Alec Baldwin Kills Cinematographer

[Joe Guy]

It's too bad Baldwin wasn't playing the part of someone shooting at Trump.

[liberty]

It's coming out now there were Union labor problems and people walking off set because of unsafe working conditions.

But I have a legal question. If a real gun is being used for a shooting scene, doesn't the person shooting it have some responsibility in checking the weapon before firing it? I don't care how much I trust some movie crew member who is handing me a pistol, if it's a real gun and I'm going to fire it, I'm checking it first.

I also don't understand why a real pistol is needed nowadays. Why wouldn't they use a non-functioning replica?

Blank ammunition looks like this before it is fired. It might look a little bit like rat shot, but one can see there's no lead bullet attached to the cartridge casing:

This is what blank ammunition looks like : mildlyinteresting (reddit.com)

[Econoline]

Blank ammunition looks like this before it is fired. It might look a little bit like rat shot, but one can see there's no lead bullet attached to the cartridge casing:

[Gob]

Why would he point the gun at a Cinematographer, rather than a member of the cast?

[ex-khobar Andy]

I assume (don't know) that he was firing at the camera, i.e., the audience. It's even possible that the firing wasn't in the script but that Baldwin wanted to make some sort of point (he was producer as well as actor) which he wanted to emphasize with what he thought would be a harmless bang.

[Crackpot]

It’s really beginning to look like this was done on purpose to prove a point. If the culprit knew the shot (pun half intended) was going to be at the camera they may have (wrongly) assumed that the only thing in danger would be equipment.


On the safety side now that most movies are shot on digital it may be a good idea to shoot (pun fully intended) a final inspection prior to filming.

[BoSoxGal]

Blanks are not so much the issue as dummy bullets are often used in films because they look identical to real bullets and many scenes show loading and bullets on a table etc.

The armorer on this shoot is a 24 year old who is only on the second film of her career as a head armorer. And it appears that the role was passed to non union local crew mid-shoot due to a labor dispute. So the negligence net might be fairly wide.

[BoSoxGal]

Crew on Baldwin film raised prop gun concerns before fatal shooting

Text message warning of ‘super-unsafe’ conditions was later followed by a walkout by camera operators

Edward Helmore and Vanessa Thorpe
A picture of chaos and concern on the set of Alec Baldwin’s new western, Rust, has emerged from fresh accounts of the lead-up to the fatal shooting during filming on Thursday.

Only days into the three-week production schedule, new reports suggest that a worker had been so worried about weapon safety he had sent a text message to his manager warning of “super unsafe” conditions.

The claim follows news that six hours before the firing of the shot that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, half-a-dozen camera crew walked off the set at Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe in protest at the working environment on the low-budget film. Complaints ranged from long hours, delayed pay cheques, and a 50-mile daily commute to accommodation in Albuquerque.

Hutchins, 42, was named a “rising star” by American Cinematographer magazine in 2019. She grew up in the Arctic on a Soviet military base and had begun her working life as a journalist, moving into cinema after work on British film productions in eastern Europe. In America she took a series of production-assistant roles, eventually making her own acclaimed short films. She had one son, Andros, with husband, Matthew.

The text sent to the unit production manager from an anonymous alarmed worker, and seen by the Los Angeles Times, reads: “We’ve now had 3 accidental discharges. This is super unsafe.”

Sources on Rust have also told the LA Times that vital safety protocols, including regular gun inspections, were not strictly followed, and at least one camera operator working alongside Hutchins alleges there had been two accidental prop gun discharges on the set several days earlier.

“There should have been an investigation into what happened,” a crew member told the newspaper. “There were no safety meetings. There was no assurance that it wouldn’t happen again. All they wanted to do was rush, rush, rush.”

Further evidence has come to light that suggests the film’s head armourer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, had recently expressed doubts about her level of experience. On a podcast recorded a month ago she said she had almost turned down her last job “because I wasn’t sure if I was ready”.

A statement from Rust Productions said: “Though we were not made aware of any official complaints concerning weapon or prop safety on set, we will be conducting an internal review of our procedures.”

