Actual guns: Real guns used on set fire blanks, or cartridges that contain a primer and gunpowder and create a muzzle flash but do not shoot a projectile. Some models of real guns used as props must be modified to fire blanks. Others, such as revolvers, need no modifications to fire blanks.
Weapons on sets vary. Some are rubber props (used for shots when actors are far in the distance) and others are airsoft guns that fire nonlethal pellets. Often, however, productions use real guns. Studios prefer to digitally create the actual firing in postproduction whenever possible.
Various simulants, such as fake blood, water (rehearsals), glycerine (night scenes), or dry substances like dust and feathers (gunshot aesthetic on a down jacket), are used depending on the desired effect. The bullet hit squib assembly weighs approximately 30 g, measuring 50 mm in diameter and 15 mm thick.
While such shootings are rare, it shows that the “prop” guns fired on TV and films are much closer to the real things than most audiences suspect. Most of the time, in fact, they usually are the real thing. Here's what you need to know about prop guns.
But it does not answer one key question: Where did the live round come from? Movies often use real guns, but never real bullets. But on “Rust,” a live round made its way into a Colt . 45, which Alec Baldwin fired during set-up for a shot inside a church at the Bonanza Creek Ranch.
Stahelski, a stunt veteran who now directs, told The Hollywood Reporter that the reason live firearms are still used on sets is because it costs too much to use CG effects. Not only that, but too many people have too much money invested in the use of real weapons on set.
A prop gun is a gun or gun replica that is used primarily by movie and television productions or in theatre performances. As a prop, these guns can be divided into non-firing guns (replicas) and firing guns (firearms).
Movie armorers often use blanks with enhanced-flash powders, or propane guns that don't actually function like real firearms, but simply make a big flash for the camera.
Prop masters and special effects workers prepare knives, blood, and explosions to slash people ... without actually slashing them. To pull this off they might use rubber, plastic, retractable, or even digital knives.
In the movies, when a gunshot needs to be completely imperceivable, they screw on a silencer, and magically, it makes the gun silent. While silencers are very real and drastically reduce the sound of a firearm, they do not make the gun as silent as you may have seen in your favorite action film.
However, if it's used for firing (even just blanks) it's considered a real gun. Chris Burbank, a former police chief in Salt Lake City who has consulted on several TV productions, said firearms for simulations during police trainings or film productions are often made so that they can only be loaded with blanks.
So the sound design will be more about the BOOMING sounds that add to the chaos. In real life, gunshots are surprisingly not those BOOMING AND SPECIFICALLY CLEAR SOUNDS. In real life, they vary depending on where you are. And that's not as exciting in a movie theater or via home theater speakers.
This takes training to do well. One of the best ways to see if someone has trained is to watch them do a combat reload… and most actors don't get that time to train well enough. If seen at all closely, it requires a separate insert shot (camera shot, not gun shot).
If you're wondering whether a prop gun is real gun, the answer is yes—most of the time. Prop guns generally fall into one of two categories: Actual guns: Real guns used on set fire blanks, or cartridges that contain a primer and gunpowder and create a muzzle flash but do not shoot a projectile.
That job belongs to the set armorer, who is (in theory) a firearms expert. Actors are not assumed to have any familiarity with firearms or not, and many probably could not tell you how to work the slide in a semi-automatic handgun, much less check the loadout.
Armorers are responsible for the transport, storage, and safe use of all weaponry and firearms on film sets. It is illegal to use NFA (and sometimes Title 1) firearms on set unless a licensed Armorer is present.
It has been adopted by younger shooters as a term for firearms that are affordable and fun to shoot. And this has led to the term Yeet Cannon: “a common term for describing a large bore firearm with little in the way of a practical function.” But the Hi-Point YC9, or Yeet Cannon 9mm, isn't just amusingly named.
In addition, if there is any small debris lodged inside the barrel, it will be expelled at a velocity similar to that of a bullet, with the ability to inflict a severe or lethal wound. Furthermore, the extremely loud noise of blanks being fired can damage the hearing of people in the immediate area.
So for all of the John Wick movies, the prop guns that were utilized were solid plugs; guns where the barrel is plugged so nothing can come out the front, but the shell casing still ejects. VFX then adds muzzle flash and smoke out the front in post.
An armorer or someone with special training should always have custody of the guns and oversee their handling. No real bullets should ever be used on a set. Blanks, which are shell casings loaded with gunpowder used to create the sound and look of gunfire, must be used carefully.
However, director and stunt expert Chad Stahelski doesn't use the same type of blanks that can result in real-life deaths like the tragedies on the sets of "Rust" and "The Crow." According to Stahelski, filmmakers don't have to risk the deadly capabilities of blanks, either, since there exists technology that allows ...
