Another Shooting

[Suranis]

I'm told that propmen that specialize in keeping prop weapons safe and correctly configured for a scene are also called "Firearms Wranglers" in the biz.

Either way it seems, if they had one, he didn't know what he was doing.

[Jim]

Lot of actors going to be double-checking their props moving forward...I know I would.

[Frater I*I]

You would think this would have been fixed in the decades since Brandon Lee was killed in a similar accident.

[RTH10260]

I'm puzzled that I can't find any info on the propmaster, not even a name. None of the news stories even mention the existence of a propmaster but he would have to be intimately involved in this mess.

from my post further up, the prop master was not of the correct union " the production’s propmaster was not a member of Local 44."

[Foggy]

I wonder why he even pointed the gun at the cinematographer.

I don't think you're even supposed to shoot blanks at the cinematographer.

[raison de arizona]

I wonder why he even pointed the gun at the cinematographer.

I don't think you're even supposed to shoot blanks at the cinematographer.

I was discussing this with the wife, she wondered if maybe they were doing one of those "shoot into the camera" shots or something. 'Cause that's where those two people would be standing, yes? Dunno.

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip ... low-motion

[RTH10260]

I wonder why he even pointed the gun at the cinematographer.

I don't think you're even supposed to shoot blanks at the cinematographer.

More likely the camera was pointed at him and maybe the gun should not have gone off at that moment.

[Jim]

I wonder why he even pointed the gun at the cinematographer.

I don't think you're even supposed to shoot blanks at the cinematographer.

More likely the camera was pointed at him and maybe the gun should not have gone off at that moment.

Seriously? If you're taking a solo shot of someone firing a gun without any other actors in the picture, there are still cameramen, producers, directors, support staff, stand behind and out of sight of the camera.

[Estiveo]

[PaulG]

I'm puzzled that I can't find any info on the propmaster, not even a name. None of the news stories even mention the existence of a propmaster but he would have to be intimately involved in this mess.

from my post further up, the prop master was not of the correct union " the production’s propmaster was not a member of Local 44."

I'm not sure the union guy saying the guy on set wasn't a union member is really informative. The tweet is weird though. I didn't know you could get a non-union set crew. Would the owners of the location have to sign off?

[Phoenix520]

Non-union shoots, esp in a RTW state like NM, are up to the production company. They earn no cred in the industry but it saves a lot of money.

I worked for a commercial production company. Clients like TIme Life Books paid well and supported a fully unionized production; some, like Johnston’s yogurt, liked to use satisfied customers in their commercials. I produced two for them using no union labor at all . Johnston’s paid their customers’ airfare to our office for casting interviews (me). After they chose the talent, we shot it in our office using our in-house director and (me).

My pay? A years worth of Johnston’s, which was delicious and not sold in California. The black cherry was the best.

[Slim Cognito]

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/22/10482959 ... e-set-rare

On-set deaths from prop guns are rare — but not unheard of

[andersweinstein]

Warrant: Baldwin didn't know weapon contained live round

An assistant director unwittingly handed Alec Baldwin a loaded weapon and told him it was safe to use in the moments before the actor fatally shot a cinematographer, court records released Friday show.

“Cold gun,” the assistant director announced, according to a search warrant filed in a Santa Fe court.

Instead, the gun was loaded with live rounds, and when Baldwin pulled the trigger Thursday on the set of a Western, he killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her, was wounded, the records said.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office obtained the warrant Friday so investigators could document the scene at the ranch outside Santa Fe where the shooting took place. They sought Baldwin’s blood-stained costume for the film “Rust” as evidence, as well as the weapon that was fired, other prop guns and ammunition, and any footage that might exist.

According to the records, the gun was one of three that the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez, had set on a cart outside the wooden structure where a scene was being acted. Assistant director Dave Halls grabbed the gun from the cart and brought it inside to Baldwin, unaware that it was loaded with live rounds, a detective wrote in the search warrant application.

https://apnews.com/article/entertainmen ... 06cd3cbee9

[bob]

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[AndyinPA]

There was an expert on it on Rachel's show tonight. Apparently, a LOT has to go wrong for this kind of accident to happen. And they were having problems with this gun and on this set.

[andersweinstein]

I wonder why he even pointed the gun at the cinematographer.

I don't think you're even supposed to shoot blanks at the cinematographer.

