The tragic accident in which Alec Baldwin shot and killed camerawoman Halyna Hutchins sheds light on the precarious working conditions in Hollywood.
Santa Fe – On October 21, last Thursday, the Ukrainian picture artist Halyna Hutchins died after a fatal gunshot wound while filming in the United States. As is so often the case with tragic events involving celebrities – Hollywood star Alec Baldwin pressed the shutter release – a wealth of often obscure news washes the important things aside. In this case, first of all, the work of an artist who, at the age of 42, was just about to establish herself in the American film industry.
Growing up on a Soviet military base north of the Arctic Circle, she had found her dream job after a few detours. As a student of economics, she moved to Kiev to study journalism, after which she is said to have worked in investigative documentary filmmaking.
There is no reliable information about this first career of Halyna Androssowytsch. Only after her marriage to the American Matthew Hutchins and her emigration to the USA begin her traces. After jobs as a fashion photographer and jobs in film productions, she studied image design at the American Film Institute from 2013 to 2015. Your graduation film is more than a proof of talent: In just three minutes and without dialogue, “Hidden” tells of the grief of a boy after the death of a family member. The opening shot catches him through the window of a hearse before the camera glides weightlessly through flashbacks, many of which are masterfully exposed on the verge of darkness.
Before her death on the Alec Baldwin set: Halyna Hutchins ascends in Hollywood
After that, things look good for Halyna Hutchins in Hollywood, where they pride themselves on recognizing talent. As one of the first picture designers she received an invitation to the demanding Fox-DP-Lab-Program, in 2019 she listed the most important industry magazine “American Cinematographer” among the ten ascending Directors of Photography. At this point in time, Hutchins had already shot numerous short films and music videos, as well as the horror film “Darlin ‘”. In this directorial debut of the actress Polyanna McIntosh she can bring in all the visual qualities of “Hidden”. Again it’s about a traumatized child, an eerie hospital and nightmarish visions, visualized in floating tracking shots. In addition, effective encounters with an evil bishop and his devoted nuns in a dark nursing home.
Hutchins, who named Christopher Doyle as one of her role models, responsible for Wong Kar-Wai’s best Hong Kong films, uses the horror genre for impressive experiments. This is worth its weight in gold, especially in the low-budget area of US genre cinema. Her second feature film “Archenemy” about a mysterious homeless person as a traveler from another dimension gains priceless “production values” through Hutchins’ imaginative images. But even good pictures cannot save every film. Hutchins’ third feature film, “The Mad Hatter”, is one of those B-Pictures that not even the majority of genre fans can muster. Hutchins’ expectations of the film she worked on until the day of her death must have been all the greater. The western “Rust” is also a low-budget production, but as a western it is finally a genre change. A selfie video that she posted shortly before her death shows her riding a horse on a non-shooting day. Another message that she published suggests less pleasant shooting conditions: In it, she expresses her solidarity with the protests of union members.
Fatal shot in Hollywood: Alec Baldwin was a producer on the accident set
Most of the films made in Hollywood are not lavish studio productions. They live on poorly paid workers, often willing to self-exploit in order to gain a foothold in the face of immense competition. Anyone who is responsible for the camera in an underfunded film carries a huge burden on their shoulders. When it comes to filming times, you are there first and leave last. Hutchins was involved in the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union, which represents the technical trades in Hollywood.
The picture of chaotic production conditions emerges from the large amount of fragmentary information that the entertainment editors of the “Los Angeles Times” in particular made public. The police search warrant also gives this impression. The day before her death, Hutchins saw her striking camera crew removed from the set and replaced by other cameramen. In fact, their solidarity Internet mail was understood as a declaration of readiness to take part in the strike. After 12-hour days, her team was asked to drive from the Santa Fe filming location to Albuquerque, around a hundred kilometers away – although nearby accommodation had been agreed. In addition, team members complained about outstanding paychecks in production.
The picture that emerges from the various pieces of information about the production conditions also casts a shadow over the role of Alec Baldwin. He should not be blamed for accidentally firing a weapon that was handed over to him as unloaded. As a producer, however, he should have provided better working conditions. In Hollywood, Baldwin is one of the avowed leftists, his Donald Trump parodies were an institution on the comedy show “Saturday Night Life” during his presidency.
Alec Baldwin’s assistant director was previously involved in a set accident
As the “LA Times” reports, the police search warrant also extensively cites director Joel Souza, who was injured in the accident, about the course of the last day of shooting. After the camera team had been replaced, the recordings started late and only with one camera. After the lunch break this had to be changed due to the incidence of shadows. Hutchins was busy with that when assistant director Dave Halls handed lead actor Alec Baldwin a gun to rehearse and declared it was unloaded. When he took it out of the holster, the fatal shot was released. In fact, Halls is unlikely to have checked the weapons that gunsmith Hanna Gutierrez Reed had left on a cart outside the set. In the meantime it has also become known that a script person responsible for the script complained that an assistant director (apparently Halls) had yelled at her over lunch about changes, “while it is his job to control the guns.”
As early as 2019, Halls had been dismissed without notice due to an accident with a firearm while filming. Even if reports of further omissions by this assistant director and a negligent relationship with safety rules are piling up, this avoidable death is hardly an individual’s fault. It is high time to discuss the precarious working conditions in many areas of the film industry. (Daniel Kothenschulte)
