Muzzle Flashes!!

SilverWolf said:
Freeze frames some common movies and most muzzle flashes look fake. What makes them feel reel in big time productions is
1. The sound - It's all about the sound baby
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I'd agree with sound playing a big role.

I did a silly little web vid a couple years ago and used the Knoll lens flare plug in AE and it suited me fine: http://spikedmedia.seanmccormick.biz/media/psa.wmv
Gun dealy at the end of the 60 sec clip.

I imagine there are many ways in post to skin this cat...
 
Remember this, when the cameraman sees the muzzle flash on a 35 mm camera, the camera did not record it. It means that the shutter was closed.
 
DarlingDimple said:
What is the best way to get real looking muzzle flashes from some airsoft guns i bought...i need a cheap (not powder or blanks), most likely post, to help me..ne one got ne ideas, it would be greatly appreciated.
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what i have i have always done is get a gas blow back pistol (airsoft) and put wd40 in the barrel (cleans it and when u fire it creates a nice puff look like smokeless powder like in real weapons, just replace more every like 10 shots) then post chroma in flashes from video games. gassbb's have the recoil and cycling action liek real guns.
 
I just got down working a shot that required muzzle flash and here is how I did it. I worked in Shake, but this can be done with any comp program.

1. I downloaded this pic from the artbeats site, it's a low res, small still of a muzzle flash, but since my shot was a wide one, it doesn't reall matter.
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You could also paint it the muzzle flash or make something in PS. It really doesn't matter because it only lasts one frame. Another note, very few guns actually create visible muzzle flash, but it still looks cool.

2. I use Primatte to pull the key, then I used an Add node to put it over my footage. I keyed it on for one frame. I then took the same flash pic, and blurred it, then added it over my first muzzle flash and footage. This is your incident lighting, you can control the spread of the light by the amount of blur. During the day and bright lights will make it less pronounced, but at night it'll light up everything around.

3. Add finishing touches, smoke, grain, etc...

These are basic steps, and I did a few extra things here and there to sell the shot. I originally looked at the detonation films stuff, but it was too noisy for me to comp without having to clean it up.
 
Obviously these shots only pertain to outdoors, midday, but I thought some of you would like to see actual muzzle flashes recorded by a DVX100B in 24Pa.

Each flash was a single frame and in the footage there was no puff of smoke that you get from blank loads.

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The first shot is an HK P2000sk .40cal.
The second shot is a SigSauer 239 9mm.

Aside from 4 frames of flying brass, you are looking at the only visual cues of a real ammunition firing firearm. And while my 16 yr old lead handles the handguns very well, she's in love with the 9mm police carbine rifle. We'll need to take a trip to Vegas to shoot some full-auto HK MP5s.

-GageFX

BTW, the footage is BTS of firearms training for my feature.
 
..and nothing ruins your shoot like someone busting open their hand on the action because they didnt know how to hold the thing.

firearms training is indeed a very very good thing.
 
My male lead actually didnt take too well to the firearms training. I stopped his live fire training after the first two rounds because his hands just refused to hold the gun properly. He was taught, he understood and dry fired just fine, but miliseconds before he fired the first live shot he raised his supporting hand's thumb behind the slide. It racked back and sliced his thumb. Not back at all. "Slice" is actually over stating it. It was just slightly more than a scratch. He cleaned up, put a bandaid on and came back to try again. He actually had to be stopped mid trigger pull on the second round as he raised his thumb again. The gun was unloaded, he was taught again, the gun was reloaded and again, just before the hammer reached apex he started to raise his thumb then he corrected and dropped the hammer. I stopped the training there.

I had concerns going into it as he is very anti-gun and he went in with the idea that all guns do is hurt people. And while you have to respect the gun and it's power, you cant be afraid of it or you wont be thinking right. I'm limiting him to airsoft.

But all my actors that will be shooting have had firearms training. Michael Mann is the guy I look to when it comes to directing actors with firearms. The BTS on Collateral and Heat are great. I just wish I had the access to training that his budgets allow.

-GageFX
 
GageFX said:
..Michael Mann is the guy I look to when it comes to directing actors with firearms. The BTS on Collateral and Heat are great. I just wish I had the access to training that his budgets allow.

-GageFX
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Ah cool. I'll have to check that out. I rented it once but ran outof time to watch teh BTS.
 
What's really cool about his fims is he has the actors train and train and train with the live weapons, even up until the day of the shoot then replaces them with blank firing weapons for the shoot. So all Tom's shooting in Collateral, he trains with live rounds on the range, from the bar/club shootout to the alley/thug shooting. Now imagine Deniro, Kilmer, Sizemore, et al training for the bank shootout. Good times.

-GageFX
 
wow -- I never would have thought about safety issues pretending to fire a gun that doesn't fire, lol.
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The first time I ever fired a semi auto, I gripped the pistol incorrectly.

The way I gripped it, my left hand was wrapped around my right, with the web (between the thumb and index finger) under the hammer .

At the first shot, the slice flew back and slammed the hammer into the web area of my left hand... which started to bleed.

That was my introduction to the wrong way to grip a semi auto pistol. I took a safety course really quickly after that. There's a right way and wrong way to grip a semi auto pistol....

