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With the right performances,
close-ups, reaction shots and props, you can sell anything - including
the realism of your gun scene.
There
are typically several elements to every gunshot: sound, smoke, muzzle
flash, action movement, cartridge ejection, bullet impact and of course
acting. There is some variation, of course; revolvers won't eject
casings, guns fitted with suppressors (silencers) won't have a muzzle
flash and the action movement on a semiautomatic rifle is less evident
than on an pistol.
The
first thing to do is to decide how you want to shoot the scene in which
a gun is fired - a wide shot versus a close-up, quick cuts versus a
long moving shot. The more that the gun fires off-screen, the easier
it'll be to fake (although a few "money" shots of the gun firing in
full view can have a strong impact). See sidebar for more information
about creating a shooting strategy.
Sound
The
sound of the gun firing can be either recorded on set (if you're using
a blank-firing replica) or added in post. If you record the sound of a
blank firing as part of a scene, it's guaranteed to be blown-out and
distorted, but it'll serve as a good "scratch track" to sync your sound
effects up with. It can also serve as a nice bottom-layer effect that
can be augmented with additional effects work, but in most instances
the difficulty associated with shooting live blanks will mean adding
the sound entirely in post. (Also see Fix it in Post.)
Smoke
Gunpowder
exploding creates smoke. A lot of gunpowder exploding (such as an
automatic rifle firing) creates a lot of smoke. Smoke can be one of the
most convincing elements of a gun scene - and it's about the most often
overlooked. A haze of smoke casually drifting about as your character
overlooks the damage he's caused with his weapon can be an invaluable
tool. A fog machine capable of controlled bursts can give you a puff
that'll drift about as your character fires; a little ambient haze
afterwards goes a long way. It reflects light very nicely as well.
Currently Deathmonkey Armourers are working on a safe, cost-efficient
way of producing a barrel-fire smoke effect.
Flash
Most
guns without suppressors will produce a flash at the muzzle when fired.
The particular pattern of the light varies depending on the type of
gun; typically it's orange (it's fire, after all) and only visible for
a fraction of a second. Our experience has given us great confidence in
the practice of adding muzzle flash digitally to your image, and it's
much easier than you might imagine (see Fix it in Post for more info).
To
really do it right, though, consider adding a flash of light on your
set. Having an actual light source will create highlights and shadows
on your actors and sets, adding to the realism of the scene. For
example, a carefully placed strobe light (perhaps gelled with CTO to
orange the light and cut the brightness a bit) during an automatic
weapon firing can really add a kick. Even if you're in the daylight,
it'll show up on the film in the shadows. And at night - especially if
you have smoke dancing around - you've done most of the work already.
The dailies will convince you, even without sound.
For a
single shot, consider using a flash camera from off-camera, pointing
straight-on at the barrel of the gun (so the shadow angles are
accurate). An orange gel is suggested here as well.
While
the flash should be your cue to synch up the muzzle flash in post, it
can also be used as your actor's cue to react to the firing of the gun
(see Acting, below).
Slide
Action
movement is a bit more complicated. On a revolver, even a replica, the
cylinder rotates with each trigger pull; no trouble there. On most
semiautomatic rifles, the action is a bolt that moves on the top or
side of the weapon - only the higher-end replicas mimic this;
Deathmonkey's do not. In most instances it's simpler to just hide the
offense with camera angles and distance, if it's a concern; most of
your audience won't notice the difference.
Semiautomatic pistols, however, have a trademark slide-rack
upon
firing. While not necessary to simulate, it's an essential element for
the sticklers among us. A blank-firing pistol will accomplish this
nicely, as well as the cartridge ejection. But since it's not always
practical to use blanks, there are a few other options.
One is
"blowback" replicas. These are metal or plastic replicas that use an
electric or a compressed-gas charge to blow back the slide of a pistol
at each trigger pull. These are highly effective, quiet and a lot of
fun. They require either AAA batteries or canisters of what's known as
"green gas", depending on the gun. An electric model will not work with
gas, and vice versa. Deathmonkey stocks a Desert Eagle blowback gun in
black and silver, and we are very accomodating to special requests.
Another option is to add the action movement in post (see Fix it in Post).
