Indie films often have appeal because of the way they are made: low budgets, a less oppressive or even non-existent corporate structure, and greater leeway for the director and actors.  However, in an unprecedented scandal, many aspects of modern film-making may be brought into question.

On March 9, 2015, Randall Miller, director of the Midnight Rider, entered into a plea bargain after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and trespassing.  Miller will spend the next two years in prison, followed by eight years of probation, because of his role in an incident in February, 2014 that led to the death of a camera assistant named Sarah Jones.  In a released statement, Miller said he pleaded guilty “for three reasons: first, to protect my wife and family; second, out of respect for the Jones family and to not put them through a difficult trial; and, third, to take responsibility for my failure in not knowing that every safety measure was in place.”  The film Midnight Rider, a biopic on rocker Gregg Allman, will never be finished after Miller sued the producers to prevent further development.  Miller issued a statement saying the incident will “haunt me forever,” and has accepted partial blame for her death.  Miller is the first director to be sent to jail on a film-shoot related death.

On February 20^th, 2014, Director Randall Miller, his production and filmmaking crew, actor William Hurt (who played Allman) began filming in rural Georgia.  The crew soon realized that this first day of filming, initially labelled as a “camera test,” actually involved shooting a scene on a live railroad.  The scene was to be held on a historic stretch or railroad, positioned on a trestle towering over the Altamaha River. Miller was granted permission from the landholder owning the land surrounding the tracks to film on the location.  The crew, who were not aware fully of the precarious situation, was soon warned that if they heard a train coming they would have only 60 seconds to get off the bridge.  Miller made the mistake in assuming that only two trains passed by daily; after the second train he and his crew began filming.

The scripted scene involved Hurt in a dream scene, getting up from a bed placed on the suspended railroad track (Miller would later release the footage to the court, showing the crew struggling to remove the bed and attempting to get out of the way of an oncoming train).  When a third train was heard coming, the crew rushed to remove the bed (which they believed would derail the train) and get out of the way.  Sarah Jones, affectionately called ant because of her ability to carry things far outweighing her size, was one of the ones attempting to move the bed.  When the train came, she was hit and killed on impact.  The train also hit the metal bed at 58 mph, sending out debris that injured several other members of the crew.

Later in Miller’s trial, it was released that he had been twice denied in writing access to shooting on the train tracks by CSX, the company that owns the railroad.  While other members of the crew were arrested for involvement in the incident, Miller’s plea bargain allowed him to take the majority of the blame.  Sarah Jones was remembered during the 2014 Academy Awards and a campaign called “Slates for Sarah.”  Finally, many new regulations and oversight have been suggested for the filmmaking industry, with many criticizing the near absolute power the director holds in movie making and Hollywood.