Apparently there's a science behind spinning on a chair at incredibly fast speeds and then trying to navigate piles of broken glass barefoot. Sure, it's not your average "put the blue liquid over the Bunsen burner" type of science. But it's the type of extreme stunt performed by escapologist Jonathan Goodwin in his new Discovery Channel series One Way Out.

To promote the series debut, Motion Theory director Grady Hall had Goodwin perform an array of stunts in camera, all within 30 seconds.

"[Discovery] wanted to show the flavor of the show and have a behind-the-scenes walkthrough," explains Hall of the concept. "I constructed [stunts] he'd already done, things he's going to do and things that he maybe wasn't thinking about doing but we put in anyway because they looked painful!"

The single-take promo begins with Goodwin escaping a water tank lit with flames, then extinguishing himself on a mattress before coolly launching into dialogue.

"He had no flame retardant on him," says Hall. "He intentionally face planted into the mattress so he could get rid of the flames on his face."

Hall put Goodwin through this process over 18 takes, all shot in half a day at Goodwin's workshop outside LA. The escapologist was a good sport and keen to try any stunt that Hall suggested.

"To tell you what kind of a guy he is, and what kind of a guy I am to put him through this: I said, 'What if we take two rat traps and one of your fellow assistants comes up to you and asks what rat trap to use, and you just put your hands through them as they snap down in every take?' He was like, 'Oh, totally.'"

The rat trap idea was nixed because it didn't work with the incredibly tight timing, as was an idea to film a loose ostrich.

"The most dangerous thing was the ostrich," says Hall. "It's a nine-foot-tall animal that has the ability to break your legs. The handler didn't think it'd stay so that was the one thing we had to change."

Keep in mind, the ostrich was the most dangerous thing in a promo that also features a scorpion placed in Goodwin's mouth, which is then taped shut, as he handcuffs himself behind his back.

"We had one day of rehearsals and we didn't have the scorpion, so we thought it'd work [on the shoot day] as long as we could get it in his mouth really fast."

So does this qualify as one of Hall's most nail-biting shoots?

"This was the easiest job I've ever done," he laughs. "I'm telling you the 100% truth!"

Motion Theory http://www.motiontheory.com
Discovery Channel http://dsc.discovery.com