Welcome To Backyard Adventure Travel

Speaker 4 0:00

Welcome to the See Michaelson Travel Podcast, a ZMAX Radio production presented by Collage Travel Media Network. This is your space for inspiration, confidence in travel, and a little bit of luxury and adventure. So whether you're traveling across the world, rediscovering America, or simply dreaming about your next escape, we hope we can help guide you. Now, here's See

Speaker 0:25

Hey, this is Zee Michaelson, and I have something special today for you on my podcast. I'm always talking about what's in our own backyard. So in here, in Florida, in Groveland, in our very own backyard, is a company called Apex Stunt and Film Ranch. And what does that stand for? It stands for Action Packed Extreme Experience in partnership with the Kahana Stunt and Film Ranch. Now, I have John Kane with me and Sandra Kahana, and they are reestablishing and reinventing the wheel, which is gonna be phenomenal. So John, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 1:07

Great to be here.

Speaker 1:08

And Sandra, how are you?

Speaker 3 1:10

Great. Thank you. Thank you for inviting us

Speaker 1:13

So John, I know that

Kahana Legacy And A Stunt Career

Speaker 1:15

you're kind of taking the lead on the conversation now, so tell me a little bit about what's going on.

Speaker 2 1:20

Well, basically what's happened is, uh, Kahana Stunt School was established back in 1972, and, it was established by a gentleman named Kim Kahana, and Kim Kahana was, famous for his role as Chongo in the Banana Splits Adventure Hour, as well as, doubling for, Charles Bronson for- Right a long time.

Speaker 1:40

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 1:40

And he'd done over 400 movies. He's, appeared in television shows, uh, just, you know, back in the '70s and '80s, he was, he was everywhere. He was in high demand in Hollywood.

Speaker 1:50

Right.

Speaker 2 1:50

And, um, I started my career at Kahana Stunt School in Chatsworth when they were still in California.

Speaker 1:57

So he was your teacher.

Speaker 2 1:59

I was an instructor after I went through the school. I went through the school in 1982, and became an instructor in 1983, and stayed till about 1985.

Speaker 2:08

Now, what is your background in the stunt world?

Speaker 2 2:10

Well, like I said, I started out at Kahana's. I, am a specialist is what they call high-end exotics, meaning that I can, I, I do multiple disciplines. For instance, doing a high fall out of a window while on fire, which encompasses three different stunt disciplines. High falls, fire gags, and window crashes. There's a lot of different, aspects of the business that these days people have kind of, you know, wandered away from. But I, I specialize in full, you know, personal body stunts, physical body stunts.

Speaker 2:39

So you're out there actually training future stunt people.

Speaker 2 2:43

I started training people in Dallas, Texas. I moved to, uh, I was in LA for 14 years and cut my teeth on movies like, uh, Predator 2, and Marked for Death, and Tango Cash, and some pretty big budget features. Pretty much because all the television shows had just been canceled when I got there. So I started out on, on major feature films. And then, in 1997, I got a call from Dallas from my mentor, Greg Elam, who, taught me after I got out of Kahana's. He took me under his wing and started putting my name in the hat for these big films. And, uh, he was doubling for Clarence Gilyard on Walker, Texas Ranger, and told me, "Hey, Johnny, there's, there's, we're doing motion picture level stunts on this goofy TV show in, in Dallas." And I said, uh- I

Speaker 3:27

used to like

Speaker 2 3:27

that TV show and he s- and he said, "Come on down." And who knew it was gonna run for eight seasons, you know? And, I ended up moving to Dallas and working on Walker, Texas Ranger for about 45 episodes, and actually, uh, was honored to be able to double for Chuck Norris in the second to last episode of the show, and, did a high fall for him in the, Blood

Reinventing A Florida Stunt Ranch

Speaker 2 3:45

Diamonds episode.

Speaker 3:46

Okay. Now, now you have kind of merged forces with Sandra Kahana. at the schools.

Speaker 2 3:53

Right.

Speaker 3:53

So tell me what's going on. Tell me what you guys are planning on doing.

