Summary
Alec Baldwin was practicing a “cross draw” — pointing his gun at the camera — when a live round struck the director in the shoulder and the cinematographer fatally in the chest … this according to new court documents. Lets talk about what happened on the set of the movie, Rust, and could the unfortunate death of the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.
Source courtesy of TMZ.com
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59006905
https://www.tmz.com/2021/10/25/fatal-shooting-cinematographer-struck-chest-rust-alec-baldwin-gun/
https://www.tmz.com/2021/10/25/steve-wolf-film-weapons-safety-expert-alec-baldwin-shooting-death/
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Transcription
Podcast Transcript:
Montay Lee 1:29
Welcome, welcome. Welcome to Karat Juice Podcast. I’m your host Montay Lee, we are here for another episode. I appreciate you guys.
If you’re watching this on YouTube, go ahead and just like the video, please for the YouTube algorithm, share the podcast if you enjoy it. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the channel if you enjoy the content. We are talking about an unfortunate case here today on this episode episode 36 of the Karat Juice Podcast we are talking about the unfortunate situation that happened with Alec Baldwin on the set of the new movie that he is starring in and producing
rust. So there was a young lady by the name of Halina Hutchins, who unfortunately passed away on October 22. Due to an accident on the set of the movie, we’re going to get into that and involved a prop gun. And I’m going to get my thoughts on it and then see if there’s anything that we can glean and learn from the unfortunate situation that happened. So without further ado, we’re going to get right into the content here.
So the first article that we’re talking about today is from bbc.com. And it is around prop guns. What are prop guns? Why are they dangerous? I think that was an important question to ask. So we’re gonna get right into that. So prop guns.
So police say that US actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun that killed cinematographer Halina Hutchins and wounded director Joel Joelle Sousa on a film set in New Mexico. They were working on the film Russ tributes have been paid to miss Hutchins. 42 While Mr. Baldwin is said to be distraught. One local paper found him in tears outside a Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office and investigation is underway. And we don’t know exactly what went wrong. A spokesman for Mr. Baldwin said there had been an accident on the set involving the misfire of a prop gun. So court.
Court submissions later showed an Assistant Director
Dave Halls had handed the gun to Mr. Baldwin it contained a live round but Mr. Hall said he did not know that and indicated it was unloaded by shouting Cold Gun. An incident like this is rare and the news has stunned the film industry. The use of firearms on set is subject to stringent safety standards. On the film I recently made even my plastic gun I had to sign out sign in every day, said an Australian actor risk Modan so that why this particular case is so incredibly baffling. Despite sounding innocuous both prop guns and blanks can be dangerous. Here’s what we know about them. So what is a prop gun?
blanks are used in the film industry to imitate live ammunition. The reason they are so convincing is that blanks are essentially modified real bullets, while the term bullet is commonly used to describe what is loaded into weapons more properly. It is a cartridge that is loaded a self contained ammunition package made up of a casing holding and explosive powder that when blast out of projectile or bullet blanks differ because although they use explosive, they use explosive. They don’t use a projectile. So that is what we’re looking at here. A blank cartridge is the same as a live round except it does not have a project our bullet at its tip. So if you see here on the left, we have a live round so it has the project our bullet a casing or shell, gunpowder and primer. Okay with the blank, no bullet is fired. Interesting. So when a gun trigger is pulled the primer ignites the gunpowder and fires the bullet.
Hmm. Ah, and there’s no projectile at the end of a blank. Okay, I see that.
So, according to this here, a prop gun could mean a range of items from non functioning weapons to cap guns. But it can also mean a real weapon or one adapted for firing blanks together they add authenticity to productions, fire a blank using a prop gun, and you’ll get allow bang or recoil and what’s known as a muzzle flash, the visible light created by the combustion of the powder.
So, one thing that I wanted to get into today and what I wanted to talk about was, this situation actually happened before, believe it or not.
So I don’t know if you guys were familiar with this. But
Brandon Lee, the son of the legendary actor, and martial artists, Bruce Lee, actually passed away from this very thing.
So Brandon Lee, died at the age of 28. In 1993, while filming The Crow, when a prop GM which mistakenly had a dummy round loaded in it was fired at him. Dummy rounds contain no explosive charge, and in this case were used to film a close up when blanks were loaded part of the dummy round remained in the gun. After he was shot, the cameras kept rolling. It was only when he did not get up at the end of the scene that those won’t set realized something was wrong. And another incident in 1984, US actor John Hexam started joking around on the set of a television show after being frustrated by delays in filming. He loaded a revolver we’re all not he loaded a revolver with the blank spawn the chamber put the gun to his temple and fired on Mike Lee. He was not killed by a projectile, but rather the force of the blast was strong enough to fracture his skull. He died days later in the hospital. Oh my goodness.
I didn’t know that.
