The Grip Book

The Studio Grip's Essential Guide

Michael G. Uva

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351334600
• Edition: 6
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Gain the essential skills of a professional grip to become the jack and master of all trades on any movie or television show set. Discover vital insider tips ranging from how to operate cutting-edge rigging and lighting equipment to performing difficult camera mounts on aircraft, boats, trains, and cars.

In The Grip Book, seasoned Hollywood grip Michael G. Uva teaches you to install, set up, maintain, and ensure the safety of all equipment on a set, such as C-stands, cameras, and any specialty gear needed for a shoot. Guidelines for on-set etiquette and how to succeed as a technical crew member will jumpstart your career and make you a valuable asset on any film or television crew.

This new 6th edition marks the books 30th anniversary and has been fully revised and updated to include expanded coverage of on-set scenarios, such as gripping near water and at heights; a brand-new chapter dedicated to providing insider solutions to various gripping problems that can often appear insurmountable to the uninitiated; and a brand-new companion website featuring a downloadable reference guide on grip equipment, and extensive how-to video demonstrations.

Other features include technical expertise on maintaining the latest and greatest filmmaking equipment; an updated self-test section containing over one hundred questions and answers; a comprehensive appendix containing a robust glossary of insider and equipment terms; and guidelines on what a grip has to be physically able to perform in their day-to-day duties.

1
Introduction

What this book is about

This book is designed to teach you about the equipment you will need and use on a daily basis in the moviemaking industry. I will also lightly touch on some stage terms, tricks of the trade, and procedures. With this book, perseverance (and I mean lots of perseverance), and just plain old hard work, you can become a successful grip and it will help you on your way to many of the technical fields behind the lens. I challenge you to do it. But let me get off my soapbox (later changed to an apple box … you’ll see what I am speaking of later in this book) and get back to teaching you how to become a grip. I am writing this book based on my experience and the experiences of other grips with whom I have worked. There is a saying among grips that there are ten ways to do the very same job – and usually they all work. This book will help you learn the names of basic grip equipment and if explainable and safe enough, ways to use it. Plus, every so often I will also throw in the nickname of a piece of equipment.

About the equipment

In this book I have selected a cross-section of only the most professional equipment. I have not by any means listed all the super equipment available. First, such a book would be too costly to produce, and second, I just want you to get a feel for what tools are available. I recommend that you go to any and all technical trade shows concerning the film/television industry. You are no doubt aware of the industry’s widespread and growing use of computers, with each new application being better, faster, and more readily available than the one before. There are several fantastic remote control film and television heads (fluid, remote, and geared heads), as well as many new cranes and dollies, new and improved grip equipment, and redefined methods of gripping. I will try to cover a little of each of these aspects to let you, the reader, know what is available out there. I will be providing the knowledge for you to go out there and make your own decisions. I am not just going to tell you what equipment to get; instead, I am going to help you figure out for yourself what equipment to get based on your needs and the situation. The goal is to make sure you realize that such a discussion is more than a catalog of parts!

If I don’t show you a picture of a piece of equipment, I have probably explained it either somewhere else in the book or in the glossary. Once again, this book is not the end-all of grip books, but it is a leap in the right direction. If you learn one thing and use it to improve your skills, others will notice, and it might just get you called back, which is one of the many things I have aimed for in this book.

A professional’s tips on the trade

In this book, I will be passing along to you some very important “professional’s tips on the trade.” You may have heard the old saying, “It’s the little things that mean a lot.” Well, that certainly holds true in this business.

Self-test

I have made up a self-test for you. When you take the self-test (near the end of this book), you will find that a lot of the questions I ask come from the “professional’s tips on the trade” sections.

Let’s get going!

So you want to get into the movies. Well, so did I. Now I am in, and you can get in, too. It doesn’t take a college education (but it helps) or even a high school diploma (but who the heck wants to walk around without one – not any grip I know). If you are halfway intelligent and can count to at least seven (two out of three times), I believe you can learn about the basic tools of gripping.

Let me begin by promising you the same thing I promise all my students: nothing. You don’t need someone to tell you that you will get rich, be famous, and live happily ever after if you buy this book. But if you like traveling and working with a group of highly skilled technicians, actors and actresses, directors, and producers, this is the job you should try to pursue. I don’t want to say it is the greatest job, but to give you an idea of how good it can be, I started writing the first edition of this book while I was on location for the movie The Big Easy in New Orleans – sitting in a room on the 15th floor of the Iberville Hotel overlooking the Mississippi River. (Not too bad a job at all!)

When people ask what my job is like, my answer is unconventional: it’s almost pure freedom, like a singer singing a song. Singers must know all the words, but they put their own style and twist to it. For example, I must sometimes mount a $500,000 camera setup on a $300,000 car, and how I do that is a challenge. As a grip, you are kind of like an on-set designer, engineer, and administrator and worker, all rolled into one person. You are needed! You are one major support system. It is a great job. Give your all to whatever you do, and the future will develop itself. Trust me on this.

First and foremost, start by figuring out just what job you think you may want to do in the film industry. I use the word “think” because you may find that, after you have reached that coveted position, it is not as fulfilling as you thought it might be, would be, or should have been – but that’s another story. For now, let’s assume that you are absolutely, positively sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have made the right career decision. Good, let’s get started. Because gripping is the profession you have chosen to learn, let me tell you what a grip is. A grip is the person who, as we grips like to think, solves other people’s problems. A cameraperson might turn to a grip and say, “I’d like to rig a camera on top of a car … or on top of a mountain … or off the side of a building.” As grips, we are the guys and gals who have to figure out how to rig it safely and as quickly as possible because of the tight shooting schedules we usually have to work with.

