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#1877958
It is a simple and time-proven bit of advice with which you cannot possibly go wrong.

Worth repeating now. Actually a couple of days too late.

Rob P
Nick, lobstaboy, Flyin'Dutch' and 2 others liked this
#1877973
Having not left the country for a while I'd forgotten that civvie security at the entrance of El Corte Ingles (basically the Spanish John Lewis) sport pistols and massive truncheons.

This morning, Mrs E, seeing a guard with a row of maybe twenty bullets around his pistol waistbelt, looked at me sharply and noted that indoors facemask enforcement is taken much more seriously than at home.
Last edited by eltonioni on Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Flyin'Dutch' liked this
#1877976
Boxkite wrote:Yes, when acting a scene .... :roll:


The point being this was not an actor killed, so your smartbum comment is just that and has no particular relevance here. :roll:

Rob P
Fourteen years in and around the firearms business.
Flyin'Dutch', townleyc liked this
#1877987
Rob P wrote:
Boxkite wrote:Yes, when acting a scene .... :roll:


The point being this was not an actor killed, so your smartbum comment is just that and has no particular relevance here. :roll:

Rob P
Fourteen years in and around the firearms business.

The point being that "NEVER point a gun at anyone even if it unloaded or a prop" doesn't always mean never.
#1877989
There was an interesting interview on the Beeb yesterday lunchtime with a chap who supplies firearms to the film and TV industry.

Certainly in this country it is highly controlled, actors and relevant production crew alike are regularly trained (often demanding additional training themselves), and even in action shots guns are not pointed directly at people.

The point made was that even with blanks, the discharge can lethal, carrying grit, barrel residue, wadding or even bits of metal broken away from the cartridge.

Whether the current tragedy is the result of an unfortunate accident or evidence of a sloppier approach overall remains to be seen.
#1877996
Seems the scene was being rehearsed whereby the shot was towards the camera, to represent the target’s point of view.

The reports indicate the cinematographer was hit, the bullet passing through her to a second victim.

Doesn’t seem likely that a fragment of anything could do that much damage.
#1878002
At a school CCF Army cadets exercise in the Thetford Forest, Training Area in the 60s one of my mates had half his ear blown off by .303 Lee Enfield blank round wadding by another kid six feet behind him in the scrubland.

And this not ten minutes after having had a demonstration of the two inch dent blown in a steel marker signpost by such blanks by one of our instructors. :roll:
#1878014
skydriller wrote:ISTR always having a yellow thingy in the end of HMs popguns when issued with blanks for exercises... Im sure there is a name for it, I do know it was precisely to prevent said accidents with blanks.

Regards, SD..



If they did that on the film set someone on IMDB would put it under goofs. :wink:

The problem with realism is that the gap between real and fake can be too small.

AIUI UK film sets simply don’t have live bullets on site, nor are even fake guns ever pointed directly at anyone.

This incident was preceded by a staff walkout over safety concerns, and the employment of non union workers. Doesn’t bode well for proper procedures being understood.
#1878019
ISTR always having a yellow thingy in the end of HMs popguns when issued with blanks for exercises... Im sure there is a name for it, I do know it was precisely to prevent said accidents with blanks.


I always knew it as a BFA (Blank Firing Attachment)

However, it is being widely reported that this weapon was not loaded with blank ammunition and that a live round was discharged.

I have no inside information, but I have heard that the normal blank rounds do not look sufficiently realistic to be filmed being loaded into a firearm. Something visually more realistic is used for those shots??