Down, Poly-fill

In the U.S. and Canada, grips are lighting and rigging technicians in the film and video industries. They make up their own department on a film set and are led by a key grip. Grips have two main functions. more...

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The first is to work closely with the camera department, especially if the camera is mounted to a dolly, crane or other unusual position. Some grips may specialize in operating camera dollies or camera cranes. The second is to work closely with the electrical department to put in the lighting set-ups necessary for a shot.

In the U.K. and Australia, grips do not get involved at all in lighting. In the "British System", adopted throughout Europe and the British Commonwealth (excluding Canada), a grip is solely responsible for camera mounting and support.

The term 'grip' dates back to the early era of the circus. It carried on from there to vaudeville and on to today's film sound stages and sets. Some have suggested the name comes from the 1930s-40s slang term for a tool bag or "grip" that these technicians use to carry their tools to work.

U.S. and Canadian grips may belong to the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, which is their trade union.

Lighting

On all union jobs, grips do not touch the lights themselves. The placement of lighting instruments and the power distribution to deliver electricity is handled by the electricians who work under a gaffer. Grips do, however, handle all of the equipment not directly attached to the lights that diffuse and shape the light. This work is done by setting stands that hold flags, nets, diffusion frames or other gobos in place in front of a lighting instrument to shape the beam of light. This is called "cutting light" and is where much of the art of lighting is achieved.

Grips also set "passive fill" which is a term for the reflected light that is "bounced" back onto a subject on the "fill" or "non-keylight" side. The first choice for most film-makers' fill is a product known in the US as beadboard and called "poly", short for polystyrene, in Europe. It is actually ridgid insulation made for the construction trade, but was adopted to the film trade because of its "true-white" color and "soft" bounce.

Grips may also be called on to set "negative fill", which is the cutting of ambient or non-directional light to raise contrast on the subject. This is achieved by setting "solids" made of black fabric, either flags (up to 4'x4') or rags (6'x6' or larger) on the "non-keylight" side or wherever the negative fill is desired.

When shooting day exteriors, grips perform similar functions, but with the sun as the light source. Because the sun is very large, grips use overhead frames up to 20'x20' or larger for the shaping or filtering of sunlight. The lighting set-ups for these exterior shots can become quite extensive, with the use of boom lifts common. Lifts are especially useful at night when they are rigged to raise lights high in the air to create moon-effect lighting.

Read more at Wikipedia.org