Halyna Hutchins: Rising star of film industry was 'an incredible artist'

Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who died when actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set of the film Rust, has been remembered as "an incredible artist".

Hutchins, 42, had been working as the film's director of photography.

Tributes poured in from the film world.

Archenemy director Adam Egypt Mortimer told the BBC: "It's really unbelievable.

"Halyna was an incredible artist who was just starting a career I think people were really starting to notice.

"The fact that she would be killed on a set in an accident like this is unfathomable. It just seems inconceivable."

Hutchins was born in Ukraine in 1979 and grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle.

Her website said she grew up "surrounded by reindeer and nuclear submarines".

She entered the film industry after gaining a degree in international journalism from Kiev State University. After working on documentaries in the UK, she moved to Los Angeles, where she graduated from the American Film Institute conservatory in 2015.

She began working her way up in Hollywood, with credits on films including Blindfire, which she described as a "racially charged cop drama" written and directed by Mike Nell.

She also worked on horror feature Darlin', directed by Pollyanna McIntosh, which debuted at the SXSW film festival 2019.

Adam Egypt Mortimer added: "The level of protocol and safety that we tend to have on any production of any size, when you get down to handling weapons, guns, it's so involved that the fact that a gun went off and killed Halyna is both shocking from an industry point of view and just absolutely tragic from the point of view of knowing this amazing artist who suddenly not with us."

He talked about her "integrity of wanting to make cinema" and recalled a day working with her when the main actor was unable to work because he was unwell.

"We were going to have to make up something brand new on the day," he said. "I said, 'We're going to write something new'. She got so excited, she said, 'Oh we're going to shoot in the European style'.

"It was rising to challenge, working with what is around you to transcend the circumstance and turn it into art. That is the thing I loved so much about her, to see her grow as an artist.

"It was just wonderful to be able to collaborate with someone like that."