As Hollywood reels in shock of the tragic death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film Rust, the incident reignites the already burning concerns of occupational safety for crew workers in film production.
On Thursday, 21 October 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on the set of the film Rust, when actor-producer Alec Baldwin accidentally discharged a prop gun.
Baldwin had been assured that it was a “cold gun” — meaning the weapon was not supposed to have ammunition. He was rehearsing pointing the gun, showing the director, Joel Souza, and Hutchins what he was going to do when the cameras rolled. Instead, the gun went off, the bullet wounding Souza and hitting Hutchins in the chest. Hutchins was pronounced dead hours later.
How did this happen?
Cutting Corners Keeps The Budget Low:
Baldwin and Souza had limited resources and a tight film schedule of 21 days. When producing an indie film, some productions nip and tuck around the requirements of experience and safety; they zone in their focus on only the budget.
Working for a short time on a $6-7 million movie like Rust may be a great deal for Baldwin, but this may mean not much money was left for the crew after Baldwin takes his cut. Which would lead to producers hiring less experienced crew members to fill in key roles in production, whilst keeping a tight budget.
“Most producers and line producers are struggling to get people in positions in their departments that they need,” said Sol Papadopoulos, producer of the BAFTA-winning film, A Prayer Before Dawn. “That will mean that there’s going to be less experienced folk getting opportunities. But at the same time, you want every head of departments to know how to run that department.”
As a result of the budget restrictions, the person in charge of overseeing the gun props, (known as the armorer) is 24-year-old Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Rust was her second film as a lead armourer.
Gutierrez-Reed has since released a statement saying that “the whole production set became unsafe” due to several factors that included a lack of safety meetings and her having to work two positions, preventing her from focusing full-time on her position as armourer.
Unsafe Work Conditions Complaints Go Unheard:
Before the incident, two prop guns had previously fired a total of three times unintentionally. A crew member who was alarmed by the misfires told a unit production manager in a text message, “We’ve now had 3 accidental discharges. This is super unsafe,”
And yet, even when drastic actions were made to highlight how dangerous the filming conditions were, those who made them were told to leave the set, with a producer threatening to call the police, and were replaced by non-union members.
IATSE Strikes:
On the day of the incident, at least six camera workers left the set to protest the unfair working conditions of long shoot days, lack of gun safety, and crew members being forced to drive 50 miles to work every day.
Hutchins’s death came just a few days after Hollywood’s crew union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) had threatened to strike if producers didn’t take their safety concerns seriously.
The organization recently garnered headlines for threatening a nationwide strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) while negotiating a new contract to address their demands of higher minimum wages, a minimum time between the end of one workday and the start of another, an end to the current classification of streaming as “New Media” with lower minimum wages and measures to dissuade studios from skipping breaks for meals.
Hutchins herself was a supporter of IATSE strike actions. Before her death, she planned to strike over dangerous working conditions if the negotiations fall in place.
“That ramp-up in production just made the work and life situation unbearable,” Mike Loomer, a set dresser and IATSE member, told The Guardian. “We can’t work at that feverish pace. We are not machines. We are people that need rest.”
Baldwin’s culpability is not just as the actor who accidentally shot Hutchins, it is also as one of the producers who fostered the unsafe working conditions that led to her death.
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