There's a pretty easy method to adding a blowback digitally, and it
only requires a basic facility with PhotoShop (but no more than any
sort of post work). Coupled with sound design, this can be quite
effective.
Ejection
Cartridge
ejection is another staple of automatic or semiautomatic gunfire. Most
movies will use specially modified - and very expensive - replicas that
do nothing but shoot smoke and toss out empty casings. For the poor
among us - that'd be you and me, friend - we get to flex our creative
muscle. The easiest way to simulate a cartridge ejection is to toss an
empty shell from off-screen across the plane of action. This works
supremely well in close-up; another way is to cut to a shot of the
casing falling on the floor, hitting a wall, etc (see sidebar). Even
for automatic weapons fire, tossing a succession of shells in the air
(practice first, and having two people alternate every shell to keep
the speed up) from just off-screen (assuming your rifle is low in the
frame) works wonders.
For
wider shots, there are a few ways to accomplish the same effect, but it
involves some work in post. One method is to throw the shells from
off-camera, and then digitally remove them before they reach the gun;
another is to simply add the shells entirely in post. This is
time-consuming and while it can result in some good product, it's often
easier, when possible, to use actual shells whenever possible before
resorting to the digital variety. See Fix it in Post for walkthroughs of the
different techniques.
Body Hits / Squibs
Now
we've come to bullet impacts, arguably the most difficult part of any
gun scene. They can be broken into two categories: body hits and object
hits. Body hits typically involve blood; object hits typically involve
something bursting or shattering.
First,
a note about squibs. Squibs seem to be the most sought-after special
effect by amateur filmmakers, with good reason - they look cool. Squibs
are gunpowder-charged blood packets placed under the clothing of an
actor (or inside a skin prostheic) that can be remotely controlled to
explode, creating a bloody hole. As they are explosive devices, they
must be administered by a licensed pyro tech, and are dangerous to
attempt (not to mention impossible to get) by amateurs. If you really
need squibs, hire a pyro tech. It's not too cheap. But if you want a
workaround, read on.
The classic technique here is the blood plant. A few examples of
techniques:
The
actor has blood loaded on his hands; he's hit and reaches up to clutch
his wound, "planting" the blood on his body. When he pulls his hand
away, his body is covered in blood. An oldie but a goodie.
The
actor has blood already applied to his body, turned away from the
camera; he's hit, and stumbles around or falls to face the camera,
revealing his wound. (The advantage to this technique is that you can
use wound prosthetics, such as latex entry wounds).
The
actor has a mouthful of blood, ready to belch or dribble after being
hit in the lungs (this is nice because you're concentrating on the
actor's face, capturing performance rather than the gory details of
their wound).
Seepage.
This more advanced technique requires the use of a simple pump to
dribble blood out of the wound, and can be used with a prosthetic or
through clothing. Something as simple as a juice pouch (remember all
the fun you had in the second grade spraying people with fruit punch?),
refilled with blood, can be used as a pump; position the straw at the
wound entrance (taped beneath clothing or beneath a latex prosthetic)
and squeeze the pouch. A quick squeeze can give you a nice squirt, and
you can pulse the squirt to simulate an artery. This works best at
fairly close range (the longer your dispersal tube, or "straw", the
more pressure on the pouch you need to get the blood through all of it,
and there's a limit to how much pressure the pouch can generate); the
actor can apply the pressure discreetly, or a blood wrangler just out
of camera range can have the honors.
One
of the most creative blooding techniques we've seen is someone who used
an air compressor, ran a tube into the actor's pant leg and up under
her shirt, emerging just under her collar; she had a latex piece
covering the edge of the tube right at her collarbone. The air tube had
a one-way valve spliced in before it fed into the compressor, and the
top half of the tube (above the valve) was filled with stage blood,
little globs of strawberry jam and tiny chunks of eggshell. You can
imagine the result - when she was "hit" the compressed air blew the
blood out of her throat with amazing force. The director had the
foresight to shield the camera with a piece of plexiglas, but the poor
boom operator wasn't quite so lucky.
Compressed air can also create a nice "spray" effect across walls,
horrified faces etc; you can use canned air spraying across a saucer of
blood to achieve nice results.
