Movie About an Accidental Killing Has an Accidental Killing

One hopes that this will cause a big push to fix problems in the film and TV industry.

Baldwin's an asshole but this isn't something that I'd wish on anyone.

 

We've seen other fatalities with prop guns on the set. Jon-Erik Hexum, thinking blanks were harmless, killed himself when he jokingly fired a blank-loaded revolver at his own head, blasting a piece of his skull into his brain. Brandon Lee was killed when a bullet from a dummy round, placed earlier into the revolver to make it appear loaded, got lodged in the chamber where it was subsequently propelled by a blank into Lee's body.

I don't have the details, but it's difficult to imagine a prop gun malfunction/accident that kills one and injures another without live ammunition having been inadvertently loaded. Perhaps a blank was fired but at such a time that some other accident ensued.

 

Alex Baldwin killing a unionized woman with a gun is so typical liberal elitist i don’t even know where to begin

 

Supposedly, after Brandon Lee's death, significant changes were made to make a repeat of such an event unlikely. I don't know what they were, or if they were adequate, but I do know that film productions often shoot outside of CA because they don't want to have to deal with the regulations on the industry there. Dunno if this would have happened if they'd have done the movie in CA, but I hope that there's something done to prevent this. We don't really need to use blanks in guns for movies anymore, since SFX has gotten to the point where almost anything you want can be done in post-production.

 

Hey maybe we should stop fetishizing guns.

 

They released footage of Baldwin firing the gun. No blood, but NSFW just in case:

 

Wow, that's sad. Even if it wasn't his fault, this is going to haunt him the rest of his life.

 

Yes it almost makes your excessive gun purchases look sane.

 

The prop gun fired by Alec Baldwin contained a live round, prop masters union says

 

If so, whoever was responsible for handling the firearms on set is in a lot of trouble.

 

Why the FUCK would there be a live round anywhere near the set?!?

 

I don't understand why movies and TV shows are still using props capable of holding a live round (or even a blank with the capacity to kill, ala Jon-Erik Huxom). Easy enough to add things like smoke, etc. in post-production. The gun-to-head shots in Schindler's List were all digital, and that film was done back in '93, so one could do the FX on their phone today and still have a more realistic looking scene than they were able to get 30 years ago.

 

Yeah, sounds like this needs to be a murder investigation, stat.

 

Guys, come on. He's acting! He's an actor. That's what he does. This is the perfect crime! Wake up sheeple.

 

The fact that it was a crewmember who was shot and killed leads me to believe that there was some fuckery going on. It's not like they were filming a gunfight scene with other actors. But who knows. The truth will eventually come out.

 

*disclaimer* I'm only speculating...

I imagine it was a shot that required the actor to shoot into the camera. The cinematographer would be behind the camera, with the director standing nearby. Bullet passes through cinematographer and hits the director.

 

Possibly. If the gun wasn't intended for live rounds the bullet could also have fragmented in flight and struck two targets.

 

Or bullet hits camera, injures one, deflects and kills the other.

 

Good article that answers a few questions.

I will say that one could make a prop gun that gives you a recoil effect without having to use blanks, so I don’t see that as a justification for using real guns on the set today.

I’m reminded of the magician who died doing the bullet catch trick in the late 1800s. It turned out that because of the way he handled the gun after the trick it damaged it to the point where his death was inevitable. Few magicians have done the trick in the years since as they were so concerned about safety.

 

Murica, I guess

I hate this country.

 

This article clears that up.

That article is pretty damning. Apparently, there'd been problems with the prop guns in the past few days, and Hutchins had complained about safety issues on the set. The crew was also having trouble getting paid (as well as other compensations that they'd been promised), and many of them walked off the set the morning of the shooting (they were instantly replaced by a non-union crew, so it seems reasonable that it had been planned to get rid of the unionized crew) and it was when the non-union crew took over that the shooting happened.

Baldwin's a producer of the film, it's a low-budget movie, though, so that might just have been a symbolic title given to him in order to get him to do the movie, with the added bonus that he'd get more money when the film hit theaters and streaming services. If it's not a symbolic title, and he actually was involved in the production of the movie, from funding it to other stuff, then he's responsible for her death in a manner greater than if he was just the poor bastard who got handed the gun and told to fire it. This might well end his career, even if he doesn't wind up in jail for his actions.

 

Yes, Baldwin may be in financial hot water because as a producer, he's accountable for safety decisions made in the production.

I hope it's not the case, but with reports of walkouts by the union staff and the hiring of replacements, one can't help but wonder if maybe someone was a little disgruntled and...

It could also be an accident resulting from miscommunications between the two sets of workers. "Whatever you do, don't use the cartridges from that box." "I think he said we need to use the cartridges from that box."

It's unclear if this happened during filming (see my "shooting at the camera" scenario above) or between takes. It could be--and it sounds plausible based on Baldwin's reference to being handed a "hot" gun--that Baldwin was playing or rehearsing with the prop gun and, when he pulled the trigger, was surprised by it firing. That isn't to impugn him--the propmaster is supposed to be responsible for making sure the weapons are safe--but it would reinforce that guns need to be treated as if they're loaded even when there is good reason to believe they aren't.

 

I admit I'm anal-retentive about it, but I check and clear every firearm I handle, every time I pick it up. Even if I find it exactly where I left it an hour ago. I would like to believe I would have no part in an accident like this.

 

I pulled a gun out of my safe the other day. I put it there. I'm the only one with the combination and access to it. I went to dry fire it and mentally kicked myself for not checking it first.

There's no reasonable way the gun could've been loaded, but we need to reinforce the habit to check every time.

 

Or just leave it in the safe.

Fondling things tends to set them off.

 

Most people learn not to negligently discharge when they're teenagers.