Over the years the ranch has been the set for dozens of frontier classics, including The Man From Laramie, starring James Stewart, to Cowboy, with Glenn Ford. The Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scraggs was also shot there.

But on Thursday, after an assistant director handed one of three weapons on a cart to Alec Baldwin, reportedly yelling “cold gun” to indicate it was loaded with blanks, the latest drama to play out under the western lee of the Sangre de Cristo mountains took a tragic turn.

Fresh details of the accident are contained in a Santa Fe search warrant affidavit, which confirms that Baldwin – one of Hollywood’s best-known actors – discharged a prop gun, killing 42-year-old Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza, crouched behind her.

New Mexico authorities obtained the warrant on Friday so investigators could document the scene, examine Baldwin’s blood-stained costume, the weapon that was fired, other prop guns and ammunition, and any film that may exist of the incident, according to The Santa Fe New Mexican.

The developments came as Baldwin spoke of his heartbreak. “There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours,” he said, adding that he was “fully cooperating with the police investigation.”

According to the search warrant application, the gun used was one of three that Gutierrez Reed had laid down outside the wooden structure where a scene was being filmed. Assistant director Dave Halls grabbed the gun from the cart and brought it inside to Baldwin, apparently unaware it was loaded with live rounds.

It remains unclear how many shots were fired or how a live round came to be placed in the revolver. The assistant director “did not know live rounds were in the prop gun”, the affidavit said. The weapon is now with the Santa Fe sheriff’s department.

Many actors bring their own gun loader to productions to ensure against accidents. Gutierrez Reed, Rust’s head armourer, is the daughter of a western movie veteran, Thell Reed. She had however reportedly expressed doubts about her competence while working in the lead role for the first time on the Nicolas Cage movie The Old Way.

“You know, I was really nervous about it at first, and I almost didn’t take the job because I wasn’t sure if I was ready … but, doing it, like, it went really smoothly,” she said last month on a podcast, Voices of the West.

On an emergency services 911 recording obtained by online tabloid TMZ, a woman who identifies herself as the script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, can be heard blaming another set worker.

“OK, this fucking [bleep] that yelled at me at lunch asking about revisions, this motherfucker,” she says. “Did you see him lean over my desk and yell at me? He’s supposed to check the guns. He’s responsible for what happened.”

Precedents for fatal film set accidents are mixed. In 2015, Midnight Rider” director Randall Miller and executive producer Jay Sedrish pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed on a railroad trestle.

But after the 1993 filming of “The Crow” during which actor Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee’s son, was killed by a discharge from a prop gun, prosecutors decided against charging the production company with negligent homicide.

District attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said the investigation was still in its early stages and it was too soon to say if criminal charges might be filed.

What word did they bleep that was worse than fucking and motherfucker, I wonder?

[Bicycle Bill]

What word did they bleep that was worse than fucking and motherfucker, I wonder?

Wanna bet that the other set worker is a POC and he used the 'N'-word??   So the editor said, "No, I don't mind motherfucker and asshole, but 'nigger' and 'spick' are out."

If George Carlin were alive and doing his 'Seven Words You Can't Say on Television" routine today, they'd all be racial slurs.  Anything else formerly considered offensive, blasphemous, filthy, or obscene apparently pales into insignificance by comparison.

-"BB"-

[MGMcAnick]

A number of years ago we had a similar thing at a local western theme park; someone put live ammo in with the blanks used for the shootout. I don't think anyone was killed, but someone was seriously injured and, as I recall, it was something thought to be a joke (ala Scooter's mention of Beavis and Butthead). As I recall, the guilty person got some significant jail time.

Wichita's Old Cow Town is a museum with several early houses and other buildings set up like Wichita in the 1870s. Some of the houses are from that period. Others are reproductions. I can remember going as a kid, probably about 1961 as my dad still drove the '55 Nash Ambassador. We took our kids several years ago too. It has also been used for movies and TV productions from later periods. That may be what was going on in when this happened:
https://www.kake.com/story/42660366/cow ... l-shooting

https://www.kwch.com/2021/02/02/affidav ... t-cowtown/

https://www.kwch.com/2021/02/23/man-cha ... t-cowtown/

[Jarlaxle]

Someone watched too much Murder She Wrote and the ilk.

