While the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Oct. 21 highlighted gun safety issues on film and TV sets, the overarching endemic conditions of exploitation and neglect are ignored in conversations about on-set safety.
Guns are a component of the film industry’s greater lack of respect for safety regulations and the lives of film workers, many of whom barely make a living wage in the most expensive cities in the U.S.
Before Hutchins’ death, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) was set to implement the first strike in its 128 year history on Oct. 18.
The international film production union’s strike was canceled two days prior to the expected strike in what IATSE President Matthew Loeb called a “Hollywood ending” in an Oct. 16 IATSE news release.
An IATSE union member and grip, who prefers to go by the alias Mike Jones for privacy concerns, said the union’s actions aren’t enough.
A grip loads, operates, and unloads equipment related to filming depending on what department in which they work. Electrical and lighting grips set up, operate and remove lighting equipment. Dolly and camera grips move the camera and camera people on a dolly, which is compact, wheeled and operates on a track, according to a Nov. 30, 2020 NoFilmSchool article.
Jones said the biggest issue is with “turnaround time.”
“Turnaround time is the rest period between shifts so what they're saying is a victory that we should be happy about is a 10-hour turnaround,” Jones said in a phone call. “This means that you can work 20 hours straight and then you have a minimum time between having to come back to work and work 20 hours again.”
In his fifteen years of experience as a grip, the longest Jones ever worked is 21 hours straight on a music video set.
However, he said the music video was less taxing than the four years spent working as a grip on a series of shows for a major streaming service, during which he was never allotted vacation time, paid family leave or a weekend off and consistently worked 14-hour days.
“They're not on set working 14 hours a day,” Jones said. “I think there's a disconnect between the people who do the jobs and the people who say they're representing us but don't actually understand what it's actually like to work on set.”
Jones then said there was an “industry standard practice of pushing people to the limits of exhaustion, which leads to more accidents and injuries.”
Tony Vella, a stunt performer and stunt coordinator of 34 years, clarified standard practices surrounding gun use on sets.
Vella emphasized that prop guns are never meant to be used for target practice and live rounds are never to be brought to set. They’re entirely unnecessary for either acting or special effects.
“The armorers that I've worked with, the weapons that they use for their work are never used for live rounds,” Vella said in a phone call.
He said armorers are specially trained to handle prop weapons and firearms, and check and clear each gun before use.
Vella also said prop guns are used only for camera takes while rubber “dummy” guns are used for rehearsals and armorers are supposed to lock guns up when they are not in use on camera.
In addition to never using prop guns for anything other than to fire blanks, guns are never to be pointed at any person. This practice is included in the SAG AFTRA safety bulletins.
SAG AFTRA is the union that covers stunt performers, and the safety bulletins lay out clear rules for working with potentially hazardous conditions or items from ladders to helicopters.
Despite clear and established safety protocols that live ammunition never be used in prop guns or be kept on set, and despite the long-standing rule that guns never be pointed at another human being on set, guns on the “Rust” set were being used for target practice, according to an Oct. 25 article by The Wrap.
The Wrap covers the business of entertainment and media, according to its website.
“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who resigned after Hutchins’ death, claimed she had “no idea” where the live rounds came from, according to a Friday Deadline article.
Several “Rust” crew members raised safety concerns, penned letters of resignation and walked off the set before Hutchins’ death, citing everything from lack of coronavirus safety protocols to disrespect for gun safety rules, according to an Oct. 22 Santa Fe New Mexican article.
A collective of armorers said calls to ban weapons on set are misguided, according to a statement made by the group which was quoted in an Oct. 28 Variety Magazine article. The absence of guns is no guarantee that deaths and injuries will not occur.
Removing prop guns from sets doesn’t address negligence in Hollywood at its root.
Dangerous and negligent practices have become industry standard, Mike Jones said.
This is especially concerning when one takes into account that the U.S. film industry and the union IATSE set the standard for film production globally.
“All these problems are industry standard and industrywide. It's not specific jobs, it's the entire industry,” Jones said.
Without addressing the long hours, unsafe working conditions, low pay, power hierarchy, sexism, racism and general lack of respect for below-the-line, non-celebrity film workers, Hollywood will not avoid future accidental injuries and deaths on set and will continue to consume the waking lives of film workers.
