On the ground, Baldwin was in shock but composed. He kept asking why he was handed a “hot gun.” Our eyewitness said Baldwin kept saying “In all my years, I’ve never been handed a hot gun.”
“A hot gun” means a gun with real ammunition.
Baldwin, not knowing the fate of the victims, was taken immediately to the hospital. “He had no idea how badly they were hurt or Halyna was dead.”
So perhaps not even a blank but real ammunition?
Edited to add the same site says the film budget was under six million, so there may have been only one prop person on set.
It’s probably been asked already, but why do the prop guns have to make a sound at all? Can’t that be added in post? I’d understand if it was a stage play and you needed the noise.
This isn’t correct. Prop guns still have a small hole at the end of the barrel to release gases upon discharge. If close enough to a person or object they can cause some damage from the velocity of gas coming out and some flecks of wadding.
I have no idea what happened in this incident and am aware that sometimes they use real weapons with blanks. More force will come out of a real firearm with blanks than a prop gun with blanks.
I’ve also heard that the armorer on a small film is often overworked and a genuine mistake may have been made. This is obviously not the first time a crewmember/actor has been killed or injured on set due to negligence or cost-cutting, and it’s ridiculous.
I guess if you needed the bang to sych up the sound on the recording, and you put a beeper in the gun instead of explosives you might take the actors out of the moment.
I am not a lawyer and don’t work in films, but it seems like he could (again in theory, as we’ve no idea what really happened). The producer typically makes the hiring decisions (though IIRC only the “big” hires, like director, DP, etc. Would the armorer be hired by the producer?) , and if he hired someone knowing he was not qualified that seems like something that could open up to at least civil liability.
Of course big names are often given producer credit without actually doing any producing (especially on low budget titles like this one without much money to throw around) that might not mean he escapes civil liability though. And (while again IANAL) I’d put money on him being named in some of the (very likely) civil suits that this will eventually trigger.
You also need to see the combustion coming out of the barrel. Sure, you can add it in post using CGI, but it’s cheaper and (usually) looks better to use a blank. (FWIW, there are ‘full power’ blanks that give a dramatic visual, and lower powered blanks that cycle the action and eject the casings without the big flash.)
The article I linked to suggested that he was firing from a prone position, so he was probably aiming at an angle. That might explain the different location of the wounds.
Blockbuster filmmaking these days requires actors to deliver heartfelt dialogue to a man in a green body suit covered in ping pong balls. I think they can work through hearing a beep instead of a bang.
I have worked on sets for DC Universe, Netflix, Fox, and Hulu as well as independent films, and having people point prop guns at actors is completely normal. This was not in Hollywood, but in Wilmington, NC and Charleston SC, but nobody blinks an eye. The set armorer ensures the weapons are safe.
Someone asked why didn’t Baldwin check the weapon himself. I can tell you that if he even removed the magazine to check the cartridges the armorer should have rechecked the weapon immediately to ensure that Baldwin didn’t somehow screw up and insert a live round either accidentally or deliberately.
It seems a fairly reasonable assumption that he was aiming the gun at the camera, seeing as the two people who were hit were the DP and director, a fairly natural thing to do when making a film about a gunfighter.