Do movies use airsoft ?

Heckler

http://www.imfdb.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Apologies if it been linked before. I heard that the main characters in movies would have special prop guns but that extras and so on i.e. a load of police or military background extras would have high-end airsoft aegs.

Anybody know anything about this ?

Nice site if you want a movie load-out !

hoplite

Hey thats a cool link thanks. Good thread idea too +1.

weeder

i hear that in transformers you can get a glimpse of a hi cap winder on an extra's G36c

hoplite

At last a justification for getting blu-ray!

horgan_p

I know the new punisher movie uses airsoft gear. i'll post a link later

spicymchaggis

horgan_p wrote: »

I know the new punisher movie uses airsoft gear. i'll post a link later

sweet cant wait, just hope they stuck to the garth ennis style this time and you can see the irish mind in the movie a claymore is a must

NakedDex

I supply and build various props to a bunch of photographers and short film makers. Airsoft rifles are often used (indeed I've supplied them on several occasions) in movies where the rifles in the scene are not going to be firing. This is done for several reasons but mainly for cost and safety. Running around all day with an airsoft rifle with no battery or ammo is a damn sight safer than running around with a blank firer or a fully capable rifle.
Getting a dozen or so airsoft rifles is also a lot cheaper. Not only for purchasing/rental of the units, but also it removes the need to acquire special firearms licences for the set as well as have an armourer on call at all times, weapons safety officers etc.

It's a far more common practice in movies than you might think. From low budget Irish films, right up to blockbuster Hollywood epics.

Heckler

NakedDex wrote: »

I supply and build various props to a bunch of photographers and short film makers. Airsoft rifles are often used (indeed I've supplied them on several occasions) in movies where the rifles in the scene are not going to be firing. This is done for several reasons but mainly for cost and safety. Running around all day with an airsoft rifle with no battery or ammo is a damn sight safer than running around with a blank firer or a fully capable rifle.
Getting a dozen or so airsoft rifles is also a lot cheaper. Not only for purchasing/rental of the units, but also it removes the need to acquire special firearms licences for the set as well as have an armourer on call at all times, weapons safety officers etc.

It's a far more common practice in movies than you might think. From low budget Irish films, right up to blockbuster Hollywood epics.

Thats what I thought. Could have sworn I saw gas points on GBB pistols in numerous movies. Anyone know what they use when firing an obvious onscreen gun ? i.e. the main characters. Blank shooters ? Do they eject shell casings ? Also heard a lot of muzzle flash and sound effects are added in post-production. Just curious.

I remember years ago i saw a behind-the-scenes thing of some aussie cop show. An actor removed his pistol from his holster and the thing ended just below the hammer ! Just enough to make it look believable in the holster. Then I believe airsoft is banned in Australia and they have very severe restrictions on firearms.

Chuck the Buck

One of the episodes of Fringe shows a pistol on the ground with the base of the mag facing the camera and you can see the valve for filling it with gas.

Also if you look closely at any given episode of Stargate you'll see a real P90 pop up compared to all the TM ones around it (it gets fired a few moments afterwards and you can see the casings come out of it).

I think in general airsofts versions are being used a lot more in movies/tv shows for the reasons NakedDex said.

spicymchaggis

Heckler wrote: »

Thats what I thought. Could have sworn I saw gas points on GBB pistols in numerous movies. Anyone know what they use when firing an obvious onscreen gun ? i.e. the main characters. Blank shooters ? Do they eject shell casings ? Also heard a lot of muzzle flash and sound effects are added in post-production. Just curious.

sometime not always, i have had to add gun sfx before in post

Chuck the Buck

Heckler wrote: »

Thats what I thought. Could have sworn I saw gas points on GBB pistols in numerous movies. Anyone know what they use when firing an obvious onscreen gun ? i.e. the main characters. Blank shooters ? Do they eject shell casings ? Also heard a lot of muzzle flash and sound effects are added in post-production. Just curious.

