Let’s get to know Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer whom Alec Baldwin accidentally shot on the movie set.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was one of the rapidly rising stars of the film industry, who died when the famous actor Alec Baldwin accidentally opened fire on the movie set. Halyna Hutchings was working as a cinematographer on the set of the movie “Rust”.
Hutchins, who also worked on the independent superhero film Archenemy in 2020, was introduced as a “rising star” in 2019 by the magazine published by the Association of American Cinematographers. Archenemy director Adam Egypt Mortimer told the BBC it was “really incredible” that Hutchins died on set.
“Halyna was an amazing artist early in her career, and I think people were really starting to notice her. It’s inconceivable that she died in an accident like this on set. It just doesn’t seem incomprehensible,” Mortimer said.
Born in Ukraine, raised on a Soviet base
Halyna Hutchings was born in Ukraine in 1979 and grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic.
On its website, it says, “he grew up with reindeer and nuclear submarines all around him.”
In an interview he gave, he said that he had a great interest in cinema in those years, “because there wasn’t much to do outside”.
Hutchins, who studied international journalism at Kiev State University, started working in the film industry after school.
After working on some documentaries in the UK, she moved to Los Angeles and graduated from the American Film Institute Conservatory in 2015.
He worked on various films, including “Blindfire,” written and directed by Mike Nell, and began to gain attention.
She also appeared in Pollyanna McIntosh’s horror movie “Darlin”, which was screened at the SXSW film festival in 2019.
In her latest Instagram post on Tuesday, there is a photo of her riding a horse on set.
First reactions to her death
Adam Egypt Mortimer, the director of the film Archenemy he worked with last year, told the BBC it was “really incredible” that Hutchins died on set.
“Given the safety protocols generally enforced when it comes to the use of weapons in a production of any size, the accidental firing of a gun that killed Halyna is both shocking to the industry and absolutely tragic in that such a great artist is no longer with us,” Mortimer said. he said.
While talking about how passionate Hutchins was to cinema, Mortimer recalled that during the shooting of his movie, the lead actor was unable to work because he was ill.
“We had to invent something completely new that day. We were going to write something new. Halyna was so excited. She was delighted, ‘Oh, we’re going to shoot European style’.”
“The determination to overcome these difficulties was to overcome obstacles with what was at hand and turn it into art. That’s what I loved about it, it was watching an artist grow up. It was great to work with someone like that,” he said.
The American Film Institute Conservatory also shared a statement on Hutchins’ death and said, “Words are insufficient to describe the loss of such a precious person to the AFI community.”
Set safety comment
There was an interview with Hutchins in 2019 in the American Cinematographer magazine published by the American Society of Cinematographers.
Hutchins explains why he switched from journalism to cinematography. “My transition from journalism to cinematography started when I was working in British film productions in Eastern Europe. I was traveling with the crew to remote places and watching how the cinematographers were working. I was fascinated by storytelling based on real characters.”
The magazine made a statement following Hutchins’ death posthumously, saying, “We are deeply saddened by the news of the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins from Santa Fe. Set safety should always be a top priority for everyone, especially when firearms are used.”
BBC Ukrainian Service reported that the US Consulate of Ukraine, of which Halyna Hutchings is a citizen, has also contacted the Hutchins family and will provide the necessary legal and bureaucratic support.
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