[Livia]

Originally Posted by Soldier Boy

Some movies that want to be "authentic" and rely on practical effects use live rounds to shoot objects in one scene, then swap to blanks with the same prop gun for another scene where people will be in the line of fire. So basically (assuming accident) either someone left a live round in the gun from a previous take, or someone messed up when they were loading it for that take and loaded the wrong rounds.

To reiterate again I think in a time of cheap, effective CGI there's no real reason to have live rounds anywhere near a film set - you can get close enough with post processing effects. TV shows for example will unlikely ever be using live rounds, and people just don't notice.

You don't get the same muzzle-flash from blanks. You can mock it up with a blank flash... but it doesn't look the same. Sometimes they use live rounds for authenticity... but knowing that, you'd think it'd make it more important for everyone to check. There are so many laws surrounding guns on set, look at all the shoot-em-up films that get made without anyone being shot.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Livia

You don't get the same muzzle-flash from blanks. You can mock it up with a blank flash... but it doesn't look the same. Sometimes they use live rounds for authenticity... but knowing that, you'd think it'd make it more important for everyone to check. There are so many laws surrounding guns on set, look at all the shoot-em-up films that get made without anyone being shot.

CGI is good enough to get the effect now, but it's obviously more expensive than just firing the gun for real. Plus some directors are probably "purists" for the art. But IMO 99% of the audience won't notice.