Tributes have been paid to Ms Hutchins, 42, while Mr Baldwin is said to be distraught. An investigation is under way and we don't exactly know yet what went wrong. A spokesman for Mr Baldwin said there had been an accident on the set involving the misfire of a prop gun.
Court submissions later showed an assistant director, Dave Halls, had handed the gun to Mr Baldwin. It contained a live round but Mr Halls said he did not know that, and indicated it was unloaded by shouting "cold gun! An incident like this is rare and the news has stunned the film industry. The use of firearms on set is subject to stringent safety standards. Despite sounding innocuous, both prop guns and blanks can be dangerous. Here's what we know about them.
Blanks are used in the film industry to imitate live ammunition. The reason they are so convincing is that blanks are essentially modified real bullets. While the term "bullet" is commonly used to describe what is loaded into weapons, more properly it is a cartridge that is loaded: a self-contained ammunition package made up of a casing holding an explosive powder that when fired, blasts out a projectile, or bullet.
Blanks differ because although they use explosive they don't use a projectile. However the wadding materials which are used to keep the gunpower in place can be expelled from the gun when it is fired, potentially causing injury or even death at close range.
A prop gun could mean a range of items, from non-functioning weapons to cap guns. But it can also mean a real weapon, or one adapted for firing blanks. Full stop. Some of the most infamous accidents with blanks on movie sets involve someone screwing up and actually leaving real bullets in instead of blanks. The first such recorded incident dates from , when during filming a scene of The Captive , one of the extras inadvertently left a live round in his rifle and shot another extra in the head, instantly killing them.
More recently, in , American actor and martial artist Brandon Lee was accidentally shot and killed while filming The Crow after a gun intended to fire blanks contained a real bullet. From gunshots to stunt accidents and anything you can imagine, movie sets seem to be risky business.
Every year, there seems to be at least one movie-associated fatality, whereas from to , there were no fewer than 37 fatal accidents during stunts. Ultimately, exhausted, overworked movie technicians doing hour shifts are trusted to ensure the safety of everyone on set — and mistakes can happen. They would set up building-size explosions right next to us. I trust them with my life.
Our job as grips was often to protect the camera operator from the literal explosive charge coming at them. In an article in The Conversation , Australian researchers Christopher Gist and Sarah Mayberry also expressed the importance of being very careful when working with guns on set:. Safety has to be paramount. In Australia, guns are so rarely handled we found they are highly respected: people are very conscious of the weapon.
For something like this to have happened, though, it likely means multiple people messed up, TV and cinema camera technician Darwin Brandis also pointed out on Twitter. Credit: Facebook. Plenty of people think so. A petition on change. Alex Proyas, the Australian director of The Crow , has the kind of experience in this matter no one wants.
Ban functioning guns on movie sets now! Sign up to get our new weekly Explainer newsletter here; and find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees with The Watchlist delivered every Thursday. If you'd like some expert background on an issue or a news event, drop us a line at explainers smh.
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Sounds safe; where does the risk come in? In short, preparation and procedure. Credit: Facebook Should real guns simply be banned from sets?
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