By now you've probably seen an outpouring of tributes to cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (42), who was tragically killed on October 21, 2021 when Alec Baldwin allegedly fired a prop gun in her direction, also injuring director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her.
The tragic accident took place on the film set of Rust in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is currently under investigation.
Confusion, anger, and unanswered questions.
According to court submissions, assistant director Dave Halls had handed the prop gun to Baldwin, shouting "cold gun!", which is the usual announcement made on a film set when a prop gun being used is not loaded – or in other words, it doesn't pose a real danger to anyone on set.
However, many are left wondering why a 'cold gun' could even kill someone in the first place. That's because the gun wasn't actually 'cold', contrary to Halls' announcement.
While it isn't known what exactly happened on the set of Rust, it's quite common for an actor to have the prop gun pointed directly at the camera (for dramatic visual effect). This means whoever is behind the camera – Hutchins and Souza in this case – is also in the theoretical line of fire.
“We’ve all seen the very famous shots in films where you get that dramatic effect of a gun being pointed at you, the audience, and of course, it’s being pointed towards the camera,” explained Steven Hall, a cinematographer who has worked on films like Fury and Thor: The Dark World.
“To minimize that, one would put a remote camera in that place, or at least if someone does have to operate the camera, I’m normally protected by safety goggles, a safety visor and often a PERSPEX screen that withstands pretty much anything. Obviously, it wouldn’t withstand a real shot from a gun, but it would certainly withstand a blank.”
Simply put: More often than not, time constraints on a movie set force people to take a more lax approach to safety protocols.
The term 'prop gun' is a lot broader than you think.
'Prop gun' is a term that can be used to describe a multitude of weapons used on film sets. This includes non-functioning guns, toy guns, as well as fake guns made of wood, plastic, or rubber.
However, the term can also be used to describe real guns that have been modified to only fire 'blank' cartridges – shell casings loaded with gunpowder, but without the actual bullet tip. In place of the bullet tip is some cotton or paper.
But just like the real thing, firing blanks will also result with the same sound of actual gunfire, as well as a phenomenon called 'muzzle flash', which is the visible light that appears at the opening of the gun barrel when gunpowder combusts. When prepared correctly, an actor that fires a blank cartridge on set won't hurt anyone, since there's no projectile coming out of the gun.
However, if a person were to be in front of the prop gun at close range, things could be much more serious – the muzzle flash is technically the result of a tiny explosion, after all.
For authenticity's sake.
Hollywood has gone through various stages of technological innovations that have helped make the lives of filmmakers a lot easier.
One of the biggest innovations is computer-generated imagery (CGI), which is used to portray an object on the silver screen without anyone on set actually having to place said image there in real life.
In the use of weapons on film sets, some productions opt for CGI instead of blank cartridges when portraying gunfire. However, this can be quite costly. And as with all film productions, budgets are a thing and must be adhered to as much as possible. That's where prop guns with blank cartridges come in.
An additional 'benefit' of firing blanks on set is the authentic reactions they get from the actors using them, complete with recoil from the force of the gunpowder combustion and the aforementioned muzzle flash.
“CGI may be used for close-range gunshots that could not be safely achieved otherwise, but yes, even with all the advancements in visual effects and computer-generated imagery, we still fire guns with blanks,” said firearms safety coordinator Dave Brown.
“Blanks help contribute to the authenticity of a scene in ways that cannot be achieved in any other manner.”
Brown does, however, make it a point to emphasize the 'very real' risk of terrible accidents occurring if one were to disregard the muzzle flash, hot gases, and debris from burned and unburned flakes of gunpowder, especially at close distances.
Not the first prop gun tragedy in Hollywood.
Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, met the same fate on the set of The Crow back in 1993.
What the crew thought was a blank cartridge loaded in the gun turned out to be much more than that. Part of a dummy round – designed to look like bullets but contain no gunpowder – was accidentally lodged in the gun when a blank cartridge was loaded.
That lodged dummy round became a projectile itself when the blank cartridge was fired, killing Lee while filming a scene in which he was supposed to get shot. It was only at the end of the scene, when cameras stopped rolling, that crew members realized Lee had actually been shot for real.
Preceding that incident was another tragedy involving Jon-Erik Hexum, an American actor on the set of Cover Up, back in 1984. However, this one did not even involve a projectile.
Frustrated with constant filming delays, Hexum decided to joke around on set to pass the time. He loaded a prop gun – an actual revolver – with a blank cartridge and then spun the chamber. He lifted the gun and pointed it at his own head, pretending to kill himself – a joke that symbolized how tired he was of the delays.
When he pulled the trigger, the sheer force of the blank cartridge's blast fractured his skull. He succumbed to his injuries a few days later.
While police continue their investigations into the tragic death of Halyna Hutchins, one can only hope that the entire film industry pays more attention to the safety of each and every crew member on set.
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Cover image sourced from Santa Fe New Mexican / The Associated Press and Carousell Singapore.