Sometimes you'll see the casings - P90's in Stargate often don't have any casings coming out but sometimes you'll see they managed to get the blanks (a worldwide shortage due to the gulf war 2) and it was always RDA using it, the rest of the time it was probably fx.

horgan_p

heres the footage :

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1666118/punisher_war_zone_restricted_footage/

here's the blurb on arnies :
http://arniesairsoft.co.uk/news2/3378


its at around 1:34 on the video. its their launcher apparently

ED E

Chuck the Buck wrote: »

One of the episodes of Fringe shows a pistol on the ground with the base of the mag facing the camera and you can see the valve for filling it with gas.

Also if you look closely at any given episode of Stargate you'll see a real P90 pop up compared to all the TM ones around it (it gets fired a few moments afterwards and you can see the casings come out of it).

I think in general airsofts versions are being used a lot more in movies/tv shows for the reasons NakedDex said.

Which episode of Fringe was that?

NakedDex

A lot of pistols have an exposed tension screw on the base plate of the magazine. Airsifters often confuse this with a fill valve. Sometimes it can be, more often it's not. Blank firers will always be used for action sequences to show recoil, smoke and brass. The difference is, they use a low power blank that produces a lot of flame and only half the kick. This is purely so the hero of the hour can do silly things like dual wield Desert Eagles without breaking their arms and still look good.

spicymchaggis

horgan_p wrote: »

heres the footage :

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1666118/punisher_war_zone_restricted_footage/

here's the blurb on arnies :
http://arniesairsoft.co.uk/news2/3378


its at around 1:34 on the video. its their launcher apparently

cool cool, as i said before garth ennis :rolleyes:

Chuck the Buck

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

Which episode of Fringe was that?

Can't for the life of me remember, but probably ep 2 or 3. All I could think of was 'would they not cover the hole for the gas valve'.

I guess its one of those things where you'd have to be an airsofter to notice it, like with the winding wheel on the high caps :pac:

Heckler

NakedDex wrote: »

A lot of pistols have an exposed tension screw on the base plate of the magazine. Airsifters often confuse this with a fill valve. Sometimes it can be, more often it's not. Blank firers will always be used for action sequences to show recoil, smoke and brass. The difference is, they use a low power blank that produces a lot of flame and only half the kick. This is purely so the hero of the hour can do silly things like dual wield Desert Eagles without breaking their arms and still look good.

Cheers. Thats probably what I confused. A gas valve and tension screw. Thanks !

Love to get my mitts on Will Smiths AR15 with the attachments. Looks great in I Am Legend.

kdouglas

I believe propane fired guns are used aswell in movies, but yes, quite often airsoft guns appear in movies, infact quite often I find myself looking for the evidence as to whether it's real or not

kdouglas

Heckler wrote: »

Cheers. Thats probably what I confused. A gas valve and tension screw. Thanks !

Love to get my mitts on Will Smiths AR15 with the attachments. Looks great in I Am Legend.

Off-topic, but Redwolfairsoft.com released a custom AEG not long after I Am Legend came out which was apparently quite similar.

Edit: Here it is: http://www.redwolfairsoft.com/redwolf/airsoft/ProductDetail?prodID=23878

MacAonghusa

Course some movies just use painted plastic guns "shapes" when they need lots & lots of guns; Saving Pte Ryan for example.

Heckler

kdouglas wrote: »

Off-topic, but Redwolfairsoft.com released a custom AEG not long after I Am Legend came out which was apparently quite similar.

Edit: Here it is: http://www.redwolfairsoft.com/redwolf/airsoft/ProductDetail?prodID=23878

WOW, that works out (if its Hong Kong Dollars) quite cheap.

Heckler

MacAonghusa wrote: »

Course some movies just use painted plastic guns "shapes" when they need lots & lots of guns; Saving Pte Ryan for example.

Heard that as well. Only the main characters got the real deal be it deacts or whatever and the rest were made from rubber !! Anyone know is there a site to buy movie props be it guns, clothes etc ? What happens to all the stuff once any movie is made ? Put into storage never to be seen again ?

