Alec Baldwin [accidentally] Kills Crew Member with Prop Gun {2021-10-21}

[Cartooniverse]

@Cervaise

Let’s get some facts on the table before everybody runs ahead of the story and latches onto a misinterpreted version of reality.

Industry coverage indicates that this happened during a rehearsal. Not during the filming of an actual scene. A rehearsal.

There is a person on a film set called an armorer whose job it is to manage the firearms. He (it’s usually a he) is responsible for preparing the weapons, keeping them secured on set, formally checking them out to each actor, observing the actor’s handling for safe practices, loading the weapon prior to filming, and checking the weapon back in when filming is complete.

The weapon is never supposed to be loaded during the rehearsal. Baldwin has been working with prop weapons for 40 years. This has always been the rule. If the armorer handed him a weapon for the rehearsal, Baldwin will have had no expectation that it should be loaded or unsafe in any way. If it was loaded, its discharge is 100% the responsibility of the armorer.

It’s fine if you feel animosity for Baldwin. It is not fine if you allow that animosity to skew your interpretation of the facts in the incident.

Given these facts — it was a professional film set, there was an armorer present, the incident happened during a rehearsal prior to actual filming — Baldwin bears zero responsibility. He would not have been expected to re-check the gun after the armorer handed it to him. It just doesn’t work like that.

Also, you should set aside all the mental poisoning from celebrity-obsessed media, which invariably looks for the biggest name in the story and makes them the center of the coverage, because that’s what sells papers and draws clicks. Objectively, the real story here is that the negligence of the armorer caused the death of a promising young female cinematographer (a rarity in Hollywood!) who was highly regarded and coming up fast on a major career.

That’s the headline. “Movie gun-handler’s negligence causes death of up-and-coming cinematographer.” Baldwin is almost incidental to the story.

Now that I’ve said this, I fully expect to be ignored and argued with, by people who can’t get past the fact that Baldwin is the Big Famous Name in the story so of course he’s the most interesting part to talk about. Whatever.

Caveat: Yes, there is a vanishingly small possibility that Baldwin, as the producer of the movie, hired an unqualified armorer or was making unprofessional demands or something else that causes liability to attach to him. It’s not impossible, and if counterfactual information emerges, then the situation will change. But if you know how movie sets work, especially on the subject of prop firearms, you know that this is very, very, very unlikely, and that the overwhelming odds favor the negligent-armorer story.

This is the Dope, people. Facts first.

This is as good a place as any to dive into this. I’m a member of IATSE Local 600- the Cinematographer Guild. We’ve all lost a Sister in this accident.

Lots of opinions posed as facts. Here are a set of facts that aren’t being discussed anywhere in the media. This, from a member of the Camera Department of “Rust”.

Best to address some of the “factual” comments made in the post I’m quoting as well as address other remarks. But before I do, here’s a bit of fact that occurred the night before the shooting that has gone utterly unreported in the media: 4 members of the Camera Department quit this show that night. That’d be Wednesday night. Here is the quote of this member’s text to a colleague. It is a truncated screenshot and begins mid-sentence:

@Rust Crew Member

The entire camera crew walked off that morning for that exact reason. Last night we each wrote resignation letters.
We cited everything from lack of payment for three weeks, taking our hotels away despite asking for them in our deals, lack of COVID safety, Andean (sic) poor guns safety. Poor on set safety period !
We wrote about this exact issue last night and walked this morning because of it !
That’s not in any of the papers !
They brought in 4 non-union guys to replace us and tried calling the cops on us.
Only people who stayed were Halyna ( DP ) and Reid the B Steadi Op.

Before people rain down on me over the fact that this could be pure fiction, let me say that I’m also a Steadicam Operator. Reid is in fact the B camera/ Steadicam Op on “Rust”. He talked about this gig before going out on it in New Mexico. This ONE bit informs me that this is a geniune screenshot.

New Mexico has exploded recently as the new Production mecca. Zero Unions ( more about that below ), lower costs of gear and so on. Netflix purchaed an entire film studio complex before COVID-19 shut everything down.

I’d read things online in various Camera- and Production-forums regarding the lack of proper ( Union ) discipline in all crafts on sets in New Mexico, as well as all other “right to work” states. Abusive hours, poor housing, unsafe transportation and the more obvious red flags: stunts and firearms. It’s very cheap to hire someone who has a Pelican case filled with guns who says they are an Armorer. It’s another thing entirely to be on set with a genine Armorer who runs a very tight and controlled situation regarding firearms. ( Stunts and explosions are the purvey of others on a set ).

I’ve been shot at on sets at relatively close range. ( And I detest guns ). With utmost care and regard for my safety, we got the shot. 1/4-load blanks were used and the extras playing NYPD cops were drilled as to proper protocols. All went well. When things are managed strictly, nobody needs to get hurt. AND since it’s 2021, nobody ever needs to get hurt because all actions related to the firing of a gun large or small can be added by using CGI in post-production. Muzzle flash, weapon kick, slide action on an automatic handgun. All easily added in post. Unless you’re doing a lowball cheap show. Because those pixels cost money and bullets and real guns are quite cheap. No surprise that the entire budget is being listed publicly at (roughly ) 2 million, with $ 700,000 of that as salary to Mr. Baldwin.

You work cheap, you cut corners. You use guns that can fire bullets. You don’t take care with safety. And people are injured or killed. I’m sickened by this. EVERY death on a film set is unneccesary and frankly, unless you are a trained Stunt person, every injury is similarly unneccesary.

Considering the quote I posted about by a (former) crew member, I would not be surprised to learn that Ms. Hutchins had stepped up to operate her own camera since the Operator had resigned the night before. Now, had this labor incident not occurred the Operator would have been in the line of fire and the D.P. ( Ms. Hutchins ) may well have been off to the side, clear of the line of fire. It will come out if she in fact was Operating on the day. The last IATSE 600 contracts allow for the D.P. to Operate themselves instead of insisting on a separate Operator.

Points of fact. I’m in no way saying it would have been worse or better for another technician to be shot to death.

Personal aside: Hey, Bill_Doors, nice to see you here even if on a sober topic !! Congrats on moving onto work on sets. Best to Robin !!