CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. – James Duff was eight takes into the robbery scene when he was shot at for the first time.

Wearing ski masks and armed with airsoft guns, Duff and another actor were filming at a bar in Crawfordsville for a film called “10 to Fire,” a production of mostly volunteers about a dystopic future where everyone is armed.

But unbeknownst to the actors on set, a worried citizen had called 911 to report an armed robbery in progress at Backstep Brewery, the bar just blocks away from Crawfordsville’s police station.

Duff was walking out of the bar with the airsoft gun in hand when the police arrived. The confrontation was captured in a tense video from a police body camera.

“Drop the gun!” one of the officers yelled, drawing his weapon and firing a shot when Duff didn’t instantly comply. The shot missed Duff’s head by about 2 inches, he said. The police officer continued to yell at Duff to drop the gun and get on the ground.

“We’re doing a movie,” Duff told him.

“Excuse me?” The officer replied, continuing to point his gun at Duff and urging the other actors to stay inside the bar.

The story of the on-set mishap Sept. 26 has ricocheted out of this town of 16,000 people and around the world, after the body camera footage from the officer who discharged his weapon was released this week.

No one was injured in the shooting, but Duff, a concrete and construction worker acting in his second movie, said he hasn’t felt the same since. He said he remembers the bullet whizzing by his head.

“They didn’t even give me a chance,” Duff said.

Duff said he can’t get the episode out of his mind when he is awake and has been having nightmares where he replays it in his sleep.

“I woke up Thursday morning screaming my head off,” he said. “I think about it all of the time.”

The police said Duff failed to release the weapon immediately – video showed him attempting to take off the mask before he dropped the gun. Duff said he was just trying to determine what was going on.

He said he was handcuffed for about 10 minutes and interviewed by police detectives.

Montgomery County Prosecutor Joseph Buser said this week that no one would be charged in the case.

The situation was compounded by a few factors. The crew hadn’t notified police about the filming. The airsoft guns had been clipped of their identifying orange nozzles. And Duff exited the building by himself, with the crew still filming inside and hidden from police.

“It was an easy oversight, but it was a critical oversight,” said Steve Hester, 63, a former community college custodian who’s directing the film. “We were basically only a block and a half away from the police station. We weren’t thinking.”

Duff said he plans to finish the filming of “10 to Fire” in the hopes of furthering his new acting career.

Crawfordsville Police Chief Mike Norman said similar situations could be avoided with better communication with the police.

The film is scheduled to be released in the town next year.