As in all things, planning, practice and patience will give you the
best results.
Object Hits
Object
hits are somewhat difficult to pull off convincingly when you're
working on a low budget. Most movies use explosive charges wired into
the walls, ground, or water to simulate bullet hits; this is great, but
expensive.
You
can use compressed air to some effect for close-ups. Say you want to
show a bullet hitting a wall; the best method is to create a fake piece
of wall using a slab of wood or drywall, gouge a hole into it (making
sure you punch all the way through to the other side), fill the hole
with splinters and sawdust (for wood) or chalk or plaster chunks and
dust, packing it in as tightly as you can; sand gently over the surface
and paint it the color of your set wall. From the back, blow air from a
compressor (or canned air, for smaller applications) and the front
should burst out. This works best for quick cutaways, and you may be
able to digitally flip the image vertically or horizontally and use it
more than once.
Otherwise,
your options for inexpensive on-screen hits are limited. It may prove
easier to shoot the hits off-screen, and drop the debris onto a
crouching actor, for example; this works well for wood, plaster, glass
(drop chunks of breakaway glass, available from prop supply shops, or
you can have a sheet of plexiglas sawed into shard shapes and sand down
the edges; crushed ice may also work in a close-up).
We
heard a story of someone shooting a scene of a parked car being shot
up; while most of the impacts in the wide shot were added digitally (a
nice option, if you have the capability) there was a particularly
notable close-up of an actor ducking behind the side of the car - the
camera followed the actor ducking back, and someone off-screen slapped
the side of the car to create a jolt and a metallic noise. While this
is a good idea by itself, they added to it by giving the slapper a
static-cling decal of a bullet hole; when he slapped the car he planted
the decal, and when the actor peeked his head out again the decal was
there on the car. For the quick shot that it was, it worked great.
Another
setup involved a panning shot of a fairly blank wall as a line of hits
appeared on it. It was accomplished by planting all the hits
beforehand, shooting the shot, and then in post covering them all up,
revealing them one at a time. On a uniform surface, this is a fairly
easy effect to do digitally.
Remember: test out your particularly creative setups beforehand, so
your crew gets some practice and so you don't waste your time on set
trying to work the bugs out. We can't recommend this enough.
Acting
You can add all the fancy
flame and sound and blood you want, but if your actor doesn't sell it,
you've wasted your time.
Guns
are scary. Don't forget this. Even soldiers or policemen who carry guns
all day long get nervous actually pointing them at another human being.
By holding a gun on someone, you literally have the power to take away
their entire life.
Guns
explode. A bullet firing is the equivalent of a bomb going off at the
end of your arm. It's loud and it creates a shock wave of force that
your body absorbs. If your character's not used to firing a gun, it's
going to be very loud and unpleasant for them, and they will almost
certainly flinch, squeezing their eyes shut and hunching their
shoulders.
It's
especially important if you're using a replica to create the illusion
that the force of a gunshot exists. A lot of novices will shake the gun
around as it fires to try and simulate the recoil. Just remember that
you're trying to STOP it from moving, trying to keep it pointed at your
target, but it's trying to jump out of your hands like a wet cat. Your
actor must convince us that he's trying to keep the gun still, but that
it won't let him (tip: automatic weapons want to "climb". It's a lot of
work to keep them pointed anywhere other than the ceiling).
Don't
"pull" the trigger. Squeeze your whole hand around the grip, including
your trigger finger. This is a something they teach you in a shooting
course; it's appropriate here if it adds to the realism of your scene.
Being
hit with a bullet feels like being stung by a bee - a sharp, distinct
pain. Being hit by something moving so fast would create a shock wave
of sorts in one's body - a victim should twitch, like tensing every
muscle in the body simultaneously. The same holds true for someone
struck in any fashion, whether by a fist, a boot, a brick, or a bullet.
The
most important thing to convey to your actors - both shooters and
others in the scene - is that they should react to everything that
happens with a gunshot, even if some of the elements will be added in
post: the sharp sound, the sudden flash, the heat of the barrel, the
smell of gunpowder (anyone outboard of the barrel inside about three
feet will be burned by gunpowder particles).
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Treat it like it's real
