“The drama that took place in the United States, where Alec Baldwin killed someone by shooting with a weapon on a shoot, it is a nightmare due to a succession of protocols that were not respected. “Marc Leroyer, cinema gunsmith for over twenty-five years, is used to answering questions since this case which took place in October 2021. The professional assures that such an accident” could not take place on a French set “.
We met him in Morocco, where season 2 of “No Man’s Land” was filmed, whose first parts are broadcast this Thursday, April 17 on Arte. In this fiction on clashes between Daesh and Kurdish fighters in 2015 in Syria, he intervenes whenever there are shots planned in the script.
“That white balls”
Each country has its own protocol for the reception of weapons dedicated to filming. “When they are exported from France to Morocco, it is taken care of at the airport by the royal army which takes up arms and which is responsible for it,” explains the gunsmith. She delegates an armored military truck, with a crew that goes to the gendarmerie closest to the set location. This is where weapons are stored. Then, the gendarmes are masters of the situation. Weapons are repatriated every morning on the set and, as soon as an actor needs one, he must give his identity card and sign a register. »»
“For this season 2, we have about fifty real weapons in addition to others that are fake. But the real bullets are completely prohibited, insists Marc Leroyer. We only draw white balls. And then, in France, we have regulations that make all our weapons modified to shoot white. They are therefore unable to shoot real ammunition. If you try to put a real ball in and shoot, there is nothing that will come out at the end. Either the cannon will explode or the hand of the shooter will be torn off. It’s hyperdangerous, but you can’t kill someone. »»
