The goal of movies and TV series is to make scenes look realistic. When it comes to prop guns, they don’t just look dangerous.
Such was the case in the death Thursday of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie „Rust“ in New Mexico. The 42-year-old director of photography died after actor Alec Baldwin discharged a prop gun, according to investigators. The film’s director Joel Souza,48, was also injured during the incident. Prop master Joseph Fisher told CNN on Friday that extreme safety measures are taken when it comes to weapons on set. „Typically we will do a safety brief with the cast and crew,“ he said. „We’ll let them examine it, we’ll explain safety precautions that go with each type of prop weapon. In this case [the „Rust“ incident], it was a blank firing weapon and with that there are inherent risks.“ Fisher mentioned the case of actor Brandon Lee who died in 1993 after a prop gun accident in which the tip of a dummy bullet accidentally ended up lodged in the gun, which resulted Lee being wounded in the abdomen. The prop master said even when there is no „bullet“ in a prop gun, there are still projectiles, including gun powder and gas which can be dangerous within a certain range. Ben Simmons of Bare Arms, a company in the UK that works with firearms on sets, told CNN a variety of „prop guns“ can be used in TV and film productions.