So let’s get on to the safety portion. How can these be used safely so Hexam Steth highlights a problem with blinks. It says without a projectile they pack enormous power. Adding to the risk some film sets use extra powder to make the visual impact stronger. film sets usually have strict rules about the use of prop gun specialist provide weapons for use on film sets and advise on their use. There’s basic safety measures on every set set, Mike Tristano and armour who had worked with Alec Baldwin in the past, you never point a gun, even if it’s not firing a gun at anyone else. I’m at a loss on how this could have happened and how it could have been done. How it could have done that much damage. A common shot in films shows an actor firing in the camera and Steven Hall who has worked on films such as fury, and The Imitation Game says it only happens with safeguards.
If you are in the line of fire, you would have a facemask you would have goggles you would stand behind a per perspex screen and you will minimize the number of people by the camera. So what I don’t understand in this instance is how two people have been injured one tragically killed in the same event. Others are working in film wondered why at a time when gun effects can be cheaply added using computers blanks are still being used at all. There’s no reason to have guns loaded with blanks or anything on set anymore should just be fully outlawed and actor and director whose credits include Westworld and Mayor of East town.
Prop guns are guns, blanks have real gunpowder in them they can injure or kill and they have
If you’ve ever, if you’re ever on a set where prop prop guns are treated without proper caution and safe handling, walk away, no show or shot is worth risking people’s lives. He had it.
So that’s the first part that I wanted to get into here. So
this has happened before. It’s been a very touchy subject that a lot of people have been talking about in the media. I wanted to kind of give you guys some background on what prop guns are, why they have still been used. And yeah, there have been some accident in the past involving these things. So I want to go on to what actually happened in this incident on the set of rust. So let me pull up the screen here for that. But before we get to that, we have a message from the sponsor, and then we will get right back to that.
Alright.
So we are back and this article was courtesy of TMZ. It was actually published yesterday, October 25. And it states Alec Baldwin shooting or Russ, fatal shot struck cinematographer in the chest.
expert says three errors caused a tragedy. So let’s figure out exactly what happened in this incident that caused this so Alec Baldwin was practicing across draw pointing his gun at the camera, when a live round struck the director in the shoulder and the cinematographer fatally in the chest. This according to the new court documents, director Joel Souza told sheriff’s investigators he heard someone were told the assistant director say cold gun while they got ready for the scene, meaning that gun didn’t have live rounds in the chambers.
significantly. It appears that gun had been inspected before the lunch break, but Sousa could not remember if it had been checked when the crew returned. A cameraman named Reed Russell told authorities Alec was trying to explain how he was going to draw the firearm and where his arm would be when the firearm was pulled from the holster. Sousa explained Baldwin pointing the gun directly at the camera and fire striking him in the shoulder. And Halina Hutchins in the chest Sousa says he had a vague memory that Hutchins was complaining about her stomach and grabbing her midsection. He says she then began to stumble backward and was assisted to the ground. He says he was bleeding from his shoulder and he could see blood on Halina.
Russell said after the shooting
Halina says she could not feel her legs.
Once on the ground, medics frantically began treating her as she was bleeding on the ground. She was airlifted to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Steve Wolf, a special effects coordinator and theatrical firearm safety expert told CNN there are three errors committed that resulted in the tragedy using a real gun rather than a prop gun. Having a live round in the gun and having people stand behind the camera in the line of fire. He also said the assistant director should not have been the one to clear the gun before the incident that should have been the armor his job. Soon as I told authorities, there should never have been live rounds near or around the scene that’s being rehearsed or shot. Authorities have obtained a search warrant to seize all camera footage and any other computer debt computer data that may have recorded the fatal incident.
Who So yeah, this is heavy.
And there’s a lie here. My question is, why aren’t people wearing safety gear? Why is the armor is the person I’m doing all this research on the fly. But the armor is is the person that handles all the weapons on these movie sets is the least as far as what I know. Okay, I’m not an actor. I’ve never been on a movie set. But
apparently there are a lot of strict rules and standards and regulations that they have. And the armor is is the person who checks all of these things. And it looks like in this incident. That was That didn’t happen.
So
yeah, that’s my main question. Why weren’t they wearing safety gear behind the glass and what have you and what happened with this gun to cause a projectile to come out and actually kill somebody?
Ah, yeah, I think they just need to get rid of these things altogether, honestly, because
it’s becoming way more
prevalent, unfortunately. So we’re going to go back to the incident with what happened with Brandon Lee, because his sister
actually spoke out about what happened. And
I think she has something interesting to say. So
let’s go to ABC News. Go for that report. And I’ll tie all this together.
So Brandon Lee’s sister speaks out about the fatal firearm accident on rosette.
As we said before, Brandon Lee was accidentally shot while filming The crow in 1993. And that’s a picture of him there.
