Even if Rust is defined as professional by its crew, the danger that allows a crew member to die cannot coexist with the description of professional. If that is professional, we do not have a profession, we have a slaughterhouse. And this tragedy is not unique.
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On a film set, the aphorism “time is money” is not metaphorical. Payroll, permits, penalties – everyone on a film set has one eye on the clock and the other on a calculator. If you hold still on set, you can even hear the cyclical trade: money and minutes, cents and seconds. As movies have gotten more expensive and more ambitious, and as a movie’s success continues to be based on its box office earnings or streaming deals, saving time is saving money, and saving money is the ultimate goal. These rules have shifted from suggestion to law, and the culture of filmmaking has followed with it. Most days are 12-14 hours, but it’s scarily common for a workday to extend beyond, sometimes as long as 16- or 20-hour days (Polone). Still, in the trade of time and money, a third element can be ignored: what is physically possible. Crews are being pushed past their physical limits, and while movies are made cheaper and quicker, the art suffers as the artist suffers. On top of all of this, audiences have changed radically in the past few years. The rise in integrated advertising, the calls for sustainability and ethical consumption, and the rise in labor support leave audiences more critical and more in tune to how their entertainment is made than ever before. These factors have led me to the unavoidable conclusion that movies made unethically – movies made quickly and with unsafe working conditions for cast and crew – are not as profitable as movies made safely and ethically. Audiences can feel when film crews are worked under duress, and this feeling along with other factors lowers the quality of the film and the experience of watching. This in turn lowers ticket sales, which affects the financial return. We have seen this before with other films, and we are about to witness it again with the theatrical release of Rust on May 2, 2025.
How the sausage gets made is complicated, and to the average movie-watcher it can seem downright mysterious. But in reading so far, you now know the basis of every college-level production class. There is time and there is money, and they are interchangeable. You can trade time for money, and you can trade money for time. What gets complicated is how to break down each element into something quantifiable. For example, script pages are broken down into eighths so production crews can track how many pages of a script were filmed each day. This isn’t inherently bad. On the contrary, the intersection between creative and organizational proficiency is something unique and exciting about film as a whole. But when every element is assigned a specific monetary and temporal value, an expectation is attached with it. This eighth of a page must take half a day or we will be behind schedule and over budget. Now that eighth has to be completed no matter the cost.
One of the many stunts in Safety Last
When you enter a “complete no matter the cost” scenario, the time on set has to be dedicated to footage capture, so the first thing lost is time when the camera isn’t rolling. This includes prep time as well as rehearsal, which is essential for safety. For actors, it is more difficult to perform and experiment, but many actors have learned to adjust as schedules have tightened. But performance extends to the crew as well. For example, camera operators benefit from the same preparation, breaks, and rehearsals as the actors, and their lives depend on it. Camera operators and their supporting crew have the most dangerous jobs on set. In the ten years between 2011 and 2021, there were twice as many deaths in the camera department as in stunts (Robb). One would expect stunt acting to be more dangerous, especially since stunt acting is notoriously unsafe. Stunt actors are repeatedly asked to do incredibly physically demanding tasks. Adding to this, the pressure of doing it perfectly in one take, or just doing it quickly, can be very unsafe. During production for the aptly named film Safety Last! (1923), producers Hal Roach and Harold Lloyd had been forced to implement two safety devices for their main stunt of Lloyd hanging off the hands of a clock tower. The city commissioners had denied film permits unless they could ensure actor safety. Lloyd later tested the stunt with a cotton dummy after filming was completed to see what fate might have beheld him without the required wires and padding. The damage to the doll was so severe he reportedly never filmed without a safety harness again (Simeonow). Knowing this, the staggering amount of operator deaths in comparison should show how needlessly unsafe their job is. In 1976, a 31-year-old cameraman died filming for Joyride (1977). Charles A. Parkinson was shooting and leaning out a car window when the vehicle took a sharp turn. It was supposed to skid sideways\ but instead flipped onto Charles (Olympian 5). I found no information about the film’s budget or return. I also found no record of whether or not they rehearsed the driving sequence, but I believe in rehearsal the car would have acted similarly, the stunt would have been modified, and a life would have been saved.
