The industry is still reeling from the tragedy that unfolded on the set of Rust, when Alec Baldwin accidentally discharged a prop firearm containing a live round, which killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
The incident is still under investigation by local law enforcement, and it’s come burdened with the news that several crew members walked off the set due to unsafe working conditions, with Baldwin being told the prop gun was safe to use before the incident occurred.
It’s a truly terrible situation, but in the first hint of positivity to emerge from the shocking loss of a rising star, Deadline reports that the Halyna Hutchins Memorial Scholarship has been established by AFI in her name, to lend assistance to the next generation of female cinematographers.
Hutchins graduated from the AFI Conservatory in 2015, before being named as one of American Cinematographer’s Rising Stars four years later, so she was all set to blaze a trail for women in a field of expertise that’s always been male-dominated.
The 42 year-old’s life story was incredible, growing up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle before going on to work as an investigative journalist with British documentary crews prior to her career in the film industry, but her name will be remembered for a long time to come through the scholarship.
