The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
Recently, the biggest news in Hollywood has been the human tragedy of actress Alec Baldwin using a prop gun to mistakenly shoot female photographer Halyna Hutchins and cause her death. The local police investigation is still ongoing, but over time more information about the incident has been revealed by the media.
After the incident, Baldwin's mood almost collapsed.
The incident took place at Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico, which has been a frequent location for Westerns used by Hollywood film crews since the 1950s, where films such as "Tiger and Leopard" and "Battle of Yuma Town" were filmed.
The scene of the incident is a common filming location for Hollywood Westerns.
The Rust crew moved in on October 6. The film is a low-budget film that cost only $7 million to produce, and tells the story of The Protagonist Haland, played by Alec Baldwin. Rust" Rust plans to help him escape from prison after his grandson was accidentally murdered and imprisoned.
At 1:50 p.m. on Oct. 21, the crew rehearsed a shootout scene that took place inside and outside the church. The crew's chief gunman, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, pulled out three prop guns, and then assistant director Dave Halls picked up one of the Colt pistols and handed it to actor Baldwin. When Hoth handed over the gun, he clearly shouted the password of "cold gun", which is Hollywood industry jargon and operating norms, which means that there are no bullets in the gun, whether empty or real bullets. Baldwin then pulled the trigger, causing photographer Harina Hutchins to be hit in the chest and director Sosa, who was standing behind her, to injure her shoulder. At present, a large amount of evidence, including the pistol and a shell casing that fell to the ground, has been detained by the local police, while the 48-year-old director discharged himself the next day after being hospitalized to treat his wounds and observe them overnight.
Associate Director Dave Hoth
The photographer killed, Harina Hutchins, was born in Ukraine at the age of 42. After graduating from Kiev State University with a degree in international journalism, she worked on news documentaries in London. Six years ago, Hutchins graduated from the American Film Institute, starting as a photography assistant and becoming a director of photography on his own.
Although the films hutchins have participated in filming such as "Snowbound" (2017), "Darlin" (2019), "Archenemy" (2019) and "Blindfire" (2020) are mostly independent films produced at low and medium costs, and the word-of-mouth and box office are mediocre, as a rare female force in the field of cinematography that has always been dominated by men, Hutchins's dedication and dedication to work. It has long been recognized by peers and the industry, and was selected as one of the "Stars of Tomorrow" by American Photographer magazine in 2019. This time the Western film "Rust", because of the big star Baldwin joined, could have become hutchins since the industry to gain the most audience works, the result of the film is only half of the film, she died unexpectedly, leaving her husband and a nine-year-old son, really lamentable.
Photographer Harina Hutchins
After the incident, a number of American media reported that the "Rust" crew had many problems long before the accident. It is understood that in mid-October, several members of the crew threatened to strike in protest against the producers' delay in paychecks. By the morning of the accident, six more members of the camera crew couldn't stand the bad treatment — including a strike to save money on accommodation and let them live an hour's drive from the filming site, and were eventually taken away from the crew by security guards. Therefore, on the day of the incident, the original camera crew was only the photographer Hutchins and a Steadicam photographer who remained in the group, and the producer then found some people from the surrounding area to replace them temporarily.
Worse still, according to media excavations, this unfortunate accident could have been avoided. Because just one Saturday before the accident, the crew had a precedent of two misfires of prop guns in one day. According to the crew revealed to the media, the three gunmen led by Hannah Reed are relatively young and lack a steady and down-to-earth attitude when working. After the previous fire incident, some crew members expressed strong protests and sent a text message to the production manager to reflect the situation, but the final result was not resolved.
Gunner Hannah Reid
It is understood that Hannah Reed is 24 years old this year, although she has only recently graduated from the university film and television major, but because of the family inheritance, she quickly became a gunner. Her father is Thell Reed, a 78-year-old Hollywood gun mechanic who has been involved in the gun management of dozens of Westerns, gunfight films, and war films, and has coached big stars such as Brad Pitt and Russell Crowe on how to perform gunfight scenes. With her father's support, Hannah became the chief gunner for the film "The Old Way" starring Nicolas Cage this year, and soon joined the "Rust" crew.
Gunner Hannah Reed's LinkedIn page
After the incident, some netizens found out what Hannah Reed said when she participated in a webcast show just a month ago, and she said about her work in "The Old Way": "At first I was really nervous and almost rejected them, because I wasn't quite sure if I was ready. Fortunately, after doing it, I found that it was all smooth..."
At present, it is not known whether Hannah Reed has obtained the relevant qualifications to work as a gunner, nor whether she has joined the relevant hollywood unions. In Hollywood, there are many crews who outsource gunpowder work to qualified and more experienced professional companies, but there are also low-cost productions like Rust, and they find a few gunners to take care of these operations. However, in either case, it is reasonable to say that it must be done in strict accordance with the relevant operating specifications, that is, only when the actual shooting will the empty package ammunition be filled in the prop gun.
Of course, the so-called "prop gun" in Hollywood is not the toy gun and imitation gun we generally understand. On the contrary, most of them are actually real guns, but they are habitually called "props" in the industry because of the purpose of shooting movies. As for the empty package bullets, although there are no metal warheads, in order to pursue the shooting effect, they are filled with real gunpowder, and instead of the bullets, they are filled with paper or other materials. Therefore, if the empty package bullet hits the human body at close range, it is still possible to cause different degrees of damage. For example, in 1984, during the filming of the CSB TV series "Cover Up"),actor Jon-Erik Hexum played a game of "Russian roulette" with a prop gun because he was bored, and as a result, he was hit by an empty bomb filling at close range, and the skull fragment entered the brain and unfortunately died.
Actor Hex accidentally died playing "Russian roulette" with a prop gun at the shooting site of the TV series "Spy".
As of now, the police are still investigating what kind of warheads hit photographer Hutchins and director Sousa. But it is almost certain that the actor Baldwin did not know in advance that there would be bullets in the gun, so it is unlikely that he will bear legal responsibility. Just as in 1983, when Bruce Lee's son, Lee Kwok-ho, tragically died while filming the film The Raven, the court ultimately found the incident to be purely accidental, and the actors and producers who fired the shots were acquitted.
Bruce Lee's son, Lee Kwok-ho, was shot and killed while filming the movie "The Crow."
However, in addition to his role as an actor, Alec Baldwin is also one of the producers of "Rust", and it is reasonable to say that the overall shooting safety of the film also has his share of responsibility. In 2015, during the filming of the movie Midnight Rider, camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed by a train due to improper safety measures, and eventually director Randall Miller and executive producer Jay Sedrish were both imprisoned for a year for accidental homicide. Therefore, it will take some time to know what kind of punishment will be waiting for Rust and Baldwin.
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Shi Gong