Accidents and Safety

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      Here's Why Films Use Real Guns as Props on Set

      by

      Safety protocols for firearms on set are well established and straight forward, and injuries of any kind are rare.LOS ANGELES — Hollywood was in a state of shock on Friday, one day after Alec Baldwin fired a gun being used as a prop on a New Mexico film set, killing a cinematographer and wounding the director. Real firearms are routinely used while cameras are rolling, and injuries of any kind are rare. The reason is that safety protocols for firearms on sets are well established and straight forward.Weapons must be tightly managed by an armorer, sometimes credited on films as a “weapons master,” who holds various government-issued permits. Some states, for instance, require an entertainment firearms license in addition to standard gun licenses. Cast members should be trained in gun safety in advance. Guns should never be pointed directly at anyone, especially in rehearsals but even during actual filming, since camera trickery can be used to compensate for the angle. If necessary, plexiglass is used to protect the camera operator and surrounding crew members.And no live ammunition, ever.“Protocol had to have been broken,” said Daniel Leonard, an associate dean of Chapman University’s film school who specializes in set procedures. “We will have to see what the details are, but the industry has a very specific set of guidelines to follow to prevent something like this from happening.”I am gutted and just so mad right now. No shot, no scene and no movie is worth the loss of life. #RIPHalynaHutchins— Rachel Morrison (@morrisondp) October 22, 2021
      Weapons on sets vary. Some are rubber props (used for shots when actors are far in the distance) and others are airsoft guns that fire nonlethal pellets. Often, however, productions use real guns.Studios prefer to digitally create the actual firing in postproduction whenever possible. Sometimes it is not. Even in a filmmaking age where visual-effects artists use computers to convincingly create disintegrating cities, it can be difficult to replicate the weight and recoil of a real gun, studio executives say. Some actors have a hard time faking it.Depending on the complexity of the scene, effects wizardry is also expensive, Mr. Leonard noted, and independently financed movies like “Rust,” the film that Mr. Baldwin was making in New Mexico, operate on shoestring budgets.When the guns need to be fired, they are loaded with blanks, which are cartridge cases with no bullets. People tend to think that blanks are like toy cap guns for children — a little pop and some smoke. That is not the case. Blanks can still be dangerous because they involve gunpowder and paper wadding or wax, which provide a flame and spark, which look good on camera. (When people are injured by firearms on sets, it usually involves a burn, safety coordinators said.)“Blanks help contribute to the authenticity of a scene in ways that cannot be achieved in any other manner,” David Brown, a Canadian movie firearms safety coordinator, wrote in American Cinematographer magazine in 2019. “If the cinematographer is there to paint a story with light and framing, firearms experts are there to enhance a story with drama and excitement.”A production safety coordinator, working with the armorer, institutes rules for keeping a safe distance from the muzzle of a gun loaded with a blank. At least 20 feet is a rule of thumb, according to Larry Zanoff, an armorer for films like “Django Unchained.” Mr. Brown wrote that “safe distances vary widely depending on the load and the type of firearm, which is why we test everything in advance.”“Take the distance that people need to be away from a gunshot, and then triple it,” Mr. Brown wrote. He declined a telephone interview on Friday but added in an email: “Firearms are no more dangerous than any other prop on set when handled responsibly. All the safety procedures in the industry make these situations virtually impossible when firearms are handled by professionals who give them their undivided attention.”If a movie involves gunfire, safety planning usually begins long before anyone gathers on a set, according to studio executives who oversee physical production. First, the armorer is brought on board to analyze the script and, working with the director and prop master, decide what weapons are needed. Studios tend to work with the same armorers over and over again; one such expert, John Fox, has credits in 190 films and 650 episodes of television over 25 years.Larry Zanoff is an armorer who worked on “Django Unchained.”Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times, via Getty ImagesArmorers own the weapons themselves or rent them; Mike Tristano & Company in Los Angeles has a vast prop gun inventory that includes AK-47s in blank-firing, blank-adapted and nonfiring versions. Armorers (or sometimes licensed prop masters) are responsible for storing them on set. Guns are not supposed to leave their hands until cameras are rolling; actors hand them back as soon as “cut” or “wrap” is called and the cameras stop.“There’s a big difference between being an expert with firearms and handling them on a set,” said Jeremy Goldstein, a prop master and licensed armorer in Los Angeles whose credits include films for Netflix, Amazon and Universal. “On a set, you’re around people who have never held guns and who don’t understand the gravity of what can happen.” (Mr. Goldstein, like Mr. Zanoff and Mr. Brown, has no connection with “Rust.”)Studios typically require any cast members who will be performing with firearms to undergo training on a shooting range in advance. There, they are taught safety and given general information about how guns work. Independent productions, for reasons of cost and time, may handle safety demonstrations on set. Various unions operate safety hotlines where anyone on set can anonymously report concerns.It is not clear precisely what kind of gun was being used in “Rust,” what it was loaded with or what exactly was happening on the set when it was fired. It was also not known what kind of training the cast members had. “Regarding the projectile, a focus of the investigation is what type it was and how did it get there,” said Juan Ríos, a spokesman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.A New York Times reporter got a sense of what usually happens on a set right before a scene involving simulated gunfire. It happened in October 2015 on the Baton Rouge, La., set of the remake of “Roots.” Before the cameras rolled, a crew leader stood in the middle of the wooded location, with dozens of performers and crew watching, and gave a safety speech in an urgent, serious tone. The scene they were about to film involved cannons and gunfire from period weapons.“All right everybody,” the crew leader said. “We have to discharge the gun. So we’re not playing with toys, guys. If something goes wrong, I’m going to yell cut, and we’re all going to back off calmly.“The cannons are all faced out. We’ve all been through this training, we’ve rehearsed it over and over, we all get it. But pay attention, this is not a game. I keep saying that, guys. These guns are for real.”Melena Ryzik More

