correct. reporter: the prop house is north of los angeles. props they say includes north america s largest private armory. safety in the industry starts with a lockbox for weapons. the gun we re going to use is inside here. this is a single-action revolver. you can see that at the moment it s empty. reporter: and you keep turning it so we re sure it s empty. so, i show you this particular one has six cylinders. i will always click it over seven times just to make sure we didn t miss anything and that you re comfortable with the fact that it is, in fact, an empty firearm. reporter: i m comfortable. wonderful. reporter: this is empty. you can see there s no bullet. reporter: no bullet or projectile? no bullet or projectile. this is called a modern theatrical blank. reporter: what looks like a typical bullet is sometimes used, for example, a tight shot of a gun being loaded in a movie
or tv show. under safety regulations such a bullet is a dummy cartridge? empty shell case, no gun powder in it, totally inert primer. it can t go bang. there is a projectile on the end of it, but you can see there is a beebee. it means that cannot go bang. reporter: there are many other mandated precautions. so we have our single-action revolver. we have our blank cartridge. you can see there s no projectile. i ve measured out 20 feet which is the minimum safety distance on a film set. we have a target there. i m going to load up the blank into the gun and i m going to announce that the gun is hot. so, hot gun on set. reporter: and it s a hot gun when there is something in the gun, in the chambers, that will go bang. correct. if the gun is going to go bang, it s a hot gun. if it s empty and can t go bang, it s a cold gun. we re going to go 3, 2, 1 is.
no residue, no cups. created the illusion that you want in hollywood without a bullet coming out. correct. reporter: we are at the independent studio services prop house north of los angeles. props which they say include north america s largest private armory of the safety in the industry starts with a lock box for weapons. the gun that we are going to use is inside here. this is a single-action revolver. you can see that at the moment, it s empty. and you keep turning it so we re sure it s empty. so, i show you this particular one has six cylinders. i will always click it over seven times just to make sure that we didn t miss anything and that you re comfortable with the fact that it is, in fact, an empty firearm. and i m comfortable. wonderful. reporter: this is what a blank looks like. it s a cartridge case that s crimped over. you can see there s no projectile. reporter: no bullet or projectile. no bullet or projectile. it has gun powder.
the gun we re going to use is inside here. this is the single action revolver. you can see that, at the moment, it s empty. reporter: you turn it so we re sure it is empty? this particular one has six cylinders. i ll always click it over seven times, just to make sure we didn t miss anything and that you re comfortable with the fact that it is, in fact, an empty firearm. reporter: i m comfortable. this is what a blank looks like. cartridge case. there is no projectile. no bullet or projectile. reporter: it has gun powder. it has a primer in it. this is a modern theatrical blank. reporter: what looks like a typical bullet is sometimes used, for example, to show a tight shot of a gun being loaded in a movie or tv show. under safety regulations, such a bullet it s a dumby cartridge.
it can t go bang. there is a projectile on the end of it. reporter: bullet. there is a bb. i can rattle it next to your ear. reporter: no gun powder. can t go bang. reporter: there are other precautions. we have the single action revolver. i measured out 20 feet, the minimum safety distance on a film set. we have a target there. i m going to load up the blank into the gun and announce the gun is hot. hot gun on set. reporter: it s a hot gun when something is in the gun, in the chambers that will go bang. correct. if the gun goes bang, it is a hot gun. if it is empty and can t go bang, it is a cold gun. three, two, one. [ gunshot ] i m going to unload the gun now. presumably they ve yelled cut. i make, as the armer, the