Strike tensions likely contributed to shooting

Rick Pallaziol has made a living leasing prop weapons for 30 years. He stopped leasing real guns to movie clients in the 90s. "Protocols aren't enough," he said. "Someone has to be really afraid at every given moment that the gun is going to go off." https://t.co/cSMIWxc7eO

— Gabriella Borter (@gabriellaborter) October 22, 2021

Bonanza Creek Ranch is about ten miles from our place as the raven flies. It's home to a 24-building town, five interior sets, a herd of movie star longhorns and is surrounded by an unobstructed 360-degree vista. We drive by it every time we go to the San Marcos Feed Store. 

Our Lady of the Arroyo and neighbor Lori drove by the sprawling complex swarming with crews the day before Alec Baldwin apparently shot and killed Halyna Hutchins. Production for the film Rust has been put on hold.

Sources told the Los Angeles Times crew members had been promised compensation for hotel rooms in Santa Fe but were told within the first days of filming they instead would need to stay in Albuquerque and make the hourlong commute to Bonanza Creek Ranch, just south of Santa Fe, twice a day. The dispute came as members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, including those in Santa Fe, were planning to begin a nationwide strike Monday. IATSE was arguing, among other things, that crew members were forced to work excessive hours with few breaks. The strike was called off Sunday when new negotiations were scheduled, according to a news release from IATSE. A post circulating on social media, purportedly from a member of the Rust camera team, said, “the entire camera crew walked off that morning.” The post, which said Thursday’s shooting “was not an isolated incident,” said the crew members wrote resignation letters citing “everything from lack of payment for three weeks, taking our hotels away despite asking for them in our deals, lack of COVID safety” and gun safety concerns. Nearly seven hours after they left — and were replaced by nonunion workers, according to the Times and the social media post — 911 dispatchers in Santa Fe received a call reporting Hutchins and Souza had been shot. ['Rust' crew members raised safety concerns before fatal shooting]

More on the film history of the Bonanza Creek Ranch linked here.