If the screen good guy (or baddie) grips the semi auto pistol incorrectly, it kills the perception (for me at least) the guy knows anything about firing a gun.

Another thing that bugs me is in a lot of movies, the "weapons trained" cops, soldiers etc have their fingers are wrapped around the trigger in tense confrontation scenes.

A trained shooter will always have his trigger finger off the trigger to avoid accidental firing.... especially if the trigger had been "tuned".
 
stabwound said:
The first time I ever fired a semi auto, I gripped the pistol incorrectly.

The way I gripped it, my left hand was wrapped around my right, with the web (between the thumb and index finger) under the hammer .

At the first shot, the slice flew back and slammed the hammer into the web area of my left hand... which started to bleed.

That was my introduction to the wrong way to grip a semi auto pistol. I took a safety course really quickly after that. There's a right way and wrong way to grip a semi auto pistol....

If the screen good guy (or baddie) grips the semi auto pistol incorrectly, it kills the perception (for me at least) the guy knows anything about firing a gun.

Another thing that bugs me is in a lot of movies, the "weapons trained" cops, soldiers etc have their fingers are wrapped around the trigger in tense confrontation scenes.

A trained shooter will always have his trigger finger off the trigger to avoid accidental firing.... especially if the trigger had been "tuned".
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I go to the range a lot. I would say the hardest thing at first for me what reloading the clip. I was nervous and my hands were sweating but that was a while ago and this is me now

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1911 .45 from 25 Ft
 
Those groups are amazing.

I get giddy when I see those holes in the target.

My primary competition pistol was the stock Taurus 9mm and Beretta 9mm... and reloading the clips were pretty easy.

I've never really used the 1911, tough most of the top shooters use that, even though the capacity is lower and (to me) seem more harder to reload.

I'm fairly good when it comes to plinking at steel targets at leisure, but at practical shooting competitions my score is near the bottom, behind some really old guys.

When I get really excited my vision goes into a tunnel. The only time I did well was when I took some Valium to combat a case of tinnitus.

But that's years ago.... I've pretty well quit (anti-gun climate and gun registration in Canada is killing the sport) and have sold off most of my collection.

It was FUN!
 
I'm an HK man. HK's would be the star of my film if it was easier to find blowbacks of the newer models. (There are USPs galore, but no P2000s or subcompacts.) I'd go w/ unloaded/locked (the p2000's trigger can be disengaged internally) for close up non firing, and then the blowbacks for firing, but I cant match my subs. I can my my full size but my characters aren't carrying hand cannons.

Here's my girl: (The others are jealous from neglect.)

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Sorry 'bout all the photos. They're one thing I have alot of.

-GageFX
 
At the first shot, the slice flew back and slammed the hammer into the web area of my left hand... which started to bleed.
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Are you sure it was the hammer? Check your grip again. That's exactly what my actor did and he thought it was the hammer also, but on closer inspection it was clearly the slide that sliced across his thumb as he shot. It almost seems the slide would knock your thumb out of the way before the hammer could hit it.

Not that it matters. Just wondering.

-GageFX
 
I'm also a HK man. I have a hk Usp Compact but at the time I shot that target I hadn't purchased my gun yet and was shooting everything in the range
 
GageFX said:
Are you sure it was the hammer? Check your grip again. That's exactly what my actor did and he thought it was the hammer also, but on closer inspection it was clearly the slide that sliced across his thumb as he shot. It almost seems the slide would knock your thumb out of the way before the hammer could hit it.

Not that it matters. Just wondering.

-GageFX
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Gage... that HK is sooooo sexy!

Photographs extremely well... the right amount of shinyness and detail. I'd use it in a futruristic movie.

I no longer have the Smith/Wesson 9mm (first gun) Taurus or Beretta (sold) and the hammer bite happened about 10 years ago, when I first started shooting.

Going by memory here....

The bite occurred not on the thumb... but on the webbing of my left hand between thumb and index finger. I'm sure it's not the slide, but the hammer. But then again, it happened so fast.... I can never be really sure. I'm open to the idea it could be the slide.

Last night I tried to access my Daewoo 9mm compact (Smith and Wesson Clone) but I can't find the keys to the guncase!

I'll try to recreate my bad grip when I get the thing unlocked....

No, I can't shoot with the Daewoo at the range. It has become a prohibited weapon in Canada (short barrel).
 
Photographs extremely well... the right amount of shinyness and detail. I'd use it in a futruristic movie.
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Jack Bauer has been sporting the P2000 this season on 24 along with a couple other less beautiful weapons.

I'm holding a Sig 226 right now and can see how the hammer could catch the webbing.

I'm waiting for the day they start getting really crazy with the gun laws here. In L.A. CITY, I cant buy a subcompact, like my P2kSK above, but drive one mile to Burbank, not L.A. CITY, but still L.A. County and you can buy it. I'm just not a big fan of silliness.

Back on topic: If anyone is interested in me posting a few second clip of my lead actress (16 yrs old, 5'1", 89lbs) firing a gun for the first time, I'll be glad to. It's a decent representation of what would have to be duplicated in post regarding flash and flying brass. It's also a cute clip.

-GageFX
 
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