This source says
“There was an accident today on the New Mexico set of Rust involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks,” a producer said in a statement to ABC News. “… Production has been halted for the time being. The safety of our cast and crew remains our top priority.”
That’s what they said about the Brandon Lee death on the set of The Crow but there was still a bullet found lodged in him. Here’s the Wikipedia description of how that tragedy went down:
I had thought the industry after Lee’s death added standard checks for errant slugs or other materials lodged in the barrel.
I recall reading something to that extent anyways.
Sounds like they need two props-- a gun with a firing pin removed that can be “loaded.” And a gun that only fires blanks.
What the Crow needed was an armorer, someone who is a gun expert and would have check the barrel before issuing the weapon as a prop on set. There is always the possibility of an obstruction in the barrel, even without the convoluted circumstances that led to one being stuck in that particular revolver.
AFAIK, we don’t know what happened on the set of Rust and the OP should edit the title and remove the claim “live round” because we don’t know that to be the case.
new york times, sep 6 1993.
I’m not sure why you replied with that quote. It doesn’t address my point that the Crow needed a qualified armorer. IIRC, the production had dismissed the armorer before this scene and the props person was put in charge of the real gun used in the scene. An armorer would have inspected the barrel.
homemade dummy cartridges?
not inspecting the gun between scenes?
dismissing the armourer/weaponsmaster?
the whole production sounded negligent
The name of the guy who was supposed to be supervising “Rust’s” weaponry is probably available through IMDBPro, if anyone subscribes.
I’m going to wait for the reporting on this horrific incident on the set of Rust. The first time I read of the sequence that led to Brandon Lee’s death it was in the now defunct Premiere magazine. It took a while for people to track down what had happened, as it may in this instance.
I’m surprised he was pointing the gun at the actor at all instead of off to the side. Treat a gun loaded with blanks as though it were live. Camera placement can still make it look like the gun is being pointed at the actor.
I think he was, and that’s why he hit the people behind the cameras…
Maybe they were trying for this sort of thing,
Blanks in of themselves are deadly at very short distances. They have paper covering them which goes out at the speed of a bullet. Its why during military training exercises using blanks, devices are put at the end of rifles to catch the paper.
See:
Ah, I see.
The discharge from a blank even without a projectile can be deadly, but only at very close distances. Jon-Erik Hexum put the muzzle of the gun up to his head and fired it. It was that close proximity that led to the fatality in that incident - he, like so many people, likely thought that banks were safe because their use is so ubiquitous on sets and even in theatrical productions in the past.
Years ago I watched a demo by stunt man Jody McQueeen (no relation to Steve, apparently, in spite of him claiming there was at the time) where he placed a soda can on his head and had an associate shoot it off with a blank firing pistol from a few inches away). The can was destroyed. It was a visceral example of the destructive power of blanks. And a rather dangerous stunt.
The fixtures on rifles for military exercises are primarily to modify the guns so that they will cycle normally. Blanks work fine in revolvers, but without a full charge and a projectile they do not necessarily work in guns that depend on either the recoil or the gas pressure to cycle the action. Diverting wadding is a secondary benefit of a military blank firing adapter.
An NPR article on the subject incident, and on the responsibilities of the show’s prop master.
As the camera crew — members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — spent about an hour assembling their gear at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, several nonunion crew members showed up to replace them, the knowledgeable person said.
A member of the producer staff then ordered the union members to leave the set. She said if they didn’t leave, the producers would call security to remove them.
“Corners were being cut — and they brought in nonunion people so they could continue shooting,” the knowledgeable person said.
There were two misfires on the prop gun on Saturday and one the previous week, the person said, adding “there was a serious lack of safety meetings on this set.”
Cool.
That sounds weird. Reading the full story, it sounds like there was a lot of anger on the set. And talk re unsafe conditions. The fatal accident occurred yesterday after the union crew was forced out, but there were three misfires when the union crew was still working on the show. I see lots of fingers being pointed.
just fyi:
A source close to union said Local 44 does not know what projectile was in the gun and clarified that “live” is an industry term that refers to a gun being loaded with some material such as a blank ready for filming.
