Armorer pages?

[Spartan198]

Would this be a good addition? We have firearm pages that tell what films a given firearm is used in and actor pages that tell what firearms that actor used in what movies, so why not have armorer pages leading off with, "The Specialists, LTD. supplied the following films and TV shows", then have lists linking to said films in much the same fashion as our actor pages do.

Thoughts on this idea?

[funkychinaman]

Originally Posted by Spartan198

Would this be a good addition? We have firearm pages that tell what films a given firearm is used in and actor pages that tell what firearms that actor used in what movies, so why not have armorer pages leading off with, "The Specialists, LTD. supplied the following films and TV shows", then have lists linking to said films in much the same fashion as our actor pages do.

Thoughts on this idea?

It seems like it'd be a bit of a tall order to cross reference every existing movie and television page.

[commando552]

I think it would be nearly impossible to do well, so we shouldn't so it at all. The main problem I see with it is that it is a really hard thing to actually find out. If the armourer for a production is credited, it will generally be the on set armourer and not the prop house that provided the weapons themselves. For example a pretty good indicator or something that "The Specialists LTD" are involved with is those SG 550/P556 hybrids that turn up, and if you look at the IMDB pages for Salt and Jack Reacher you will see that the armourer is credited as Sam Arthurs. However he is not credited for Burn Notice where it is John Patteson. However, in the latter case he is only credited in 17 episodes, so either they didn't bother crediting him for some episodes, or the armourer was different for different episodes. In some cases there is not armourer credited at all, such as The Blacklist which uses weapons from "The Specialists LTD".

Another thing is that films and television series often have different filming locations possibly spanning multiple countries where the weapons would most likely be provided by different companies. A good recent example of this is season 4 of Strike Back, where as they move to different countries you can see that the weapons completely change as the company that provides them does likewise.

Even if you did positively identify a production which has weapons from a specific prop house, it may be the case that they didn't provide all of them. For example I believe that Boardwalk Empire has some weapons provided by "The Specialists LTD", however there are a lot of the more esoteric period weapons that are not listed on their site, which would lead me to believe that there were other sources. In my opinion it is better to give nobody credit for something that to give it to the wrong people.

At the end of the day, we would probably only be able to positively ID the weapon provider for a very small percentage of titles meaning it would be ridiculously incomplete, so it really isn't worth doing in my opinion.

[funkychinaman]

Originally Posted by commando552

I think it would be nearly impossible to do well, so we shouldn't so it at all. The main problem I see with it is that it is a really hard thing to actually find out. If the armourer for a production is credited, it will generally be the on set armourer and not the prop house that provided the weapons themselves.

Yes, I'm really confused by how that works. For example, one of the special features on the 36th Precinct DVD was Christophe Maratier going over some of the weapons used in the film, except that he's not actually credited at all.

[commando552]

Originally Posted by funkychinaman

Yes, I'm really confused by how that works. For example, one of the special features on the 36th Precinct DVD was Christophe Maratier going over some of the weapons used in the film, except that he's not actually credited at all.

Some productions are a lot better at crediting it than others. Some make no mention at all, whilst other stuff is at the other end of the spectrum, like Strike Back (using this as an example as is what is currently in my DVD player) who credit the military advisor, a lead armourer and an armourer. Still, even in this case they do not mention the company that provided the weapons which I believe is "Hire Arms".

[funkychinaman]

Originally Posted by commando552

Some productions are a lot better at crediting it than others. Some make no mention at all, whilst other stuff is at the other end of the spectrum, like Strike Back (using this as an example as is what is currently in my DVD player) who credit the military advisor, a lead armourer and an armourer. Still, even in this case they do not mention the company that provided the weapons which I believe is "Hire Arms".

36th Precinct did credit two armorers, neither of which were Christophe Maratier. They probably work for his company, but again, I'm not aware of any way we can confirm this.

[Spartan198]

I didn't realize it would be such a daunting and confusing task. Well, it was at least worth suggesting, I suppose.

[MT2008]

It has been discussed before, and we concluded it was not feasible, for the reasons that Commando552 has articulated, so I see no need to discuss it further.

[MoviePropMaster2008]

Originally Posted by MT2008

It has been discussed before, and we concluded it was not feasible, for the reasons that Commando552 has articulated, so I see no need to discuss it further.

Except to praise Commando552 (and to an extent FunkyChinaman) for having absorbed such knowledge that us armorers don't have to do it ourselves ( recite ad nauseum stuff that we all know, but that the lay public does not). You guys are 'carrying the torch' .... learning from and teaching others a body of insider knowledge that I thought would be lost with time. No one outside of the movie industry knows these details and reasons. No one, now, except knowledgeable members of IMFDB. Thanks to you guys, this type of knowledge is NOT lost to the ages.