Even before the tragedy on the"Rust" movie set, actor and producer Mike Hatton had strong feelings about the use of blanks in filmmaking.
"There are no blanks in those guns at all," said Hatton."That was all done in [Visual Effects]. All done in post-production." "Six months after the 'Rust' tragedy, a lot of the armorers got together and we all agreed ... to come up with a more in-depth training program," said prop master and armorer Dutch Merrick. "In Hollywood, what we've done safely for more than 130 years, is we're able to choreograph, from simple gunfire to major gun battles... with blank fire in a safe manner," Merrick said.