KEY GRIP
I had a friend in my film school days who used to call his
girlfriend "My Grip!" And she liked it.
The Grip is in charge of the dolly and all such rigging and camera
support equipment that is available on a production. Again on a low
budget film, one Grip may be all you've got! When an experienced Grip
is hired on a low budget production, he always cracks the same joke,
"Where's my crew?" The jaded film maker says, "You're it!" If the Grip
quits he's not an experienced low budget movie Grip.
There are very few Grips who can do the job on their own.
Somebody's gotta help them. There's just too much to do in that
department. On a low budget movie, the experienced Grip knows that the
camera crew and sometimes even the Gaffer helps. On some films, the
director and the producer help out, too.
Of course, on a low budget film you usually have some production
assistants, so there is help around. On some shoestring productions,
even actors are hauling equipment around. However, I must inject that
if a production requires a lot of Grip-related work and if too many
other departments get involved with helping, the whole project suffers,
sometimes real bad, so that you can actually see it on the screen --
tired actors, huffing and puffing, loused up costumes, sloppy Grip work
and therefore camera work. Treat this department seriously also then.
The main job of the Grip is to make those wonderful shots
with the dolly, smooth moves and up and down moves. Crane shots, if you
can afford a crane and the script calls for it, are a special expertise
of the Key Grip (the lead Grip).
Car rigging for moving shots, aircraft Tyler mounts, boat and
underwater rigging and all types of creative camera support equipment
are the job of the Grip.
These days the Steadicam is an important tool that many film makers
just won't do without. The Grip has to know how to provide this service
for the production.
There are many technical problems and expertise that the Grip has to be
aware of, especially in highly complex productions.