How do live rounds get into a weapon on a film set that is using only blanks?
Good question. I can think of two reasons:
A. As a poster on another forum mentioned, they wanted to film an ultra realistic scene were live ammunition was shown, but of course not fired. The live magazines were then jumbled with magazines containing blanks.
That poster also mentioned that Bruce Lee's son was killed (shot) in a set accident involving the filming of live ammunition for realism, but with the intent of actually firing blank ammunition.
B. Somebody brought live ammunition and was screwing around with it after hours, then forgot to unload the live rounds from the magazine(s). Though one would think this would never be allowed, humans have a track record of avoidable accidents with weapons.
I don't understand why they continued filming if their staff left.
My general understanding from living in SOCAL for a while and talking to set pros is that movies have
staffs, not "a staff".
There are alot of contractors and sub contractors to handle different needs regarding the film. As other posters have stated, the set pros also told me that drama is fairly common- it is, after all, Hollywood.
Evidently, it is not unheard of for one of the staffs to get angry about something and leave. Yet other staffs could be willing to tolerate the work environment, or actually like it- alot.
The pros also told me that some of the drama was sometimes due to very different working conditions between the staffs. Some staffs were well known to the director and always contracted. As a result, they received noticably better pay, better food and better living conditions than other contractors.
And.... woe to anyone on some sets if they got in the wrong serving line- or used the wrong bathrooms. The pecking order could extend that far. Other sets, however, gave the same food, bathrooms to everyone.