I was discussing this with the wife, she wondered if maybe they were doing one of those "shoot into the camera" shots or something. 'Cause that's where those two people would be standing, yes? Dunno.

[Cameron] To be clear: I'm well aware this would only protect against blanks. Of course, if real bullets were involved this wouldn't do anything to protect the crew. The thing is, live ammunition is almost never used on film sets. Especially nowadays. I assumed it was a blank that was used

[Cameron] So it was live ammunition. Yikes dude, this is so fucked up.

[Slim Cognito]

Somebody explain to me why they can't just CGI the damn flash and add audio? BBCs Death In Paradise has a fuckin' CGI lizard that's a regular character and you'd never know it's not a real lizard.

[busterbunker]

Hey did you guys hear about Alec Baldwin?

► Show Spoiler

I heard he's shooting a movie.

[AndyinPA]

Somebody explain to me why they can't just CGI the damn flash and add audio? BBCs Death In Paradise has a fuckin' CGI lizard that's a regular character and you'd never know it's not a real lizard.

That came up on Rachel's program, too. She said that HBO's "Mare of Easttown" had used the CGIs for all the gun shots in the series. I didn't know the difference when I saw it.

[PaulG]

Somebody explain to me why they can't just CGI the damn flash and add audio? BBCs Death In Paradise has a fuckin' CGI lizard that's a regular character and you'd never know it's not a real lizard.

That came up on Rachel's program, too. She said that HBO's "Mare of Easttown" had used the CGIs for all the gun shots in the series. I didn't know the difference when I saw it.

Heck, John Woo used to dub in sound. There are scenes you can watch with the sound off and you realize people are using rubber guns.

[sugar magnolia]

Another nit.
"Live" round in this context just means the weapon is loaded, whether it's a blank or a bullet or anything else. It doesn't mean it was a live round of ammunition.

And totally off-topic, but I got a call from the movie production I was on a couple of months ago and they are re-starting shooting in Nov. The movie involves Marine Corps boot camp so there was a ton of weapons used. The only ones the prop dept touched were the fake ones that were incapable of firing anything. The ones that could be fired were managed by an armorer and a firearms guy. The crew was about half and half union and non-union, and we lost one assistant director who hired on with a fake name because whichever union it is that he belongs to wouldn't approve any non-union set. He literally lasted less than 24 hours.

[bill_g]

Hey did you guys hear about Alec Baldwin?

► Show Spoiler

I heard he's shooting a movie.

Too early.

[raison de arizona]

Alec Baldwin Was Told Gun in Fatal Shooting on Set Was Safe, Officials Say
The actor was told a gun being used as a prop was safe before he fired it on the set of “Rust,” killing the film’s cinematographer and wounding its director, law enforcement officials said.

An assistant director grabbed one of three prop guns that the film’s armorer had set up outside on a gray cart, handed it to Mr. Baldwin, and, according to an affidavit signed by Detective Joel Cano of the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office, yelled “Cold Gun!” — which was supposed to indicate that the gun did not have any live rounds in it.

When Mr. Baldwin fired the gun, law enforcement officials said, it struck and killed the film’s cinematographer and wounded its director — and raised new questions about firearms safety on film sets.

The assistant director “did not know live rounds were in the prop-gun” when he gave it to Mr. Baldwin, according to the affidavit, which was made as part of a search warrant application. The affidavit did not specify what kind of ammunition the gun had been loaded with.

The results were deadly: Halyna Hutchins, 42, the film’s director of photography, was struck in the chest and flown to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, where she died, officials said. Joel Souza, 48, the film’s director, was shot in the shoulder area and wounded; he was taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe and later released.

“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,” Mr. Baldwin, 63, said in a statement Friday on Twitter. “I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”

There have been reports of labor unrest on the set of the film, where Mr. Baldwin also served as a producer. Several members of the crew walked off the set earlier this week over working conditions, according to several people familiar with the shoot.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/us/a ... movie.html


Halyna Hutchins, 42, wife and mother

[Uninformed]

Many years ago on a training exercise two idiots decided to fire rifle blanks at each other from cover about ten metres apart. One had his forehead peppered and his beret blown off his head by the blank cartridge cardboard wadding. Could have lost an eye. The only surprise was that one of the fools was that accurate.

[bob]

As expected:

(It is fake.)

Hutchins' husband works for Latham & Watkins (a huge firm that has represented Clinton and her campaign), and had previously worked for Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden Arps, so the nutters are off to the races.