Speaker 2 3:57

Right. When Kim passed away, Sandra just kind of had this entire property dumped in her lap. And I was looking for a place to, to expand my company, Action Pack, to make things, you know, to, to implement my business plan the way it needed to be done, which required a lot of space and a lot of, property. Sandra invited me down and said, "Hey, can you come help me with this, this place? I can't do it by myself." And, it was just a no-brainer. I, decided to pack everything up and move my operation out of Dallas and, uh, come down to Florida.

Speaker 4:26

Now, years, several years back, myself and my, my associate did an Off the Beaten Path at- the Kahana Stunt and Film Ranch, which was amazing to see this. So now you're taking this whole thing to the next level. You're gonna be doing school, you're gonna be doing films, you're going to be doing museum. Tell me a little bit more about that. Will the general public be able to eventually come and see this place?

Speaker 2 4:53

Absolutely. We're developing the property into more of a destination, where people can not only come and learn how to do stunts, but, you know, if you've always had a desire to be a stunt performer but just never pursued it, you can come out to the ranch and, you can check that off your bucket list and come out and be a stunt performer for a week. And then go back and be whatever it is you are and not have to worry about pursuing a career as a stunt performer.

Speaker 5:16

So almost like when you go on, like, a cowboy adventure and you go to a- Absolutely cowboy ranch or a dude ranch This is a dude ranch

Speaker 2 5:22

for stunt people,

Speaker 5:23

yes. Dude ranch for stunt people. Absolutely. Absolutely. I like that. Yeah. Sandra, do you have anything to say?

Speaker 3 5:27

No, I'm just grateful for John being here, because I was kind of drowning with the property and everything. So he's really worked so hard. It-

Speaker 5:37

It is, it is a big piece of property. I do remember it, and I know that the property was hit pretty bad not too long ago with a pretty good hurricane that we had here in Florida. Yeah. So you're doing repairs to all of the

Speaker 2 5:48

equipment. Yeah. That's been my focus since I got here, was- Mm-hmm putting things back together and cleaning up the mess and trying to get, access to the buildings that we need- Mm-hmm and that type of thing. And we're up and running right now as far as the instruction is concerned. I'm, I'm ready to teach stunt training. Anybody who wants to come out, you can check it out at actionpac.com. That's action P-A-C.com. And you can go to the training page, and there's a calendar there that you can see what, what dates we have scheduled for the next classes.

Speaker 6:15

Now, this is the actual classes for people who really want to become a stunt person.

Speaker 2 6:19

Correct.

Speaker 6:19

Correct?

Speaker 2 6:19

Correct.

Speaker 6:20

You haven't started the you wanna be a stunt person- Well, if- see how it

Speaker 2 6:24

is yet if you wanna come out and experience it, the, the intensives that I have on the calendar are ideal for that type of thing, because it's the introductory skillsets, for getting into the stunt business. It's also designed for people that are already in the stunt business to be able to come out and refine their skills and get better. at what they already do. Okay.

Speaker 6:41

Give, give us an example of somebody who has been through the basics, and now what are they gonna be learning?

Speaker 2 6:46

Okay, if you've been through the basics, then you can come, to the, specialized courses or do, do private training, if you wanna get, you know, more skillsets in the, rigging and wire work, for instance, how to fly and, and do all the,, pulleys and the, uh, hand pulls and ratchets and all that kind of stuff. Or if you wanted to get more into the high fall aspect of it, we do a, an advanced high fall class and teach people how to do falls. Not very many people are doing high falls the way I, I've done them, you know, traditionally into airbags. A lot of, people are using decelerators and that type of thing, and we do, we'll, we'll be training in that as well. Um- So

Speaker 7:20

you're bringing the whole stunt experience to the next level.

Speaker 2 7:23

Right.

Speaker 7:23

Okay.

Speaker 2 7:23

Right, and, and getting more specialized. I'm what they call an all-around exotic. It's easier for me to tell you what I don't know how to do than it is for me to tell you what I know how to do.

Speaker 7:31

Well, somebody's gonna say, "What's an all-around exotic?"

Speaker 2 7:34

Right. An all-around exotic is somebody who can ride a horse, ride a motorcycle, drive a car, do a high fall, do a fight scene, you know, do a window crash, do a fire burn, scuba dive. And

Speaker 7:44

these will be all taught at the APEX Stunt and Film

Speaker 2 7:47

Ranch. These are all things that we will have programs for, yes. Absolutely.

