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One example from one of our more than 400 users is when a wolf was to be shot in a dramatic sequence for the 2015 thriller “The Dark Side of the Moon” (Die Dunkle Seite des Mondes). The production did not feel CGI-hits looked convincing enough, so after testing several ideas and keeping the safety of the animal in mind the wolf trainer used the air squib unit and a trained wolf. The visual effect worked out really well and the low sound generated by the unit did not frighten the animal. After training the wolf to fall down on command, the scene was ready to be filmed. The unit was strapped with a dog harness onto the wolf, hidden in the fur. Then stage blood was filled, and the nozzle was aimed outwards. When the wolf was perfectly positioned in the viewfinder, the trainer pushed the radio control transmitter to activate the squib effect. Simultaneously the wolf dropped as it had been trained to do. The hit was very convincing and only gave off a minimal sound making this an ideal problem solver in an otherwise rather tricky situation.

The absence of loud noise when rigging a safe bullet hit may be a great advantage in cases when animals are involved. In addition, it is a big plus during nighttime filming, when jittery or inexperienced actors are involved, when actors are close to each other, and even in cases where you do not want to pass out earplugs to the whole crew.

Kudos to Mr. Kihm for rigging this unusual effect and sharing the info with us!

If you have other unusual or regular news to share with the bullet hit community – let me know!

Did you know about the toxic danger of the explosive squibs – not including the risk of the explosive effect itself? Here is a quick 76 second-video covering this rather unknown difference between explosive squibs and the air-powered bullet hit effects in general.

Oh, the blood-drenched memories of Jason at the shoot of Friday the 13th, part 6!  One of the first films I was involved in, in L.A. in 1986.  At the age of 22, I was up to my elbows in fake blood on the set and was impressed with the new, tall Jason, compared to what he looked like in the prequels! Well, if you get struck by lightning, you probably stand a little taller, right? My mentors Dave and George at CRC even had me dressing up in trash bags to make me easier to clean off at the end of the shift! At this time, I had not begun working with the air squib, but with all the blood flowing, it must have set something off in my mind for future, blood-curdling experiments with the air squib…

Great fun in L.A. I remember all that was on my old car radio in L.A. was a singing Gloria Estefan. I loved it!

I have no idea who took this studio photo, so let me know if you know who should be credited for this.

The safe air squib is built from professional products and materials, like stainless steel, aluminium, ABS plastic and bullet resistant Macrolone, and will stand by you through production after production.
The superior quality is just one of the reason the air squib is used by NATO forces and military training of first aid response teams. In addition, it is used in training for hostage training situations.
The air squib is backed with a 180 days guarantee against faulty workmanship.
Have a look at the video to get a brief idea of how strong the enclosure is.

He won the Technical Achievement Academy Award in 1988 for the development of the DSC Spark Devices for motion picture special effects. The year after he was nominated for an Oscar for best visual effects in the movie Die Hard. Now Thaine Morris has retired from the sets, and runs a store that sells special effects equipment.

So, even though your main product is an explosive squib you talk people out of using it?
–      You have to understand that back when I was working, there was no good alternative to pyrotechnics. And it was a hassle. Imagine the director wants to reshoot a shooting scene, which happens a lot, and you have to rig it with pyrotechnics. First you would have to find a new shirt since the one you have used has been torn. Then you might have to find new explosives, which can be really expensive and time consuming. And then maybe the director is satisfied. With the air powered squib, you just rig the scene over and over. Maybe you need to clean the clothing, but that’s it, he says.

 –      The thing about the Air Squib is that it is made by an experienced FX specialist who developed it while working on set. It is by far the best one out on the market, says Morris.

Morris is impressed by how good the end result is, even though the air squib is a much simpler and cheaper way to get a bullet hit then by using pyrotechnics.

But the air squib can’t be all good, a lot of people still use pyrotechnics for bullet hit scenes.
–      Well, what the air squib does not do is tear the clothing. But most times that just makes it convenient. Of course, a lot of new FX specialists are really keen on using explosives because it seems cool. After having worked with special effects my entire life I realise the most important part is having equipment that is safe and easy to use. There is a reason you need those permits when using pyrotechnics. Sometimes everything goes well, but honestly, both actors and others on set have been injured more than once when using explosive squibs. And the injuries can be pretty bad. No one can get hurt by the air squib.

–      I really wish the Air Squib had been invented while I was still working on set. It has everything you need. Rig shots in theater shows night after night. Bring it to every set, because you never know when the director might change his or her mind. It is a life saver for all FX specialists.

At AirSquib, we are huge fans of all kinds of special effects, not only the ones that include blood! Special effects have been around for a long time, believe it or not. They were first used in Georges Méliès film from 1890. (yes, can you imagine!), so we can say that they are as old as the cinema itself. Optical, mechanical, visual, post-production – there are many types of special effects, and here are our favorite fun-facts about a few of them:

1) The record-holding animated film

In case you didn’t know, animated movies fall into the category of special effects, and the highest-grossing stop-motion animated movie is Chicken Run, which earned around $225 million. Yes, that much. They are followed by another masterpiece by the same author, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

2) Come to the.. bright side?

Original Star Wars movies were filmed at the end of the seventies, and to create lightsaber blades, the filmmakers used a technique called Rotoscoping. This complicated process involves taking each individual frame of the film, and tracing over the same said frame, and repeating the process over and over again. They were not that digital-savvy back then and saying that it took a lot of work would be an understatement. But it looked awesome! I personally worked on “Big Trouble in Little China” where I was part of the team that inserted sparks on the flying Chinamen’s hats – using the Rotoscoping technique.

3) Stanley Kubrick, more like Stanley COOLbrick

We can all agree that Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is an absolute masterpiece. However, during the scenes where the actors were levitating in no-gravity zones, Kubrick simply hanged them with wires to the top of the set and filmed them by placing the cameras at angles that hid the wires. He also saved money for not having to pay a special-effect artist. Genious.

4) Live action and animation combination

Disney’s famous movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit is the of the first movies to combine these two forms of art. Physical filming of the movie took a long, long time – 7 months. But post-production and animation, took double that time. It’s serious work, especially when you want to reach the Disney level of quality.

5) How they did it before the invention of AirSquib?

In the beginnings of cinema, directors, and sometimes actors, wanted everything to be as authentic as possible. That lead to some seriously questionable decisions being made. James Cagney, an American actor, said that several gangster films that he worked on featured people firing actual guns and putting actors in serious risk of being shot by a real bullet from real guns. He later formed Screen Actor’s Guild, devoted to protecting actors from directors’ risky ideas. If they only had AirSquib back then. If would have been much safer!