Alec Baldwin involved in accidental shooting death on set of "Rust"

[TimMc]

Movie weapons supervisor waives preliminary hearing in fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin

A movie weapons supervisor has waived her right to a courtroom review of evidence on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting in 2021 of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin.

apnews.com

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed waives preliminary hearing.

 

[gafftaper]

They are seeking new charges against Alec Baldwin. Story from AP.

 

[MPowers]

Just as a follow-up to this discussion.

In response to the huge, immediate industry-wide response to this incident, ESTA has formed a new commission to work on weapons safety and enforcement in the entertainment industry. I am proud to be one of the founding members. We have membership representatives from every union I know of, as well as members from coast to coast and a few from other countries. We are still working on the scope of our mission, and it will be an ongoing discussion for some time. We have breakout task groups in several areas, including firearms and bladed weapons, among others. As we evolve and form, I will keep ControlBooth informed and updated on our progress.

 

[gafftaper]

Just as a follow up to this discussion.

In response to the huge, immediate industry wide response to this incident, ESTA has formed a new commission to work on weapons safety and enforcement in the entertainment industry. I am proud to be one of the founding members. We have membership representatives from every union I know of and members from coast to cost and a few from other countries. We are still working on the scope of our mission and it will be an ongoing discussion for sometime. We have breakout task groups in several areas including firearms and bladed weapons, among others. As we evolve and form I will keep Control Booth informed and up dated on our progress.

That's fantastic Michael! It's so good to see ESTA taking the lead on this issue and so good to know they have great people on the team. I'm sure it's going to take a while, but I look forward to updates and a standard.

 

[dvsDave]

Just as a follow-up to this discussion.

In response to the huge, immediate industry-wide response to this incident, ESTA has formed a new commission to work on weapons safety and enforcement in the entertainment industry. I am proud to be one of the founding members. We have membership representatives from every union I know of, as well as members from coast to coast and a few from other countries. We are still working on the scope of our mission, and it will be an ongoing discussion for some time. We have breakout task groups in several areas, including firearms and bladed weapons, among others. As we evolve and form, I will keep ControlBooth informed and updated on our progress.

If there's anything you need, please let me and the CB community know. We will help out however we can. This mission is that important.

Personally, one thing I would love to see come out of this is a guidebook for High Schools to be able to perform this safely. Starting with hiring a professional to teach the safety and skills needed for the scenes they are looking to perform. Along with absolutely clear rules about purpose-built prop weapons, NOT modified real weapons.

 

[MPowers]

I’m not sure how to reply to a statement tacked onto my post as opposed to a separate post following my original post. The statement read:

“Personally, one thing I would love to see come out of this is a guidebook for High Schools to be able to perform this safely.
Starting with hiring a professional to teach the safety and skills needed for the scenes they are looking to perform. Along with
absolutely clear rules about purpose-built prop weapons, NOT modified real weapons.”

While I firmly agree that schools SHOULD hire professionals when the need arises, the reality is that the cost and availability within the immediate area will often prevent this as a solution. While there are always LEOs and various gun clubs around, the fact that someone is proficient and knowledgeable concerning firearms, does not mean they are versed in the technology and techniques of simulating gun shots during a live performance, or knowledgeable in training techniques such as chain of custody and the firing of weapons with a proximate audience. I do not have an answer or a solution for this problem at this time. However, I will introduce the issue at our next meeting and have it added to our list of things to be addressed.

As for purpose built prop weapons, they are readily available from several prop houses, but they are not cheap. A limited number of weapons are available for rent but that solution does not of course, include a Weapons Wrangler. I personally provide all the weapons I supply and they are “purpose modified” weapons. The barrels have a hardened pin inserted to allow flash and smoke to front vent from the barrel but not allow a projectile to pass. The chambers have been modified to prevent any round with a projectile from chambering. I also have a number of rubber firearms and some non-firing replicas that allow triggers to pull, cylinders to rotate, pump action and lever actions to function. And before anyone asks, NO: I DO NOT rent or loan any of my firearms.

As for the Weapons Safety Group, we are a nascent group and to be honest, still struggling to develop and determine just who and what we are. There are several smaller breakout groups working on various items and we have a ways to go before we will actually be able to begin to write and publish any documentation outlining rules, regulations and such. The scope of this project is so wide and diverse, I personally feel it will be remarkable if we reach a first draft perusal document by this time next year.

I will post any updates as they are available.

 

[Malabaristo]

As someone who works in a high school, I tend to be on the side of saying that at this level the effect is not really worth the inherent dangers. Communicating that concept can be difficult to admin and community, though, so having a standard I can point to that explains exactly what is required to do it safely is very helpful--even if (or especially if...) following the standard is prohibitively expensive or has limited options for rentals/hiring. It's in the same category as performer flying: I can easily say, "Alright, if it's important enough to you to spend 90% of your show budget on this effect, then here's who you have to hire to make it happen."

I know that it can be very difficult to find the right balance for how permissive a standard should be... My vote is just that a standard written for professional circumstances that ends up being too difficult to follow in a high school setting is not necessarily a bad thing. The people who are going to do their own thing are going to ignore it regardless, and the people who want to do the right thing will look at it and realize they can't accomplish the effect safely with the resources available. That just encourages finding alternate, creative ways to tell the story without reducing safety.