NakedDex

Often it's sold off. Some of it is stored, like rifles and dynamic effects props, and some of the main iconic pieces would be stored for further use or for museum placement.

Between Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, it suddenly became nigh on impossible to get good WW2 uniforms. Reproductions even became scarce and the price spiked dramatically. I've been after a 1942 Class A uniform for a while with absolutely no avail unless I want to spend 300 on the jacket alone.

Necron99

V for Vendetta all the soldiers guarding parliment are using Airsoft stuff so in all probs all or most of the guns in it are A/S.

Puding

airsoft props are used extensively in films and tv, there used for a number of reason , price, insurance -its far easier to give a aeg with no battery to a background actor or even a primary during shooting when not real firing is called for, also if your filming in some country there may be very tight controls on real steel, airsoft props just means things are a bit easier,

you can also see the hop up wheel of a hi cap in 28 weeks latter

MacAonghusa

At least now using airsoft gun it looks like they're actually carrying real guns unlike prior to this when they'd carry plastic guns which were light as a feather ... and looked it.
Either that or actors were just a lot stronger back then :rolleyes:

Masada

Did anyone watch Fair City last night? (And no i dont watch that sh*te.:p)

There was a guy with an airsoft Beretta Cougar on it.,

spicymchaggis

vtec wrote: »

Did anyone watch Fair City last night? (And no i dont watch that sh*te.:p)

There was a guy with an airsoft Beretta Cougar on it.,

which retailer sells that? yeah you were to busy talkin about the missuse of packets of crisps on the airsoft irc lol :D

kdouglas

Heckler wrote: »

WOW, that works out (if its Hong Kong Dollars) quite cheap.

Unfortunately it's US Dollars, not HK

ED E

Yeah, V for Vendetta, not even airsoft: http://www.shadowgalaxy.net/Vendetta/blog/images/trafalgar03.jpg
Unless its cyma, but I doubt even they have that bad a finish.

NakedDex

I doubt strongly that is a prop from the movie, or that they're actors from it. The costumes look unfinished and that movie had a big enough budget to stretch to a couple of hundred rented G36's. The days of polycast weapon props are long over.

Masada

If you clip away some of the URL you'll get to the parent folder, where i found this.,


Dont look like an airsoft rifle to me.

NakedDex

I think it's a polycast. The kind of thing used in films like Saving Private Ryan and Braveheart where a large number of items that look like the real thing from a distance are needed cheaply. Doesn't happen as often with modern weapons though, since it's just as cheap and easy to rent or buy real/deact/replica units andnot have to worry about poor shots showing off the cheap effect.

ED E

According to the source they are extras. I dont know how much CG was used but if you've seen the movie there are literally thousands of both V's and Guards, only the front row would really need perfect kit.

Dont look like an airsoft rifle to me.

Yeah, thus the comment saying even cyma look better than that.

NakedDex

I know the technique they used. They needed a few hundred people which were then cloned. Attention to detail is what makes a film good, and the Wachowskis are famous for it. I'm sure their multi million dollar budget stretched to a few hundred rented rifles from a prop company.

Hivemind187

The BBC seem have come into a large number of G36C's over the last two years ... a huge number of them were used in the filming of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Jekyll and Frankenstein and I dare say that a number of them were JG clones tarted up like a whores drawers.

The Master

Hivemind187 wrote: »

The BBC seem have come into a large number of G36C's over the last two years ... a huge number of them were used in the filming of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Jekyll and Frankenstein and I dare say that a number of them were JG clones tarted up like a whores drawers.

The ones used in Doctor Who/Torchwood were a mix of TM G36C's and Real Steel firing blanks

Fallschirmjager

28 weeks had a load of them.

Shiva

Hivemind187 wrote: »

The BBC seem have come into a large number of G36C's over the last two years ... a huge number of them were used in the filming of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Jekyll and Frankenstein and I dare say that a number of them were JG clones tarted up like a whores drawers.

