Why I'm in a bad mood so often ;)
 

(Part one of ???) (enjoy)

Get called for a last minute scene for a film. Art Director (a 25 yr old woman who kinda looks like a Berkeley/Haight Ashbury style street protester) says "We need three guns for three soldiers".

I ask "What kind?"

She rolls her eyes like I'm being an idiot and quips "Oh, you know. Guns? the type that soldiers carry?" She has a real contempt for guns and people who own or use them. That's pretty obvious.

I am persistent. "Okay. What year?"

She goes "Oh, now. We're filming this year."

I'm confused, I ask 'You mean you're filming in 2011? or the film's plot takes place in 2011?"

She gets really annoyed. She says "You ASKED me when we were filming?!?!"

I reply '"No, I asked you what year the film takes place."

She rolls her eyes again "Oh, 60s 70s some time long ago".

I say "Okay, well the 60s or 70s wasn't that long ago, but it is historical. Now are they American soldiers?"

She says "They're guards" .... (checks her notes) ... "MPs"

"Okay, one more time, are they American MPs?"

"Yes"

"Okay, so you want three rifles for American Military Police, standing guard somewhere between the 1960s and 1970s. "

She says "MPs!"

I go "Yes, that's what MP stands for. 'Military Police'...."

So I load up M16A1s (with original slab side M16s as a backup) into the truck and off I go. (and though they're supposed to select the weapons themselves, I'm being a nice guy and bring three M1911-A1s in period holsters just in case)

When I get to the set in the middle of nowhere, I quickly realize that the soldiers are MPs at the Roswell UFO crash site in 1947!!!!!!!!

I'm furious since I brought the wrong guns. But the director (another guy fresh out of film school) walks up and says "I love the guns!"......

Face palm! (At least I brought the M1911-A1s.........):eek:

I guess they could say the MPs got the M16s from the aliens! Too bad you didn't bring M14s then you could of just took the mags out and wouldn't be so out of place.

Reminds me of that bit in one of the Star Trek movies where Picard asks the computer for something like "clothes, late 20th century" and this somehow works. Should have just come back with two flintlock muskets and a medieval cannon. :D

Must say I feel for you, though. I've never understood that bizarre breed of people who are proud of not knowing something and dislike anyone who's gone to the effort of understanding it better than they do.

I can see how having to deal with some anti-gun director who doesn't understand the point of period correctness would wear on someone who deals with firearms and films for a living. I'd get mad too. I look forward to reading some more of the idiocy you can recall coming from these people.

As much sympathy as I feel for you, that is quite a hilarious read. ;)

For shame! You know that just pulling the mags out of the M14 would not make it look close enough to a Garand to fool anyone. Try pulling that with THIS BUNCH! LOL!!!! You'd get sarcastic remarks for days! :D

A pilot was filming for a new series (yet unaired) where the timeframe is the early to mid 1960s. (since the show "Mad Men" the early 60s is hot right now). I get a call for guns for police officers and one federal agent. I'm seeing some of the advance shots of the costuming and I'm going "All Right!!! They look pretty damned good. The wardrobe looks right and best of all, the hair and makeup is spot on for the year they're portraying! Woo. Hoo."

I give them a list of what I recommend and a list of accessories:
1) S&W Model 10s, 15s, 19s
2) Chief's Special or Colt Detective Special or M1911 for the Federal agent
3) Smooth black leather duty gear with Sam Brown belt shoulder strap for officers and all leather belt holster or shoulder holster in brown leather for the Federal agent.

Then I get the propmaster's list:

1) H&K USP two tone
2) Beretta 92FS
3) FN FiveseveN
4) Desert Eagle
5) Black Cordura duty belts with velcro
6) Black nylon shoulder rig for the Fed

*crunch* the sound of my head hitting the desk......

I query as to how they came to a list like this. Well, to begin with, the Head of the Art department had these guns as airsoft toys (inexpensive spring ones) that he bought for his 7 yr old (but then thought the kid was too young and kept them). He then asked his older son, 12 yrs old, who is a video game fanatic, who plays MOH and COD, etc. what type of guns he recommends? (He probably didn't tell the kid the context either).

So, I'm being overridden due to an art department decision made by a 12 yr old. :eek:

'Hey, while you're at it, where should we set this shootout and who should the bad guys be?'

<next day>

'We're going to need five great white sharks and a full-size mockup of the Titanic.'

Even if they say the movie take place in the 60s, there is a pretty big gap between the 60s and 70s. I mean if you found out the movie took place in the early 60s before the M16 came out, you'd be in trouble.

But seriously? A USP? A Desert fucking Eagle? For a second, I thought this was the list of guns for the next Mission Impossible movie

Please please PLEASE for the love of God say that the man's wish to create a decent, respectable and believable work of fiction eventually over-rid his nepotistic inclination to listen to his gamer son instead of an expert. I mean, he does realize that even laymen viewers would notice that something was very wrong with a 60s Suit toting a plastic ray-gun looking pistol and the gun from Lethal Weapon, right?

Hey, maybe they're making a Call of Duty: Black Ops movie. :D

Or the guy used to work for Treyarch.

roflmao 1234567

Or maybe both!! But seriously, I get annoyed when people only recognize firearms because of the COD games.

