Credit – Killian Tossoni Wikicommons
The Death of Cinematographer Haylna Hutchins was a tragic accident that shouldn’t have happened and could have been avoided. With blame to go around for everyone on the set of ‘Rust’, where Hutchins was fatally shot, we probably won’t have answers to what happened for a while. But, Hollywood and the state of New Mexico, have jumped almost immediately into the question of using real prop guns on studio sets. Various show runners have already come out and said they were either going to utilize special effects for the their scenes requiring gunfire, CGI, or outright ban prop guns altogether. I couldn’t help but think that maybe Hollywood, and the state of New Mexico, are having a typical knee jerk reaction and taking advantage of a tragedy to further progress a gun control agenda. With the last on set death by prop gun occurring in 1993, on the set of Brandon Lee’s ‘Crow”, in which Lee lost his life, it would seem that safety measures, statistically, have been strictly followed.
Democrat Opportunity?
Government never lets a good crisis go to waste and the tragic shooting on the set of ‘Rust’ is no exception. In a report from the Albuquerque Journal by Dan Boyd and Mathew Reisen, New Mexico’s Democrat governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, has signaled that she was going to ask New Mexico lawmakers to strengthen safety protocols on films made in New Mexico.
“My expectation is the industry better step up and identify any number of additional improvements and safeguards,” Lujan Grisham said. “If the industry doesn’t come forward with very specific accountable safeguards, they should expect that we will.”
In addition, State Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes, whose agency oversees New Mexico’s Film Office, has indicated that they were going to be in talks with industry professionals about on set safety protocols.
“There’s just no reason there needs to be a fatality on the workplace anywhere, for any job,” said Keyes, who worked for the Walt Disney Co. and as film liaison for the city of Albuquerque before joining Lujan Grisham’s administration.”
Interesting that a former Disney employee is now working in a government official capacity…I’m sure that will take us down another rabbit hole, but I digress. This, to me, just seems like another Democrat opportunity to get their foot in the door with more stringent gun control regulations.
There Have been 3 Deaths by Prop Guns
A petition at Change.org, is outright asking for the ban of real firearms on set. The petition currently has over 95,000 signatures and states that real guns are no longer needed on set, and that change needs to happen before more talented lives are lost.
“We need to make sure that this avoidable tragedy never happens again. There is no excuse for something like this to happen in the 21st century. Real guns are no longer needed on film production sets. This isn’t the early 90’s, when Brandon Lee was killed in the same manner. Change needs to happen before additional talented lives are lost.”
I get it. I understand the emotional reaction to someone losing their life in this manner, but on set tragedies with prop guns are almost non-existent. The last recorded death by a prop gun was Brandon Lee in 1993, on the set of the ‘Crow’. Before that, it was Jon-Erik Hexum in 1984, on the set of the TV series ‘Cover Up’. Three deaths by prop guns is a pretty good track record, considering the over 115 years that movies have been in existence. I would also say that the safety protocols in place have worked remarkably well. In addition, the deaths of Brandon Lee and Jon-Erik Hexum brought about stringent safety protocols, that have prevented a death by a prop gun for 28 years. But, instead of just ensuring that the current safety protocols are met, some in Hollywood are overreacting, by saying we need a complete ban on the use of prop guns on studio sets.
The Hollywood Media Are Disingenuous in Their Reporting
Using Prop guns in film productions, gives any movie a sense of realism to the the scene. Having those prop guns replaced with CGI graphics, air guns,
Credit – Gage Skidmore Wikicommons
or special effects, will diminish the authenticity of a particular scene. Again, it’s an overreaction to something that almost never happens, but some feel the need to take advantage of, with more government involvement and more stifling regulations. To support this argument for more regulations, some in the media have already used slick reporting to insinuate that deaths from prop guns are more common than they actually are. For example, NPR.org cited an article from the AP, that included all on set deaths and injuries from movie productions since 1990. In the article, by Jaclyn Diaz, she quotes the statistics from the AP article of 43 deaths and 150 injuries, but never puts any of those numbers in to context of what the actual AP article was referencing. She used that AP article, to imply that there were 43 deaths and 150 injuries from prop gun accidents to further an agenda and that is just disingenuous.
“The shooting death of director of photography Halyna Hutchins on a film set in Santa Fe, N.M., is a stark reminder to the filmmaking community that, though they work in fantasy, actions on set can have real world consequences.
On Thursday, while filming the Western ‘Rust’, the movie’s star Alec Baldwin discharged a prop gun that killed Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
An Associated Press report from 2016 determined that from 1990 until the time of publication, at least 43 people died on sets in the U.S. and more than 150 had been left with life-altering injuries.”
This is what the AP article was actually stating in context:
“Every year, workers on both sides of the camera are maimed, burned, break bones and even die striving to deliver entertainment that packs multiplexes and commands top TV ratings. Injuries come not just from obvious risks such as stunts and explosives, but from falls off ladders, toppled equipment and machines without safety guards
Yet in an industry where virtually everything is tallied and every success is touted, set accidents remain largely hidden and the consequences usually amount to mere thousands of dollars in fines paid out of multimillion-dollar budgets.
The Associated Press determined that, since 1990, at least 43 people have died on sets in the U.S. and more than 150 have been left with life-altering injuries, numbers derived by combing through data from workplace and aviation safety investigations, court records and news accounts. And those figures almost certainly don’t tell the entire story: The AP found several instances in which major accidents either weren’t reflected in investigation records or did not appear in an Occupational Safety and Health Administration database of the most serious set accidents.”
Knee Jerk Reaction?
Tragedies on movies sets happen and they are horrible. But we shouldn’t be having knee jerk reactions demanding the all out banning of this or that. even Alec Baldwin acknowledged that on set prop gun accidents are extremely rare.
“How many bullets have been fired in films and tv shows in the last 75 years? This is America. Probably billions. And nearly all of them without incident.”
But, some in Hollywood are reacting to this latest tragedy in an emotional way where those emotions are at a fever pitch, instead of being patient and letting logic rule their decisions. ABC’s ‘The Rookie’ are banning prop guns in favor of air soft guns utilizing a CG muzzle with flashes added in post production. HBO’s ‘Mare at Easttown’ will have all of their gunshots digitized. ‘The Boys’ show runner Eric Kripke, has completely banned guns with blanks on any of his sets.
Hollywood Needs to Stop Overreacting
Instituting complete bans on something that has been almost 100% safe and effective, seems tone an overreaction, but that’s just my opinion. I think it will affect the authenticity of a movie and ultimately make that scene unbelievable. Audiences want realism, and the over use of CGI in many movies these days, is proving to be a turn off with fans. Can you imagine a Matrix movie that only relied on air guns and special effects for those amazing gun battles? It would look completely fake. But who am I but just another fan. I don’t claim to know anything about what is involved in movie making, but I can say with reasonable assuredness, that prop guns on movie sets are almost 100% safe, with the utmost safety protocols in place, to avoid accidents like the one that happened on the set of ‘Rust’. Hollywood and local governments need to take a step back, take a long breath, and find out what happened on the set of ‘Rust’ first, before jumping to conclusions.
Related: Gina Carano returning to the Set Of The Mandalorian?
