I wonder if anyone knows the whereabouts of a very well-known and respected female key grip/best boy working SF Bay Area scene around 1990 and in SoCal before that. Lisa Harper. She was great!
Try finding the number of woman in the construction department minus labors minus paint department. Try number of woman within the construction department in a leadership role..... Ive met 2 ever in my career which started in 2005 that held any of these titles: Lead Carpenter, Foreman, Coordinator, Head sculptor, Head Metal Fab???? Head Greensman??? Hah Metoo will never make it to that department.
1
Great article—and, if possible, even better comments!
Am sending the link out to some who might not have seen this.
1
"she was physically sexually harassed once"- sounds like you mean "sexually assaulted."
3
thank you for this. i am a retired local 80 Key Grip. i had the pleasure of working with Robena, first as one of my grips in 1986, eventually becoming my best boy, she was one of the best! what are Grips you ask? we are the last of the existential cowboys (and girls). I only wish more women were involved in gripping.
2
Interesting article and rewarding subsequent discussion. (and not a bit of presidential politics) Thank you all. I got educated a bit about something fascinating and about which I knew practically nothing.
3
I was a female key, best, rigging key, and dolly grip for 20 years in the last century...there were more of us then, oddly. I'm still a bit bemused by 'oh - look! An oddity in an odd career!'
Ah well.
5
@parody is this Lisa V.D.? must be because in 1993 there were not many women in MN gripping. Untamed Heart, 1993
@parody
@parody
That's not odd at all. In the history of film, females were more prevalent before the medium got highly political and Hollywood. As soon as it became big business then hierarchies of the day came along with it.
I see much of this "can she" subject like the tech industry or military.
By the data more men seem to be interested in these very physically taxing positions and if a woman is naturally interested in this type of role, she's usually unfairly questioned and has to work twice as hard to "prove" herself, so that's a bit discouraging from the onset. All of it is a huge assumption with some semblance of truth behind the data. Part cultural part fact. I
Let's not all play stupid, you do have to have physical and mental stamina for a grip position. Whether you're a man, woman, transgender, or purple alien, it doesn't matter. If you don't have it and you hold up the production, you won't get called for the next gig. Basic math. Having a penis won't save you here either.
I've worked with an older female grip before. I could care less about her gender or age. Can she lift and transport heavy equipment all day long? Is she knowledgeable in her role? Can she adapt quickly? Is she helpful and resourceful to me as a DP? Does she understand or get the sensibility of the film/show. (Yes, she is/was) This is my criteria across the board. I encourage others to follow this path.
2
My day job is in retail but my dream has always been to do stand-up. In 2012 I signed up as a Background Performer and started working in TV. There isn’t much talking going on as a TV extra so I had to put the stand-up on the back burner.
Working background I noticed a bunch of grips talking on head sets and moving gear around. The thing that stood out were the tools they were carrying around. It had been a year or so since my dad had died leaving me all his tools.
I started asking around and figured out the union training needed to get started. About a year later I had enough training to put a resume together. The following year I started taking grip calls. It’s much more elaborate than extra work and much more lucrative I might add. There are a few women that I’ve worked with and I always treated like I was part of the family. My best success had to be the Handmaid’s Tale. The show won an Emmy and my rigging call was pictured in the Hollywood Reporter.
6
@Jack Manarolis
Congrats on a great production. How did you find the experience working on a Hulu production? Political? Old school? Refreshing? New?
2
@MHartman The scenery looked amazing around Lake Ontario near Oakville. There was something political going on because rumor had it the designer up and quit the night before. The key rigging grip managed to get a picture on his phone from production and we worked setting up stadium style speakers on both ends the way they wanted it to look. Construction people later built out the stage and the set decorators put the final touches. You can view the scene on YouTube. It’s the part when the Handmaids accuse some guy of rape, find him guilty without a trial and then take off his head. A Margaret Atwood classic.
