In June and July of 1993 I was producing and directing a movie, TWILIGHT OF THE DOGS, which had everything, trained animals, stunts, hundreds of extras...and guns...real guns, supplied by our armorer, Walter Suarez, from his local (Newport News) based PARK AVENUE ARMOURERS.
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| Actor John Brennan about to be "shot" with a blank by Ralph Bluemke on the set of TWILIGHT OF THE DOGS |
On Tuesday, June 8th 1993, we were shooting a scene for my film involving a pistol (loaded with a single blank round), and a bit of practical makeup effects magic where an actor (John Brennan) being shot from behind by actor Ralph Bluemke, but there was one problem: John Brennan was nervous and concerned to do the shot!
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| Brandon Lee |
On Wednesday March 31st 1993, two months earlier, was the day a gun-accident on the set of THE CROW ended the life of actor Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee. A blank had killed him. A blank had also accidentally killed actor Jon-Erik Hexum on the set of the TV series COVER UP, in 1984. Hexum put a blank-loaded 44 Magnum to his head and pulled the trigger (as a practical joke)... the force of the blank killed him.
Jon-Erik Hexum in the TV series Voyagers!
The death of Brandon Lee was still very fresh in the minds of many when we came to shoot our scene.
I had been paying attention to what friends in the VFX industry had been reporting, and both Walter Suarez and I sat down with actor Brennan to explain EXACTLY what had happened to Brandon Lee, and why what we were doing was safe. That lead bullets (not cartridges (meaning no powder or charge of any kind) had been put in the cylinder of the gun to make it appear to be loaded (as seen by the camera).
When the lead bullets were removed (apparently weeks earlier) and then blank rounds were inserted into the cylinder to fire with bright flash...but what happened was the prop man didn't notice that one of the lead bullets hadn't come out and had a blank inserted behind it. Blanks have typically more powder than a real cartridge, so when it went off it propelled the lead bullet right through Brandon Lee's stomach, lodging near his spine. Twelve hours of surgery later, Lee succumbed.
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| Walter F. Suarez Jr., Park Avenue Armourers |
I then took John Brennan's place and let Ralph Bluemke shoot me with a blank, in exactly the same manner and distance, to prove it was all safe. Once Brennan (and everyone ) was convinced, we proceeded to shoot the real shot with no errors other than we had to shoot it twice due to a camera department error. My one regret is that we didn't get a shot of me on film or video, to use here or in the making of documentary, when I let Ralph shoot me to prove it was safe.
The fatal error (literally) on the film RUST occurred because whenever you have real or blank weapons being used on a film, you MUST have a fully-licensed weapons master on set, there are NO EXCEPTIONS! NONE! Assistant directors are here to move things along in a timely manner, not to inspect guns and declare them safe. Or hand them off to actors who assume they are safe. Alec Baldwin, although Producer, should have had more than one person on set to make sure there was a safety check on the gun (and anything else potentially dangerous). "Safety first" should always be a welcome cry on set, to avoid tragedies like this from happening.
I invite comments from our readers concerning this post (and on any other posts on our bog).
As an addendum, in 2001 I was working on the movie EPOCH as on-set Visual Effects director, with director Matt Codd, Ryan O'Neal, Craig Wasson, the late Stephanie Niznik, David Keith and others, including an Asian actress I didn't know. At one point during shooting she turned her head a certain way, and I recognized her immediately. At the lunch break, I walked up to her and said, "You're Bruce Lee's daughter, aren't you?" It was Shannon Lee, who was friendly and kind and was flattered that I saw her dad in her. I am disappointed to report I have yet to find the polaroid taken of us that day, but hope it turns up eventually. A magical moment for me, and we remained friends for a few years until losing touch.
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| Shannon Lee in EPOCH (2001) |
Thanks to Dennis Phelps for suggesting I write about my related experience here!
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Next week an UPDATE on the restoration of the widescreen/stereo version of TWILIGHT OF THE DOGS, including news about the soundtrack album, visual effects "sweetening" and more. Don't miss it!
Very interesting about how the blanks work! Sad that there is ever an incident were anyone is actually shot.
ReplyDeleteThanks Leah. People get lax and that's when people get hurt on movie sets. Should NEVER happen!
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