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Alec Baldwin's Fatal Shot During Film: Assistant Director Dave Halls On The Grill With His Questionable Background

2021-10-24T16:37:38.450Z


Testimonies on the approximations of the assistant director flock to the American press. Outrage and disbelief over the death of "Rust" director of photography Halyna Hutchins, shot dead by actor and producer Alec Baldwin during a scene rehearsal on Thursday, has resulted in many members of the Hollywood production community are coming out of their silence this Sunday. All observers have their gaze on one of the protagonists of the drama: the first assistant director, Dave Halls. Acc


Outrage and disbelief over the death of "Rust" director of photography Halyna Hutchins, shot dead by actor and producer Alec Baldwin during a scene rehearsal on Thursday, has resulted in many members of the Hollywood production community are coming out of their silence this Sunday.

All observers have their gaze on one of the protagonists of the drama: the first assistant director, Dave Halls.

According to the search warrant filed by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department and obtained by the Associated Press, it was Halls who took one of the three pistols from a mobile cart that had been prepared by the production gunsmith, Hannah Gutierrez Reed. Halls reportedly declared "cold weapon," meaning the weapon was unloaded, as he handed it to Baldwin.

The latter is the subject of virulent criticism which began as soon as a call to 911 from a stage assistant designating him as responsible for the accident.

Yet a veteran of the film industry since the early 90s, Halls has worked on films such as "Bad Santa", "The Matrix Reloaded", "A Simple Plan" and "Fargo".

What today takes on a whole new meaning in a controversial context, Dave Halls also worked as first assistant director on the second unit of the film "The Crow: Salvation", the sequel to "The Crow", the film on which Brandon Lee died in a shooting accident on set in 1993. Tragic irony.

He had worked on the sequel to "The Crow"

This coincidence adds to many criticisms of the technician's work. It would indeed have caused a "dangerous working environment" on previous productions. Producer Maggie Goll worked with Dave Halls in 2019 on Hulu's "Into the Dark" series. “At first he seemed like an experienced and affable first assistant but that facade quickly disappeared,” she said, adding: “He didn't maintain a safe working environment,” the producer added in a statement to NBC News. “The sets were almost always doomed to become dangerous, no fire routes established, exits blocked. Security meetings were nonexistent, ”said this regular on Hollywood sets.

The producer even recounted that once Halls kept letting the cameras roll in the middle of a medical emergency - when something happened to the pyrotechnician - and she clarified that this created a new dangerous situation.

The most alarming of the anecdotes remains that once the assistant did not organize safety meetings when a gun was used on the set.

An unsafe environment on the set

Members of the "Rust" crew who spoke with the Los Angeles Times also said they did not understand how Halls could have handed over a loaded gun to Baldwin without checking it thoroughly. The role of the assistant director was debated after filming, but some production workers said the protocol on many sets is for the first "AD" to check the safety of the weapon. Two days earlier a stuntman had also fired two shots with an unloaded weapon blank. Here again, proof of an unsecured environment on the set according to employees quoted by the LA Times.

For the record, after the death in 2014 of assistant camera Sarah Jones on the set of the film "Midnight Rider", assistant director Hillary Schwartz was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years probation.

As part of her probation, she was also fined $ 5,000 and banned from working as a director, assistant director, producer or any department head in charge of security.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2021-10-24

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