On the other hand, it's better than not recognizing them at all.

Good point.

All throughout the show I was hoping that Picard would make such a vague statement and then come out to the transporter room dressed like THIS.....
http://www.mypartyplanner.com/common...age_100214.jpg

Well that explains some of the weird stuff I see in the movies when it comes to historically incorrect firearms. Everyone is listening to twelve year old kids!:confused:

I believe the request was "late 21st century period clothing"; since the whole time travel thing left them in 2063.

Still, that's just asking for the computer to beam you down in pyjamas or lingerie or clown costumes or whatever.

I am surprised there is any kind of resistance or unreasonable attitude when it comes to period work. Just like costumes, vehicles, computer tech, TV's, whatever, the guns have to be correct. Just watched Super 8 and I was happy with the work done on making the film feel period.

I'll tell you what, if the director doesn't do his or her homework on researching all aspects of the era they are portraying on screen, fuck 'em. They are not doing their job. I get really bothered by a lot of the kids coming out of film school who just don't get it.

"I love the guns!" Really? You should know they are wrong pinhead!

Yeah, except Super 8 had the Air Force guys wearing horrendous blue berets, shoddy insignia placement on the officer insignia,heck back then, if I recall correctly they were still SPs and didn't wear the blue beret yet. Plus horrible insignia placement for the Colonel. Wrong pistol belts, wrong holsters, and at that point the USAF was still issuing the Combat Masterpiece, not to mention the M-46 tanks, which atleast had the correct paint schemes.

I really want to see movies with m16s at a roswell crash or a fed firing a 5-7 in the 60s

This is why I actually bother to take the time and research appropriate guns for a setting I'm writing if I have nothing canon to draw on (I'm a fan-fiction writer, deal with it. :cool:).

Maybe you'll get lucky and Uwe Boll will do an alien movie.

I think even Uwe Boll would know there were no M16s in 1947.

I believe we had this discussion on IMFDB about the blue berets on the Star Trek page. SAC security had funky looking blue berets in the 60's and each base had their own way of wearing them. There was a website about SAC security that had a lot of photos of them with their berets.

Good point on the SAC Security guys. Heck, they were the fellas LeMay wanted the original AR-15 for. I do believe that is the heraldic basis of the current SF blue beret worn by USAF Sky Cops.

That being said, surely the USAF truck drivers in that operation weren't SAC cops, now were they?:D

Have not seen the film as I have been slammed with film work myself. But you can stretch the truth on this and say due to the highly classified operation that SAC cops were used as drivers..

A piece of historical fact on LeMay's AR-15 order for SAC cops. The first batches of AR's had Air Force Insignia Blue furniture on them. It's hard to spot in photos but I had some in my hands to look at and they are blue paint over brown fiberglass.

Who says they wouldn't just grab a SAC E-nothing and task him with driver duty.

Yeah, but a SAC E-nothing would be wearing a fatigue cap, an OD ball cap, a squadron ball cap, or one of those horrendous colored flight line ball caps.

I haven't read anything that says that the SAC beret was a rank related item.

Yeah, but it was SAC Security exclusive.

Generally, Sky Cops don't drive trucks in the Air Force. Truck drivers do that.

Is there even a truck driver mos in the Air Force.

I know there is a heavy equipment operator job code.

Well better late than never. My father was a SAC sky cop back in the mid sixties (63-66). He wore a blue beret here in the states. He was issued a Smith & Wesson Model 15 4" and at first carried an M2 carbine. They were the first branch to get AR-15 rifles. He does not recall blue paint on the furniture.

When he was stationed at Bien Hoa Air Force Base (South Vietnam) in 65 he carried a Winchester 1897 "Trench Gun", a Smith & Wesson Model 15 snubbie in a shoulder holster (yes he was issued a snub-nosed revolver in a combat zone gents) and a 1911A1 on his belt. His last couple of months in Vietnam the Air Force took away the shotgun and issued him an M16. He continued to carry the Model 15 and the 1911A1. In Vietnam he either wore a steel pot or a style of fatigue cap known as a Ridgeway.

The lieutenant in charge of his ......... well I was Army so I don't know what his immediate unit would have been. I would call it a platoon.....carried an M2 carbine and a 4" S&W Model 15 when he was in Vietnam. My father said that things were a little looser in the early days, but by the time he rotated back to the states early in 66 they were tightening up and (at least for the Air Force sky cops) the M16 rifle was becoming commonplace and the hodgepodge of firearms was being reduced.

Checkman, I think it would be called a Flight.

That's cool. When my Dad in SEA, from '73-75, he carried a hodgepodge as well.

A Model 15, an M-1911A1, an Ithaca 37, and an XM-117.

OK, I'm starting to get this reaction as a result of people I RP with. If you're told to stick to weapons from 1995 or earlier that means you're not allowed a 2006 vintage LWRC M6A2, or a 1999 SAR-21, or a 2003 S&W500.

People somethings have no imagination when it comes to RPs. Hell, I'd get creative with certain eras that I am stuck with. Just because I can't use more modern guns, doesn't mean I get nothing to work with.

So what kind of RP are you doing?

We were doing a rehash of Neon Genesis Evangelion with our own characters.