Speaker 7:50

Fabulous.

Speaker 2 7:50

Absolutely.

Speaker 7:51

As you're building this company, you're, as the two of you are merging this partnership- How do you see it playing out? You said it's gonna be a place for people to go to just see films. You wanna do some films- Yes on property.

Speaker 2 8:05

Absolutely.

Speaker 8:06

You want to... Are you going to be, once your, I'm gonna say, stuntpeople graduate I don't know if you give them a diploma or-

Speaker 2 8:13

Well, we do give them- or push them

Speaker 8:14

out a window. We do,

Speaker 2 8:15

we do offer a certification, but that certification is in-house. That's for us to have to know what- Mm-hmm training the, the people have taken in case they wanna come back and do more stuff, we know where they are.

Speaker 8:25

Now, will you be also working as their agent to be on other film-

Speaker 2 8:29

No no. That's, something that, there are no guarantees in this business. Um, you know- That's for sure uh, uh, you just never know when you're gonna be able to get a job or when you're gonna be able to work. Now, we will have opportunities for people, in our, entertainment side of the ranch is gonna... We're, we will have Western, live Western shows, we'll have a live stunt show, uh, that people can come and watch and, and enjoy and, and kind of get an idea of what we're doing there at the, at the ranch. But the-

Speaker 8:54

Okay

Speaker 2 8:55

the live shows are very different from the film industry.

Speaker 8:58

Right.

Speaker 2 8:58

So it's

Speaker 8:59

a- This is more like what you would see at, like, Universal- Exactly or when you go to see a show.

Speaker 2 9:04

Exactly. So you'll be doing this. But the difference is, the difference is it'll be more interactive. The audience will be involved in the show. It won't just be them sitting off to the side watching the show. I don't know, that kind of scares

Speaker 9:11

me. It'll be more interactive.

Speaker 2 9:14

Yes. It'll be very much more interactive. In other words, people are maybe gonna be, you know, walking around doing their thing, and all of a sudden the show breaks out.

Speaker 9:21

Ah.

Speaker 2 9:22

And, and it's, and it's not like- Like there's a shootout on the- Yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah. You know, or, or you see a, a Model A and a Model T come roaring into town and the gangsters jump out and rob the bank and, you know- Right, and they're in the middle of the bank robbery and they're, and you're having lunch. Right. You know, it's, it, it's just a... It's gonna be a much more,

Speaker 9:37

It sounds very- organic very, very exciting. as you're building it, because this, it seems like it's gonna take a while because you gotta put all the pieces

How The Training Intensives Work

Speaker 9:45

together. You got a lot of moving parts. Now, what about kids? Kids always see that as a big thing. Will you be doing school for little ones?

Speaker 2 9:55

We intend to do some, some camps and things like that for kids. Those would be more along the lines of movie making camps, film making camps, as opposed to stunt camps. We're gonna expand from the stunt vision and go, and go fully into the, the art of motion picture production. I was working closely in Dallas with a company called Movie Institute, and Movie Institute is a 501[c]3 that teaches kids life skills through the art of motion picture production.

Speaker 10:23

Wow.

Speaker 2 10:24

And so, you know, the kids would come in every summer, and we would do, for instance, C- Camp Hollywood was a five-day summer camp that the kids come in, and they create their own projects, and we make sure that, you know, we help them get it done, and there's an awards ceremony afterwards and all that kind of stuff. And then- So do

Speaker 10:39

you see that happening, like, next summer? And we're talking 2026 now together. You see it happening in, like, 2027? I'd

Speaker 2 10:46

love to see it happen by next summer, yeah. That's gonna be pushing it, though, because you have to really have a, full slate of people signed up to facilitate doing that. Mm-hmm. It's a, it's a very expensive proposition, 'cause you have to have all of the film equipment. You gotta have all the lighting equipment, the audio, everything for the kids to use.

Speaker 11:03

Right.