 

[StradivariusBone]

I think developing standards of safety with HS level educational theater in mind is an important facet of this. I can tell you firsthand that the knee jerk response to the Rust incident had school admins demanding orange caps on totally inert prop guns. People ignorant of the industry will tend to jump on the safety bandwagon and make decisions not based on fact or good reasoning. Having standards to point to will help those programs defuse their admins.

 

[TimMc]

I think developing standards of safety with HS level educational theater in mind is an important facet of this. I can tell you firsthand that the knee jerk response to the Rust incident had school admins demanding orange caps on totally inert prop guns. People ignorant of the industry will tend to jump on the safety bandwagon and make decisions not based on fact or good reasoning. Having standards to point to will help those programs defuse their admins.

I will say that since the Rust breakdown of protocol I've seen live theatre much, much more controlling of prop weapons of all kinds, but especially those that resemble or imitate firearms.

One national touring company (still out, so not naming) locks up everything that looks like a gun. The level of control and custody depends on the nature of the prop - obvious prop muskets are in a locked props box until needed, are counted back in and returned to storage immediately. Imitation weapons that create fire, spark, or smoke are controlled like firearms - locked in a safe, under the custody of one person only at a time. Returned to the safe immediately after the actor hand-off to the handler.

A regional producer has adopted similar practices, although obvious prop weapons are segregated and not locked up. Imitation weapons, or anything that makes heat, sparks, or smoke are treated similarly to pyro - keyed safe, chain of custody, authorized staff only, only out of secure storage when in use.

Those are based on my observations of shows in production, not from a review of policy documents. I don't know what procedures or policies exist outside of show calls.

Edit PS: Part of me says no to the thought of realistic prop weapons in school productions. I don't think it's realistic to expect all the people involved, especially students, to understand the myriad of ways contraband can be introduced into the production space or that the safety and security of the production can be compromised. The same thing that likely caused the death of Halyna Hutchins.

 

[StradivariusBone]

Edit PS: Part of me says no to the thought of realistic prop weapons in school productions. I don't think it's realistic to expect all the people involved, especially students, to understand the myriad of ways contraband can be introduced into the production space or that the safety and security of the production can be compromised. The same thing that likely caused the death of Halyna Hutchins.

I tend to agree. Most HS programs don't have dedicated technical professionals involved and for most programs they don't have the bandwidth to do proper training and security of prop weapons. All it really takes is one kid walking around campus with a plastic toy gun and you've got a lockdown on your hands.

That said, I did work for a decade in high school as a dedicated technical professional and we did have the bandwidth to train and educate our students on proper safety of prop weapons during a show run. Props get secured. Doesn't matter if it's totally inert or a firing prop gun. I think it's valuable experience if it can be done well. The hurdle there is explaining to a principal or school board that distinction. Some of them saw the Rust incident and immediately jumped to the conclusion that any prop gun had to be removed from the show, despite the vast differences HS educational theater and a professional film production. I couldn't say with absolute certainty that a HS has never used an actual gun onstage, but compared to professional film and TV, it's in an entirely different universe. And for the record- I firmly believe that actual firearms (regardless of whether or not they are capable of firing) have NO place in ANY production.

Point is, having protocol and standards produced that educate and establish a best practice for operating is something that will help that conversation move along. I put it in the same category as censorship and asterisks. If a gun visible onstage in a scene causes you to feel a certain way, that's part of the emotive capacity of theater. For me personally, that's removed entirely when an orange capped pistol appears in a scene. I think we should have frank discussion about it, just like we have with other thematic hot spots. Theater should make you feel something. It's OK if you're not comfortable with it, but that's another area of debate.

 

[gafftaper]

Another High School tech guy here... Last year we did 3 Musketeers with lots of swords, rifles, and knives. Two of my tech students managed the weapons at all times. Before an actor goes on stage they go to the shop to pick up their weapon. After the scene they return it directly to the shop before going to the greenroom. If there were quick change issues the techs picked up and delivered weapons to the actor. Every weapon was tracked in every scene. Students were taught you NEVER touch a weapon that isn't assigned to you in the moment it is actually assigned to you. If there is ever a question go get one of the weapons masters to sort it out. Everything was tracked and those two techs knew which weapons had to be where at what time and when they were coming back for the entire show. At the end of the night weapons were secured in a locked room until the next time they were needed. Admin came to a rehearsal and explained to everyone that if you walk out the doors of the theater with your weapon you WILL face the full wrath of school discipline and may even be arrested for having a weapon on school grounds. As long as they are inside the theater they are props. I gained a lot of bonus points with Admin when I took them on a tour backstage during a dress rehearsal so they could see the care we were taking to track everything.

But all of that is only because I have learned from some great people around CB how to properly manage these things. 25 years ago when I was starting out I had no idea how to do this sort of thing and the kids ran around with their swords and guns in the hall. Also if I would have managed it poorly last year, there's a good chance I wouldn't be allowed to have weapons on stage again.

Personally, I think it would be great if there was some sort of a best practices for weapons in school theater.

 

[ruinexplorer]

The most recent SPMinar by the Society of Props Managers was about prop weapons safety. It was interesting to see that even some well known regional theaters until recently didn't even have written policies on this topic. Not sure how to get the recording of the webinar, but it would be a good view for those who missed it.