I was going to say that this has been the plot of many a weekly who dunnit series.

And multiple movies. (Hell, it was used in one of the Iron Eagle movies.)

[TPFKA@W]

The “bleep” was nothing more nefarious than a person’s name. “Fucking Bob did it.” Stoping a slander case with a bleep.

[Long Run]

Why would there ever be actual bullets on a movie/TV set?

[TPFKA@W]

It has been said that production people we target practicing. The location is probably excellent for that purpose.

[BoSoxGal]

Why would there ever be actual bullets on a movie/TV set?

An article I read this morning indicated that several crew members were using the prop guns for target shooting near the location. Beyond fucking stupid to allow that to be going on; I’m sad to say I don’t think the young female armorer should be working in that role again on another movie set. Unless other evidence comes to light, given the reports of numerous mishaps with the prop guns on this set prior to the killing of the cinematographer, it sounds like she was doing a fucking horrible job.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Obviously this is based only on what I read in the papers: but it seems like an obvious case of "You had one fucking job!"

It seems as if Baldwin cannot be directly based for the weapon discharge. But as producer I would think he would be responsible for set discipline such as hiring the armorer and activities such as the use of set weapons for target practice. And by all accounts there had been other incidents. I assume that is down to the producer - he's the boss.

[BoSoxGal]

It will depend on how much of a producer he actually was; sometimes actors get a production credit as a means to increase the salary on the backend when the budget isn’t there to give them an adequate salary up front - that’s common apparently with low budget independent films. So Baldwin might be a producer but might not have actually made any of the nuts and bolts hiring decisions re: cast and crew.

[Big RR]

On top of that, the actual producer (or production company for that matter) has very little to do with the day to day management of the staff/crew working on the job; most departments (rigging, etc.) have their own foreperson and there usually is a production assistant/manager/foreperson/ manager (different sets used different titles) who serves as the manager of non-creative personnel in the film (the director being ultimately responsible for the creative side). The production company is ultimately responsible (individual producers and other personnel are ordinarily indemnified as employees or by contract), but they are insured.

Of course, each person is liable for their own criminal actions, so the armorer and the onsite supervisr might still have some personal liability. We'll see as the facts become public.

[Burning Petard]

Early in this story I saw a discussion of the union rules on this stuff. There was a list of things that was supposed to govern the presence of firearms on the set. I sounded to me as if it was lifted from any one of a dozen traditional sources on gun safety. Number one--treat every gun as if it was fully loaded. On down the line with usual stuff--never point it at anything you don't want to put a hole in. On to the last union rule. THE ACTOR WHO PICKS UP THE GUN WILL PERSONALLY CHECK TO SEE IF IT IS LOADED OR NOT.

ALEC BALDWIN was not just the actor on scene. He was the producer for the whole thing, the boss. Who is gonna tell the boss he ain't following union rules?

PS, the real thing was not a 'six-shooter'" It had six chambers but one was left empty and the hammer was eased down on that chamber because the gun was notorious for firing when the hammer was accidentally bumped. It was a single action, meaning that to fire it, one pulled back the hammer to cock it which also rotated the cylinder to the next chamber, not the one under the hammer. By some traditions, a cowboy rolled up a paper money certificate in that chamber to pay for his burial.

snailgate

[Big RR]

Who is gonna tell the boss he ain't following union rules?

Pretty much any union member in an industry that is unionized by a fairly powerful union (like SAG and IATSE); I've dealt with union grievances a number of times in my career, and they are generally raised by rank and file members with a stopping of the work. Indeed, in many industries, rule book slow downs are fairly well known as a way to show the "boss" who really ins the "boss". Not sure what happened here with the walkout, but I think the union did not initially support it (not certain why) and there diidn't appear to be any problems re the use of non union workers in violation of the contract, which makes me wonder what the actual dispute was.