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Gun safety protocols are rigid on film and TV sets. This ‘should never have happened.’

(msn.com)

SANTA FE, N.M. – Black-shirted security guards stand sentry at a weather-beaten white gate, a faded American flag flapping overhead in a cloudless blue sky.

Nearby, bouquets of wilting flowers are tied to a peeling post. This is the entrance to Bonanza Creek Ranch, where the magic of the movies vanished Thursday with the discharge of a prop gun.

Told the Western-style revolver was “cold” – safe to fire – “Rust” actor and producer Alec Baldwin shot in the direction of his camera crew, killing director of photography Halyna Hutchins, 42, and injuring director Joel Souza, 48.

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As the police investigation unfolds, much remains unknown about the accident: If there was a live bullet in the gun, how did it get there? Why wasn’t it discovered before Baldwin used the gun? And why was Baldwin not aiming it away from the crew?

While declining to speculate about what happened on the set, Hollywood veterans say even the most rudimentary of weapons protocols that are rigorously followed on most sets would have averted this rare catastrophe.

By: Marco della Cava

Continue Reading at msn.com

Somerset County Appoints First Members to Film Commission

(tapinto.net)

SOMERVILLE, NJ – Somerset County’s Board of Commissioners took the next step in the creation of its new Film Commission with the appointments of experienced filmmakers Adam Scherr and Jonathan Kalafer. In addition to experience in the film industry, both Scherr and Kalafer have deep ties and connections to Somerset County.

“The Film Commission is a vital component of our efforts to bring back the hard-hit tourism and hospitality industries in Somerset County following COVID-19, and we’re delighted to have professionals of the quality of Adam Scherr and Jonathan Kalafer on board,” said Commissioner Shanel Y. Robinson, who will serve as the liaison to the Film Commission. “They not only know the film industry, but also love Somerset County and know the incredible opportunity our diverse locations and people offer to the industry.”

Adam Scherr is the co-founder of Nous Entertainment, a production company focused on creating and selling exciting and meaningful film and story-telling projects for growing marketplace. Scherr, a Somerset County resident, has a long history of corporate and journalistic media, and is a filmmaker who produced the award-winning Forbidden Cuba, the first US feature film shot in Cuba since 1959. Scherr has worked with or is developing projects with diverse partners such as Jay Chandrsekhar, Melonie Mayron, Alice Cooper, Helen Hunt, and John Leguizamo.

Jonathan Kalafer is a local filmmaker whose credits include directing and producing the award-winning Once in a Lullaby, co-producing the theatrically released The Soprano State, and producing the Oscar Shortlist documentary The Diary of Immaculee. Kalafer is also the co-owner of the Somerset County Patriots which became the AA Yankee affiliate in 2021 and has been deeply involved in charitable and business efforts in Somerset County for more than two decades.

The Somerset County Film Commission will be made up of at least five and as many as seven members appointed by the Somerset County Board of County Commissioners. The Commission will be supported by the Somerset County Business Partnership; Somerset County Office of Planning, Policy, and Economic Development; and the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission.

Bringing artistic, documentary, corporate, and other short and feature length productions to Somerset County is a key component of the effort to revitalize the area’s tourism and hospitality sector. Somerset County saw a 51 percent decline in tourism industry sales in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, making it one of the hardest hit counties in New Jersey.  This year-over-year decline in Somerset County was seen in hospitality, restaurant, transportation, recreation, and other tourism spending which fell from $1.25 billion to $612 million and visitation which dropped 27.8 percent from 3 million to 2.2 million individuals.

Somerset County’s diverse communities are ideally suited to be the backdrop for almost any type of production, story, or idea. The country features quaint downtowns and urban centers, untouched forests and manicured parks, distinguished historic estates and apartment complexes, rolling farmland and winding rivers, a professional baseball stadium and high school football fields, scenic back roads and major interstate highways, train stations and local airports, and lots, lots more.

In January of 2020, Governor Phil Murphy extended a tax incentive program to bring film, TV and digital productions to New Jersey that allows film productions to apply for savings of 30 percent on their expenses when filming in Somerset County and other portions of central and northern New Jersey until 2028. A recent study by Cornell University found that for every single job hired to work in film and television production, there are another two jobs created in the economy, a 3:1 effect.

By: Somerset County

Continue Reading at tapinto.net

Let computers do it: Film set tragedy spurs call to ban guns

(apnews.com)

NEW YORK (AP) — With computer-generated imagery, it seems the sky’s the limit in the magic Hollywood can produce: elaborate dystopian universes. Trips to outer space, for those neither astronauts nor billionaires. Immersive journeys to the future, or back to bygone eras.

But as a shocked and saddened industry was reminded this week, many productions still use guns — real guns — when filming. And despite rules and regulations, people can get killed, as happened last week when Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins after he was handed a weapon and told it was safe.

The tragedy has led some in Hollywood, along with incredulous observers, to ask: Why are real guns ever used on set, when computers can create gunshots in post-production? Isn’t even the smallest risk unacceptable?

