gizmodo.com: The phrase “shooting blanks” has passed into colloquialism. But, literally speaking, what does it mean to shoot blanks? And why can people who get shot with blank ammunition still die? We’ll explain what blanks are, why they’re used, and why they can still kill you.
3 comments:
I think this is a really great article that outlines the dangers of any type of firearm, be it loaded with a live round or a blank. In fact, when I first heard the news coming out of Rust, I initially thought that it was an instance of a blank causing harm. I remember when I working on a production of To Kill a Mockingbird that had a shotgun with a blank in it, and the protocols we had to follow were extremely strict. The entire area in front of the gun was clear, and there was an additional radius around the gun that needed to be clear as well. We had to let the university police know down to a 5 minute window when the gun was going to be fired, and had to have fire safety and first aid ready in the event something went wrong. It got the the point where I questioned when it was even worth it in a theatrical environment to use blanks, since it just poses more of a risk compared to the reward of the effect. Hopefully this tragedy pushes us to rethink the protocols around gun safety and producers pushing unsafe practices on movie or theatrical sets.
This article does a great job of explaining how a gun, even when loaded with blanks, is still very much a gun which was designed for one purpose, to kill something. I have only worked with a live firearm on stage once in high school during a community theatre production of The Hound of the Baskervilles and the protocol we followed was incredibly strict. Firstly, the actor firing the gun had to be the one to double check that the prop master had loaded the gun, additionally, when the gun was fired on stage it was not to be fired while pointing directly at someone, the actor was blocked to aim slightly upstage of the other person. It is tragic to hear stories about people dying because of senseless mistakes on a film set or in a theatre. It really seems to me that if a production can not allocate the necessary personnel and resources to firearm safety, then a firearm should not be used in the first place.
I think with all of the talks around prop guns right now it is really important to know all the aspects of the situation. I’ve heard a lot about how movie sets should only have blanks in the radius, which is valid but paints blanks as something which is safe. There is no situation in which a gun is discharged that is safe, which changes the conversation around gun safety really heavily. I think that having a gun on set requires MULTIPLE levels of safety procedures from multiple different departments. The lack of gun safety on sets belies a lack of knowledge from everyone about exactly how dangerous having a gun on set in any capacity. I hope that awareness around this becomes much more common and that sets and all forms of entertainment become safer for everyone. In the aftermath of the IATSE strike vote, I feel like the media has become more aware of issues regarding production safety. Hopefully, this awareness brings about more change.
Post a Comment