They use one of my suppliers, and I was mistakenly sent their invoice for a batch of 40 JG G36cs
Poor buggers were paying through the nose for them too.

True story.

spicymchaggis

know for a fact airsoft guns used in hot fuzz, friend worked on set, but it was mainly pistols

Fallschirmjager

28 weeks was a definite...

its an easy choice particularly with 1080p on the rise, the old resin props just dont cut it anymore and with cheap alternatives why would they not. that looks like a resin prop in the V picture above to me at least. a dead giveaway is the flash hider (it looks filled to me) as resin is prone to breaks they tend to fill in bits like that.

Spitfire666

they used airsoft armalites in Jarhead too.

Hivemind187

Spitfire666 wrote: »

they used airsoft armalites in Jarhead too.

ICS to be specific.

ScumLord

I always thought that if the hammer was flat (no pin to hit the bullet) that it was an airsoft gun but I'm not sure if that's true after seeing some real steel pictures.

Stercus Accidit

If its a revolver, yes, but some airsoft revolvers have a false pin anyway, even my bell revolver.

Real semi auto's have a flat hammer that strikes the pin.

Frank the Manc

semi autos and most modern revolvers use a flat hammer to strike a seperate firing pin or transfer bar, so that wouldnt be a good indicator

SniperSight

Heckler wrote: »

http://www.imfdb.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Nice site if you want a movie load-out !

Good site alright,
bit off about its statements about "replica" ACOGs .
It states that you can tell its an airsoft ACOG 'caus of the lack of the fibre optic band.
Even a glance at the Trijicon website would show that there are many ACOGs which dont have the Optical band.

I heard that at some satge you can see a UTG(Steyr SSG) sniper rifle being used be an extra in Vantage Point??

ojika

Hi guys , newbie here, this is a great source of info. I am currently in pre production for a low budget movie I have written and there are a couple of close up scenes where I need gun effects. Going to use airsoft for most scenes, but been looking at PFCs or the chance of getting forward venting blank firers so I dont have to put fake muzzle flash or blank ejection in post production. Any FX advice or pointing in the direction of suppliers would be appreciated.
you can message me or mail me on ojika@hotmail.co.uk

thanks,
Mark

gungun

wowzorz... necro:rolleyes:

diverdriver

Doing extra work for some years now. I have to say I've never seen an Airsoft replica in use. But then again, Airsoft is a recent phenomenon in Ireland. I worked with two different armourers. One used mainly deacks and dummy or blank firers. The other, quite well known in the trade used the real thing, mostly.

He also had 'rubber' SLRs which he told me had been used in 'Bloody Sunday'. They didn't bear close examination but worked for distance shots. He had real AK-47s and we used a real Beretta for the shooting. It was funny because my friend who was in the scene firing the gun was clueless about guns and was waving it about like it was a 'gangsta' movie. The armourer told me that was a problem because untrained people and blank firing can be lethal. I had a look in his van, it was a treasure trove of guns (real and prop). Incidentally we had an armed detective on set, discreetly of course.

The other armourer used a deacked AK and blankfirers with the muzzle blocked. They were issued to extras for running around with.

These were mostly for low budget RTE crime reconstructions too.

For low budget filmmakers, beware, isn't a permit required to film with replicas in public? You can scare people easily. I remember setting up for a scence. A bunch of us on a public road, all tooled up with balaclavas, AK-47, RPG, revolver and sledgehammer. A guy came around the corner is his car. The look of horror on his face was hilarious.

Firekitten

However, gaining a licence to use replicas in a public place is MUCH cheaper and easier to aquire than one to use real firearms, do you realise rubber guns are still realistic imitation firearms?

Point with real weapons is that you require a firearms officer on set at all times they are out of the locked armoury, and guarding when in. Theres an insurance nightmare, and when toys look the same, frankly, theres no point, Special effects and tech voodoo can make up for the lack of muzzle flash and sounds... Theres really no need to use real ones.