Speaker 2 11:04

And so it's, you know, it gets to be a little, little pricey. But w- if we can partner with, Movie Institute and bring them on board to come and do it, then we, should be- That would be nice we should be able to do it by next year. They're in the process right now of expanding their entire operation in Dallas- Oh, wow because the place where they had their facility, just got torn down, and so they're starting over with a much larger project. So-

Speaker 11:27

Wow

Speaker 2 11:27

everything's moving forward, but it's, you

Speaker 11:28

know. Why the, the trip that you're doing here, you have A lot of moving parts- Yeah coming into play. Currently you are training future stunt people. Right. So the school part of it is still working

Speaker 2 11:41

for you. Right. When I moved down here I brought everything I needed to teach, because I was already teaching in, in Dallas.

Speaker 11:47

Right.

Speaker 2 11:47

And, but I just didn't have a big enough facility to do- Uh-huh the things I wanted to do. I have all the trampolines and rigging equipment, pads, and-

Speaker 11:53

Mm-hmm

Speaker 2 11:54

mats and airbags and ratchets and decelerators- Right and all the equipment that we needed.

Speaker 11:58

So that's step one. Step one is you're, you're doing the training- Right for future stunt people.

Speaker 2 12:03

Right.

Speaker 12:04

Step two is, what's next?

Speaker 2 12:06

Um, I would say the next step would be to develop the, other aspects of the property. For instance, there's a firing range on the property.

Speaker 12:14

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 12:14

Um, there's h- there's room for horses, so we need to get the horse stable up and running and get that, that aspect of the stunt training dialed in that's one of the things we'd like to do. So a little bit more modernization- But what do you, what do you- of the property what do you think, Sandra? What's the next step? I mean, after the,

Speaker 3 12:28

after the school. Just to get the place cleaned up and ready to go. I mean, it's, a lot of work that i- still has to be done, and we need investors.

Speaker 12:36

So you heard it here first. They need investors.

Speaker 2 12:39

And, SEC, you didn't hear that. You have to be careful making public offerings, but that's okay.

Speaker 12:46

Right.

Speaker 2 12:46

We're all good.

Speaker 12:47

No worries.

Speaker 2 12:47

You're, you're fine.

Speaker 12:49

It, it would be nice to have a little pot that you can kind of keep throwing money in. It- Right it's always nice that way.

Speaker 2 12:54

Right. Um- Well, and one of the things that we're looking at right now, we're hoping is gonna happen, I don't know, am I clear to talk about the, the property next door?

Speaker 3 13:01

Yeah, it's a possibility. That would be awesome if it could happen. That's why we need investors.

Speaker 2 13:07

Well, we're in discussions right now with the, property next to us is substantial, and we're trying to get them to partner with us rather than buying the property to actually let us build a larger studio facility there- That'd be nice for, for motion picture production.

Speaker 13:22

How big is the property right now?

Speaker 3 13:25

Right. It's 50 acres, 25 is swamp and 25 is, um, high and dry, and it's a great location. We've filmed several, several projects there. Okay, we... He's giving me the okay to mention. Sorry. Meth Gator we did in, uh, the beginning of '24, I believe. So go watch it. All of the, all of the swamp and the forest scenes,, were filmed there, and I used... I got all the extras from Groveland to work on the film, so.

Speaker 13:56

So you, you are hiring locally, which is really nice. Yes. People like to have that. Yeah. And you know, when I talk about travel and I talk about find out what's in your own community

Films Shows Camps And Funding Needs

Speaker 14:05

to go and check it out, this would be a nice place to go and see what's happening. I personally will not jump off a platform into an airbag. It's just me. Oh,

Speaker 2 14:17

yeah. Just call me crazy. You might. You'll come out and watch us- have... You'll, you'll say, "Oh, I gotta try that." The

Speaker 14:22

first, the first level is not bad. But a lot of people like... I love to watch it, 'cause it, it is amazing to see them go through this. Now, with all of the different technologies that are going on, are you gonna be installing some of this, the new technologies- Absolutely into your filming

Speaker 2 14:38

and- That's, that's a big part of Action Pack's- mission statement, is to be on the cutting edge. When I first started in the business, one of my,, I don't know what we say, role models was Dar Robinson. And Dar Robinson was the guy that invented the decelerator and, perfected the airbag and, you know, he was, he used scientific, method to, create his stunt sequences.

