Grips are technicians who work in film, interacting with the camera and lighting crews. The key grip is the foreman for all other grips, while the best boy grip is their assistant. They handle logistics, gear, and crew coordination, and act as the contact person with the production manager. The name grip comes from old circus slang, and best boy grip comes from the old guild craft system. Women make up a sizable minority of grips.
Basically, a best-boy-handler is the key-handler’s assistant: the man or woman responsible for making sure the cameras and lights are where they’re supposed to be. Grips are technicians who work in film, interacting closely with two departments: the camera crew and the lighting crew. Grips may be called upon by the camera department to install camera dollies, stands, trailers, or cranes. In many parts of the world, including Australia and the UK, this is the extent of an outlet’s purview. In the United States and other countries, however, grips also interact heavily with the lighting department and crew. Although union labor rules in the United States prohibit an outlet from actually handling lights, they work closely with the electricians who do that job. They also deal in light stands, nets, diffusion blinds, bouncers, flags and large outdoor blinds, which help focus, direct, diffuse or cut the light.
The key grip does the whole thing, essentially acting as the foreman for all the other grips on a set, which in the case of a large film can be dozens. The best guy grip acts as the key grip’s right-hand man, handling the logistics and orchestrating the other grips on a large set or handling the bulk of the gear on a small job. He or she has many jobs on a set, and those jobs have a wide scope. He or she will likely be responsible for hiring and firing staff, coordinating the grip crew with the film or electrical crew, planning rigging and lighting schemes, and many other jobs. The best gripping guy is also usually the contact person between the entire gripping department and the production manager of the unit on site.
Best boy grips have a counterpart in the electrical department, usually known as electric best boy. The best electric guy fulfills much the same role, except he serves under the chief mechanic, rather than the wrench socket.
The name grip is a holdover from old circus slang and may have come from a term used to describe the little bag of tools that all grips seem to carry around. The phrase best boy grip is a holdover from the old guild craft system, where a master would have many apprentices, and the oldest – and therefore the one with the most responsibilities – would be called the best boy. Despite the term’s inherent gender, a best boyfriend trick can be male or female, and women make up a sizable minority of tricks.
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