    • 88 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      Brandon Lee and Other Deaths on Set

      by

      Accidents on sets have resulted in numerous deaths and injuries over the years, some bringing about lawsuits or changes in safety guidelines.Behind the magic of movies and television are actors and props, crew members, stunt performers and a sometimes dangerous set of circumstances for the people filming scenes.On Thursday, the potential danger on some sets made news around the world, after the actor Alec Baldwin discharged a gun that was used as a prop on the set of a western in New Mexico, killing the film’s director of photography and wounding the movie’s director.The authorities said the shooting took place in the middle of a scene that was either being rehearsed or filmed. Many other details of what happened remained unclear on Friday.Accidents on movie and television sets, like stuntmen and stuntwomen being injured during action sequences or actors getting killed when props malfunction, have occurred with some regularity over the last several decades. There have been at least 194 serious television- and film-set accidents in the United States from 1990 to 2014, and at least 43 deaths, according to The Associated Press.Here’s a partial list of set accidents from recent history.‘Twilight Zone: The Movie’The actor Vic Morrow on the set of the ABC series “Combat!”Moviestore Collection Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoA helicopter crash on the Los Angeles set of the “Twilight Zone” movie killed the actor Vic Morrow and two child actors, Renee Shinn Chen and My-ca Dinh Lee, in July 1982.The tail rotor of the helicopter was hit by debris from explosives detonated in a scene depicting the Vietnam War. The main rotor of the helicopter struck and killed Mr. Morrow and the children as the aircraft pitched into a river on the set.The film’s director, John Landis, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the deaths, as were with four other members of the film crew, including the helicopter pilot. After a trial that lasted nearly a year and nine days of deliberation by a jury, all five were acquitted in May 1987. In the aftermath of the accident, the Directors Guild of America created a safety committee to put in place safety guidelines.‘Cover Up’Jon-Erik Hexum in “Cover Up,” a CBS detective action television series, in 1984.CBS, via Getty ImagesThe actor Jon-Erik Hexum accidentally shot himself in the head while playing Russian roulette on the set of the television series “Cover Up” in October 1984.Mr. Hexum, 26, had loaded three empty cartridges and two gunpowder-filled blanks into a high-powered handgun before firing the gun, according to a detective on the case.Mr. Hexum sustained a fractured skull and underwent five hours of surgery. He died several days later. The police ruled the shooting an accident.‘The Crow’Brandon Lee in “The Crow.”Allstar Picture Library Ltd. / Alamy Stock PhotoBrandon Lee, an actor and the son of the martial-arts star Bruce Lee, died in March 1993 during the filming of “The Crow,” after being shot at with a gun that was supposed to fire blank cartridges.The tip of a .44-caliber bullet had become lodged in the gun’s barrel in filming a close-up scene, and dislodged when a blank cartridge was fired. The bullet pierced Mr. Lee’s abdomen, damaging several organs and lodging in his spine.Mr. Lee, 28, was the star of the film, about a rock musician who is killed by a street gang and then comes back to life with supernatural powers.An executive producer of the movie said at the time that when a blank is fired, a piece of soft wadding normally comes out of the gun, but in this instance, a metallic projectile came out. A police investigation into the shooting found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and no charges were filed.