Speaker 15:02

What's a decelerator?

Speaker 2 15:03

A decelerator is a device that eliminates the need for an airbag on the ground. You put a cable on yourself and then jump off the building, and the cable decelerates you before you hit the ground.

Speaker 15:14

It's almost like a bungee that kinda

Speaker 2 15:17

stops you. In the, in the movie Sharky's Machine, he fell backwards off of a balcony with the camera above looking at the ground below him, and he was looking at the camera as he fell off the building, and there was no airbag on the ground. And you just see the guy falling and it's like, well, he's gonna die. Right? But he didn't, you know? He got caught by the cable and, when I came into the industry, there, everything was starting to move in a more technological direction. I looked at a lot of the equipment that was, you know, being designed by guys with size 12 boots and size two hats, and it just didn't make any sense. For instance, the air rams that, where people were using, they, it was to simulate being blown up. You step on it, it throws you through the air like a, like a trampoline almost, like a catapult. Right. But they were high pressure devices that could break your leg if you didn't hit them right.

Speaker 16:03

Yikes.

Speaker 2 16:04

And they put hair triggers on these things, and it never made any sense to me. Why does a device that a human adult has to stand on for it to do its job have a hair trigger on it? Why would it go off with anything less than the human body? So I designed a- So the whole idea behind your- I designed a system-

Speaker 16:18

Yeah

Speaker 2 16:18

that I can adjust for your body weight. It won't fire unless you jump off of it with enough force to lift your body from the planet. Right. Which is double your body weight. I had a guy on Universal Soldier 2 slip and fall face down on my air ram in the mud, and it didn't go off, and he got up and yelled at me 'cause it didn't go off. Right. And I said, "It just, it just saved your life."

Speaker 16:37

Right.

Speaker 2 16:38

It would've sent your head across the set if it had gone off.

Speaker 16:40

So a lot of people don't realize when they're, stunts are being performed, that safety is

Stunt Safety And Smarter Technology

Speaker 16:45

a big part of this.

Speaker 2 16:46

Safety is number one.

Speaker 16:47

Right.

Speaker 2 16:47

Safety, there's not a movie in the world worth breaking a fingernail over, much less dying for.

Speaker 16:52

Well, that's good.

Speaker 2 16:53

It's, it's just not worth it. You're gonna die so a bunch of people can sit in a dark room and go, "Wow, that was cool."

Speaker 16:58

Right.

Speaker 2 16:58

You know, that's not a good perspective.

Speaker 17:01

Okay, so you're, you're on the move. The ranch, I'm gonna call it the ranch now-

Speaker 2 17:07

Yeah because we kind of

Speaker 17:07

merged

Speaker 2 17:08

ranches. Uh, and just before we move on, though- Mm-hmm just so you know, I've been doing this for over 40 years, and I've never broken a bone working. I've never been seriously injured. Nobody's ever died or been seriously injured on a show that I've worked on.

Speaker 17:18

Well, that's, that's good to hear. Yeah. And when people are sending their, their kids to the school-

Speaker 2 17:22

Exactly. That's why I said

Speaker 17:23

that they're gonna wanna know that.

Speaker 2 17:24

Yeah.

Speaker 17:25

You know, that safety is number one. Yeah. We

Speaker 2 17:27

don't- Top priority we don't, we don't ask anybody to do anything they're not comfortable with, and I certainly don't let them do anything they're not ready to do, just from my perspective. Mm-hmm. If I see somebody that's just not ready, they're not doing it.

Speaker 17:37

Okay. So right now you are accepting students that want to become stunt persons.

Speaker 2 17:43

Yes.

Speaker 17:43

What, where do they contact you for that?

Speaker 2 17:46

Uh, they go to my website at actionpack.com, and my phone number's there if they wanna call and ask questions. Please read the website first, okay? Mm-hmm. I prefer stunt people that know how to read, okay? It, definitely- makes things easier. Well, I wrote three books on the stunt business called The Stunt Guide, and I realized after the third one that writing books for people who don't read is less than profitable, so. That's

Speaker 3 18:08

true.