The actor Brandon Lee died of an accidental shooting in 1993. His sister Shannon Lee spoke Friday on the similar
firearm accident that took the life of cinematographer Haleigh Halina Hutchins. Hutchins was shot Thursday during the production of the Russ movie like we said before.
And Shannon said,
Our hearts go out to the family of Alina Hutchins and to Joel Sousa and all involved in the incident all Russ no one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set period.
With a broken heart emoji
goes on to say that investigation is underway as to what went wrong on the New Mexico set of rust.
the New Mexico Film Office also released a statement, which I think is important here. They say we along with the entire film community in New Mexico, are saddened by the tragedy that happened on the set of rusty yesterday. We send our deepest condolences to the family of Miss Halina Hutchins and are keeping positive thoughts for complete recovery for Mr. Joe Sousa, the safety and well being of all cast crew and filmmakers in New Mexico is a top priority at all times.
And I found that significant for
Shannon Lita say, because she’s been impacted greatly by this. And I would just think in today’s day and age that with editing and with all of the advances that we have in that area, that you wouldn’t be able to like artificially just put the muzzle flashes and stuff in there.
Because if it’s happened one time, it’s happened too many times. I understand that accidents happen. But there was a lot of things that happened in the chain of command here, as I’m reading through these articles in this situation that just shouldn’t have happened. And some somebody shouldn’t have lost their life just it’s just basically negligence. Regarding
safety, and all honestly have the people who is their job to handle the weaponry, and to tell you that what you’re doing is right, let them do their job. I think as simple as that, and you wouldn’t have had this this incident occurring.
And
yeah, that’s how that’s that was what I feel about that point. And, um, we have one more message from the sponsor, and then we’ll kind of wrap this show up
alright.
Here we go.
And this is the latest story that we have here, which was published yesterday. And it’s Alec Baldwin. This is TMZ Alec Baldwin Russ crew clearly cut corners and it costs someone’s life. And here, I believe we have an expert (Steve Wolf) when it comes to
doing props and special effects. He gives his thoughts on what
what he believes occurred and what wasn’t done properly and what have you. So I’m just gonna kind of blow this up here and let you guys listen to what he has to say about the incident.
TMZ Host 20:04
just seems odd to me. He’s an actor. And he’s not an expert. And opening the chamber is it is typical for an actor to..
Steve Wolf 20:11
Oh, I agree with you as well. I mean, there’s, there’s a couple of points of view on that, you know, one is that if you have a gun in your hand, you should have been explained how it works, and been told the protocols of how to do it, and been shown in a very simple demonstration, the difference between the blank and the bullet so that you can feel comfortable that what you’re doing is safe. Or you could just rely on someone else. But given that, you know, lives are hanging in the balance here, why would you trust somebody else, when there’s a risk that you could shoot somebody
Montay Lee 20:45
I think there’s something else right here too.
TMZ Host 20:53
For was new at this job, she’s 24 years old, and even said she was scared about doing it. I’m wondering how that strikes you.
Steve Wolf 21:03
You know, that should have come out in the interview with the producers when she was being interviewed for the job. And they should have passed on her. Or they should have said you know what you would make an excellent armors assistance in a few years when you’ve got a little experience under your belt. So please be don’t be insulted. But we’re going to bring in somebody who’s been doing this for, you know, 30 years, we’re gonna bring in a grumpy old man that nobody wants to work with. And everyone’s afraid of, when he says Don’t touch those guns till I tell you to everybody, you know, is shocked and backed away, and led listens. But there’s a certain amount of presence that’s required, in order to command the authority to dictate the safe use of firearms. And I think that wasn’t present. And I have a hard time believing that anyone on the production believed that that armor would have had that presence to command set safety is this problem where people lapse in regulations aren’t followed? Is this a real problem in the movie industry beyond this particular movie, it’s unfortunately not uncommon, especially on low budget movies, where they’re like, You know what, we don’t want to wait to have the prop guns FedExed in from LA and pay the daily rental fee. You know, Jimmy’s brother has a couple of guns in his trunk. You know, let’s just shoot with that. You know what,
gosh, Stembridge arms is closed for the weekend. We’re just gonna go with the live ammo, because, you know, we need to get this done. So you know, all of these shortcuts that are taken seriously compromise safety. And when you’re doing something where people could get killed, you know, you just can’t cut corners, you can cut corners, everywhere else. And I know the crew complained about that cheap hotels, crappy catering, long hours, you know, those things suck, they make the job not so fun, but they don’t kill anyone. The armor and the special effects coordinator. They’re the only two people on the set who have a job where if they do it wrong, people die. And so that is not the place to cut corners.
Montay Lee 23:05
Okay, so that’s that part there.
I think we have one more video here.
Unknown Speaker 23:19
Montay Lee 23:52
Alright. So I’m gonna give my thoughts on this.
so what did we learn really from this situation?
