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Ever wonder what all those strange credits are when they roll by at the end of a film? I used to, until I moved to LA, where I started meeting Best Boys and Dolly Grips with their kids when I took my son to the playground—yes, Hollywood, where you meet Gaffers and Armourers at your average Saturday night house party.
So I started asking questions, and here’s what I’ve learned:
1. Boom Operator
No, this job has nothing to do with explosives or pyrotechnics. The boom referred to is a long pole with a mic attached to it–the mic that picks up all the dialogue the actors are saying. The boom allows the mic operator to move with the action and stay out of the camera’s field of vision.
2. Armourer
Now this job does deal with explosives, of a sort. The armourer’s specialty is firearms, which, when used as a prop, requires a special handler. War movies and cops movies sometimes need several armourers to keep track of all the firearms, which, even though filled with blanks, can still be quite dangerous. (Remember Jon-Erik Hexum? Anyone? Anyone?)
3. Gaffer
Though the gaffer manages the entire electrical department, all the guys who run cables and hang lights, his main responsibility is mounting and positioning lights and lighting rigs.
4. Grip
Grips are sort of like worker bees. They do lots of different things, like moving set pieces, scenery, and pushing cameras on dollies for follow-shots. But the grip’s main job is lighting. They set up filters in front of the lights and position sun blocks to keep natural light from ruining a scene.
5. Key Grip
This guy runs the Grips dept and assists the Gaffer. He usually knows his team well and will contract out the same people for each film or production he’s hired to work on.
6. Best Boy
This guy has nothing at all to do with a wedding, unless we’re talking something like Wedding Crashers. There are two types of best boys: electrical and grip. Best boy electric is the gaffer’s assistant. A best boy grip assists the key grip.
7. Dolly Grip
A dolly grip operates the movie camera dolly. If you’ve ever wondered how cameras seem to follow actors so surreptitiously and so fluidly in some scenes, it’s because the camera is mounted on a dolly, not handheld, and pushed along a track, like a little one-car train.
8. Foley Artist
A foley artist is responsible for creating the sound effects that are added in post-production. Why Foley? Well, Jack Foley was one of the first and most famous sound effects guys in the biz.
9. Greensman
This sounds like someone who makes sure the golf course looks good before a shoot at a country club, no? It’s actually the person responsible for placing plants, flowers, shrubs, etc. in a scene.
10. Key Scenic
This guy oversees the painting dept. A key scenic designer uses painting techniques to make buildings look old, or new, or whatever is called for.
11. Lead Man
If you’re thinking this is the star of the film, you’re wrong. That’s the leading man. A lead man is in charge of the entire set crew.
12. Buyer
As the name implies, this person finds set pieces, or dressing for the set, and buys (or rents) them.
13. Set Dresser
My next-door neighbor is a set dresser who worked on a lot of well-known sitcoms. He says that when the dressers aren’t busy placing the items the buyer purchased, they’re usually hanging paintings in a room, installing TVs in a bedroom set, that sort of thing. People often confuse the set dresser with the set designer. They’re actually two very different jobs. I didn’t give Set Designer any real estate here because I figured most people can imagine what this job is all about.
14. Director of Photography
The director of photography, otherwise known in this town as the DP, oversees all the artistic aspects of the shot, meaning lighting, camera placement, etc. It’s the DP’s job to work with the Director and get his/her vision captured on camera. (Good directors are usually good DPs, but most directors have to rely on others to technically capture their vision.) The DP is also often called a Cinematographer, especially in film (DP is more common in TV)
15. The Second Assistant Camera (2nd AC)
I have left many titles off the list, because, quite frankly, we’d be here all day. But the 2nd AC is worth mentioning because he/she handles the clapperboard, or slate. Yes, he’s the guy clapping the board before each take, which allows the editors to sync up all the various camera angles/cameras later in the editing room. Also, as has been pointed out, the 2nd AC loads the film in the camera mags, unless there’s a dedicated loader in the production.
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Comments (22)
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More like “remember Brandon Lee? Anyone? Anyone?”
posted by Joel on 4-14-2009 at 9:32 am
Wow, I hope no 2nd ACs read this post. You really sold them short with that description. While they do run the slate, they have WAY more responsibilities than that.
Just a brief sampling:
Keeping inventory of all equipment, film stock, and expendables; maintaining and cleaning camera equipment; marking actors and/or props during blocking; keeping a log of all camera shots; interacting with the script supervisor; keeping camera crew time sheets; record-keeping of all camera dept. related paperwork. In addition, they generally assist every other memeber of the camera dept., plus they are the liaision between the set and the production office and postproduction facility.
There’s more, but you get the general idea. A good 2nd AC is one of the hardest working people on a film set.
Oh, and I do remember Jon-Erik Hexum. Tragic.
posted by 8rustystaples on 4-14-2009 at 10:36 am
yea…i had no idea who Jon-Erik Hexum was. Brandon Lee would have been a much better reference. Both tragic incidences though
posted by andy on 4-14-2009 at 11:15 am
Eeeheee! Buyer!
I get excited because I’m a buyer and whenever I tell people that, I get a “Whahuh?” look. I usually quote the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film: “I just think it sounds cool, you know? Buyer, buying, to buy…”
Buyers are in most industries, by the way. I’m a Healthcare Buyer.
posted by Mary Sue on 4-14-2009 at 11:39 am
Yes, I remember Jon Erik Hexum. And Brandon Lee.
