Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died on set after a gun was accidentally discharged by actor Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western movie Rust. Photo / Getty Images
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died on set after a gun was accidentally discharged by actor Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western movie Rust. Photo / Getty Images
Friends and colleagues of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins paid tribute on Friday night to a "visionary" whose "big dreams" took her from her native Ukraine to working with the biggest stars of Hollywood.
Hutchins, 42, who died when actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on a film set in NewMexico while filming new movie Rust, was remembered as "an incredible artist" who forged a career for herself in a competitive industry dominated by men.
Hutchins was raised at a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle and initially trained to work as a reporter, graduating from Kyiv National University with a degree in international journalism.
She went on to work as an investigative journalist on documentaries in Europe and the UK, according to her website.
She later moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in cinema, graduating from the American Film Institute in 2015.
Halyna Hutchins was pronounced dead in hospital after the accident. Photo / AP
American Cinematographer magazine had named her one of its rising stars in 2019, and she previously worked on 2020 independent superhero film Archenemy.
She is survived by her young son and her husband, Matthew Hutchins.
"I don't think there are words to communicate the situation," Hutchins, a lawyer who until recently worked as an associate with US firm Kirkland & Ellis, told the Insider website. "I think that we will need a little bit of time before we can really encapsulate her life in a way that is easy to communicate."
On her Instagram page, Hutchins described herself as a "Restless Dreamer. Adrenaline junkie. Cinematographer".
She had also earlier posted a photo on Instagram of the entire Rust crew, standing next to Baldwin on the film set at Bonanza Creek Ranch.
Her final post, on Wednesday, showed a video of her riding on horseback. "One of the perks of shooting a western is you get to ride horses on your day off," she wrote.
Katya Zharkova, a friend who has known Hutchins for a decade, described her as an "incredible, kind and authentic" person.
"Her career was an example for many women ... that you need to dream big and not give up," she told the UK's Daily Telegraph.
"She had a dream to make movies, to become a female cinematographer and she did it. She studied hard, and her dream came true."
Alex Fedosov, a Ukrainian film-maker working in Hollywood, said Hutchins was "rising fast in her career" and was "an artist and a visionary".
Casting director, producer and writer Sidra Smith posted on Instagram that she was left "devastated" by the news about Hutchins, with whom she worked on the TV mini-series A Luv Tale.
"It's hard out here for women cinematographers and this was a HUGE opportunity for her. She was so young and so talented. Halyna and I spent so much time together. She was so beautifully gracious and words cannot express how supportive she was to me," Smith wrote. "God bless her beautiful heart and soul."