‘Midnight Rider’Richard and Elizabeth Jones at a memorial for their daughter, Sarah Jones, who was killed in 2014 by a train while shooting the film “Midnight Rider.”David Mcnew/Getty ImagesSarah Jones, a camera assistant, died on the set of the independent film “Midnight Rider,” about the musician Gregg Allman, in Georgia in February 2014. Ms. Jones was killed while helping prepare a shot that involved placing a bed across the tracks of a CSX railroad line.After two trains passed, crew members on the film believed they would have a safe interval to get the shot, part of a planned dream sequence. But a third train appeared, moving at high speed through the set, killing Ms. Jones and injuring others.Later that year, the family of Ms. Jones reached a settlement with 11 defendants in a lawsuit over her death. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. In 2015, the film’s director, Randall Miller, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and served a year in jail. He was also sentenced to 10 years of probation.‘Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’Olivia Jackson, a stuntwoman for the actor Milla Jovovich, was severely injured while filming a sequence for “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” in South Africa in September 2015. While riding a motorcycle, Ms. Jackson collided with a piece of camera equipment, according to Deadline.The accident nearly killed Ms. Jackson, leaving her with multiple injuries including disfigurement, several nerves torn out of her spinal cord and a partly amputated left arm.In April 2020, the High Court in South Africa ruled in favor of Ms. Jackson and against a company involved in the movie.Two months after Ms. Jackson was injured, another crew member, Ricardo Cornelius, died after a Humvee slid off a rotating platform and crushed him against a wall, Deadline reported.‘The Walking Dead’A scene from “The Walking Dead” featuring, from left, Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira and Melissa Ponzio.Gene Page/AMC , via Associated PressJohn Bernecker, a stuntman for AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” died in July 2017 after falling on a balcony set in Georgia.Mr. Bernecker, who had been an active stuntman since at least 2009 and had appeared in films such as “Get Out” and “The Fate of the Furious,” died of blunt-force trauma, a coroner said. Production of the show’s eighth season was temporarily shut down after the accident.Mr. Bernecker’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in early 2018 against AMC Networks, the production company Stalwart Films and other parties in Georgia, claiming they had failed to make the show with appropriate safety measures. The suit claimed that some fall protection was in place but that airbags and spotters were not used, and that the padding did not fully cover the area below the fall. Mr. Bernecker landed on his head or shoulder area.In December 2019, a jury found AMC Networks not to be negligent but awarded more than $8 million in civil damages. The Georgia Court of Appeals overturned the decision in March 2021.‘Deadpool 2’A woman was killed while attempting a stunt on a motorcycle on the set of “Deadpool 2” in Vancouver, British Columbia, in August 2017. The woman, Joi Harris, was acting in her first film as a stuntwoman, according to Deadline.Ms. Harris, 40, had worked as a motorcycle racer before joining the crew of the film, and was serving as a stunt double for the actor Zazie Beetz. More

