American Grip And European Grip

[Ariel Velez]

Hello, someone could explain to me the difference of responsibilities between European grip and American grip, or is just a myth that has different responsibilities

Thank you

[Onno Perdijk]

Hello Ariel,

 

In Europe it differs from country as well; Here is something about holland and surroundings. I cannot tell you the job of the US grips, in this way that others can tell you that far better...

 

Most grips in Europe are what they call in US DollyGrips, which mean they setup the dolly, push the dolly and when around they set-up tripods and create easy rigs and constructions for camera's.

Most of the time an European-grip is a one-man-department, sometimes he has a trainee or assistant-grip. Ofcourse that changes when a crane is involved, but mostly a gripcrew is understaffed.

 

In some country's the grips also do the blackouts and the overheads, most of the time it is done by the electricians. (this does not necessarily mean that do do help setting it up.) Electricians are doing their job as electrician and fill the gap between the grip and the lighting-dep...

 

Scaffolding for light is done by electricians, camera-towers by the Grip.

 

Basicly a GripTruck consist of Track, dollys, appleboxes and camerarigs: It is a small truck around 10n to at max, with some exceeding in tonnage.

 

I would like to have a bigger crew and more responsibilities, more to do, but that is my opinion, not the producers or UPM.

 

This is not as final as it might sound, more input is welcome, this is the way I see it happening and evolving.

 

So far.

 

 

Good Luck,

 

Onno

[Rob Fischer]

I'm in South Africa and here we tend to say that we work the "english " system , although having worked with english crews we actually mix both styles together .

I have also worked many american shows . the American grips will have a dolly grip who does just that , then they will have flagging grips who will handle all the flagging and overheads and blackout as well as gels not attached to the lights . anything on the lamp is the sparks deal . Any of the bigger setups the riggers will handle in both cases .

Actually come to think of it . it's complicated and almost never the same . the best thing is to say how I do it

We will handle everything from head and legs ( I will have a grip on every camera ) , dolly and cranes . then we will do all the overheads generally from 20x20 up but will always help the sparks with these in locking them down for wind, and blackout .I expect my guys to know how to set a flag and why they are setting it . I also will do all the light rigging like gantries in studios . We carry jonzey decks for platforms be it for artists , cameras , boom swingers etc . I carry various car rigs and all the tube to rig for any situation .

So Basically we do what ever we have to and try do it all in house . My team will generally be about 6 guys but on the bigger jobs will increase to about 10 .

[Warwick Hempleman]

Ariel,

 

It's not a myth at all. Rob and Onno pretty much hit all the bases. The main difference is flagging and rigging. You could say that's Us vs UK gripping, with the continent being a mix of both on smaller productions and smaller budgets. I tend to call what we do here in Germany the "Big Happy Family" school of crewing. Departmental jurisdictions are nearly nonexistent with very flat hierarchy. This works for smaller stories, but generally falls apart for big setups.

[Ariel Velez]

thanks everyone for the answers. In my country the key grip is responsable for the dolly, cranes, camera flags, riggings, butterflies but the light supports and difussion are electrician´s. Here, the key grip needs to prepare an equipment list incluiding all the items that we will use during de shoting days based on the tech recce, if you missed something is your own problem, because we dont use to have the truck loaded with default gear.

Edited October 10, 2010 by Ariel Velez