Questions I need Answered

First off i am doing a piece on police brutality and i need some pointers on how to make a toy gun (i know all the precautions) look as if it went off and i also need to find police decals from chicago.
 
http://www.detonationfilms.com has free muzzleflashes already filmed for you and for free download that you can composite over your prop gun...real pyro needs a licensed pyrotechnician. Considering what you're doing will be unpopular with the police, don't give them any reason to stop them.

If you use a real police decal, I believe they can technically bust you for impersonating an officer, you may want to find something similar and use it for wide shots to establish, then stage your framings so it doesn't show readably. Be sure to call and ask about filming permits and gun laws as well...I had to modify my toy guns so they were incapable of firing a projectile to make it legal to film with them.

Everything by the book...my recommendation.
 
...maybe you can go to toys r us and buy something that looks realistic and modify it alittle. There will probably be many sales going on, just don't go on Black Friday (this friday)...

... toy guns for Christmas sales, er...Happy Holidays?

--spinner :cool:
 
Guns and cops (good name for a movie)

We hired a gun wrangler for our film. He came with his own guns and any actor who touched the gun had to sign the waiver and be "trained" beforehand. This allowed us to use real guns for the closeups (the rest of the fake guns were bought on eBay).

For cops ... we used: Cops. Actual cops. They were pretty bad actors but it added to the scene (since the cops didn't need to have a ton of personality).

We didn't use flash fire. Covered it with an actor ... shot from behind etc. Then used a cigarette for the smoke afterwards.
 
This place has nice gun replicas with sealed muzzles that fire blanks: http://replicaweaponry.com/blangun.html
You can also buy blanks there and get indoor blanks that aren't as loud. Course, because the muzzle is sealed, you still have to add in muzzle-flashes. But you're still gonna get a much better effect using blanks as far as the shells dropping and realistic gun recoil.

About $150 can get you a nice looking 9mm pistol, 50 rounds of blanks, and a spare mag. I'm really considering picking one up just to have available.
 
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Airsoft guns look very real on camera.. and they have a much more realistic feel to them as well, compared to other 'toy' guns. I don't know about Chicago, but I know there's a guy here in the Twin Cities that runs a business called "Props on Wheels" and he brought out a cop car, lights, decals, everything to a shoot I was PAing on .. I talked to him a bit, and I guess he adjusts his fee based on the budget. He also said he can get any kind of vehicle (costs would reflect this though..) tanks, boats, planes, you name it.

I'm sure he'd travel to chicago if the price were right, but there's probably someone around there that does similar work.
 
mr-modern-life said:
Out of interest what are the laws about using blank firing weapons in the States?
In 43 states you only have to be 18 years or older.
In 7 states you must be 18 or older and send a fax or letter of intent (one of accepted intents is 'theatrical purposes').
All-in-all, they're pretty easy to acquire.
 
Yeah we have pretty loose gun laws around here. Especially in the state of Montana. You can purchase an AR-15 (and similar) without a background check if I remember correctly. I'll have to go dig up the gun laws again.
 
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