They may be blanks, but we don’t shoot ourselves with them!
posted by beth on 4-14-2009 at 12:12 pm
This was a very interesting post! I love lists with easy to digest tidbits of information. Very cool. You know, when I was a kid, I used to think that the director of photography was responsible for any photos used in the background of a set! You know, like in the scenes where the camera pans around a room and you see the photos on the mantle or what have you…
posted by Ophelia on 4-14-2009 at 1:18 pm
i think you mean the DP “oversees” all the artistic aspects of the shot. yes, i’m obnoxious.
posted by brandon on 4-14-2009 at 1:27 pm
Funny, my first thought was Brandon Lee too. I don’t remember Erik Hexum (maybe because I was only 5)- had to look him up.
Hexum put a gun with blanks in it to his head and pulled the trigger.
Lee died because the crew had been using “dummy cartridges” in the gun and one became stuck without them realizing it. The gun was later used with blanks for Lee’s character’s death scene – with tragic results.
posted by Nerak on 4-14-2009 at 5:00 pm
This article would have been considerably better if half of the entries didn’t start with “Thought this meant XYZ? Wrong!” OK, I get it. Just tell me what the title means already!
posted by Mike on 4-14-2009 at 7:32 pm
I’m a working gaffer in New York City and many people I meet have the same opening question when I tell them what I do: “OK, I’ve seen ‘Gaffer’ before but I have no idea what they do, can you explain it for me?”
This is sort of how I explain it.
The gaffer works directly under the DoP on a set, he’s not only in charge of the electrical dept (tells them what lights to put where, then the best boy electric tells the electrics how to distribute the power and what stands to use for the lights), but is ALSO in charge of the grip team. He’s sort of like the buffer between the artsy DoP and the grunts in the g&e (grip & electric) crew.
Also: grips don’t move set pieces or scenery, that’s another deparment’s job. Grips set hanging points (or huge stands) for lights on set for the electric team and then flag off or diffuse light as per the gaffer’s request, they also lay dolly track/push the dolly.
This is just a cursory example of the responsibilities of these roles, there’s a lot more that they do.
posted by A Gaffer on 4-15-2009 at 9:01 am
This was fascinating! Thanks! I remember wondering about Best Boys when I was a kid watching credits roll by. I became obsessed with watching ALL the credits of any movie I watched just to see who the Best Boy was. After a while I started noticing some of the same guys popping up. It’s amazing to think of all the people who work behind the scenes of movies and tv shows who make it all look so effortless!
posted by Shasta on 4-15-2009 at 4:37 pm
No wonder why it costs $50 to take your kid to a movie now days. Not only the overpaid actors to pay but all these other people!
RT
http://www.anon-tools.at.tc
posted by John Davis on 4-15-2009 at 8:32 pm
First there
There is one gaffer. Anybody under him is an electric. A grip is much more than a worker bee and should never touch a set piece.
An easy way to see it is gaffer and his electrics do light while the key grip and grips do shadows.
posted by Seth on 4-15-2009 at 8:50 pm
Two posts here that make me wonder about the poster. The first was the buyer…duh…no one needs an explanation, we all know what a buyer does. Buyer is a verb form of the word ‘buy’ so its pretty obvious to anyone that knows the English language.
The second was the person that said “This article would have been considerably better if half of the entries didn’t start with “Thought this meant XYZ? Wrong!” OK, I get it. Just tell me what the title means already!” Looks like you didn’t even read the article because there wasn’t one that read exactly that way and three that were close. Three out of fifteen possbiles is NOT half. 7.5 would be half, so your math stinks.
The article itself. Good, perhaps too general but enough info to have a basic understanding of the terms.
posted by Matthew on 4-15-2009 at 8:59 pm
A Lead Man is in the art department. An AD runs the set.
posted by A DP on 4-15-2009 at 9:02 pm
To John Davis:
These people are not the reason movie prices are so high today… This has been the standard crew roster for making films for nearly 100 years. So while this has stayed constant other factors have made movie prices rise.
And most directors I’ve worked with are not good DPs. Otherwise they’d be dps too. The DP is also in charge of the gaffer (the lighting department) and the camera department and has final say over most things in the shot (putting them above the set department and people like the greensman).
Interestingly enough it’s the director who decides where to put the camera (what type of shot… long, medium, wide, close, etc)
posted by Filmmaker on 4-15-2009 at 9:30 pm
2nd AC also does follow focus if I recall correctly
posted by vladimir poopen on 4-15-2009 at 10:50 pm
I really wonder to see all the production credits explained in detail way so nearly you have explained 15 production credits and i guess that no one can tell like you and it was great Article or blog to discuss with people and i have gone through all your Article simply good than other articles, I know many of them love read and more on this site.
posted by ramdev on 4-16-2009 at 8:36 am
I really wonder to see all the production credits explained in detail way so nearly you have explained 15 production credits and i guess that no one can tell like you and it was great Article or blog to discuss with people and i have gone through all your Article simply good than other articles, I know many of them love read and more on this site. thank you
posted by ramdev on 4-16-2009 at 8:41 am
I really wonder to see all the production credits explained in detail way so nearly you have explained 15 production credits and i guess that no one can tell like you and it was great Article or blog to discuss with people and i have gone through all your Article simply good than other articles, I know many of them love read and more on this site. thanks to everyone.
posted by ramdev on 4-16-2009 at 8:44 am
I’m amazed at the people who get put in CGI film credits these days.
One film I saw (I believe it was Coraline [which I realize was not all CGI]) had
HR people (the Frankenhausers), data wranglers, and other odd and sundry credits.
posted by the gostak on 4-17-2009 at 2:29 am
CGI or NOT?
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posted by ienlsi on 6-25-2009 at 4:44 am