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msg.drew

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I was wondering any movie out there that has a gun fight always has these awesome muzzel flashes... is it just the fact that they are not fireing any real bullets out of the guns or are they adding something special to the charges to make them have that nice white flash...

You know what I am talking about that 5 star flash from an AR in any movie with one in it.

Could this be added to your own handloads to make some cool muzzle flashes for added effect...
 
Its called flash powder and I have no idea whats in it to make such a big flash,but I HIGHLY recommend AGAINST adding stuff to reloads to try and duplicate it.Very dangerous.
Also keep in mind that we have no projectile to block flash and the charges are generally larger than live ammo.
 
But What about the stupid flash when the bullet hits...

Sure, muzzle flashes are normal, even with ball ammo BUT, an alloy jacket lead filled bullet will not make the sparks/flash on impact on concrete, wall or whatever. That is my hang-up.:slap:

SOF
 
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LONGSHOT;
You are 1000000% on the money, there is wide variety of products used in Hollyweird ammunition.

NOT for the amateur, using some of these addatives in "live" ammo could be a disaster waiting to happen.

We supply a very large percentage of the weapons used in the motion picture industry in Canada and offshore, we have seen many types of SE ammo....Some pretty scary recipes....

Not mention that some of these cartridges are evry hard on the steel barrel.
John
 
Sly Old Fox said:
Sure, muzzle flashes are normal, even with ball ammo BUT, an alloy jacket lead filled bullet will not make the sparks/flash on impact on concrete, wall or whatever. That is my hang-up.:slap:

SOF
Click to expand...

actually your wrong when shooting hi velocity jacketed ammo a steal it makes sparks but thats not what I am talking about, I am talking about muzzel flash.

The best example is in tropic thunder when robert downey has 2 Ar's and is fireing you can see it in this video at about 1:20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JDLoe2yIe0

Here is a picture of my 1911 fireing light reloads in slow motion and you can see the fire ball and flame but its not white like in the movies...
DSC_00820001.jpg

IMG%5D
 
Keep in mind half those flashes aren't there at all, they're added in later digitally (and the brass and smoke too). There's a few software plugins that replicate certain signature flashes, like the M4/16 birdcage, etc -all in a dropdown menu.
Bigger companies also have libraries of footage of a someone shooting various guns from all angles, shot against black to aid in luminance extraction later.

*edit- speaking of tropic thunder, that was done by the guys sitting in the office with me, I haven't tracked down if anyone did the 'lead farmer' shot, but it sounds like a million other muzzle flashes were added in vfx (I wasn't on that film).
 
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mmm that seems resonable... because if you go back to a movie like "heat" with robert deniro when they have the big shootout... there ar's make flashes more like what actually happens... where you might not get a big flash every time or so perfect like in new movies...
 
BC Guy should know about adding flashes in post production.Its his job! ;)
Anyways in a show like heat they fired lots of rounds.When shooting on film, and depending on how fast you are filming,the shutter on the camera may or may not be open at the exact moment the flash goes off.It may capture it or it may not.Usually it does and there is no problem.Every now and again it doesn't and the flash is added in post.One of the reasons we use such bright big flashes is to make that flash a little longer to increase the chance that that shutter might open while the flash is visible.Flashes visible on the monitors during filming have not been captured on film.If no flashes are visible on the monitor the they ARE captured on the film.If your shooting on HD which is getting more and more common then you don't have to worry about it.There's a little muzzle flash trivia for ya. ;)
 
I can capture the muzzle flash of real guns on my digital camera... go back to page one and take a look. I like you said though everything has to be exactly right... I fired 50 rounds and only got 4 good pictures of a muzzle flash... we where using a good nikon pro digital camera... and count down technique 3, 2,1 my friend would take the picture on 2 and I would fire on 1 it normally worked but we missed alot of them because our timing was off... he just got the camera and didnt know if it could take burst pictures or not...
 
Pumkin size white flash in full daylight from 75gr Magpro powder in 7mmwsm, I have never seen anything like this with any other powders.
 
I did something like this about 15 years ago. I took a 12 gauge hull , reprimed it, fill with powder, then crimp. Got a helluva roar and flash, but no recoil or any signs of pressure or damage. I am not recommending you try this. Just throwing it out there.
 
I'm gonna guess Heat was all real flashes, Michael Mann seems to like to keep it real, that's why Heat and Collateral looked so good imo.
Many other directors want way more flashes than were actually shot, sometimes to the point of ridiculousness.
Longshot- Any experience with the Red camera yet? I've done a project with it, looked pretty nice, probably here to stay...
 
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