I love movies. Let me Alright, let me just talk to you guys a little bit. I love movies. I love action flicks. I love movies that have to do with, you know, gunfights and all of that. However, if the movies aren’t going to maybe be the best all the time, or maybe if you have to do some special effects or what have you.
Um, all right with that.
I think this is a case where they hire somebody as an armor who wasn’t the most qualified. I think I heard somewhere that there was a relationship that
you think Mr. Baldwin kind of knew
the girl’s family or something and allowed her to get the job
or what have you.
But
you can’t be hiring people who don’t have experience, especially in that role, to say the least. Now somebody’s life is gone.
And I know he’s hurting. And I know he’s feeling, you know, horrible do this situation, I don’t believe he meant to do that. He was told that it was a cold gun by someone.
But this is just an unfortunate situation, and
I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.
It’s not really much to say, Man, life is what I’ll say his entire back is, life is precious life is short. Make sure that you are taking advantage of each and every day that you have out here on this earth. And
try to be the best version of yourself the best you can be kind to people. And if you don’t know what you’re doing with something, let people know that you don’t know what they’re doing. Maybe if you’re not comfortable with having the job of an armor, and when guns in that way, maybe you shouldn’t try to have that roll on a movie set. Just kind of
Common Sense there. And
condolences to Mrs. Hutchinson’s family.
I hope that they could get through this process, I know it’s gonna be tough, but I just wish them well. So sad somebody living their dream, doing what they want to do, you know, making moves in Hollywood. And then something like this unfortunately happens, it really just makes you reflect and think about
making sure that you’re taking advantage of all the things that you have going on in your life.
That you’re being present, I’m trying to do a better job of that I’m trying to be more present day to day with all the things that I’m doing.
And I hope that you guys are too. There’s a lot of negativity and a lot of crazy things that goes on in this world. And
we can’t make sense of it all.
But what I try to do on this platform, and what I’ve been trying to do is anytime I something hits my desk where I talk about the topic, I’m trying to give you some perspective on okay, so what can we learn from this, so that moving forward, we can be better people.
Because at the end of the day, that’s what I want.
I know some of the topics that I talked about, and what have you are controversial, and I get it. But at the end of the day, I want people to be successful, I want people to, you know, take care of themselves take care of their family, you know, be the best version of themselves, I truly mean that. I don’t.. You don’t have to be rich and have a bunch of money to do that. It just means moving with some character moving with some class.
That’s why you’ll never see me, you know, degrading somebody and calling them out of their name maliciously. That’s just not how I rock. That’s not what I do. And yeah… I’m kind of going on a rant here, but it’s all good. It’s my podcast, so I can do that. I hope that you guys are doing well.
I hope that you’re enjoying each and every day that you have, that you’re being present in the moment
that you got somebody to talk to. And if you don’t, I wish that you had that. And I wish that you would get that at some point.
Anybody out there who’s angry and they don’t understand why.
look inward and look at things you could change.
And try to not have a mentality where Woe is me. And there’s things that I can’t control focus on what you can’t control.
A lot of the reason why people have anger in their life is because they experienced some kind of trauma in their past. And I always say hurt people hurt people.
So if you are dealing with a bout of anger, or some depression, make sure you talk to somebody reach out to somebody.
They’ll just sit there and suffer in silence. And yeah… this has been a little bit more of a serious episode. I’ll just
I’ll end it with this. One of the another reason why I really got into podcast was the Bruce Lee podcast
is hosted by Shannon Lee,Bruce Lee’s daughter.
And in the podcast if you haven’t heard it
I would recommend it to anybody to Bruce Lee podcast.
Shannon goes through her father’s life, loosely, things that he did growing up.
And my most important and my favorite part about the podcast is they talk about his philosophy,
his mentality, how you move through the world and the way he saw the world. And every time I would listen, I would get a new nugget, something that was stick with me.
Bruce Lee was way more than just a martial artist.
He was an amazing thinker and amazing mind because mentalities on is larger than life. And there will be these quotes that they will go over. And then they would talk about the different meanings underneath. One that I’ll leave you guys with here today is:
“To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities”. – Bruce Lee
Say it again, “To Hell, with circumstances, I create opportunities”.
And that’s Bruce Lee.
There’s a whole backdrop on what that means. You should check out the Bruce Lee podcast to figure it out. And that’s been another episode here on the Karat Juice Podcast. I hope this information and this podcast finds you doing well. And if you haven’t done so already, like the video, all the YouTube stuff, share it if you enjoy you find anybody that will find this helpful.
Just subscribe to it. If you rock with me. You want to get more content. Also, like I say every time on the Karat Juice Podcast. This podcast is released every Tuesday.
Love Somebody hug somebody. Do something good for somebody not expecting anything in return. And I’ll see you guys next week. Take care of yourselves. Be well. Peace.
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