Blanks vs Digital Effects

[Sergei Titov]

Why do so many TV shows and movies always have their cast holding real guns, yet the flash is digital the noise is green and there is no recoil? Isn't it easier and more realistic to fire blanks during a shoot out? Zero Dark thirty is the first movie or TV show that I've seen where the gun noises sounded REMOTELY real!

[funkychinaman]

I think with real blank firing weapons on set, you'd need an armorers on set. With fake guns, you don't.

[MoviePropMaster2008]

Originally Posted by Sergei Titov

Why do so many TV shows and movies always have their cast holding real guns, yet the flash is digital the noise is green and there is no recoil? Isn't it easier and more realistic to fire blanks during a shoot out? Zero Dark thirty is the first movie or TV show that I've seen where the gun noises sounded REMOTELY real!

1) Usually when the cast is holding real guns they use blanks, either that or what is the point of having a real gun on set? If the gun is real, you still need a legal handler.

2) "The noise is green"??? What does that mean?

3)"...there is no recoil?" Well there is very little recoil when blanks are fired on live guns anyway. And absolutely no recoil at all when the actors are 'mime firing' airsoft replica guns. Usually actors trying to fake recoil with CGI gun flashed look bad.

4)re: Zero Dark thirty, the sound of a gun fight is NEVER recorded live and set to the film without massive audio mixing. Chances are you are listening to complex sound mixed recordings. Sound Editors always foley their gun battles. None of that sound is captured 'in camera'.

Hopes this helps.

[Mandolin]

Originally Posted by MoviePropMaster2008

1) Usually when the cast is holding real guns they use blanks, either that or what is the point of having a real gun on set? If the gun is real, you still need a legal handler.

2) "The noise is green"??? What does that mean?

3)"...there is no recoil?" Well there is very little recoil when blanks are fired on live guns anyway. And absolutely no recoil at all when the actors are 'mime firing' airsoft replica guns. Usually actors trying to fake recoil with CGI gun flashed look bad.

4)re: Zero Dark thirty, the sound of a gun fight is NEVER recorded live and set to the film without massive audio mixing. Chances are you are listening to complex sound mixed recordings. Sound Editors always foley their gun battles. None of that sound is captured 'in camera'.

Hopes this helps.

Wasn't Heat recorded live, at least the famous shootout scene?

[Sergei Titov]

I heard digital gun noises called green noises somewhere. Can't remember where. Like when the suppressed guns shoot and sound like star wars laser guns? Real suppressed guns sound nothing like that.

[SPEMack618]

Apparently, the old movie "Merrill's Marauders" recorded the actual blank gunfire.

Which is probably why the gunfire in that movie was really hard to hear and sound distant.

Suppressored firearms sound nothing like they are portrayed on film.

The best of use of a suppressor is so you don't blow out your own eardrums as you gun down the badguy.

[MoviePropMaster2008]

Originally Posted by Sergei Titov

I heard digital gun noises called green noises somewhere. Can't remember where. Like when the suppressed guns shoot and sound like star wars laser guns? Real suppressed guns sound nothing like that.

I have not heard digital gun noises as 'green'.

However, I know all too well those 'bad sound effects library' all too well. For one, tons of British made or made in association with movies used the BBC sound libraries of guns and war sounds. But those sounds were done during WW2 and they just don't compare to modern recording technology.

Note in the 1970s film "A Bridge Too Far" and then compare the gun noises to the film "The Wild Geese". The uzis in one film sound the same as the Stens and MP40s in the other film.

And Japanese cinema for years had the WORSE gunshot sound effects ever, overlaying those horrible pinkish hue flashpaper guns for all those films.... LOL

[ShootingJames]

So I heard just this week that the "ammo shortage" is having a serious impact on prop houses being able to get brass, and we can expect more digital muzzle flash over airsoft replicas in coming years.

Any truth to this?

[Excalibur]

There is a shortage of live ammo but I'm not so sure if that would mean blanks would go down.

[The Wierd It]

I would claim that prop houses typically reload spent blanks anyway, but I don't know how long the cases last before failing.