Is it loaded with “blanks”? Or with dummy rounds? or with "live rounds with real bullets?
Doesn’t take long to learn the difference, I would think. Or a little chart could be made.
Perhaps having manufacturers mark eah type of them differently, with colored dots?
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What is the legitimate reason for using a gun in a movie with live rounds?
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GIGO
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Provides entertainment for the cast and crew in the off hours.
That production was just toxic.
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That was my thinking too.
The counterargument is that they may be using dummy rounds which the armorer can recognize but the actor cannot, and they may have a specific sequence of blank and dummy rounds, which the actor can screw up in sloppy inspection. In which case I think the armorer should inspect where everyone can see, and go over the sequence. And they’re supposed to use remote cameras and make sure never to point firearms at people. And they could use barrel-blocked firearms just in case.
So many ways that went wrong.
Apparently they took a lot of shortcuts, both because of budget, and mismanagement, and then the walkout.
Apparently it’s common for westerns to hire cowboy trick shooters as extras. The trick shooters want to keep up practice. There has to be some way to do this without mixing ammo. For a while I was thinking they could use bright orange ammo for that, but if every shooter has different calibres, that’d be impractical.
If the production provides all the guns-- normal-looking barrel-blocked ones for filming, and bright warning-coloration ones for practice firing-- and all the ammo, with bright warning-coloration ones for practice firing, that might help.
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The trick shooters could use weapons of their own that are the same models as the ones being filmed?
They could not use ammo at all and just CGI everything in? Retrain the trick shooters to do so?
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There’s the possibility that someone screws up, and the real one makes it onto set.
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Check the personal weapons into a locker before filming the shooting scenes, and do all of the scenes to be filmed at wherever the set’s located before moiving on (which I think they try to do anyhow).
When the T.S.s are no longer needed, they go back and check their personal weapons out, which were of course unloaded before being put into the locker.
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No. This is all horseshit. No firearms on set period. Real-looking pop guns, sure, but fuck your hobby, this is a job.
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That would work, too. I just wonder how much their union would kick over it.
And CGI to me would be cool.
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It seems like it wouldn’t be hard to fit a multi-axis accelerometer and a few switches/buttons along with a small microcontroller (like an ESP32) into a realistic prop gun that could track relative position, orientation, and events like triggers synchronized to the recorded footage. That data could then be fed into a post production system that would enable largely automated replacement of gun models as well as placement of bullet paths and sound effects. This would additionally allow for a much quieter set during shootout scenes, assuming they’re currently noisy. I don’t know, I’m not a filmmaker, but this seems like a solvable engineering problem. Surely they do something like that for lightsabers in Star Wars movies by now?
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Not only that, but the weapons which the Stormtroopers fire as well. And even w/CGI, those never hit anything (right?)!
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It seems like a much better solution is simply to hire competent armorers and prop folks. That seems to be the real problem here.
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But . . . but . . . $$$$$$$$$$$!
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And ADs, etc who will listen to them, and not decide to try to do parts of the job themselves…
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Hannah Gutierrez Reed pushes back
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I do think there’s plenty of blame to go around (though, considering that Baldwin was in the position where he’s supposed to be following directions from others who should know what’s going on, I would think any blame for him would be highly dependent on specifics that aren’t available). But, the armorer’s statement, and some of the other information going around about her, doesn’t really do her any favors at all…
A source who worked on “The Old Way” and requested their name not be included for fear of professional reprisal told CNN they also had concerns about Gutierrez’s work on the project.
“She walked out onto the set with live rounds with no announcement whatsoever to the cast and crew by her,” the source said. “She never announced to anyone that she was walking on the set carrying firearms loaded with blanks with her.”
“She didn’t carry the firearms safely. She had pistols tucked under her armpits and was carrying rifles in each hand that were ready to be used in the scene,” this individual added. “Firearms were aimed at people. She turned around and the pistols that were tucked under her armpits were pointing back at people.”
Gutierrez-Reed herself admitted that she was not sure she was ready for work in an interview after filming The Old Way.
“This was my first time as a chief gunsmith. You know, at first I was very nervous about it, and I almost gave up this job because I wasn’t sure if I was ready, but everything seemed to go very smoothly. "
She continued, “The best part of my job is just to show people, who are usually intimidated by guns, how safe they can be and how safe the weapon is if it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”
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Is “murder” the intention of the reporter, or the intention of the Google translate algorithm?
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Likely ‘killing’ was meant; further down the page it does say ‘accident’ a few times.
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