Cully Borodenko

One of the best tactical action programs out there.  In one week after this course I got work on the Blockbuster movie Underworld 4. This and future work I would not be able to obtain without taking this course. I highly recommend the Tactical Course for Film/TV offered by Tactical Actions Group.
Nick Marinos

1. Chaos
2. Psych
3. Sanctuary
4. Underworld 4
5. Eureka

We’ll keep you posted as new and exciting stuff comes up!

Thanks!
TAG

The mystery of firearms (See! Told you I’d get back to that!) is in how simple they are, but how complicated they can feel.  It’s easy right?  The clip goes in the gun and it goes boom.  First of all, call a magazine a clip, and one of your instructors will very kindly point out that a clip is what goes in a woman’s hair.  A magazine is what goes into your weapon. I t’s when you add adrenaline into the mix that somple things get complicated.  So, in theory using firearms is simple, and that’s what the instructors were trying to teach the students at the course.  Knowledge, comfort, and confidence were the keywords of the workshop.

The students were a mixed bunch. A professional MMA fighter, stunt performers, actors, self defense instructors and those who were just plain interested. All were there to become more comfortable and competent with firearms in a film environment.  The instructors all had real world military and police knowledge and experience, which increased the authenticity factor greatly. There was also a professional action photographer and a video camera-woman taking pictures and capturing moments at all times.

By the end of the two and a half days the students looked and moved much more comfortably and confidently with firearms.  (There’s those key words again!)  They knew where to point them, and more importantly, where NOT to point them. “Fingers off the trigger!!” And they had an absolute BLAST.  Here are some of the comments from the students about their experiences.

The Firearms for Film course conducted by TAG is an absolute must for anyone looking to play military, police or service roles in film. The attention to detail is beyond exceptional and all information comes from first hand working knowledge. The instructors are highly skilled, first rate, real world operators who show you the difference between real life and film modification. This course will add another level of realism that so many people are coming to expect of actors and extras today. Beyond the tangible benefits the course is an absolute blast that is just plain too much fun. The final hours will leave you breathless and hungry for more!

Cameron Somerville

“Grenade! Cover!” and “Good group, everyone listened, no funny business, respect for gun safety.”

Julian Lau (Assistant Instructor)

“Not only is this course very informative and useful for when you get on set; its a complete blast! I highly recommend!”

Kevin Pattee

As an outsider not involved in the film industry, what I witnessed was an instructor cadre who were hands down the most knowledgeable group on firearms handling and safety, military and SWAT style tactics, both real world and how they apply in the film industry, as well as an engaged group of participants. A wealth of information and experience was shared that will, I have no doubt, leave the participants heads above their peers as extras, background performers and in lead roles in the film industry. I was able to witness individuals go from understanding how to properly lace their military boots to being able to gear up and effectively function as part of fire-teams and small units. Not only did everyone have a blast, they also gained valuable knowledge and experience, and had the adrenalin rush of their life.

When you see a locally shot production with extras and back ground performers who look and sound the part, be it military or SWAT, you can bet they were trained by TAG. To all the cast and crew… Clear and Safe and good luck in future productions.

Every extra has his or her special group of skills that could easily be utilized on set. Some extras are experts within their own rights. One of the categories that casting hires extras for is known as “special skills” or “special ability extra”, SAE for short.

Basically, it can be loosely defined as … any skill, which you can display with a great degree of proficiency that is not common to the general public… To name a few for example: snowboarding, welding, playing a guitar, forklift operation, trapeze artist, gymnastics, etc…and firearms.

Being hired in the SAE category does command a higher pay over general background roles. The caveats being that you are “hired” or “upgraded” in that capacity. TAG makes every effort to market and promote all the different types of special skills of its extras to casting.

Furthering that end, and having an extensive military background myself, it just made sense to bring that knowledge and training to the agency and to the film industry. I train extras and actors in the proper handling of firearms and tactics for film: To be the soldier firing at the enemy; to be the swat officer kicking in the door; to handle firearms on-set safely.

I also believe everyone should have the opportunity to have access to roles encompassing these skills. Hence, the training I do is open to everyone, even from other talent agencies. Take a look at the training page on this website and see if its for you.

TAG is an all inclusive extras talent agency and submits all extras from its roster for all types of background roles. Without a doubt, everyone does get submitted for all general and specific background roles such as passer-bys, bar and club patrons, business folks, etc. This after-all is the meat and potatoes of most scenes filmed. We also submit our extras for stand-in and photo doubling.

However, this is not where it ends. TAG does have its own special niche of skills that sets it apart from other talent agencies: Firearms and Tactically trained personnel. Think about it. How often do you see a police officer, or soldier, or bad guy with a gun on screen? It isn’t that we only take folks with firearms and tactics training but rather we attempt to add firearms and tactics training to the extra’s repertoire of skills. This allows our performers access to a wider range of roles.

The simple answer is “Yes, and very busy”. In fact, the industry rumours 2011 to be one of the busiest film years in a long time.

With Mission Impossible 4 ( till 24 March) leading the year and other movies such as Underworld 4 (7 March – 24 May), Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 (1 Feb – 9 March), TSBD (21 Feb – 13 Apr) the year is off to a great start.

As such, Tactical Actions Group Inc is currently accepting new applications for extras to work on upcoming films scheduled to film in Vancouver. If interested, fill out our on-line application on our extras page.

I’ve had a lot of amazing days on set. A few boring ones too, but the great ones really stand out. One that I particularly remember was on Stargate Atlantis. I was dressed as a soldier stationed on the Atlantis base. The plot of this episode was that the evil Wraith were attacking and we were on the defensive.

“Run from here, to there,” the 2nd AD said, pointing in a banana shaped curve. The room I was in, along with 4 other soliders was huge – 3 stories high – with rooms and balconies along two sides.

On the floor above our exit point was a huge gun on a tripod. One of the special skills background was manning it. We hadn’t even started filming yet and already he had a huge grin. For this scene that mammoth gun was actually going to fire blanks. It was gonna be loud.

The props guy came around and gave us our firearms. I believe they were plastic M4 assault rifles. Everyone in our group slung themselves into the weapons, put on helmets and got ready for the scene. We all knew that with this many background and guns that were actually firing (blanks of course!) that the director would want to get this done in as few takes as possible.

Suddenly it was time to go. We all huddled outside giant sliding doors on the set, waiting for the guy in charge of our little group to give us the ‘go’ signal. “Roll film. Rolling. And action!” squawked through the radio. And that’s when the big gun kicked in. And I was wrong. It wasn’t loud. It was shockingly, crushingly loud.

Our little group of soldiers took off for our end point, and it was all I could do to not laugh out loud in exhileration. Brass and bullet links from the chain fed rounds above rained down. One rather hot shell fell down the back of my collar. Thankfully it didn’t make me jump too much or start flailing at my neck.

We all piled through the door at the end where another guy waited to usher us through. Even though it was only a 100 feet or so, we were all panting and out of breath. The giant gun shut down and there were claps and hoots from all 3 floors. “Going again,” came through the radio.

“Sweet!” crowed one of my team mates. I couldn’t agree more. Now that was a great day. But as I used to say, any day on Stargate is a great day.