Protocol for weapons on film set?

[gafftaper]

Given this week's tragedy, I have a lot of students who are interested in how weapons are supposed to be properly handled on a film set. I would love to be able to give them a short lesson next week while they are thinking about it.

Has anyone here worked as an armorer? What is the process like of becoming one? Is there any certification or licensing? What is the training like for actors to handle weapons? What sort of procedures and checks are in place on set to ensure safety?

Thanks!

 

[What Rigger?]

Given this week's tragedy, I have a lot of students who are interested in how weapons are supposed to be properly handled on a film set. I would love to be able to give them a short lesson next week while they are thinking about it.

Has anyone here worked as an armorer? What is the process like of becoming one? Is there any certification or licensing? What is the training like for actors to handle weapons? What sort of procedures and checks are in place on set to ensure safety?

Thanks!

Let me try to clear it with the bosses, and maybe I can Zoom in with you all. After all, it's been a few months since our last visit with The Kidz.

 

[gafftaper]

Let me try to clear it with the bosses, and maybe I can Zoom in with you all. After all, it's been a few months since our last visit with The Kidz.

That would be great!

 

[StradivariusBone]

I don't know if it's possible to time it together, but I'd be interested as well. It'd be kinda cool to do a combined zoomer, coast-to-coast edition.

 

[TheaterEd]

This prop master's tik-tok has been posted here several times before. Here is his take on the event. Both what Should have happened, and what did happen.

 

[TimMc]

NPR's Asma Khalid speaks to Dan Leonard, associate dean of Chapman University's film school, about proper safety protocols on sets following the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

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[Jay Ashworth]

I am not an armorer, I'm just a systems analyst with 40 years experience, and a jackleg knowledge of guns, but my view is this, FWIW:

All weapons live in a holster on the belt of the armorer, unloaded.

All magazines and rounds live in a locked ammo box painted orange, and carried around by the Armorer or his assigned Set PA: armorer has the keys to the padlock; spare keys in the armorer's *car*.

A gun is prepped and loaded with the appropriate blank rounds just before the armorer hands it to the actor in question, who hands it back after the shot/scene, at which time the armorer clears it, and reholsters it.

If that doesn't scale, then you need an entire armory *department*, and it's out of my league.

Done this way, if a live round makes it onto the set, then you know someone was trying purposefully to get someone killed; there should be no actual *bullets* within, literally, a mile of the set.

Oh: and no personal firearms on set anywhere at any time; instant firing offense.

But all of it comes down to "the armorer can yell CUT, and NOBODY gets to overrule zem". I suspect this was the root cause on Rust: the armorer was new -- first or second shoot -- and while her dad had the experience to convey, you can't learn gravitas.

I look forward to seeing what the pros say, and how close I came.

[ I am not an attorney, prop master, nor armorer; this is not legal advice; if following it breaks something, you get to keep both... well, that's not funny this time, is it? Damn. ]

 

[Jay Ashworth]

I don't know if it's possible to time it together, but I'd be interested as well. It'd be kinda cool to do a combined zoomer, coast-to-coast edition.

If it's ok with What, perhaps the Zoom could be recorded, and posted somewhere accessible...

 

[gafftaper]

We just finished a great video chat! @What Rigger? spent about an hour talking with about 40 actor and tech students from my group here in Seattle and @StradivariusBone 's group in Florida. How cool is that?!?! We had a great talk about both warning signs of danger and signs of professionalism when dealing with weapons, combat, flying effects, working at heights, heavy things over head, and more. So much fun! Thanks guys! I grabbed a screen shot without the kids.

Sorry we couldn't record it as there were students in the shot most of the time and asking questions and there are privacy issues if we record.

 

[RonHebbard]

We just finished a great video chat! @What Rigger? spent about an hour talking with about 40 actor and tech students from my group here in Seattle and @StradivariusBone 's group in Florida. How cool is that?!?! We had a great talk about both warning signs of danger and signs of professionalism when dealing with weapons, combat, flying effects, working at heights, heavy things over head, and more. So much fun! Thanks guys! I grabbed a screen shot without the kids.

Sorry we couldn't record it as there were students in the shot most of the time and asking questions and there are privacy issues if we record.

View attachment 22352

You read far better than you look and that's not a bad thing.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[StradivariusBone]

That was a blast! At the risk of going off-topic a bit, I just have to say it was a nice way to cap off a somewhat restorative week.

We have begun building our set for "Christmas Carol" in earnest. Recovering from the past two years of COVID has meant that the majority of our current crop of kids have never done a show, and those that have maybe just did one or two. I really struggled to rein some of these kids in, the normal lecture style rundowns mixed with hand on "petting zoos" of lights, sound, and rigging did not capture their interest in the same way of years past. COVID has been a universal trauma, kids are feral, staff is on the ledge. It's just draining. The culture of stagecraft I spent the past 7 years of my life building here is for all intents and purposes, dead.

Anyway, with building this week I've had so many of them come up and exclaim how exciting it is to be creating something, or that they can't believe they're getting graded on using an impact driver or that class time is spent cutting wood. They're doing stuff with their hands and brains and seeing results. Something that cannot be replicated with distance-learning. So finishing it off with a great chat about how to do what we do with grace, common sense and a culture of safety was just grand.

Many thanks to both @What Rigger? and @gafftaper !!

 

[gafftaper]

... finishing it off with a great chat about how to do what we do with grace, common sense and a culture of safety was just grand.

Here that @What Rigger? ... He thinks we're graceful and have culture!

 

[MPowers]

Dang!!! Wish I had been aware of this. Would have loved to listen or partake if possible!!

 

[What Rigger?]

Dang!!! Wish I had been aware of this. Would have loved to listen or partake if possible!!

Hey Mike, I’m always down to run my mouth if you’ve got a group. Hey @gafftaper maybe next time a similar opportunity presents, we’ll advertise beforehand or something.

 

[What Rigger?]

We just finished a great video chat! @What Rigger? spent about an hour talking with about 40 actor and tech students from my group here in Seattle and @StradivariusBone 's group in Florida. How cool is that?!?! We had a great talk about both warning signs of danger and signs of professionalism when dealing with weapons, combat, flying effects, working at heights, heavy things over head, and more. So much fun! Thanks guys! I grabbed a screen shot without the kids.

Sorry we couldn't record it as there were students in the shot most of the time and asking questions and there are privacy issues if we record.

View attachment 22352

Also my background doesn’t look nearly as much like Morag as I wanted it to. C’mon Teams…get it together.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Sorry we couldn't record it as there were students in the shot most of the time and asking questions and there are privacy issues if we record.

I would be pretty surprised if you didn't find that students' enrollment paperwork included a model release for all college-related events.

Pretty sure that's included in our community college's paperwork.

 

[gafftaper]

I would be pretty surprised if you didn't find that students' enrollment paperwork included a model release for all college-related events.

Pretty sure that's included in our community college's paperwork.

I used to be at a college, but Strad and I are both high school tech guys now. So the rules are much more complex.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Oh, yeah, they're not doing that at high school.

Cept maybe NYHftA. ;-)

 

[TimMc]

I would be pretty surprised if you didn't find that students' enrollment paperwork included a model release for all college-related events.

Pretty sure that's included in our community college's paperwork.

I think a school is a public place, at least there is no traditional "expectation of privacy" in a classroom or auditorium... but because we're usually taking about minors there is a whole lot of hand-wringing about student privacy.

 

[JohnD]

I say Groucho glasses and a face mask pretty much covers it.