Grips in general

As you may know, gripping can be physically demanding and the hours extremely long but, what a rush! You will sometimes collect an instant gratification like none other for a job you have just accomplished. It is very rewarding.

In the USA, a grip can be either a lighting grip or a rigging grip.

Grips have two main functions. One is to work closely with the director of photography (DP) to provide camera support, if the camera is attached to a crane or dolly or mounted someplace that is unusual.

Some grips may specialize in being a dolly/crane grip. They are usually very good at this skilled craft. Dolly grips usually move the camera as seamlessly as possible.

Just a note here! The DP or a camera operator will usually want his or her own hand-selected key grip and Dolly grip. (Think of it as a dance partner.)

Another function for grips is to aid the electrical department. Simply put, the juicers put in lights; the grips “shape” the light with flags, nets, and diffusion.

The name “grip”!

Some say that a tool bag, sometimes referred to as a “grip bag,” is the origin of the name for these technicians. I say … Okay!

Like a lot of terms in this industry, there are “many origins” to many items. To this, I say … Okay! I really don’t care where the name originated from; I just care that you, the reader, know the manufacturer’s name (or many names/nicknames) of the item of equipment. For all I care, you can call a C-stand “Bob”! Just make sure you bring a sandbag with Bob to me when I call for one!

Grips come in assorted sizes and colors. There are a lot of big, macho-type grips. You can recognize them right off. They are the guys with the heavy moustaches who usually walk like small apes (joking), myself included. Grips can also come in the form of women. Gripping does not really take a lot of body strength, although it does require a lot of mental strength to outsmart the object you are working on.

Let me illustrate. When I am asked (as I often am), “What is a grip?,” I like to tell this story. First, imagine that you’re in your home, say, in the early 1960s, at Christmastime. Uncle Milton suddenly runs into the room as the family is about to open the gifts that have been lovingly placed around the tree by Mom. Well, good old Uncle Milty does not want to miss a single moment, so out comes the new 8 mm camera. He wants to save this special moment for all posterity. He flips on the switch, and a huge blinding light from the twin lamps mounted on the camera is now burning the retinas out of everyone’s eyeballs. Everyone in the room, almost in unison, raises a hand to cover what’s left of their vision. Tight-lipped smiles quickly emerge (which say, “You’re blinding me with that stupid light!”), and everyone gives a quick wave (which says, “Okay! Enough already. Film the next person!”). The twins, seeing this great fun, jump to their feet and dance a jig for their now most favorite uncle. Yes, they are on film. Their overlit, bright faces smile joyfully, while their harsh, heavy, dark shadows dance like huge monsters on the rear wall, aping their every move. Aunt May (Milty’s wife of 30 years) fans herself to relieve the tremendous heat from the camera lamps. Ah! The joys of home movies.

We have all seen this type of home film. Professional moviemaking could be very much the same; even though it costs a whole lot more, it could be just as boring. Now enters the grip department. We are the folks who place different materials in front of those huge light sources to make them a bit more flattering, or softer, or even colder looking.

One could say, “Grips shape light.”

We have a million different tricks up our sleeves (okay, not really a million, but a bunch).

Grips usually do not decide what material to put in front of a light; that is usually the job of the cameraperson, along with the gaffer (you will learn what a gaffer does in a minute). On many occasions, though, we can suggest something that will work for the shot. (Believe me, folks, it is a team effort.) Besides the soft materials in front of the lamp, we may also use a flag and cutter (I will explain later) or maybe a net to change the texture or the intensity of the lamp.

A grip is like an expert handyman – kind of a jack-of-all-trades and, we like to think, a master of all as well. Most grips usually find they can do just about anything, but after a few years in the business you will find that you begin to specialize. For example, you may become a camera dolly grip (I’ll teach you more about camera dollies later). The dolly grip does all the pushing and wheeling. Then there’s the rigging grip, which mounts cameras and lights anywhere they are needed (which I like to do). And then there’s just the everyday grip, which does, you guessed it, just about everything else. In this book, we are going to be focusing on the basic tools of gripping.

As a grip, you will be working with the gaffer. This is the person who is in charge of the lighting. You will also work with the director of photography, usually called the DP. The DP is the person who may tell us what light goes where or who just tells the gaffer what sort of light mood he or she would like to see, for example, a night scene, a day scene, rain, and so forth. Basically, the DP tells the gaffer what he or she wants, and then the gaffer has the electricians who work with him or her go out and set up the lights where needed. You will also work with a host of other technicians, sound people, makeup artists, and so forth, and you’ll learn something about their specialties as you go along.

To be a grip, you must believe in yourself and be prepared to work long hours and sometimes under not-so-Hollywood-glamorous conditions. It is not an easy task to become a film technician. You must have determination and you must learn the equipment. If you know what a piece of equipment looks like by name and can be fast to retrieve it when called for, then you’re well on your way to being a good grip.

A little grip history

Before I tell you more about what a grip is, let me tell you how the word “grip” came to be. Legend (and there are many of them in this industry) has it that in the heyday of film, the basic film crews consisted of a director, a cameraperson, a few assistants, and workers. The workers set up all the equipment, lights, cable, stands, and so forth, so they were like the handymen on the set. The worker/handyman carried his tools in all sorts of containers, such as a tool tray, a box, or a carpetbag (sort of like a doctor’s bag, only larger). The bag that contained the tools of the handyman’s trade was called a grip. (Starting to get the picture?) Over time, these workers developed special talents. Some developed skills in building or rigging things. The originally unspecialized workers eventually separated into specialty groups: electricians did all the wiring and lighting, and workers with the ...