    • 113 Shares109 Views

      in Movies

      Halyna Hutchins, Cinematographer of 'Rust,' Was Talented and Spirited

      by

      Halyna Hutchins, the director of photography for the film “Rust,” was killed when the actor Alec Baldwin discharged a firearm being used as a prop.Shortly before the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on a film set in the foothills of New Mexico, she smiled at the camera as she recorded herself riding a chestnut horse through the desert brush.“One of the perks of shooting a western is you get to ride horses on your day off,” Ms. Hutchins wrote this week in an Instagram post.On Thursday, Ms. Hutchins, 42, was killed when the actor Alec Baldwin discharged a firearm being used as a prop on the set of “Rust,” a western about a teenage boy who goes on the run with his grandfather after the accidental killing of a local rancher. Ms. Hutchins, the film’s director of photography, died after being flown to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The film’s director, Joel Souza, was injured in the shooting and was released from a hospital.Friends in Ukraine, where Ms. Hutchins is originally from, described her as spirited, and said she never forgot her home. She was proud of her heritage.Instagram/Halynahutchins/@Halynahutchins Via ReutersFriends in Ukraine, where Ms. Hutchins is originally from, described her as spirited, someone whose talents had propelled her from that country to success in Hollywood but who never forgot her home. She was proud of her heritage, they said, and returned regularly to visit.Yana Nestoliy, a friend from college, described her as an ambitious, focused woman with intelligent eyes and a sincere smile.“She could have been among the top Hollywood stars on camera, not behind it,” Ms. Nestoliy said.Ms. Hutchins grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle, where, according to her personal website, she was “surrounded by reindeer and nuclear submarines.” She studied economics at the Agrarian University in Ukraine before switching to a journalism program at Kyiv National University. She later attended the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles.Andriy Semenyuk, a friend and fellow Ukrainian cinematographer, said in an interview with Detector Media, a media organization in Ukraine, that even as her career blossomed in Hollywood, she made a point of embracing her background, making an effort to help fellow Ukrainians in California. He called her death a “stupid, shocking loss.”The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the country’s consulate in Los Angeles was trying to contact Ms. Hutchins’s relatives.Also on Friday, Mr. Baldwin released a statement on social media saying, “There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours.” He said that he is in contact with Ms. Hutchins’s husband, adding, “My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”Among filmmakers in the United States, Ms. Hutchins was remembered as a skilled cinematographer with an artistic vision who was deeply committed to her work.Adam Egypt Mortimer, the director of a 2020 superhero action movie “Archenemy,” on which Ms. Hutchins worked as director of photography, wrote on Twitter that Ms. Hutchins was a “brilliant talent,” pointing to a series of posts he made last year about Ms. Hutchins’s work. He had written that Ms. Hutchins’s “tastes and sensibility of what is cinematic were a huge asset for executing our style” and that she had been visually inspired by Jim Steranko comics.“She was a true wartime sister,” Mr. Mortimer wrote, “fighting the battles to make this thing look amazing despite the unrelenting limitations and catastrophes.” More

    • 88 Shares149 Views

      in Music

      Bolshoi Performer Is Killed in Onstage Accident

      by

      The man, in his late 30s, was crushed during a scene change as the opera “Sadko” was performed before an audience, the theater said.A performer was killed during an opera at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow on Saturday when there was an accident during a scene change, the theater said.The man, in his late 30s, was working as an extra in a performance of the opera “Sadko,” by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.Russian news reports said that the man had been crushed by a piece of scenery, and videos of the event that circulated online showed it happening as a backdrop descended to the stage. As the chorus kept singing and the orchestra continued to play, there was a sudden commotion onstage. Performers waved their arms and shouted “Stop!” The music ground to a halt, and most of the performers walked offstage while a few went to the rear of the stage to help the man. The curtains closed.The show was stopped immediately, the Bolshoi said in a statement, and the audience was asked to leave.“A tragic accident happened during the ‘Sadko’ production tonight,” the Bolshoi, one of Russia’s most prestigious theaters, said in a statement. The theater said it was assisting investigators as they sought to determine the circumstances of the man’s death.The man was identified as Yevgeny Kulesh. He worked as part of a 50-person group of Bolshoi employees who serve as onstage extras, supplementing singers and dancers.Russian news reports said that audience members had not initially seemed aware of the death and appeared to think that the panic onstage was part of the performance.The Bolshoi has a history of strange deaths and injuries. In 2013, the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet was severely injured when a masked man threw acid in his face. That same year, a violinist died after falling into the orchestra pit. More