On Thursday afternoon, a photographer named Halyna Hutchins was killed on the New Mexico set of a movie called Rust when actor Alec Baldwin fired a blank prop gun on fire. On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that just a few hours before the accident, some crew members had left the studio for abuse and poor working conditions. A person told the New York Times that in the days before the accident, the gun had caught fire three times and there was a “serious lack of safety meetings”.

It is not entirely clear what happened to the Rust set. The union representing the prop master stated that the shot that killed Hutchins was a "single shot of live ammunition." According to The Times, this means any material contained in the gun, including blanks. In order to understand how things like this happen in movie scenes, how industry pressures create dangerous situations, and why real guns are used, Slate interviewed Mitch Thompson, a prop master who has been working on props for the past ten years. In Snapchat, he recently served as the prop master for Snapchat's upcoming action series. For clarity, this interview has been compressed and edited.

Slate: Do you often use guns?

Thompson: I have used plastic replicas, air gun blowback guns and the like. Nothing really works. This is not something I am interested in or comfortable with dealing with. However, there are many other ways to counterfeit guns.

What are the options for counterfeiting real guns?

Many times we will use air guns. If someone fires on the screen, not only do you need a muzzle flash (which can be added in post-production via VFX), but you also want to see the action of the slide blowing backwards every time you pull the trigger. Many air guns have this kind of action, and they look very real. So this is a safer choice.

There is also a company called Independent Studio Services in Los Angeles. They have so-called non-firearms, which are basically electronic versions. They look like a real gun and have a blowback function, but they do not burn. Sometimes, when someone walks around in the holster with a holster, we use a rubber stunt gun or a solid part like a piece of plastic.

In order to be able to handle prop guns, what kind of regulations and training must you receive?

If it is a union performance, there is a safety course. For non-union shows, when you start, anytime and anywhere. In theory, a production designer or producer or any recruiter wants to review that you are someone who looks trustworthy. But the safety of the set really comes down to the prop master and the first [assistant director]. If I want to shoot blanks with a real gun, then I need to become a licensed armorer. You must attend a safety course and must hold a license. But using non-guns or air guns is a bit like the Wild West, so I have never received weapon training or anything else.

If there are fake guns that look realistic, why would anyone want to use a real gun? 

Some of them are like institutional inertia. Before there were air guns and prop guns, you only had blank shooting guns, so I believe there is a certain degree of inertia there.

I think some of them just pursue realism. It is always a better idea to make the props look as realistic as possible. As far as I know, this is also the only way you can eject a shell when you fire. So this is looking for authenticity, I think. There are ways to enhance fake guns to make them look like real guns, but this also requires time and money. You must pay a VFX fee to browse and find every instance of a shot, and invest time and effort to make it look correct. But this is not a difficult task. Even lower-budget movies often add muzzle flash to fake guns.

The biggest argument that people may have is how much recoil is, because in this regard you can distinguish the difference between shooting with an airsoft pistol and shooting a desert eagle with a full load of empty ammunition. You can choose the amount of gunpowder in each blank to get the correct effect, so technically, this is the biggest reason. This is an effect that is harder to replicate with fake guns.

How did fatal accidents happen to guns with only cartridge cases in the past?

[About the accident that killed Bruce Lee's son] Brandon Lee, not even the real bullet was in the room. Basically, if you shoot with a revolver, you need to put a bullet in the room to make it look not empty. In that case, I believe one of the slugs was stuck in the room. [Later] When the blank was fired, the warhead was fired and acted as a real bullet.

There is another example in TV shows in the 1980s. The actor [Jon-Erik Hexum] wandered around on the set with an empty gun. The blank is a shell filled with gunpowder. So when the striker hits the blank, it has the same combustion and it has the same force. You get the same recoil from the gun. Nothing was shot from the barrel, but the air force from the explosion did come out. Therefore, it is dangerous to put anything in front of the barrel at close range, because this force is still sufficient to cause damage. If you put a water bottle or something close in front of it, the absolute explosive force of the air squeezed out of the barrel will blast a hole in the water bottle, even if nothing is fired. Therefore, if you stand 10 feet away, it will not affect you, but if they are within close range, it will hurt someone. [Actor] put it on his head and fired. Although there were no bullets in it, the power in the room was basically enough to kill him.

After this incident, will people think about things in a different way? Is the prop master anxious or upset now?

I haven't talked to other prop masters today, but what I want to say is that considering the producer's time and resources, we are the people on the set who care about safety the most. Whenever I shoot with a prop gun, we will make an announcement on the set. We stop everyone from working and say, "We are going to bring a prop gun. It is plastic or an air gun or anything else. Anyone on the set can come in. Check the gun." We will check the chamber, the clamp, the barrel, you can see that there is nothing here. Then we felt very comfortable to continue like this. Whenever we use any type of gun, I try to instill fear and respect into the actors, even if I give them a large piece of plastic.

Even when using fake plastic guns, is this level of caution the norm for prop masters? 

I think this is a cultural thing in the film industry, with offline staff. Obviously it will be different, but when you are shooting a movie set, you will work together for crazy long periods of months and form very close connections. There is a common feeling, "Well, everyone must pay attention to and keep each other safe." Those who show up through low-budget, non-union events have stories of being abused or hurt or feeling unsafe on the set. Therefore, as your career progresses, you are less and less interested in taking risks to save the producer's time and money. Because in the final analysis, this is why it all comes down to: manufacturers are trying to do something faster, cheaper or easier. It is up to the staff to decide, no, this is not what we are going to do. This is not safe. 

How much control do you have when you feel that things are not safe? 

When I felt something was unsafe, it took me a while to be able to press the brakes with confidence. Early in my career, if we were anxious to say "Oh yes, we didn't discuss making this scene in this way, but I know how safe it is", I will feel more pressured. But I have reached a place, even if it’s something as simple as throwing a snowball at an actor, if it’s not discussed in advance, I’d say, “No, I’m not going to be the producer of this decision.”

I would not consider snowballs to be a particularly dangerous weapon. Will that rise to the level of interference?

I grew up in the Midwest: Snowballs hurt. If you put snowballs on your eyes, it's a serious risk. I was on a set with foam snowballs. When we started shooting this scene, the director decided that he didn't like the flying way of fake snowballs. So he said that we would use a real one to do this, and I thought, if I were the one who could throw it and pack it, I would accept it. I threw it to a child actor, and the [director] began to say, "Throw it closer to the actor and pack the snowball tighter." I had to put my foot down and said, "I won't be involved." So I walked away, and the others threw.

Are there any other props that make you worry about safety?

Basically, everything is thrown. Earlier this year, I participated in a show and they threw a notebook away and we had a discussion. Any sharp things, obviously. If a knife is displayed on the screen, I always archive it so that I can run it along my arm without causing any damage. If it is a fighting scene, the knife should be a bubble.

Do you find that you often worry about security issues?

In productions with lower budgets, there is usually a favorite atmosphere, let's finish it. The tighter the schedule, the more people are willing to relax in matters. This is not what I said [Rust situation] is happening here, but it is exactly what I saw. We look forward to miracles. It's easy to default and say, "Okay, okay, we are behind the plan and we need to finish this scene. That's great, let's cut out this little corner." But these corners may add up very quickly in the end.

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