The Joyride stunt car mid-impact
More time and less stress would also translate to less mistakes. An article about the effect of stress on leadership concludes that making decisions under time pressure, perceived or actual, can lead to “rigid behavior,” or a failure to adapt old behaviors to new situations. The article also shows that less information is processed because information is simplified to accommodate the new deadline. This results in leaders relying on familiar behavior, even if the situation calls for something else (Staw et al. 501-502). This means with time, dangerous or deadly mistakes could possibly be avoided by being able to fully evaluate the situation and next steps. A rushed lighting setup, misplaced equipment, skipping a safety shield, or not taking a few literal steps back could easily switch from a small issue to life or death. Obviously even with infinite time, mistakes would still be made, but the number of avoidable issues on set could be exponentially lowered if the fight-or-flight mentality of crew on a rushed film set was eradicated. Another study examines work environments where time pressure is prevalent, labeling them as intense and event focused. Much like film sets, workers have neither the mental bandwidth nor the time needed to fully understand the situation they are in (Maule). Unhelpful in a closed office, this is deadly on a film set.
The aftermath of the car stunt sequence in Joyride
There is also the issue of length of workdays for crew members. The standard work day is 7 to 8 hours, and a standard day on set is 12-14 hours. In a study run by the Silesian University of Technology in Poland, office workers consistently made more mistakes and typos in the afternoon, regardless of when in the week it was (Roh et al.). Also, a study by Stanford University found that workers are less productive in total working 60 hours instead of 40 (Brown et al.). This is inconvenient in an office setting but extremely hazardous in a production setting. We see some early examples of this in 1997, when cameraman Brent Lon Hershman crashed his vehicle after falling asleep at the wheel after a 19-hour workday on New Line Cinema’s Pleasantville (1998). The week he died, production had pushed for a grueling schedule to save on budget, done “without regard to . . . safety, personal circumstances or physical needs,” as recounted in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Hershman’s widow. A “Brent’s Rule” petition asking for a 14-hour maximum workday gained over 10,000 signatures but was ultimately unsuccessful (O’Neil). Still, Plesantville got great reviews, with Roger Ebert giving it a 4/4 stars and praising its originality and design. Despite critics’ reviews being generally favorable, it was considered a box office flop, making only $40 million over a $60 million budget. Pleasantville has a star-studded cast and used brand-new technology to recolor analog film digitally. The film had everything it needed to succeed, including critical approval, but we can consider the issue of ethical labor as a factor for its unpopularity, as well as the pall of death over the production.
Pleasantville scene shot outdoors at night
Today, the only limit to how long a day can go is money, with IATSE minimum calls and conditions outlining a minimum pay of 8 hours, with 1.5x pay past that and 2x pay past 12 hours. This does deter production companies from planning for and budgeting long days, but high-budget productions are willing to leverage huge prices for incremental progress. An article on the popular resource website Filmskills warns young producers:
We’ve all been on productions that seem to never end. 12-hour days turn into 14 hours, which turn into 16 hours. The shoot runs late into the night with no signs of ending, and everyone on the cast and crew is exhausted. Driving your crew into the ground is not only counter productive, it’s also dangerous. . . . As a producer, it’s important to maintain basic safeguards to ensure crew safety not only on set, but to and from it as well.” (Tomaric)
This is accepted, but it doesn’t benefit the production or the product, in either the short or the long term.
An example of the innovative recolor technology used in Pleasantville
We see all three of these factors in the film Rust. In October 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally wounded by a misfired prop gun that was incorrectly loaded with a partially fired shell and fired accidentally during an informal rehearsal. There had been complaints earlier about lack of set safety and long days, leading to a crew walkout that morning. Her death ignited long-standing conversations about workplace safety on film sets, especially in relation to pressure and time constraints. Michael Miller, IATSE department director, spoke at a candlelight vigil in Hutchins’s honor: “I’m afraid we are also gathered with . . . anger. Anger that too often, the rush to complete productions and the cutting of corners puts safety on the backburner and puts crewmembers at risk. . . . The idea that there isn’t time for safety is just wrong. The concept that schedule is more important than safety or the budget is more important than people is one that simply cannot be allowed to persist” (qtd. in Schneider).