I'm a retired Hollywood Gaffer (set lighting). We work opposite the Grips, get the same pay rate, and interact with them. It's easy to describe what we do which is lighting and bringing in gross quantities of power to burn the lights. In Hollywood, the crew work is divided into departments, each represented by their own union local. Some of our locals are almost entirely women. There's a lot of women in the Camera local working as Camera Operators, Assistants, and unit still photographers and an increasing number as Cinematographers. Some like Grip and Electric have very few. Some say this is because they don't have the upper body strength of men, but more important than that is stamina. I think my local had a few more women than the Grips. Though their numbers in my local are few, their participation in union affairs is large. In the 9 years I sat on our Executive Board which is an elective office, we always had women on the Board. On my crews, I always liked having a woman on the crew because I think men are better when they're working with women. I never recall insults or sexism directed at women, though maybe it's because the department heads hire their own crews, and generally we pick like-minded people who we know will work well together. Many women end up on dimmer boards, a higher paid digital job where you sit in front of the board and change light levels. We have LGTBQ, Hispanics, African-Americans, and people from all over the world and we get along.
15
@Michael Everett
Well, let's be honest, with exception of those at the very top, the industry has a very liberal bias, at least socially. So it's not that suprising there wiuld be more exercise of acceptance and tolerance. Plus, creative types, need I say more? 😆
Finally, at 69 years old, I know what a 'grip' is. Thank you. Good for these women, they are the pioneers, more will follow, I'm sure !
8
While I enjoyed many aspects of the article you could tell it was written by someone who had very little knowledge of film/TV making. That was its strength and also its weakness because many people are novices of how a set works so it was relatable to an average reader. However it made it seem like the author was dropped onto another planet. I wish their was more conversation with female NYC based Grips. I am a NYC based Electric, more specifically I work as a Light Board Operator. I’m a proud IATSE Local 52 member and I have worked alongside several female technicians here in our booming Film/TV industry. This is the New York Times? There could have been more New York content.
10
@Frank La Frazia, Congratulations on being in Local 52, the best union ever. But there are many other places besides NYC where women can't even get a toehold into the business, ESPECIALLY as grips - just doesn't happen. As a woman director who started decades ago, I was energized to see 4 women profiled as key grips wherever they happened to be from. So far I only know one female grip in the past 30 years and she is completely amazing. I'm also the mother of a Best Boy in your Local 52 on a big show who has 20 grips under him and not one a woman. Women are still not valued in the film trades, sorry. Great article, thanks NYT.
9
@Frank La Frazia Article's author here. We were looking specifically at the women who worked either as key grip or best boy grip on the top films from the last three years. As it happened, from the names we received from the researchers mentioned in the top, just one out of the four we spoke with were in NYC.
7
In the realm of live performance, the term of art for the analogous position to a grip is rigger, and the field is equally lopsided in its gender balance. However, my daughter ha made her way into the upper echelons of the profession by sheer dint of will, hard work, study, and skin as thick as an alligator, despite her diminutive frame. The casual sexism and dismissive attitudes of many of the men who work with and for her is appalling, but her work ethic and sheer knowledge of her craft and attention to detail make her a valued asset to the production companies who hire her, and she is rightly well-compensated for it. I thought we got over this 40 years ago, when I was an up and coming Air Force NCO, but I guess we need to continue the fight for women to be afforded the benefit of their aptitudes and skills. Part of her success has been organizing a union local within the production company - very probably the best way to ensure equal pay for equal work.
10
"Whenever women ask about getting into the field, Ragone tells them to go to the gym, get ripped and develop a thick skin. “Because you’re going to be tested,” she said."
As the father of a 21-year old grip just starting out in the industry, this is great advice, regardless of gender.
If you have mechanical aptitude, an engineer's thinking skills, and an athlete's physical capabilities, and want to be in the entertainment industry, you can grip. It's hard, demanding and rewarding work. My son had the grades to be a successful college student, but found working on a set to be everything he really wanted. He's also a former soccer player and track athlete. He's probably put on 20 pounds of pure muscle in the last year, and I'd be safe in saying that quite a bit of that is from working as a grip.
In my opinion, this is one of those fields where the newer generation are more likely to accept women in the field, as long as they can do the job. It's like firefighting or construction in that the physical demands tend to weed out those who can't perform, regardless of gender.
10
@JK
Learn to sprint. Learn to pack a truck efficiently and quickly. Lots of hurry up and wait. 😆
@MHartman
Those are some interesting observations. From talking with my son, I've heard him talk about the frantic pace for setting up the first shot, followed by 6+ hours of nothing. I've also had him say that he's gotten really good at packing trucks. He recently moved out of our house; The amount of space he used to pack his "stuff" was really minimal. It was impressive.
