Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Turns out I'm a crack-shot!

We finally got out to the range today. We informed the proprietor that I'd never touched a gun before. He started me on a .22 at 20 feet. I was consistently hitting that sucker right in the center. Then we went to a .38 at 30 feet. I hit it dead center twice and close to center more often than not. Then we went to a .357 at 40 feet. I got 4 out of 6 pretty close to center. The proprietor was impressed. That was good enough for the director.

When we got to the set, I had to shoot a .357 Magnum with an 8 inch barrel like the one they used in Dirty Harry. I was only shooting blanks so after shooting the live .357 rounds on the range, the blanks where nothing! Even a full fire round only had a slight kick comparable to the .22 I shot on the range. So we did the scene where I blow the crap out of a candy machine and then storm off into the darkness. There was an armorer on set to provide the guns and ammo and a local law officer to check the gun and rounds between every take. At the end of each take I had to walk to the armorer so she could confiscate the gun between takes. Presumably this is so nobody puts a live round in the thing between takes.

It is amazing how much stuff is involved in the making of even a short film! As the actor, I felt like such a tiny part of the process even though I am the lead! I am having such a blast though. We did the scenes and wrapped early so I guess everything went well. Tomorrow we do the dramatic walking off into the distance scene with a crane pulling up and back as I walk away. Remember the end of Dirty Harry? That's the scene.

That's all for now. More tomorrow.

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