great ones. The Church was one of the best. And there was one in the snow that was awesome when I first became Jason Morgan, sliding across a limo and shooting. There were some cool stunts in there.
Digest: Does Maurice enjoy the gun play as much as you do?
Steve: Maurice jokes. He's like "I can't do that stuff". He really doesn't like to do that stuff but I love it. I'm always messing around with the guns on the set, throwing them up in the air and catching them, all that junk.
SOD October 28, 2005