We were fortunate to have a producer/director who felt strongly about safety and was willing to spend the extra time necessary. A lot of the time, especially for productions that are running on a shoestring, everyone is pushed very hard to reduce the time and cost to an absolute minimum. The low pay selects for inexperienced armorers and the time constraints means that the armorer is constantly being pressured not to “waste” any time. An armorer who is believed to have “slowed down” a production may be fired and will have trouble finding more work. That is what happens everywhere when money is more important than people.