Dear Hollywood: Enough Already With The Digital Blood

300 is great.

Using digital blood and gun-fire is just lazy. I worry filmmakers will forget how to do practical effects. Like muzzle-flash when an actor shoots a gun. This is very hard to capture on film, as the muzzle-flash goes off chances are the camera will not catch it. So what directors like John Carpenter (who is very hands on with all the technical aspects of film) do is synch the prop gun and the camera so the muzzle-flash pops at the exact right moment to catch it on film.

Plus look at Russell’s face. The actor gets to react to the gunfire. All this helps to sell the scene.

It’s definitely Sparta.

It’s a shame, because it didn’t really hurt 300. If you bought into the movie in the first place, it’s not like you were going to be on board for the over the top digital effects for the other 99% of the movie and then “Whoa, digital blood? No sir! There I draw the line!”

So what directors like John Carpenter (who is very hands on with all the technical aspects of film) do is synch the prop gun and the camera so the muzzle-flash pops at the exact right moment to catch it on film.

That sounds crazy. How is that even possible?

That’s actually what usually ends up annoying me the most. Watching some actor jerk his wrist a little as he pops of rounds, but because the gun isn’t actually causing the motion, the rest of his body doesn’t follow suit. Firing a gun doesn’t just affect your hand/wrist. The force of you holding the gun in place against the explosive force of the shot extends all the way up your arm and even affects your stance.

I don’t know the details, I remember Carpenter talking about it in one of his commentary tracks.

It is the same thing when they used to film old CRT TV screens. The video and the film speed had to synch up otherwise you see the scan lines on the TV screen.

Jason
Agreed. I’ve fired prop guns before and you feel it, especially something like a shotgun.

I agree. It definitely worked for what they were going for. But there’s definitely waves in effects, and 300 is the Matrix for the new millennium.

I think it is done remotely, like how squibs are remotely detonated by pulling the trigger on a prop gun. Speaking of bullet wounds, I starred in a student made film and got shot in the head in once scene. The makeup person made a bullet hole on my forehead, covered it with fake skin attached to a string the camera couldn’t see. When the prop gun goes off, I snap my head back, he pulls the string, and BAM! Instant head wound. It ended up looking pretty good.

Did you know back in the day, directors just used sharp-shooters using real bullets for “near misses”?