Cinema Canada (Sep 1981)

—— Sy Ss Te ae Pete nne nents a ine tL eT TE Se SIT A ae Rm n= RD Lesley Rust and Joseph Elsener. the constitution of a converted weapon suitable for theatrical use, Elsener ceased his gun conversion work to concentrate more heavily on the special effects aspects of his job (lightning, rain, explosions, etc,). Meanwhile, Rust continued to press the federal government for a blanket ruling on converted weapons. By day she was a collection agency, by night a political lobbyist. After fighting government bureaucracy, working odd hours under conditions which were not always creatively ' satisfying if not downright dangerous, Lesley Rust and Josef Elsener decided to find a new line. They will be selling their inventory of special effects machines and converted weapons and entering the international defence market, primarily outside the country. It is the industry's loss. @ 16/35 MIXING & TRANSFER Among other things, Bill C-83 stipulated that anyone wishing to use an automatic firearm had to first obtain a FAC (Firearms Acquisition Certificate). Yet the new federal law did not adequately define “firearm”. Interpretation of the new law was in the hands of provincial courts. In Quebec, the QPP was familiar with Elsener and his converted guns. It did not consider the props to be firearms and allowed operations to continue as before. In 1979 when the production of Starmania inquired into the legal technicalities of taking six Proparms converted automatic weapons into Ontario, it was told that the guns were legally considered “firearms” because they still had moving parts. As firearms, their operators would require FAC papers: Elsener had been trying to get a ruling from the federal government as to the exact definition of a converted gun for stage and film use Laws underfire — butbestshot fails since 1978, but had never received any reply. He had even worked (freeof-charge) at the request of the federal Working Group on Gun Controls, to complete a working paper which defined a safe de-activated firearm, and outlined film/theatre needs for weapon-related props. Still, in 1981, a letter from the Honourable Bob Kaplan to Lesley Rust revealed that there was no agreement between the provinces as to what constituted a de-activated “prop” weapon. “... The issue in the view of Ontario officials is the level of de-activation required so that a part of a fully automatic weapon is no longer a part.” For Proparms, this means that it was futile for Elsener to convert weapons unless he could dream up a way of making “parts which were not parts.” Productions wishing to use guns would have to comply with provincial interpretations of federal law. In Ontario, this means that a production may only use fully auto Syncre Sound Ltd STUDIO « EDITING ROOMS VOICE BOOTH XENON PROJECTION STEENBECKS KEM MOVIOLAS matic weapons if the owner of the weapons is in possession of a bona fide collector's permit and is present on set whenever the guns are in use, and if the weapons fire blanks only. This interpretation results in higher costs for the producer and a lower degree of safety for the cast and crew because there is no guarantee that the “bona fide” collector knows anything about the safe maintenance of his weapons under the continuous firing of blank cartridges. According to Elsener, his company lost about $15,000 in props contracts because Ontario prohibited the fully automatic guns he had legally converted in Quebec. Furthermore, he cites an example of one producer in Ontario who has resorted to renting active (i.e. live ammunition) weapons from a mercenary who evidently prefers filmmaking to combat in South Africa. 67 PORTLAND ST. TORONTO MSV 2M9 AREA 416 PHONE 363-9421 Lancement de films du «monde» @ promotion @ presse @ publicite conseils en relations publiques héléne/robert paradis & assaciésinc. 238, Hallde!’est Complexe Desjardins Montréal Les Paradis Adresse postale : C.P.394, Succursale Desjardins Montréal (Québec) H5B1B5