Firing blanks from a real gun

[Jcordell]

Originally Posted by mr_Goodbomb

Brandon Lee, if I'm not mistaken, wasn't even shot with a blank. They emptied normal rounds, which is incredibly stupid, to make the "blanks," because they showed them previously in the movie as real rounds being loaded and used the same ones, emptied, as blanks. My facts may be a bit off, however.

I remeber reading that there was a bullet stuck in the barrel from a squib and nobody knew about it. So when the actor fired a blank there was enough energy to send the bullet out of the barrel and into Lee.

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Checkman

I remeber reading that there was a bullet stuck in the barrel from a squib and nobody knew about it. So when the actor fired a blank there was enough energy to send the bullet out of the barrel and into Lee.

The bullet was part of a dummy cartridge - which was made by taking a real bullet and removing the powder from it. The scene called for the gun to be shown getting loaded with the dummy rounds, before it was later fired using blanks. Somehow, the head was put on too loosely, and when an untrained property assistant (not the armorer, who got sent off-set to save money) dry-fired the gun to uncock it, the bullet came loose from the shell and got lodged in the chamber. Nobody checked the gun before it was loaded with blanks and fired at Lee, and the wad from the blank propelled the bullet from the chamber and into Lee's abdomen.

[Ace Oliveira]

Originally Posted by MT2008

The bullet was part of a dummy cartridge - which was made by taking a real bullet and removing the powder from it. The scene called for the gun to be shown getting loaded with the dummy rounds, before it was later fired using blanks. Somehow, the head was put on too loosely, and when an untrained property assistant (not the armorer, who got sent off-set to save money) dry-fired the gun to uncock it, the bullet came loose from the shell and got lodged in the chamber. Nobody checked the gun before it was loaded with blanks and fired at Lee, and the wad from the blank propelled the bullet from the chamber and into Lee's abdomen.

And that gentlemen, is why you never screw around with guns on set without armourer supervision.

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira

And that gentlemen, is why you never screw around with guns on set without armourer supervision.

In America, you aren't necessarily obligated to have an armorer on-set unless you have NFA weapons (in countries with stricter gun laws, this is a different story). Propmasters and their assistants handle guns on-set all the time. Or at least, they used to (this is apparently changing).

It's just that in the case of "The Crow", the particular property assistant who handled the gun that killed Lee while the armorer was off-set happened to be very inexperienced.

[Jcordell]

Thanks. It's been sixteen years since I read that article about Lee's death. I remember thinking that the move set had some real issues and that Lee's death was totally avoidable.

[mr_Goodbomb]

Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira

And that gentlemen, is why you never screw around with guns on set without armourer supervision.

That's just plain stupid.

[Excalibur]

It's a shame for Brandon Lee. He seemed to have a promising career ahead of him.

[AdAstra2009]

Originally Posted by Excalibur

It's a shame for Brandon Lee. He seemed to have a promising career ahead of him.

First the Legendary "Bruce Lee" died tragically and then a couple decades later so would his son.

[ShootingJames]

Without knowing your personal firearms experience, budget or crew setup and camera package, I would advise you to use blank firing guns. They are expensive, but still much cheaper and safer than real firearms. Just as loud though, so have lots of extra hearing protection on set. You can pick up black foam ear plugs for your actors.

Unless you are going to have a dedicated propmaster/armorer on set to control the use of real weapons, don't use them. I've worked low budget and no budget films for years, along with some bigger budget fare, and for a small crew with no armorer it's much better to have blank guns on set.

Also, the blank ammunition itself is much cheaper and much easier to get than crimped blanks.

If you have an assortment of calibers in real weapons you really do need someone who knows what they are doing loading and preparing the guns for scenes.

With blank fire guns it's easier, as you can purchase all the same caliber as there are only 3 to choose from anyway. 9mmPAK, 8mm, and 380 revolver.