Baldwin faces criminal charges. Gun safety on sets “gets louder”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Film production and firearms experts say movie sets probably changed permanently when cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on the remote New Mexico set of the Western “Rust” 14 months ago, leading to the announcement from prosecutors Thursday that Alec Baldwin and the film’s weapons supervisor will be charged This month, involuntary manslaughter.
“The gun safety experience on set has become more vocal, it’s a lot louder,” said Joey Dillon, an armorer who has overseen the use of firearms on television shows including “Westworld” and movies including “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” “I make it a lot louder myself.”
Baldwin was pointing the gun, which had a live round inside, at Hutchins as they set-up a shot for a future scene. It has never happened again, and people at all levels of production want to prevent it from happening again.
It has also meant that digital and other technologies are being used more frequently, which could render gunfire obsolete. It also means more simple things like shouting while using the same safety protocols that have been in place for years to let everyone know when a gun is available and its status.
Actors, as well as others, are more interested in guns that have been handed over.
“Now people want to check because people are a little a little gun shy,” Dillon said. “I’ll stop the whole process just to show them so that they feel comfortable with it.”
Although actors may check a gun for their best interests, it is not something they should do. Jurors will have to decide how much responsibility they should bear if Baldwin’s case goes to trial.
This is the view of his union and his lawyer.
“An actor’s job is not to be a firearms or weapons expert,” the Screen Actors Guild said in a statement Thursday. “Firearms are provided for their use under the guidance of multiple expert professionals directly responsible for the safe and accurate operation of that firearm.”
Baldwin’s defense attorney Luke Nikas said in a statement that he did his job by relying “on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds.”
Mary Carmack, Santa Fe District Attorney, disagrees.
“It is incumbent on anybody that holds a gun to make sure that it is either not loaded or to know what it is loaded with,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And it is important to make sure that the gun does not fire at anyone and then pull the trigger. That’s where his actor liability, we think, comes in.”
She stressed that Baldwin will be charged with having the gun in his hands, but that he was also responsible for his role as a producer and some of the circumstances that led to him carrying a loaded gun were factors in the decision to bring charges.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who oversaw the film’s firearms, will also be charged with involuntary manslaughter, the district attorney said.
Her attorney Jason Bowles said in a statement that they would “bring the full truth to light and that she “will be exonerated of wrongdoing by a jury.”
Technology could take safety questions out of the hands of actors.
While digital effects could be used to replicate the sound and flash of gunfire, productions already had access to them. Hutchins’s death almost certainly has sped this process along.
“There are a lot of bad ways that digital takes over, but this is a good way,” said Spencer Parsons, an associate professor and head of production at Northwestern University in the School of Communication’s department of Radio/Television/Film who has worked as a director and in other roles on any sets. “I’m not saying that there’s no good reason to use real pyrotechnics, but in terms of basic safety and speed, this makes sense.”
And when it comes to hardware, companies have been making increasingly convincing replicas, essentially enhanced BB guns with moving parts that behave like pistols but don’t fire bullets. After-production is complete, muzzle flashes are added and sounds are made.
But, Parsons said, “there’s not a lot of replicas for some of the antique stuff” used in Westerns and other period movies, which he specializes in.
Some solutions to sets that were not found may be wrong and will not work.
The dangers of guns with blank rounds, which are often used in gunshots, were the subject of much media attention immediately following the shooting. This was based on the assumption Hutchins was killed by one of them.
“From experience I knew it was more than that,” Dillon said. “But the immediate reaction in the industry was to try to cancel the use of blanks altogether.”
Dillon said dummy rounds, prop bullets used in scenes where characters are shown loading guns, are more likely to result in mistakes like what happened on “Rust,” since they look like live ammunition and could be confused with them.
He said he found that “frustrating because that can accidentally impart to the crew that we’ve been ignorant” and previously kept them in unnecessary danger.
The fear of blanks, which can prove very dangerous at close range, was not dispelled when investigators found it to be a live round.
Parsons said the fact that it was misguided to blame the fact that “Rust” was a small-budget independent production. Parsons said that crews are more susceptible to accidents due to the long production times and pace of large studios.
“In some cases they can put people through even longer hours, and the need for speed is even greater,” he said. “That can be very very dangerous. The need for speed on any set incentives behavior that’s not always the best for safety.”
Negative attention has also been given to Gutierrez Rice’s dual role of assistant props supervisor and armorer.
Dillon stated that the overlap between weapons and props was inevitable and happens often. Crew members need to know which role they are playing.
“When the guns come out, that’s all I’m worried about,” he said, “and that’s all I’m working on.”
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