"Why do they even bother" Topic

I'm watching the shooter series.
Mrs Swager goes to the range and shoot at some targets. When the targets get hit. It's obviously squibs as the paper "blows up outwards" so looks very fake.
Couldn't they simply filmed a real target at a real range?
It's not like she was in the same shot as the target when the target gets hit.

That's an easy answer gf. Watching holes being made in paper is less exciting than watching "things that blow up"…

Holes in paper = boring = lack of sponsors, ($$$)= low ratings= cancellation.

Exploding Squibs = explosions! = exciting! = Sponsors ($$$$$) = better ratings = show goes on and people stay employed…

HE bullet tips, duh.

You know Jimmy Cagney always pushes his pistol forward when he fires right? Shows that he's so tough and determined that even his gun will never recoil.

Real guns cost a lot more money to work with, there are all sorts of regulations that not only require there to be very expensive trained specialists to have on site, but slow down shooting schedules dramatically. Even unloaded real guns need to be checked constantly and treated as if they're loaded, handed to actors only the moment before the camera starts rolling and taken from them the second the camera stops rolling. If you're observant you may notice that in any scene where a real gun is fired, specifically handguns, that the gun is obviously out of ammo when they stop shooting. Slides are locked back etc even if they've only fired one round. That's becuase even with blanks they can only load as many rounds as they're planning on firing.

Some movies have found it's cheaper to use prop guns and add the effects in post-production, Robert Rodriguez had to do that in Once Upon a Time in Mexico becuase of some problems getting the guns across the border into Mexico. It was the first movie I'm aware of where entire scenes were shot with no real guns (and it didn't look like crap). The entire church shootout scene was done with rubber guns, Antonio Banderas was so weirded out by the fake guns he was making shooting noise just so he could get through the scenes.

Shooter probably felt it was a lot easier to use squibs instead of taking a whole day and tens of thousands of dollars to hit a target with real bullets when 99% of the viewers wouldn't even notice.

Whitphoto…..Thank you for posting the above. If memory serves, more than one actor has been killed by fooling around with a gun between takes. With blanks even.

I worked as a consultant on the movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri as the billboard consultant. They were very difficult to deal with because what they wanted and real life were two very different things.
It drove the production guys crazy to be doing things they would never do in real life, but it is all about the illusion in Hollywood not reality.

It's all about control on the set. Real guns are pretty much a no go on most film sets and insurance companies send a lot of people in cheap suits to vigorously shake their heads whenever somebody suggests using actual ammo. That's why they use squibs, they are much easier to control they can be planned ahead and probably cheaper than renting time on a range and shoot real ammo.

About Cagney, Warner Brothers were notorious in using real guns in some gangster films, usually the actor would be standing by a window and get shot at by a "sharpshooter". You can tell the scenes because the guy ducks long before the shots come in way too high. I don't recall if it was Cagney or somebody else, but he was supposed to duck, but fell instead and as he looked up the bullets did indeed go too high, but then ricocheted and flew where he would have been if he hadn't fallen.

This was reported to Jack Warner and without even looking up, asked "Did he get hit ?" "No, sir." "If he doesn't stop complaining he'll wish he had been shot."

Cagney was so infuriated he started to lobby against the practice and helped found the Screen Actors guild. Warner quietly shelved this method, though Jack Warner did say in later years that the edge had been taken off films after that.

You don't need 'method acting' to get edgy when they're shooting live ammo at you!!!

Yikes.

I didn't say shohoting live rounds at the set. I said film real targets getting shot.
It's America go to a random shooting range. Set a camera up to film the target. 20 seconds later done.

Between "go to a random shooting range" and "Set a camera up to film the target" you'd be well advised to add, "get everyone to sign a release giving you permission to film them and to use the film without compensation for any lawful purpose".

I sort of remember them doing live shooting, even of a Gatling gun, on Pawn Stars just a few years ago. I imagine it can't be that hard, if they want to film someone shooting a paper target, and as far as ratings are concerned, if your target audience is excited about guns shooting (for real-sies)at paper targets, faking that seems counter intuitive.

Between the various union rules, and government regulations nothing is simple, quick, or easy, or cheap.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Gunfreak, you may live up to your handle. But even though I know how guns work, and I would not be in the least bit excited about watching real bullets hit a target. Watching championship darts is more exciting than that. The studio answer is the more entertaining option for the vast majority of viewers.

TMP is not a place to ever come for good movie critiques…