Speaker 2 18:08

Uh, the internet took off, and it was like, "Okay, that's not necessary anymore." But I, you can go to the website. There's a training page there. It has videos and downloadable flyers for all the different courses that we offer. We will be developing some new programs, but everything that's there now is, is available at

Speaker 18:25

their disposal. So how long does it take them to get through the school?

Speaker 2 18:28

Right now the, experiences that I'm offering are what I call intensives. So they're two days, they're two-day group intensives or a three-day private intensive. So, um, we cover the bread and butter stunts. There's three things you do as a stunt performer: fly through the air, hit the ground, and fight scenes. If you can do those three things, you can probably make your way in the business and be okay. The main thing is learning how to hit the ground. If you don't know how to hit the ground, you're not gonna last very long.

Speaker 18:56

Now, that doesn't seem very long, two-day and three-day. How long are these two and three-day courses?

Speaker 2 19:02

Well, they're all day. Weeks? They're... No, they're all day. They're two days, two days, all day, eight hours a day. You're drinking from the fire hose- Right learning all the information that you need to know-

Speaker 19:10

Right

Speaker 2 19:11

in order to have foundational skills. Then if you wanna continue, you come back and take another intensive.

Speaker 19:16

Okay.

Speaker 2 19:16

And you continue to work. If you decide to take the intensive, then anything you take after that is discounted because you've already got a certification for that- Right for that class.

Speaker 19:26

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 19:26

If you show extreme potential, if we look at what you're doing and you are exceptional at what you're doing and we believe that you can actually succeed in this business-

Speaker 19:36

Mm-hmm

Speaker 2 19:36

and move forward, then we'll talk about internships and being able to come out and train and work out without having to pay.

Speaker 19:42

That's nice. Okay. That's a

Speaker 2 19:43

nice

Speaker 19:44

thing.

Speaker 2 19:44

Um, but we want people to have skin in the game. If you don't- Yeah if we give it away, you won't appreciate it- Right you won't use it, and, uh, I'll have wasted my time.

Speaker 19:53

Now, do you have, like, sessions, like spring session, summer session, fall session, or is it constant?

Speaker 2 19:58

It's constant. Okay. There's constant training going on. And, sometimes we have,, if you're a certificate holder, if you come take the intensive, I'll have a trampoline day and everybody can come out and bounce on the trampoline and it doesn't cost anything. Mm-hmm. Okay? You can come out if you're tr- if you're a certificate holder, it doesn't cost anything. If you're not, you pay the $50 or whatever it is. Right. And you come out and get training on trampoline or mini tramp or air rams or whatever it is we're doing. I'll have different workout days. I'll have just, you know, cookouts, just barbecue. Come on out to the ranch and have a hamburger and hang out and maybe we'll do some high falls. Maybe, you know, whatever everybody wants to do. Open workouts, basically

Speaker 20:32

right. So right now you're, you're kind of just in the beginning throes of everything.

Speaker 2 20:36

Yes. Yes. So- And we will have an ongoing dojo, martial arts dojo, that you can come and take martial arts classes ongoing every week.

Speaker 20:45

Fabulous.

Speaker 2 20:45

You know, three, three, four times a week you can come out and train.

Speaker 20:48

So you're gonna have a dojo.

Speaker 2 20:49

Yes.

Speaker 20:50

You're gonna be doing all this. You're gonna have summer camps for the kids.

Speaker 2 20:53

Yep.

Speaker 20:54

Um, you're gonna be putting a, a museum together. Yes. I understand you're putting a museum together.

Speaker 2 20:58

Yes.

Speaker 20:59

Because, uh, Kim Kahana had- Right quite a bit of memorabilia-

Speaker 2 21:02

Right. We, we- from his career we wanna honor his legacy as the guy that started all this. Mm-hmm. And, you know, he deserves it. The guy, risked his entire career to teach young stuntpeople the secrets of the business.

Speaker 21:14

Right.

Speaker 2 21:15

He's basically a magician telling everybody how the magic was done.

Speaker 21:18

I know.

Speaker 2 21:19

It- And the, and the other magicians weren't happy about

Speaker 3 21:23

it. I know. And he was al- he was always safety first, always. Every class it was safety, safety, safety. But he did break some bones- throughout the years.

