The guy was tall, about 6'1".
I was doing a sleep sack scene. I was using the winch to get him into suspension.
I ended up getting about 3 feet away from my balance point. His being very tall meant that I couldn't lift him up far enough to get slack in the chains. This meant that instead of needing to lift 5lbs I was needing to lift about 45lbs with one arm.
He was never in pain and never in danger of being in pain.
I had backup plans. There was a set of bolt cutters in the corner.
I considered positioning myself underneath and performing a leg press underneath to get the slack.
These plans would have irrevocably broken the scene.
I ended up shifting his center of gravity as near as possible to the floor, unzipping the sleep sack and having him step out.
It wasn't pretty, but allowed me to maintain enough dignity to salvage the scene.
He enjoyed the scene. I will do better next time.
