AESOP's take, which might want to be considered since he has 20 years of safety and medical work on sets in Kali and elsewhere.==> ESPECIALLY AS TO WHERE THE RESPONSIBILITY IN A SET IS CONCERNED. (LOTS of the rules change)
Karma Is A Cast-Iron Bitch
h/t Mike
Some days, we have to work for a post. Like think, and stuff.
Other days, the muse gift-wraps them, and drops them in our lap.
Today is definitely the second kind of day.
Alec Baldwin kills DP, shoots director on set
To whom this set of observations applies, spare me your butthurt.
1)
Of course they use real guns on movie sets. Since ever. File under "Duh!"
2) Some propmaster dun ****ed up, massively, and should shortly be charged for manslaughter and aggravated battery via gross negligence. There should
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER be live rounds on the main set, let alone anywhere near prop weapons.
3) It's not the
actor's job to ensure safety of prop weapons used on set, it's the propmaster and the weapon's handler's job. Weapons are supposed to be double-checked on loading to prevent this sort of cock-up.
4) It's likely that when Baldwin was shooting, he was, almost certainly exactly per rehearsals and blocking, aiming at the camera. Which is where the director of photography and director sit, 90% of the time. And in real life, there's no way to tell you've fired a real bullet rather than a blank after the first shot, until bodies hit the ground. Blood doesn't explode from people's chests, they just crumple. Be glad it was a
western, and not a gangster film. He could have taken out a swath of people, instead of just the two he hit.
{We add in amendment, that if, instead, Baldwin was waving the gun around off-camera, and pulling the trigger, or some other form of jackassery, he should be charged and convicted like any other perp. We find that unlikely in the circumstances, but not entirely impossible. See #6, below. We look forward to a definitive explanation as this story develops.}
5) Andrea Widburg's witless commentary about gun safety at
American Thinker regarding this incident only proves she's a cinematic idiot, who should STFU when she's in over her head. But she won't. Firearms Safety is literally the
first and
second topics in the official industry-wide safety bible. It's lifted directly from NRA guidelines, and then
amplified. So by definition, when something like this happens,
rules written in blood were obviously and flagrantly violated. I say it again: STFU Andrea; you're abusing the internet privilege to be an uninformed jackass with a keyboard.
6) I said for 20+ years in motion picture production, going back to the beginning of this blog, that even allowing for "only using blanks", it borders on professional incompetence for any propmaster to ever hand an actor any weapon not made of rubber. Because they're idiots. Like 99.9999% of them, by actual observation. (FFS, John Wayne even shot Ward Bond in the face on a bird hunting foray IRL. That should tell you something.) Triply so around weaponry of all types, or anything even sharp.
7) The takeaway isn't that @$$hole Baldwin will not be charged; he bears exactly no culpability nor intent for the crime AFAWK. That's
as it should be. Don't be stupid about this. And if time changes that, we look forward to Baldwin getting what he deserves.
8) What you should be focusing on, is that despite that reality, you can now claim,
FOREVER, that exactly like Ted Kennedy's car, Alec Baldwin has killed more people with guns than your/my/anyone's collection of misnamed "assault" weapons have, ever.
9) He'll
NEVER be able to escape that legacy, not even when he dies, and he's going to hear it 1000 times a day until that happy occasion. It's going to be on bumper stickers, lapel buttons,
memes, and a gajillion other things,
for all time. He's just taken himself out of the anti-gun speaker's pool forever!
10) If that reality, and not the imaginary injustice of not charging him with the killing that likely wasn't his fault, doesn't warm your heart, you're simply a lunatic.
Learn to take "YES!" for an answer from the Fates.
And just to doubly piss you off a little more, this is one of the reasons that motion picture productions that have fled SoCal to non-union states always have these sorts of ****-ups. When productions go off the reservation and hire unprofessional non-union ****-ups for a cut rate, they get what they pay for. In this case, a dead DP, a wounded director, and an actor who will, to a metaphysical certainty, be justifiably be scarred for life. Not to mention metric ****tons of bad publicity for the event.
Baldwin's a victim of both a cheap-ass production (he's one of the producers, btw: Own Goal Achievement - Unlocked), and a total ****-up homicidal weapons master.
And karma is a cast-iron bitch.
QED
(And rest assured, Gentle Readers, while we are giving Baldwin the benefit of the doubt at this point, if it turns out, against likelihood, that @$$hole Baldwin was, in fact, totally and jackassically responsible, we will revise and amend our judgement of him the moment his homicidal culpability becomes apparent, and add to the clamor for his prosecution and conviction. We would hope, at that point, for the entire judicial machinery of the state of New Mexico to fall on him, from a great height. We're certain, when the whole truth comes out, he'll get what's coming to him. He's only done, to best recollection, three things right in Hollywood: played a great ghost in
Beetlejuice; absolutely nailed Jack Ryan in
Hunt For Red October; and warmed our heart when he fell into the bear pit in the climactic scene of
The Edge. We still haven't forgiven him for taking Kim Basinger off the market at the time.)
Double bonus: I think we've seen the last SNL Baldwin-Trump skit forever. With any luck, Baldwin just retired permanently from everything.
POSTED BY
AESOP AT
11:46 AM
LABELS:
****TARDS,
GUN CONTROL,
HOLLYWOOD,
JUSTICE!
9 COMMENTS:
MMRsaid...
Yes. It will be interesting to see where the negligence lies in this situation. May be enough to go around...
OCTOBER 22, 2021 AT 12:22 PM
James M Dakinsaid...