A character in Rust brandishing a Colt .45, the same gun misfired by Alec Baldwin on set
The story made national news, partly due to IATSE’s contract negotiations and the seemingly imminent strike, as well as Alec Baldwin’s being listed as a defendant in a wrongful death suit filed by Hutchins’s widower. An open letter from the crew of Rust reposted by Alec Baldwin states: “Unfortunately, in the film industry, it is common to work on unprofessional or hectic productions to gain experience and credits. Many of us have worked on those types of productions. Rust was not one of them. Rust was professional” (@alecbaldwininsta). Even if Rust is defined as professional by its crew, the danger that allows a crew member to die cannot coexist with the description of professional. If that is professional, we do not have a profession, we have a slaughterhouse. And this tragedy is not unique. In the last 25 years, there have been eight other specifically camera crew deaths that I haven’t mentioned in this article (Robb). This is an extreme example, but it does show that there is a monetary disadvantage when productions are unsafe in these ways. Filming was delayed for over a year, and the project finally wrapped after another month of shooting. Rust premiered in Poland in late 2024 and had its American debut on May 2, 2025. The film’s release was and continues to be discolored by the accident. Shortcuts taken in production cost the life of a talented and up-and-coming cinematographer, but sadly, more importantly, cost the production an actor with scheduling conflicts, lengthy delays, and an extra $6 million in insurance costs.
Presidential candidate John Edwards speaking at a WGA strike rally in Burbank CA in 2007. Public domain image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Especially with Rust, audiences are quite aware of the issues on set. The accident happened during national discussions of labor rights and set safety that started with on-set COVID safety in early 2020. In conjunction with this, audiences have become more and more discerning with a rise in integrated advertisements and sneaky sponsorships. The average consumer is getting trained each day on how to spot micro changes in their media through integrated ads and the rise of AI images. Since 2020, 77% of possible Gen Z viewers have returned to theaters, and for AMC Theaters, Gen Z is its fastest-growing segment for both attendance and subscriptions to its AMC Stubs loyalty programs. Gen Z attendance at Cinemark is almost twice that of other generations, and a third of Gen Zs polled go to movie theaters a few times a month (Herren, Carollo). In a study done by Aysar Yahya and Namin Çınar, heavy-intensity Instagram users were able to detect when influencers were not disclosing when they were advertising, recognized the advertisement, and then would avoid the influencer in the future (Yahya et al). Also, Gen Z is more focused on sustainability and transparency than generations before them, and it shows in their purchasing power (Wood). With all of this data, it shows that the fastest-growing group for movie viewing is very concerned about whether what they consume is ethical, they can tell by watching if it is ethical or not, and they are willing to put their money where their mouth is. Morbid curiosity cannot generate rewatchability, and may not even support opening weekend numbers. This more than anything should force studios to introduce more ethical practices, and it’s very likely Rust will see the effects of this after its release.
Rust credits show Halyna Hutchins credited as cinematographer and her husband credited as an executive producer. This was part of Matthew Hutchins’s settlement with Rust production.
As more and more media gets produced on shorter and shorter timelines, film crews suffer from physical and mental strain of matching or beating past schedules. Money can buy time and time can buy money, but neither of them can buy the reputation, press, and quality of a film made ethically. I ask that you don’t go see movies you know aren’t made safely, the same way you would buy second-hand clothes or ethically sourced food. But if your curiosity gets the better of you (or if you pirate it), go see Rust. See if the literal blood, sweat, and tears caused by unsafe production drag down your opinion and the opening weekend sales. Looking at all this data, it should. And for our sake, it must.
