Hearing loss and actors

[cleardiddion]

I was sitting about and watching 'Silmido' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387596/) last night when a thought ran across my mind:

How much hearling loss do actors/actresses suffer?

Not just in this movie, but pretty much any involving firearms show actors blasting away without any apparant hearing protection. I mean, sure they're not shooting real ammunition and all that jazz, but loud noises are...well loud, and hearing damage doesn't really care what the source is.

Just a thought.

 

[Tommygunn]

Just because you hear a loud "BANG!" when you watch a movie doesn't mean it sounded like that during filming. It may have been a "POP!" or a "PFFFFT" or whatever.
They can do sound dubbing in postproduction ... sort of like they can add SFX there as well.

 

[cleardiddion]

I understand that; but, there are many movies which I recall them saying they used standard blanks. One that comes to mind is 'Heat'.

Another interesting bit that comes to mind is a Soviet movie which in english is 'Come and See' in which the actor was shot at with real rounds in order to give a sense of 'realism'. Then again, I suppose they weren't really known for subtlety.

 

[indoorsoccerfrea]

i hope they had an understudy ready...lol

 

[raz-0]

Yes, also keep in mind they can pay a cinematographer to shoot so that the earplugs are less obvious, and they can pay special effects makeup guys to conceal custom made earplugs (which they can also pay someone to make in the first place), and they can pay someone with the proper medical credentials to shove compressable earplugs down your canal and get them back out again with the proper tools if it comes to that.

Might have been more of an issue in the days of the studio system, but now that you have studios competing for stars to be in their movies, I'm pretty sure stuff like that is taken into consideration. If someone who gets $20 million a movie doesn't want to go deaf, I'm pretty sure they have a rider in their contract.

 

[Titan6]

Blanks are not nearly as loud as full power rounds. You want hearing loss? Trying talking to a musician who has been performing a while. I mean literally try talking to a musician....

 

[logjam]

My hearing is massively screwed up. I was injured working as an infantryman around a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Someone screwed that main gun around and set if off right next to me when I was looking the other way.

Anyway in have tinnitus to beat the band.

I am a patient of the Oregon Tinnitus Clinic. It's a very well known clinic for those of us whose ears ring like the 12 o'clock whistle.

Two of their patients were Barbara Streisand and William Shatner. Streisand was injured by loud music, I'd guess, and Shatner was injured while filming a movie. The boom got him.

Anybody who has worked around tanks or artillery understands how unbelievably loud military noise is. After I was injured the high pitched popping noise made by an M-16 or M249 SAW just about drove me crazy.

 

[Justin]

Stage and screen blanks have nowhere near as much powder in them as an actual round of ammunition, and are much quieter. I would assume the report from a blank, while loud, is still within the margin of safety for loud noises.

 

[rodregier]

from memory, William Shatner sustained auditory injury during an explosion sequence in an spisode of Star Trek (The Original Series).

 

[hso]

Unless we have a property master or someone in the industry we're not going to be able to answer your question in any meaningful manner.

 

[Duke of Doubt]

"What?" - some Boom Man.

 

[polekitty]

Loud noises (music?) and ears

I've been that route also! I've never gone near a rock "concert." First off, I can't stand rock and second, I don't like the loud stuff. My music is classical, concert type. And yes, many in the "big orchestra" do wear ear plugs! And were you ever close to one of those big long "concert grand pianos" when the pianist was getting pretty serious about it? Believe me, they'll flat blow your ears off! And, going through the "infiltration course" at Ft Bragg (1942, 101st) I had a block go off about six feet from my left ear (I think the range master saw me and decided to give me a jolt!) I was deaf in my left ear for about four days. I thought I had lost my hearing, but it all cleared up, and today I still have excellent hearing!! I did see a "special" on History Channel showing how they added "realism" to their movie by having a crew, watching a run of the movie, make all the noises, like marching feet, things breaking up, and yes, explosions, with their stuff being dubbed into the movie sound track. Still, accidents do happen. That's why they call them "accidents."