I support Unions. It is proven so many times that we need them, if not before than certainly after NAFTA/Globalization, I cannot believe most people would argue about that. Granted, Unions don't protect against the government screwing you, but that doesn't negate the damage from corporate interests Unions protect workers from. But I do want to say, born and raised in California, your state sucks rabid monkey balls. I can see why companies want to flee the Cali government. It isn't just the Unions fault ( a separate issue is how poorly the remaining Unions act. If they hadn't been allowed to wither and die, they wouldn't be acting so poorly, nearly criminally, those left standing to be used as a poster boy by the money class ). This doesn't even take into account the insane cost of living. My point is, there is more than one or two reasons film makers wish to avoid Cali filming. Not that I'm disagreeing with you. Just elaborating ( and dogpiling on evil Cali as a bonus ). Cheers.
OCTOBER 22, 2021 AT 1:06 PM
snuffy said...
While I generally agree, I wouldn't pull the trigger on any firearm, prop, bb gun, or cap gun, I hadn't loaded myself, or actually watched from arms length being loaded. I'm not saying this just because Alec Baldwin is a grade A douche, but the person on the trigger has to bear some responsibility.
OCTOBER 22, 2021 AT 1:25 PM
Aesopsaid...
Businesses have left CA for a host of reasons, all valid.
Movie
productions leave town because they're cheap bastards. Period.
When they relocate Paramount, Disney, Universal, Sony, Fox, etc.,
studios to Texas,
en masse, your point will be the primary factor. But they'd have to leave Malibu and Beverly Hills, so that ain't happening, because it isn't a factor.
Califrutopia's official monkey ball-suckingness, to them, is just a cost of doing business.
But they'll **** over their own employees for the same reason they rewrite Pulitzer-prize winning novels:
because they can. They literally, in the last week, finally singed a contract to the below-the-line production workers, weeks late, and barely averted the first industry strike of the average film workers in this town since the 1940s.
I personally spent over two decades and literally hundreds of motion picture and television productions, watching producers trip over and squander dollar bills to save a nickel.
One was proud of the fact that he'd ****ed over the production assistants (less minimum-wage slave-flunkies) - the only non-union people he legally
could **** over - to save less money than the show spent on bagels and cream cheese for the Writer's Room each day. So for his brilliant effort, some kid from Kansas lives in his car, or lives in a garage with 8 other film industry wannabees, and the production saved $20/day. Hollywood management genius at work.
The old joke, where two producers see a beautiful girl, and one says to the other "Boy I'd like to **** her!" and his companion says "Out of
what?" isn't a joke, it's a documentary on how they operate, 24/7/365,ever.
And yet again, another runaway production is pennywise, and pound-foolish, and they killed people.
As if I never saw that firsthand.
If Baldwin, as co-producer, helped make that decision, and the flunkie hired to run props/guns/both was a non-union schlub wannabe from Bum**** NM, then the karma is even richer and more well-deserved.
OCTOBER 22, 2021 AT 1:40 PM
Aesopsaid...
@MMR,
We'll see if that tale pans out.
Even if it did, the two should have remained uninjured, had things been going along per the referenced Safety Bulletins.
IOW, blanks don't kill people unless you're
way too close to them when you fire, and they don't do anything through the obligatory erected safety shields.
I have no doubt, one way or another, Baldwin will get the share of the blame due him.
The fact that he undeniably pointed the weapon and pulled the trigger isn't the only factor in assessing culpability.
But the meme sticks, no matter what, and that's more than enough for me at this point.
If it turns out this was mostly Baldwin's jackassery and
direct culpable negligence,
so much the better.
OCTOBER 22, 2021 AT 1:48 PM
MNWsaid...
This is still a new story, but I will add....
This could be another squib incident. They filmed loading and unloading dummies, a loose projectile came out if the case and stayed in the chamber, a blank is loaded in behind it, and oops, dead DP.
It is a possibility.
OCTOBER 22, 2021 AT 1:56 PM
Aesopsaid...
Let's put it like this, MNW:
IF you follow the Safety Bulletins linked in the OP scrupulously, it is virtually impossible to injure someone on set with firearms.
Someone definitively ****ed up: the proof is someone is dead.
Who and how much will become apparent in due course.
But AB has absolutely killed more people with guns than my guns have, and more than 99.9999999999% of the NRA, not counting combat veterans.
Game. Set. Match.
OCTOBER 22, 2021 AT 2:20 PM
Anonymous said...
One of the things that I find abhorrent in producers, directors, actors, screenwriters, name a Hollyweird top line film occupation, is how they decry and preach about firearm ownership by common people, yet they make mega bucks and acting chops using firearms in a large percentage of movies. Either don't use them or STFU about firearm ownership by ordinary, everyday Americans.
Matt Damon is a prime example of these two faced idiots.
Nemo
OCTOBER 22, 2021 AT 2:23 PM
Ray - SoCalsaid...
Cdan is claiming massive drug use on the set:
There are two actors who are set to go public about the on set tragedy and will discuss the heavy use of coke and other stimulants to get as...
www.crazydaysandnights.net
And a union, IATSE, is claiming a non union local was doing the prop master job.
Usa today news - current local and national, world news, business, politics, sports, entertainment, finance, technology, science, and photos, videos ...
usa-today-news.com
And per The Wrap some of the crew had walked off that morning before the shooting.
"We will be conducting an internal review of our procedures while production is shut down," a rep for Rust Productions says in response
www.thewrap.com
OCTOBER 22, 2021 AT 2:25 PM
www.latimes.com
