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Wednesday, December 01, 2021
Rust Shooting Investigation Turns to Prop Supplier
Vanity Fair: A new search warrant from the Santa Fe sheriff’s department focuses on the owner of a prop-supply company as the possible source of the real bullet that led to the fatal shooting on the set of the Western film Rust.
I feel like we keep hearing the same story over and over with different variations. We have been hearing about this whole “shooting range” event that happened on set. I’m not sure that I heard that it involved actors until this article though. Although I do think that this was a terrible accident, it happened because of a lot of bad choices. It was against the rules to have live ammunition on set so if there were actors, crew, and whoever else participating in “plinking” then there are a lot of people that were involved in allowing an accident like this to happen. Also the fact that it was reloaded ammunition is even more incredible. I believe that adds a whole other level of safety concerns. There are just so many events that shouldn’t have happened that led up to the unfortunate outcome that couldn’t be shoved under a rug, like everything else.
I do not know why but I think it makes some sense, in this case, to reach out to the props supplier. It seems like no one that was on the set that day knew that the gun had a live round of bullets. They seemed to have believed, almost blindly in this case, that there were no real bullets on the set. Does that excuse them from making this assumption, I do not think so, but I think part of their assumption could probably be traced back to the props supplier and maybe some sort of faith in the fact that they wont send out props with live rounds. I feel like this incident is one that is going to be remembered for a while now and maybe longer that that. I think I had truly forgotten that accidents can happen on sets and with this incident, I feel like anyone who is going to be on a set could have some sort of fear, and rightfully so.
What I do not understand is how there is more ammunition found on the set. There had to be so many safety procedures and people that gun and those bullets had to get through in order to reach any scene. I find it weird to me how nobody said anything, expressed any concern, or even reported the gun to any organization or any one. I feel like this tragedy could really have been avoided if only there was someone who spoke up or expressed concern. And I have read some social media posts that have expressed that there were many concerns in part of the staff, but they were completely ignored. I feel like this tragedy really highlights a workers rights issue that Hollywood is facing currently. There are so many stopgaps in place in order to protect actor, but there backstage crew are given less concern when it comes to them being the one who is setting up all these safety procedures.
So much of the information I’ve been hearing about the Rust shooting sounds like there was an outrageous amount of neglect and poor decisions that could have been avoided. Isn’t it a major rule that there can’t be any live ammunition on sets? So why was there some there? Why did they think it was okay to hire a armorer who didn’t have enough experience for firearms on set? I can understand why they are looking into the supplier, since ammo shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but wouldn’t this be on the shoulders of the props people to ensure and double check that everything is in the clear? I’ve also heard that there were multiple safety concerns about the production before the incident even took place. There should be more care for the crew that these things are addressed as soon as they arise. I hope that more regulations or guidelines come from this that can help protect workers on future productions.
4 comments:
I feel like we keep hearing the same story over and over with different variations. We have been hearing about this whole “shooting range” event that happened on set. I’m not sure that I heard that it involved actors until this article though. Although I do think that this was a terrible accident, it happened because of a lot of bad choices. It was against the rules to have live ammunition on set so if there were actors, crew, and whoever else participating in “plinking” then there are a lot of people that were involved in allowing an accident like this to happen. Also the fact that it was reloaded ammunition is even more incredible. I believe that adds a whole other level of safety concerns. There are just so many events that shouldn’t have happened that led up to the unfortunate outcome that couldn’t be shoved under a rug, like everything else.
I do not know why but I think it makes some sense, in this case, to reach out to the props supplier. It seems like no one that was on the set that day knew that the gun had a live round of bullets. They seemed to have believed, almost blindly in this case, that there were no real bullets on the set. Does that excuse them from making this assumption, I do not think so, but I think part of their assumption could probably be traced back to the props supplier and maybe some sort of faith in the fact that they wont send out props with live rounds.
I feel like this incident is one that is going to be remembered for a while now and maybe longer that that. I think I had truly forgotten that accidents can happen on sets and with this incident, I feel like anyone who is going to be on a set could have some sort of fear, and rightfully so.
What I do not understand is how there is more ammunition found on the set. There had to be so many safety procedures and people that gun and those bullets had to get through in order to reach any scene. I find it weird to me how nobody said anything, expressed any concern, or even reported the gun to any organization or any one. I feel like this tragedy could really have been avoided if only there was someone who spoke up or expressed concern. And I have read some social media posts that have expressed that there were many concerns in part of the staff, but they were completely ignored. I feel like this tragedy really highlights a workers rights issue that Hollywood is facing currently. There are so many stopgaps in place in order to protect actor, but there backstage crew are given less concern when it comes to them being the one who is setting up all these safety procedures.
So much of the information I’ve been hearing about the Rust shooting sounds like there was an outrageous amount of neglect and poor decisions that could have been avoided. Isn’t it a major rule that there can’t be any live ammunition on sets? So why was there some there? Why did they think it was okay to hire a armorer who didn’t have enough experience for firearms on set? I can understand why they are looking into the supplier, since ammo shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but wouldn’t this be on the shoulders of the props people to ensure and double check that everything is in the clear? I’ve also heard that there were multiple safety concerns about the production before the incident even took place. There should be more care for the crew that these things are addressed as soon as they arise. I hope that more regulations or guidelines come from this that can help protect workers on future productions.
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