Feel free to nuke this thread if it gets ugly political. I’m trying to phrase it to avoid politics, but…
Okay, for those not caring what Wholely Weird has been up to, the Executive Producer (XP) of a movie that had a fatal shooting incident happen has been charged.with Involuntary Manslaughter. The XP was also the lead actor in the movie, and was the one holding the weapon that discharged and fatally struck the Cinematographer.
As per standing filming rules, Actors DO NOT CHECK the status of a weapon handed to them.** They are told if it is live or empty, how many rounds are loaded, and what specific actions they will be doing with it for a scene. So for example, they’d be handed a revolver, told it was hot with 3 blanks in it, and that they’d be drawing it and firing the gun at the camera three times. Doing anything else with the weapon than what they were told is grounds for immediate firing from the cast. Some-but-not-all Armorers will physically load the weapon in front of the actor and/or personally tell the actor how to check the weapon, but the Armorer for Rust did not do that.
** The safety of this rule is very much under question, but it dates to the early 1980s and there have been very very few shootings on set since the rule went into effect. The only on-set-shooting I know of since the rule went into effect involved a complex scene where a revolver had been loaded with dummy cartridges with real projectile and primer but no powder. Yes, that’s a terrible way to make a dummy cartridge. The armorer then failed to note that one of the dummy cartridges had been fired during the previous scene, lodging the projectile from the “dummy” cartridge in the barrel of the revolver. In the next scene the revolver was reloaded with high-flash blanks, which produced enough force to push the projectile the rest of the way down the barrel and fatally striking the lead actor of that movie.
As per the Rust film’s airborne illness prevention rules, all weapons were prepared by the armorer and placed on a cart. The armorer then stepped back from the cart while the actor(s) picked up their weapon for the scene.
What is known to have happened at the time of the incident, an individual (I believe the director but memory is fuzzy) went to the cart, grabbed a weapon for the lead actor/XP to use to rehearse a scene involving the actor drawing and firing at the camera, and handed it to the lead actor/XP saying “cold gun” meaning unloaded or only loaded with dummy cartridges for looks because it’s a revolver.
The lead actor then went through his actions of drawing and firing at the camera.
Unfortunately, the weapon was loaded with at least one live cartridge from recreational shooting between takes, and the cinematographer was fatally struck. It is not know to me who was responsible for bringing live ammunition on set. There should be NO LIVE AMMUNITION on set, filming is supposed to stop after the discovery live ammunition while the Armorer goes through and makes sure that no live ammunition gets mixed up with the dummy rounds prepared.
Apparently there had been a previous safety incident where a large portion of the film crew walked off in protest, but the XP brought on new film crew (not sure about the Armorer) and continued filming while allowing live ammunition for recreational shooting between takes.
There is a question as to the mechanical condition of the weapon, that maybe the hammer was slipping, the results of that investigation is not known to me.
I believe that the lead actor/XP is being charged as the Executive Producer, for continuing to film even after live rounds were found on set.
How would the Empire handle such an incident? Let’s assume Corpicide instead of true death for purposes of what law would apply.
As I see it, the Executive Produce is responsible for continuing to film after live rounds were discovered. That’s pretty gross negligence, leading to the corpicide of the Cinematographer.