|
Post by Admin on Oct 22, 2021 19:16:24 GMT
FE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities are investigating after confirming that a prop firearm discharged by actor Alec Baldwin, while producing and starring in a Western movie, killed the cinematographer and wounded the director. Fe County Sheriff’s officials said Halyna Hutchins, cinematographer on the movie “Rust,” and director Joel Souza were shot Thursday on the rustic film set in the desert on the southern outskirts of Fe. Hutchins, 42, was airlifted to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead by medical personnel, the sheriff's department said. Souza, 48, was taken by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where he is undergoing treatment for his injuries. Production was halted on the film. A spokesperson for Baldwin said there was an accident on the set involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks, though a charge without a metal projectile is unlikely to kill at a moderate distance. The Fe New Mexican reported the 63-year-old Baldwin was seen Thursday outside the sheriff’s office in tears, but attempts to get comment from him were unsuccessful. The International Cinematographers Guild confirmed that the woman fatally shot was Hutchins, a cinematographer. “The details are unclear at this moment, but we are working to learn more, and we support a full investigation into this tragic event,” guild president John Lindley and executive director Rebecca Rhine said in a statement. Hutchins, a 2015 graduate of the American Film Institute, worked as director of photography on the 2020 action film “Archenemy,” starring Joe Manganiello. She was named a “rising star” by American Cinematographer in 2019. “I’m so sad about losing Halyna. And so infuriated that this could happen on a set,” said “Archenemy” director Adam Egypt Mortimer on Twitter. “She was a brilliant talent who was absolutely committed to art and to film.” Film colleague Manganiello called her “an incredible talent” and “a great person” on his Instagram account. He said he was lucky to have worked with Hutchins.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Oct 22, 2021 21:35:10 GMT
Hours before actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer on the New Mexico set of "Rust" with a prop gun, a half-dozen camera crew workers walked off the set to protest working conditions. The camera operators and their assistants were frustrated by the conditions surrounding the low-budget film, including complaints of long hours and getting their paychecks, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment. The camera crew showed up for work as expected at 6:30 a.m. Thursday and began gathering up their gear and personal belongings to leave, one knowledgeable crew member told the Los Angeles Times. An aerial image of the church at Bonanza Creek Ranch, near Fe, N.M. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) Labor trouble had been brewing for days on the dusty set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Fe. Shooting began on Oct. 6 and members of the production said they had been promised the production would pay for their hotel rooms in Fe. But after filming began, the crews were told they instead would be required to make the 50-mile drive from Albuquerque each day, rather than stay overnight in nearby Fe. The cinematographer who was accidentally killed, Halyna Hutchins, had been advocating for safer conditions for her team, said one crew member who was on the set. As the camera crew — members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — spent about an hour assembling their gear at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, several nonunion crew members showed up to replace them, the knowledgeable person said. A member of the producer staff then ordered the union members to leave the set. She said if they didn't leave, the producers would call security to remove them. "Corners were being cut — and they brought in nonunion people so they could continue shooting," the knowledgeable person said. There were two misfires on the prop gun on Saturday and one the previous week, the person said, adding "there was a serious lack of safety meetings on this set."
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Oct 23, 2021 2:33:37 GMT
Halyna Hutchins was living out her personal dream, working as a budding cinematographer in Hollywood, a rare title for women in the film industry. But Hutchins, a 42-year-old wife and mother, had her life cut short on Thursday after producer and actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the New Mexico set of the movie “Rust” during filming. Contacted by Yahoo News, some of the people who knew Hutchins offered their thoughts about her death. “I spoke to her and looked at her reel and connected her with our director, and they fell in love. Literally it was like, one meeting, boom. And this was back early, like 2018,” Sidra Smith, a producer, writer and casting director who worked with Hutchins on the BET+ series “A Luv Tale,” told Yahoo News. http://instagram.com/p/CVUa6nHsCfP “The way that Halyna lit Black people or people of color was extraordinary. And she was so sensitive to making sure that everyone's tones were beautiful and perfect,” Smith said. At the time of her death, Hutchins had been working as director of photography on “Rust,” a western that began production in early October. “That was a larger budget than anything she had done, and it was a western, and I was just like, ‘Wow, a woman about to shoot a western, that's the shit,’ and we were just laughing,” Smith said. “The joy that she expressed for this opportunity was so beautiful, and I just remember just being so happy for her.”
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Oct 24, 2021 21:17:43 GMT
Overnight, a vigil was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to remember cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed on the set of the movie “Rust” after Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun. New allegations against Dave Halls, the assistant director responsible for safety on set and the man who handed Baldwin the loaded gun, claim he failed to maintain a safe environment in the past. NBC News’ Erin McLaughlin reports for Sunday TODAY. Alec Baldwin, who accidentally killed his cinematographer on the set of his film “Rust,” should have never pointed a gun at another human, even if he believed it was safe, Hollywood safety experts told The Post. And the actor is now likely to face a gantlet of legal challenges — including possible criminal charges — as both the man who pulled the trigger and as the executive producer responsible for set safety, legal experts said. “Loaded or unloaded, a weapon never gets pointed at another human being,” Hollywood firearms consultant Bryan Carpenter of Dark Thirty Film Services told The Post. Baldwin, 63, fired a prop gun that killed Halyna Hutchins, 42, and injured the film’s director, Joel Souza, on the “Rust” set in Fe, NM, on Thursday. For safety, all live firearms used in TV and film productions are typically aimed at a dummy point, not at equipment, cast or crew, Carpenter noted. Guns, he said, are never aimed at a person. A Hollywood weapons expert thinks Alec Baldwin broke the most important rule of handling a gun.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Oct 28, 2021 4:34:38 GMT
The head armorer on the set of "Rust" told authorities she took all the necessary steps to secure the gun that killed the cinematographer ... but the assistant director confessed the gun was not thoroughly checked before Alec Baldwin fired the fatal round. According to a new search warrant, obtained by TMZ, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed told authorities the day of the shooting she had checked the ammo -- which she called the "dummies," meaning they were not live rounds. She added there were never live rounds on the set. She went on to say the gun was locked up in a safe in a prop truck during the lunch break and taken out shortly before the fatal scene. The implication -- she's saying the gun appeared safe to her, because it wasn't messed with it during lunch. She did, however, say there were a few people who had access to the safe. Assistant director David Halls -- the person who handed the weapon to Baldwin and called it a "cold gun" -- confessed when she showed him the firearm before rehearsal he could only remember seeing 3 rounds. He admitted he should have checked all of the rounds, and doesn't remember if Hannah spun the drum before she handed him the gun, and he, in turn, handed it to Baldwin. After cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Souza were shot, Halls says he inspected the chamber and he remembers seeing at least 4 dummy casings with the signature hole on the side, and one without the hole. He said the one without the hole didn't have a cap ... the implication is it was the remains of a live round of ammunition.
|
|