Works Cited
Baldwin, Alec [@alecbaldwininsta]. “Unfortunately, in the film industry, it is common to work on unprofessional or hectic productions to gain experience and credits. Many of us have worked on those types of productions.” Instagram, December 9, 2021. www.instagram.com/p/CXRJTLiOXRu/.
Brown, Justin et al. “Crunch Mode: Programming to the Extreme.” Stanford University, 2014. cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/crunchmode/econ-hours-productivity.html.
“Cameraman Killed Filming ‘Joyride.’” The Olympian, November 24, 1976, p. 5. The Olympian Archives, https://theolympian.newspapers.com/image/803349548/?match=1&terms=joyride.
Carollo, Laura. “Frequency of Going to See a Movie in Theaters in the United States in 2025, by Generation.” Statista, March 4, 2025. https://statista.com/statistics/1607737/frequency-going-to-the-movies-age-us/.
Herren, Parker. “Movie Marketing for the TikTok Generation – How Theater Chains Are Trying to Reach Gen Z.” AdAge, September 13, 2024. https://adage.com/article/marketing-news-strategy/gen-z-movie-marketing-how-amc-and-cinemark-court-younger-moviegoers/2580086.
Klapproth, Florian. “Decision Making Under Pressure (A Behavioral Science Perspective).” Medical School Berlin 53 (July 2021), 24-31. www.researchgate.net/publication/353260680_DECISION_MAKING_UNDER_PRESSURE_A_BEHAVIORAL_SCIENCE_PERSPECTIVE.
Maule, A. John, and Ann C. Edland. “The Effects of Time Pressure on Human Judgement and Decision Making.” Decision Making, edited by Ray Crozier, Rob Ranyard, and Ola Svenson. Routledge, 1997, pp. 16.
Polone, Gavin. “The Unglamorous, Punishing Hours of Working on a Hollywood Set.” Vulture, May 23, 2012. https://vulture.com/2012/05/how-long-are-the-days-on-a-movie-set-polone.html.
O’Neil, Ann W. “Death After Long Workday Spurs Suit.” Los Angeles Times, December 21, 1997. https://latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-dec-21-me-995-story.html.
Robb, David. “Cinematography Is the Deadliest Job in Hollywood: Death of ‘Rust’ Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins Puts Spotlight on Safety for Camera Crews” Deadline, October 24, 2021. https://deadline.com/2021/10/cinematography-deadliest-job-in-hollywood-rust-death-cinematographer-halyna-hutchins-camera-crews-1234861489/.
Roh, Taehyun, et al. “Examining Workweek Variations in Computer Usage Patterns: An Application of Ergonomic Monitoring Software.” Pros ONE 18(7), July 6, 2023, E0287976. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287976.
Schneider, Michael. “Halyna Hutchins Candlelight Vigil Draws Hundreds of Industry Artisans: ‘This Could Have Been Any of Us’” Variety, October 24, 2021. https://variety.com/2021/film/news/halyna-hutchins-rust-iatse-candlelight-vigil-1235096636/.
Simeonow, Ilian. “The History of the Stuntman.” Stuntman and Artist, 2001. https://www.actionartist.de/en/stunt.htm.
Staw, Barry, Lloyd Sandelands, and Jane Dutton. (1981). “Threat Rigidity Effects in Organizational Behavior: A Multilevel Analysis.” Administrative Science Quarterly 26. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392337.
Tomaric, Jason. “Surviving Long Shooting Days on Set.” Filmskills, n.d. https://www.filmskills.com/dealing-long-shooting-days/.
Wood, Johnny. “Gen Z Cares About Sustainability More Than Anyone Else – and Is Starting to Make Others Feel the Same.” World Economic Forum, March 18, 2022. https://weforum.org/stories/2022/03/generation-z-sustainability-lifestyle-buying-decisions/.
Yahya, A. et al. “Revealing the Hidden: The Effect of Advertisement Disclosure on Heavy and Light Instagram Users’ Influencer Avoidance.” Journal of Marketing Communications, October 22, 2024, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2024.2413919.
