Man am I tired...

[Pterrydactyl]

Just wanna say that I used to watch movie credits, and when I'd see like, a dozen people listed as a grip or electric, I was like, WAT?  Y U NEED SO MANY?  Now I know.

We had 3 people working as grips/electrics.  So, the 3 of us setup about a dozen lights, built the rigs, and made sure everything was set.  Then, the camera operators/cast arrived.  They'd shoot for about 15 minutes on the green screen, then we would change up EVERYTHING so they could shoot again.  On top of that, the AC wasn't working, so we had about a dozen 1k lights putting out about a TRILLION degrees of heat, and we were moving equipment that weighed about 30-40lbs each.

So, next time I see a grip/electric listed in the crew of a movie, I'm going to know EXACTLY the hell they go through.

You know, many people don't understand exactly what goes into a movie, but as I learn more and more, 2 things are happening to me:

1.  I can pick out when something is done bad, as well as what type of equipment/technique is used when/where

2. I become more and more surprised that movies turn out as well as they do.

[Jenne]

You don't have their budget.  That's what makes the difference in how they come out.

Also, what the hell is a grip?

[Buck Turgidson]

Yeah, what IS a grip? 

[Pterrydactyl]

A grip is someone who moves equipment and sets it up.  The legend, is that the term grip comes from the gloves they wore, which were made to give them better grip when moving equipment.  Basically, the grip sets up anything that isn't electrical for lighting, for example, the dolly, cranes, props, and q bunch of other stuff.  On smaller budgets, like the one I'm on, the grips do all the electric as well.  And since there were only 3 grips, we had to do a ton of stuff.  Usually, the ratio is for every minute of shooting, there is 10 minutes of grip setup.