Michael Shannon who is well known for starring in films like Take Shelter, The Shape of Water, Revolutionary Road, and most recently Bullet Train made his debut as director through the film Eric Larue and has kept his stance on the infamous Alec Baldwin shooting incident. The accident on movie sets that took the life of 42-year-old Ukrainian cinematographer Halyna Hutchins involved the carelessness of staff majorly the first assistant director Dave Halls and the armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Michael Shannon spoke about the shocking incident and mentioned the true underlying problem of the case, which continues to affect the film industry.
The Infamous Alec Baldwin Shooting Incident
To sum up, the incident which took the life of an innocent woman. During the shooting of the movie titled Rust, starring Alec Baldwin accidentally discharged live rounds from the gun handed over to him after the declaration that it was a cold gun, meaning either the slots were empty or carried the dummy bullets. The accidental release of live rounds took the life of Halyna Hutchins and hospitalized the director, Joel Souza, who was shot in the shoulders. Halls has already been convicted of the charges of involuntary manslaughter. The armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and the actor-producer Alec Baldwin will also be convicted under the same charges.
Though after the incident there have been several alternative theories, some claiming that it’s Halls’s fault while others supporting that Hall never declared that the gun was cold and the responsibility to take care of props, especially of arms and ammunition falls under the duty of armorer, alleging Gutierrez-Reed of true charges. Many believe that the actor, Baldwin should have never rehearsed with a real gun and that too by placing his fingers on the trigger. As per the guidelines during rehearsals the actor uses a replica, a rubber gun, and if the actual arm is used then fingers are placed out the trigger.
Michael Shannon’s Points Out The Real Problem
As per Michael Shannon, the entire incident was a result of an ineffective initiative to reduce the production cost of the film. Rust kicked off as a dream project of Baldwin with the entire production of $ 6-7 Million. Baldwin said that in a ferociously competitive world where everyone is ready to work for a lower cost by compromising the quality, then accidents like this take place. As per Michael Shannon, the entire process of using arms and ammunition is extremely meticulous, but when safety and precautions compromise then a tragic accident takes place.
“It’s not a sloppy procedure, in my experience. It’s very, very meticulous. On most sets, if there is any activity that’s considered potentially risky in any way, shape, or form, they start the day with a safety meeting the assistant director runs. They go through all the possible dangerous on-camera activity, and how we’re going to handle that to make sure nobody gets hurt. That’s how the day starts. And all of the armorers I’ve worked with have been super fastidious about what they do.”
The star continued to shed light on the mistakes made on the set of Rust,
“But “Rust” is an example of a problem I see in filmmaking more and more these days. On smaller productions, and independent productions, the producers keep wanting more and more for less and less. They don’t want to give you enough money. They cut corners, ridiculously, every which way. And they get away with it.”
According to Shannon, the callousness of the producers in the budget was the central problem,
“They whittle the budget down to the bare minimum — but the one thing you can’t cut corners on is your armorer. If you have guns in your movie, that’s no place to cut corners. They whittle the budget down to the bare minimum — but the one thing you can’t cut corners on is your armorer. If you have guns in your movie, that’s no place to cut corners.”
Michael Shannon argues that the accident could have been prevented only if the movie had the right budget to hire professionals to prevent the incident. Michael Shannon’s explanation of the detailed process while dealing with real weapons on set underlines the level of carelessness and ignorance, experienced on the sets of Rust which consumed the life of an innocent. The fans along with Michael Shannon are praying that Halyna Hutchins will get justice, while she rests in peace, at the same time hoping that her death will bring more awareness and necessary changes to the movie sets across the world to follow proper guidelines and take care of the staff, especially in low-budget movies.
Source: Chicago Tribune
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