Speaker 2 21:32

Right, which is why he knew what to tell us not to

Speaker 3 21:34

do. Not to do. Right. Right, right. But we're also doing some team building for corporate.

Speaker 2 21:39

Yes.

Speaker 3 21:39

Tell them about that, John.

Speaker 2 21:41

Yeah, yeah. We wanna do, uh, corporate team building exercises where, uh, companies can bring their employees in and,, we teach them how to make movies basically. And-

Speaker 21:49

You teach them how to make movies, but it's team building. It's team building. So

Speaker 2 21:52

it's like

Speaker 21:52

those fall back into somebody's arms kind of thing?

Speaker 2 21:55

Uh, no. It's basically you can't make a movie without a team and teamwork. You can't... It, it just won't work. You have to have camera operators. You have to have lighting guys. You have to have- Right audio. And the thing about the corporate team building is there's some people that just don't ever wanna get in front of a camera. They don't wanna be actors. Right. So, okay, here. T- you hold the camera.

Speaker 22:13

You hold the camera.

Speaker 2 22:14

Okay. And we teach them how to shoot, how to work the camera, how to work the audio, the lighting, everything, and how to write their own little script. They have to come up with their own, their own show. And.. depending on how many people there are. Right. If there's 100 people, then we divide them up into three groups, and they each make their own movie, and then they have a competition afterwards or do whatever they want to with it. How fun is that? And the corporations can, you know, use these on their websites or whatever for advertising. Mm-hmm. They can make it, you know, product centric and-

Speaker 22:42

So is this also available right now?

Speaker 2 22:44

Yes.

Speaker 22:45

It is.

Speaker 2 22:45

Yes.

Speaker 22:46

So if they, if the corporations or the businesses want to get their staff involved in something like this-

Speaker 2 22:52

Yeah

Speaker 22:53

I'm gonna say they're probably not gonna be jumping off buildings

Speaker 2 22:57

Uh, that depends

Speaker 22:58

Depends on their

Speaker 2 22:59

gutsiness? It depends on what they, it depends on what they wanna do, you know, and whether they're capable. Right. If they're not capable, they're not doing it.

Speaker 23:05

Right.

Speaker 2 23:05

You know? But there are some people that, you know, they, they're extreme sports enthusiasts that happen to work as an accountant.

Speaker 23:11

Right

Speaker 2 23:12

You know, and they don't get to, they don't get to, you know- They don't get to play. Mm-hmm they have the skills, but they don't ever get to use them.

Speaker 23:17

So this is going on right now. Again, how do they, how do these businesses contact you? What do they need to do?

Speaker 2 23:23

All they have to do is go to the website. Everything's there.

Speaker 23:25

What's the website?

Speaker 2 23:26

www.actionpac.com, and that's Action P-A-C, no K. If you go to action P-A-C-K.com, you'll go to a box factory, and that's not me.

Speaker 23:36

You're not in a box.

Speaker 2 23:37

No.

Speaker 23:37

We're not,

Speaker 2 23:38

we're not packing stuff. So

Visiting The Ranch And Next Steps

Speaker 23:39

you have, you have all of these, like I said, you have all of these balls in the air trying to get all of this going. What can you tell the audience if they wanna come and just visit the ranch? What, what should they do?

Speaker 2 23:52

Um, just call and let us know that they wanna come out, and we'll schedule a time. Mm-hmm. And, you know, if they wanna tour the ranch, that's, that's fine. Um-

Speaker 3 24:00

We've had a lot of people that are inquiring about the location, 'cause it films awesome. It really films good. We've done so many things. If you go on YouTube and put in Kim Kahana, you see tons of stuff that was filmed at the school. Yeah.

Speaker 24:16

I know, I know. I've been out to the school. Yeah. It is, it is out there a ways, and it does look like you're in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 3 24:22

But the road is fixed. But the road is paved. They're gonna build 240 homes, and then my road, they fixed my road for me, the nice people that, are doing the paving of the road. And what was their

Speaker 2 24:32

name?

Speaker 3 24:33

Wankin-

Speaker 2 24:34

Okay

Speaker 3 24:34

Construction. They do all of the roads and everything in the, in Lake County. They're amazing.

Speaker 24:41

Well, that's very good. That's called a cheap, shameless plug, but we are always doing that. Yeah. There you go.