His goal is to get into Local 80 in the next year or so. I don't know all the hoops he has to jump through to get membership, but he's well on his way.
2
And can a woman be a best boy? And just what does a best boy do?
"Best Boy" is the title of the #2 Grip on the set. The "Key Grip" generally stays near the camera and receives instructions from the Director of Photography as to he or she wants to set up a shot.
The Key is responsible to manage the grip crew to get accomplish what needs to be done - often delegating the details to Best Boy.
In feature film production, the Best Boy position can involve a lot of paperwork - scheduling specialized equipment and adjusting crew staffing to meet the constantly changing needs of the shoot as it adapts to changes of plan due to weather conditions or other contingencies.
15
@Si Hopkins Yes. I am a woman and Bested TV shows and I Bested two Features in 2018, it’s just not mentioned in the article. I am speaking from experience working on Feature Films and TV. The Best Boy, is responsible for going on scouts, hiring and firing crew, paperwork, timecards, working with production, coordinating with teamsters, finding and maintaining extra crew when needed (usually always), truck prep, cleaning and maintaining the truck, truck wrap, keeping track of all the gear for the length of the show, responsible for ordering ALL specialized gear needed for a shot, including but limited to, Dollys, Camera Cranes, Camera Heads, Specialized Vehicles, Car Rigs and Technocranes. A huge part of the job also includes logistics, which includes getting all the gear into the location for the shot. The Key Grip is actually responsible for a little more than “setting up the shot”. Grips three main responsibilities on set are Camera Support, Lighting and Safety. The Director of Photography (DP) is who we directly report to, but it entails EVERYTHING about the shot. The location of the camera, and how the shots LOOK, we make everything LOOK how the DP wants it. The Grips shape, cut, color and diffuse light, and often times, at night, in the woods, while raining. The Key Grip delegates to his crew, directly, on set, by radio. The Best Boy also receives orders from the Key for special projects. This is, of course, in a nutshell.
19
@Melanie Ragone "The Key Grip is actually responsible for a little more than “setting up the shot”".....you might get a little push back on that..
1
The other half of this equation is that Grips/Best Boys also have a lot of pull over who gets those entry level jobs behind the scenes. If they don't like you, well, you aren't on the set. For them, women working as set PA's only make sense when they're collecting time cards and telling the line producer they want to put in a request to purchase more expendables. It translates into very few women behind the scenes. Don't get me started on how they also see female PA's as a potential dating pool.
8
I recently did a season on a FOX show that filmed in Chicago. There were several female grips, whom I did not know, although I knew much of the crew from other shows. The support and encouragement given the female grips was inspiring. NOT that they needed it: they worked twice as hard as anybody on the set -- they earned every dollar they made. And I am glad to say in my nearly 30 years in television, I have never seen a female grip or director hassled or discouraged by other crew members. Although I am sure it happens, I am very proud to have been a member of teams that would NOT put up with that kind of behavior.
15
"tensile strength of a 100-year-old floor"?
While grips (male or female) may have a "grip" on what it takes to keep things from falling down, the author of this article certainly doesn't.
And don't confuse experience with engineering: the application of engineering, physics, and materials science into understanding and predicting the behavior of various types of structures. Structural engineering does not just apply to roads, bridges, and buildings.
2
@Chris - The reason this was likely mentioned was safety; the Key Grip is responsible for safety issues on the set along with the 1st AD. It's a big deal.
6
@Chris I'm a retired Hollywood Gaffer, and yes, when you're bringing something really heavy onto a stage, like a condor (aerial lighting platform) you do need to know whether the stage floor can bare the weight. We do have a few hundred year old stages, like the Chaplin studios plus a huge number that are 60-70 years old, though they were built to last, and I've never seen a failure.
7
@Michael Everett Also a retired 728 guy here but out of SF. I remember maybe 20-30 years ago when the stage floor gave away. It may have been Raleigh or Uni, I forget. There was a pit on that particular stage which had been covered over with ply or whatever. Two guys were in a lift, drove over it and were thrown against the wall. One died. Although rare, it can certainly be a dangerous business.
5