We’ve all done it. We’re sitting around after a movie, reading the credits, and then we start making inappropriate jokes about the best boy and the key grip.
They’re amusing job titles. But the fact is that best boys, key grips, gaffers and the rest are actually of enormous importance to a movie. So to help clear up confusion about these and other mysterious jobs on a film set, we offer this convenient guide.
But keep making the jokes. Some of them can be really funny.
Key grip: In movie parlance, the key is the department head. Grips, who are often the hardest-working people on a movie set, are the guys who build things, rig lights (but they don’t actually touch the lights — it’s a union thing), move around heavy stuff, make sure ladders don’t fall and the like. The key grip is the management person in charge of them.
Gaffer: Another management position, on the same level as the key grip. The gaffer is in charge of the lighting department. The people who work for him move the lights that aren’t touched by the grips; they also work with gels, filters and whatever else is needed to make one kind of light look like a different kind of light. The people who do this physical work are called electricians, although most of them aren’t, technically speaking, electricians.
Best boy: The best boys are the assistants to the key grip and the gaffer. In the corporate world, the key grip and gaffer would be analogous to upper management, while the best boys are the middle management who have to make sure that their boss’s orders (or “visions,” depending on whom you ask) are carried out. The grips and electricians are beneath them. Or so the best boys would have you believe.
Dolly grip: Another great name for hilarious jokes. When a camera moves, it is generally placed on a sturdy metal cart called a dolly, which is wheeled back and forth on miniature train tracks. The dolly grip is responsible for laying the tracks (more jokes), making sure they are level and marking how far they are from where the actors will be at specific points. They are also responsible for pushing the dolly at precisely the right speed for the shot.
Foley artists: You know those footsteps you hear in a movie? They aren’t made by the actors. They’re made by people watching the actors after the film has been shot and mimicking their sounds by walking on everything from wooden platforms to small pits of gravel. They’re called “artists” as a way of soothing their feelings. If they ever thought seriously about what it is they do for a living, they’d probably run screaming from the studio. On the other hand, they also get to make such cool sound effects as breaking glass, windstorms and splashes. That’s got to be better than being a clapper loader.
Clapper loader: The clapper loader loads the film into the camera and operates the clapperboard, that hinged thing that has the name of the film and the scene number on it and is snapped shut with a sharp clap at the beginning of each take. But the job is more than that; the clapper loader is also the person responsible for the film negative after it has been shot. He has to make certain it gets safely to the developer. That sounds easy enough, but imagine what happens if something goes wrong — you would lose the efforts of an entire day of filming.
Color timer: Different shots within the same scene do not always match in their look. The sun could have gone down a bit between the shots, a different canister of film stock could have been used or even a different camera. For that matter, two different shots in the same scene could have been filmed months apart. The color timer makes the shots match as much as possible by manipulating the film while it is being printed, often by changing the exposure time.
Craft services: Sounds important, right? Well, it is … sort of. These are the folks who put out the snacks every day: the bagels, the Cheetos, the fresh fruit, the Snickers bars and yogurt. They aren’t paid much, but they are very popular among the cast and crew. Someday, they all hope to direct.
Dan Neman is a former movie critic for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. His weekly movie reviews appear at www.TheBoomerMagazine.com.
