Scott May Stuntshow Detling - Matt Cranch aka "Max The Manx Crank" Human Cannonball

tI was at Detling showground on Monday 25th April with my family to watch the Scott May Daredevil stuntshow. Sadly during the show the net for the landing of the human cannonball collapsed and stuntman Matt Cranch known by his stage name as "Max The Manx Crank" from his Isle of Man roots died in Maidstone Hospital as a result. It has been suggested that the cause could either be some catastophic failure of the safety system or whether foul play was any part of it. Kent police are appealing for any photos or video taken on the day to be handed to them to assist their investigation into Matt's death. The Sun newspaper reported that Matt Cranch had only been doing the stunt job with Scott May daredevil show for two weeks.


We shot video on the Canon 550D SLR camera with 70-200IS lens. I had taken the camera to give a longer reach than the Canon 5D2 due to the 1.6x crop factor. All video I shot of the event was collected by the police on the evening of the show. The video showing the rest of the Scott May stuntshow is on YouTube and how the nettting collapsed as Matt was projected from the cannon.

Scott May Stuntshow Human Canonball Tragedy at Detling Kent on 25 April 2011

As mentioned in a previous blog post it is possible to extract still images from the video of the Canon range of DSLR cameras. These stills are at full HD resolution 1920x1080 but the clarity will depend on the shutter speed used for the video. The shutter speed for good video movement is not ideal for capture of still images.

As shown in the images the net becomes detached from the cannon lorry just as Matt Cranch is projected from the cannon. The Sun newspaper reported that he had only been doing the stunt job with Scott May daredevil show for two weeks.

Scott May stuntshow at Detling

Scott May stuntshow at Detling

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3549335/Doomed-human-cannonball-Matt-Cranch-flies-through-the-air-helpless-as-safety-net-collapses-benath-him.html