from: Peter Giuliano

I have known Joel Kramer since 1988.  We worked on 7 Movies and 2 TV shows together.  We filmed on location and in LA.

Joel and I are close friends and colleagues.

On our jobs together, Joel was the stunt coordinator and I was the 1^st A.D.  We worked with actors, of all ages, and stunt persons. For anyone not involved in the film business, the crew’s safety during a stunt can also be tricky.  In fact we have a something called Hazard pay for the crew.  I watched Joel always work very hard to insure the safety of not only the Cast and his stunt team, but the Crew as well.

I have so many stories about Joel’s professionalism; it’s hard to know where to start, but here’s one:

On one movie we had to do a gag, not a stunt, with an infant. Joel was very concerned with the safety of the baby. The infant had to look like it was floating around the room.  It was a steadicam shot so the infant had to be hand carried and not attached to anything. It required the infant to be carried at the end of two poles wrapped in green. Joel was to take one pole and insisted I take the other pole. He told me the reason he wanted me on the other pole was because he knew if anything started to go wrong I would yell cut and put the infants safety before the shot, just as he would. As I said, with Joel, always it was the safety of the people on the set first, something I have always admired about Joel.

When I became a line producer, Joel was always my first call for a stunt coordinator or second unit director.  Unfortunately for me, because of Joel’s impeccable reputation, he was almost always booked on other jobs.

Joel is, and has always been, a Pro.

Your friend forever,

Peter Giuliano