For Alexi Hawley, it is. “Any risk is too much risk,” the executive producer of ABC’s police drama “The Rookie” announced in a staff memo Friday, saying the events in New Mexico had “shaken us all.”

There “will be no more ‘live’ weapons on the show,” he wrote in a note, first reported by The Hollywood Reporter and confirmed by The Associated Press.

Instead, he said, the policy would be to use replica guns, which use pellets and not bullets, with muzzle flashes added in post-production.

By: Jocelyn Noveck

Continue Reading at apnews.com

States Mostly Defer to Union Guidance for On-Set Gun Safety

(usnews.com)

Safety standards developed by film studios and labor unions are the primary protection for actors and film crews when a scene calls for using prop guns. The industry-wide guidance is clear: “Blanks can kill. Treat all firearms as if they are loaded.”

Shootings nevertheless have killed and injured people while cameras rolled, including the cinematographer who died and the director who was wounded this week when no one realized a prop gun fired by actor Alec Baldwin during the filming of “Rust” carried live rounds that are far more dangerous than blanks.

Despite some industry reforms following previous tragedies, the federal workplace safety agency in the U.S. is silent on the issue of on-set gun safety. And most of the preferred states for film and TV productions take a largely hands-off approach.

New York prohibits guns from being fired overnight on movie sets but does not otherwise regulate their use. Georgia and Louisiana, where the film industry has expanded rapidly, regulate pyrotechnics on movie sets but have no specific rules around gun use.

“We don’t have anything to do with firearms. We only regulate the special effects explosion-type stuff,” said Capt. Nick Manale, a state police spokesperson in Louisiana, where the film industry was credited with creating more than 9.600 jobs last year and generating nearly $800 million for local businesses. “I’m not sure who does that, or if anybody does.”

New Mexico, where court records show an assistant director handed Baldwin a loaded weapon and told him it was “cold,” or safe to use, during the Thursday filming of “Rust,” has no specific safety laws for the film industry. Much of the legislative debate over the industry, as in other states, has focused on tax credits and incentives to lure the lucrative entertainment business, not what happens on sets.

That approach has worked well for New Mexico. In addition to attracting some large film productions, the state is home to major production hubs for Netflix and NBCUniversal. It had a record $623 million in direct spending on productions between July 2020 through June of this year.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat and an ardent film industry supporter, touted the industry’s pandemic precautions over the summer, saying it had put safety first and cleared the way for work to resume.

Workplace safety is paramount in every industry in New Mexico, including film and television, the governor’s spokeswoman, Nora Meyers Sackett, said Friday.

“State and federal workplace safety regulations apply to the industry just as they do to all other workplaces, and the state Occupational Health and Safety Bureau is investigating,” Sackett said of the tragedy that unfolded on a movie ranch near Santa Fe. “This is an ongoing investigation, and we’re awaiting additional facts in order to understand how something so terrible and heartbreaking could have happened.”

By: Associated Press

Continue Reading at usnews.com

Rob Reiner’s Castle Rock Revives Film Division With $175M Fund

(hollywoodreporter.com)

Rob Reiner’s Castle Rock Entertainment is relaunching its storied film division with a $175 million film fund that will allow the company to develop, produce and finance movies for a worldwide audience.

The banner has a first-look deal with Warner Bros. for theatrical content, in addition to Warners’ existing deal with Castle Rock for television.

Reiner will continue on as Castle Rock CEO, with Michele Reiner and Matthew George serving as co-presidents.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled,” Rob Reiner said in a statement. “The Castle Rock lighthouse has always signaled a safe harbor for the creative community. With this relaunch, we will be able to continue the tradition of providing an environment for filmmakers to do their best work.”

Rob Reiner co-founded the company in 1987 with Martin Shafer, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick and Alan Horn. Castle Rock’s more than 125 films included When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, In the Line of Fire, City Slickers, Miss Congeniality, The American President and The Shawshank Redemption. Castle Rock also produced one of the most successful comedy series in history, Seinfeld.

Matthew George previously collaborated with Reiner on the biopic LBJ and, together with Rob and Michele Reiner, produced Shock and Awe, which George also produced and financed under his Savvy Media Holdings banner. George’s credits also include Wind River starring Jeremy Renner and A Private War starring Rosamund Pike.

Additional Castle Rock hires include Hernan Narea, who joins the company as CFO; Courtney Shepard as senior vp development; Michelle Goldfine, who will be promoted to vp development; and T.J. Bryson as a development executive.

The deal was negotiated by Katten Muchin Rosenman for Castle Rock Entertainment, Latham & Watkins and Cohen Gardner for the private equity investors, and O’Melveny & Myers representing the lender syndicate.

Castle Rock’s film fund is backed by equity investors and entertainment banks. David Oliver of CIT Bank, N.A, which will act as administrative agent, structured the senior debt facility with Daisy Stall of California Bank & Trust.

By: Pamela Mcclintock

Continue Reading at hollywoodreporter.com