Blank Firing Guns Legality

[Yammeryammeryammer]

Hey,
Interesting that I and Micaso just finished shooting a film in which we had planned to use blank firing guns. We ended up using them, but didn't discharge any blanks at the location, because it was a school, and that would probably lead to bad things. So, what we did was used the blank firing guns as the props, which gave a very authentic looking, correctly weighted prop. Then we discharged blanks on country property with permission, and recorded the sounds in various capacities (distance, indoors, outside etc.) with our camera to get the same sound quality. We plan to add the flashes in in post. Still waiting to see if that works. As far as actually wanting to fire blanks at the time you are shooting, there are a few ways to go about it as I understand. We used two different 8mm blanks for our guns, and a box of 50 ran for about $30 Canadian. They didn't have any legal restictions in terms of qualifications other than being 18, and were found at a local gun shop. They were full flash blanks, and as I understood were moderate in terms of loudness. After testing them, we all agreed that it was too disruptive to fire them at our location, because they would be just too d*mn loud. The other quieter blanks you can apparently get aren't a whole lot better, but they didn't have any so we ended up with what they had. Another option was for us to hire a gunsmith/pyrotech guy, because they were required to be there for legal issues, as well as they just do that when they rent out this equipment. This would allow us to have a variety of blanks and weapons for the location. But in order to avoid all that hassle we opted for the non-expert requiring type. Depending on where you are shooting, if you rent the blank firing guns legally, and get the non-legally restricted blanks, then notify the police of the times you will be doing the discharging, there shouldn't be a whole lot of a problem. Good luck.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 14, 2003 02:49 AM: Message edited by: Yammeryammeryammer ]</font>

[Phaethon]

Thanks. If you find a good way to do mussle-flashes in post let me know.

[miker]

i may be wrong, but i don't think there's any muzzle flash in 'Taxi Driver'. does that make it any less of a good film?

i know it's nice to have such things, but don't concentrate on them so much at the expense of the rest of the production.

also, don't blank-firers flash out the cartridge-ejector thingy rather than the muzzle -- cos, in the UK at least, the muzzles of blank-firers are sealed.

also the lastest knee-**** legislation in the UK makes carrying water pistols illegal, so BE SURE TO NOTIFY THE POLICE about WHEN and WHERE you are using your prop guns - or eat lead yourself.

[Phaethon]

Right now, my crew is using realistic-looking pellet guns. We've been using these for a while, dubbing gunshot sounds using Premier. We want to start using blank firing guns, but we don't know exactly how far we can go with them. Couple questions. We want them to be as quiet as we can get them, I understand the shells come in different loudnesses. Just how quiet do they get? Also, what are the laws against using them outside? Are there any? By the way I live in the United States, I'm not sure if the laws are the same in the U.K. But if someone could answer these questions, or tell me where on the net I could have them answered I would be endebted to you. Thanks.

[Phaethon]

Depending on the lighting, mussle flashes can be very hard to see. Otherwise you just see smoke, which isn't bad at all. The main reason I want blank firing guns is becuase the slide on the gun hammers back causing your hand to fly back, giving it a more realistic look. The shell flying out of the side of the gun doesn't hurt either. The barrels on blank guns are plugged. Usualy in movies they either use real guns with blanks to get mussle flashes or they might use special blank firing guns with un-plugged barrels.

[Mods]

The police are actually very co-operative about blank firers. All you need to do is drop them a line, a letter or an email stating that you wish to use them. They will then probably say that's fine, but they'll ask you for the location you're shooting at, whether you have permission to shoot there, the dates & times of your shoot and your addresses and probably whoever owns the land your shooting on addresses.

[img]smile.gif[/img]
m0ds

[Micaso]

The blank firin' guns we had weren't sealed. They were, however, plugged. There was a bar inside the barrel which would prevent a projectile (ie. real bullet) from being shot. Also, in the US the gun laws are more lax than in Canada so I doubt you'll have a big problem as far as legal issues. I'd be more worried about paranoid gun toting neighbors, so if you're shooting in populated areas, tell the common people as well as the police.

[eddie]

This thread is pretty funny. Im planning to film a scene where a mob of people crucify someone in the middle of the night, and then set light to him. The current location is about a hundred yards from a housing estate.
If you dont tell anyone what you are doing then I think its safe to say that you can expect the worst.
Especially when shooting guns off in the current climate - either UK or US.

[emjen]

i got this teammate from me basketball team who's got this underground and illegal friends who own all kinds of guns and I asked him a few questions.

I said I wanted a gun, I prefered a gasgun which looked like a real gun and makes sound, but most importantly has this FLASH thing and that backwards thing when you shoot.

Everything that looks like a gun is illegal unless you have permittment here.

One option is a real gun with point blanks like you said.

A gasgun is legal but I dont know much of the point blanks.

THe best option for films and movies is an ALARM GUN. It shoots different types of blanks than the normal blanks, makes a helluva noise (which is a bit of a downside actually) and most importantly, you see this HUGE FLAME coming out of the gun. As I said, its an ALARM gun, used to scare the sjit out of crooks.

I'd like to get an alarm gun with a silencer. But where on earth do I get a silencer?

[Alex]

I had the misfortune of being a camera operator while an actor fired a blank gun in my direction.

In film school I had been warned that blank discharges can be lethal at close range, and I definitely felt a strong flash of wind over my head when the blank gun was discharged. So, if I suppose the rule of thumb always assume the gun is loaded with real bullets, and "act" accordingly.

Another time I was doing some video-color correction for a low budget movie and I asked the director if he had trouble getting blanks for a scene he shot in the woods that featured several gun shots.

He replied, "heck yes, it was such a pain getting blanks I used real bullets". (he was serious)