Speaker 2 24:45

And, um-

Speaker 24:46

So, you know, in parting, 'cause, you know, we like to do things locally here in Florida, and this is something that people can go to. They can see what's going on. You have the corporate aspect that people can come and do this teamwork. You have the stunt school going on. You're building it so you can have kids that come in for summer camp for hopefully next year.

Speaker 3 25:09

Right.

Speaker 25:09

You have a museum that you're working on with all of, uh, Kim Kahana's memorabilia from all of the movies and stunts that he has performed in his day. What else can you tell me before we sign

Speaker 2 25:20

off? Well, we also wanna make sure that people understand that this is a working film facility, that people, if you're making a movie and you need a location, come check it out. If you just need a place to do your pre-vis work for your stunt work, we have all the equipment, all the pads, everything you need to set up your stunts. If you're a stunt coordinator out there and you need a place to come and, you know, put your stunts together and then take them to your director, uh, if you're doing pre-vis work, we have a facility available for that.

Speaker 25:47

Great. And again, the website for them to contact you is...

Speaker 2 25:53

Is www.actionpac.com, and that's action P-A-C .com.

Speaker 25:57

And the name of the entire company is...

Speaker 2 26:00

Is going to be Apex Stunt and Film Ranch

Speaker 26:04

And it's a combination of you and Sandra Tahana bringing the stunts to the world. Yeah. That sounds great. I love it. And? In honor of Kim Tahana. In honor of Kim Tahana.

Speaker 2 26:15

Keeping, keeping his legacy alive. Yep.

Speaker 26:17

Yes, his legacy needs to be alive. He was quite the man.

Speaker 2 26:22

Well, if it wasn't for him, a lot of stunt guys wouldn't be alive, so.

Speaker 26:25

That's true. I remember meeting him, and he was talking about his mentors. Yeah.

Speaker 2 26:30

Yeah, Yakima Canutt. Yakima. And, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The big guys, the big dogs.

Speaker 26:35

So people that are in the movie industry and the stunt world will know these people.

Speaker 2 26:39

Yeah. And the Eppers, you know, the whole Epper family. They, they, they were, you know, T- Tony Epper was one of my mentors-

Speaker 3 26:45

Right

Speaker 2 26:45

later on.

Speaker 26:46

There you go. Yeah.

Speaker 3 26:47

Well- He had some stories. He had some stories, remember? Oh, yeah. About that, never got tired of listening to his stories. And now he has taken his place, and he really tells great stories. I'm

Speaker 2 26:58

not taking his place.

Speaker 3 26:59

Not taking his place. But he's like a... He has- I would never claim that position he, he, he has the, he has the mindset, only better, because he's, he's more modern than Kay was. Kay was old school. But you could listen... I, I was there for 33 years, never got tired of listening to his stories, so, as

Speaker 27:18

you know. I know. Well, thank you very much for joining me today, and I look forward to seeing this come to its fruition. I can't wait to go and visit the museum, and I'll watch from the sidelines. I'm not jumping out any with you. No

Speaker 2 27:30

problem. One thing I would just wanna say real quick is if you do plan, on getting any kind of stunt training or instruction, please do your homework and check the people that you're giving money to. Um, make sure that they have, legitimate credits and that they have legitimate referrals and that they haven't had multiple surgeries. You know, you don't want... There's a lot of people out there claiming to be stunt coordinators and stunt performers that- And they're all broken and they, well, they're, they are either that or they just don't know, they just don't know the business. They haven't been doing it long enough. Right. I've been doing this stuff for over 40 years. I know what I'm doing.

Speaker 28:01

And safety first.

Speaker 2 28:03

Absolutely, 100%.

Speaker 28:04

Well, thank you.

Speaker 5 28:06

Again, I would like to thank

28:08

Sandra Kahana and John Kane

Speaker 5 28:10

for joining me today and speaking about Apex Stunt and Film Ranch. I can't wait to go and visit it again. Remember, when you are reaching for those stars, you never know what's in your own backyard. So till next time, keep dreaming, keep reaching for the stars, and if you only get to the moon, at least you made the trip. See you on your next adventure. Thanks for joining me today.