Bullet hits...

[Weston]

I'm planning on filming a short war movie this saturday and i was wondering what the best way is to do some "bullets hitting the ground" effects. I have some low cost firecrackers and i heard they could be time-detonated by linking them to the electric triggers you use to launch model rockets. Has anyone done this? If so how exactly do you?.......And if not what else to you suggest doing? It needs to be very cheap.

thanks :)

[David G. Smith]

Get a fancy slingshot (wrist rocket type) and some small stones or bearings/marbles and some pieces of chalk. prepare the soil for the hits, i.e., lossen it up, mix in some fuller's earth or talcum powder. When you want a bulllet hit, smack it with a stone or bearing from the wrist rocket. Use the chalk for bullet hits on walls and such. This is much faster than jury rigging firecrackers. Just be careful not to hit anyone with the sling shot.

Test any thing you are going to use before you use it. Pre-Pro time is cheap, Production time is not.

[Weston]

I'll try it. For some of the movie the charactors will be in a stream.....so i'm thinking the slingshot thing will work well in the water. Thanks for the advice.

[David G. Smith]

No problem, just like I said though, be careful. When I've use the wrist rockets, I've always treated them as if they were guns.

Good luck.

[SadMax]

Add the bullet hits in post, either by comping in separately-shot dust-kicks (air or projectile) or by using a particle system to create 'em...if the resources are available.

I recognize that everyone is generally responsible and cautious and safety-conscious, but the idea of using real projectiles, even "just" bearings and a wrist rocket, gives me the willies. No matter how careful you are, you can't control the trajectory of a bearing, stone or slug ricocheting off water or stone or even hard-packed earth.

Consider using a paintball gun, if you have any available. You can dial the muzzle velocity 'way down, the slugs are big, slow-moving and frangible, and you can order rounds filled with dust for your hits, rather than filled with dye.

FWIW. Good luck and be safe!

[filmmaker58]

Dust balls for paintball guns can be had at Roger George inc., or DeLaMare engineering in L.A. Get the 68 caliber variety because most paintball guns shoot those these days. Squibs will require a licensed pyrotechnitian, and a lot of time. I've done the model rocket ignitors and it's not very reliable, and takes forever to set up.

[qwerty]

paint ball hurts!!!!

[Slimothy]

paint ball hurts!!!!

Not true, I shoot them into the back of my throat on a daily basis. Gets you used to it.

[mmm]

Not true, I shoot them into the back of my throat on a daily basis. Gets you used to it.

I practice catching them with my eyelids.

[Reel Magician]

You could try shooting (or maybe even throwing) some of those snap n' pop fireworks (you know, the ones you throw on the ground and they pop). You could also rewrap them in a paper that more closely matches the background to disguise the white paper (if it even shows up).

[MarcM]

Yes, the technique of firecracker squibs works great for bullet hits on the ground.
All you need is rocket igniters, a car or motorcycle battery and some cheap wire. Get a spool at Radio Shack. Setting of the cracker is easy. Just close the circuit.
The challenge is setting the cracker. I like arisol spray can caps, wrapped in duct tape for extra strength. Just bury the cap in dirt(but keep the inside clean) and pack the dirt kinda tight around the cap. Gives you a nice uniform hole in the groun. Now lay in the cracker with rocket igniter replacing the fuse. The wire should be connected too. Use a little putty to keep the cracker fastened to the bottom of the cap. Bring the wire up and out from the cap along the ground to your battery. Using a bigger battery like from a car or motorcycle allows you to run long wires out to behind your camera. Now keeping the other ends of the wires away from the battery (its ready to fire) fill in the cap with your dusty dirt. S folksome use fullers earth. I just sift some nice dusty dirt from where Im at, its cheaper. Smooth out the ground to hide your cracker squib but mark where it is so your actors know during any rehersal. When you want to set it off just touch the ends of the wires to the neg and positive ends of the battery.

[Matt Grunau]

Why couldn't you just run small rubber tubes to the spot you want the burst and then have the whole lot of them in one place with something like a turkey baster or ear cleaning rubber thingy attached to each tube? Stomp on them or hit em with yer fists or whatever. It would be cheap, safer than anything, and absolutely controlled. Might be a hassle to set up, but hell, a small groove in the ground going off camera would be easy, and would be worth the control alone.

[Gopher_Greene]

Are the ignitors a one time use?

[JPatnaude]

What I've heard of being done is using an airbomb ( an air tank for filling tires. +_$17 at Walmart) and rig a long hose with holes or tubes in the top like a flute. The trick would be to have a rod that you would insert and pull out that would open the holes to in a quick sucession. The hard part would be burying the tube or pipe. I guess you would have to add some sound FX in post to hide the air sounds on set.

this is sort of an off-shoot of the "bloodblaster" design that was for a gunshot wound.
FYI

J Patnaude

oh yeah- the blood blaster:

http://www.sticktowhatyouknow.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=5802&sid=ef324c843fa416ff591bdee8f81d72a4

[Gopher_Greene]

That's a cool rig but the reason I'm interested in the rocket ignighters is we're going to be doing machine gun fire. So running that much tubing over a large area would be prohibitivly expensive compared to running wire, however it looks like both are more expensive then dust balls at 1.25 ea