The movie business is a complex machine.
About a month and a half ago, I wrote Part One about different jobs on a film crew. Realizing there was a lot that couldn’t make it in a modest number of words, I present you another batch.
It takes hundreds of crew members to make even a moderate film, and if you have ever been bored enough after a movie to scroll through all the titles of those folks, there are probably positions that aren’t familiar. Each one has their own specialty.
What is a Best Boy? No it’s not a nostalgic term used by Harvey Weinstein to describe his favorite friend at a Diddy shindig.
Best Boy is basically the right hand assistant for the head electrician (Key Grip) who is delegated much of the hands-on work. Is often seen working on lighting the set.
If you’re wondering what a Dolly Grip is, it’s not the person who holds on to Dolly Parton so she doesn’t fall over from her unbalanced frontal weight and high heels.
He or she manually pushes a camera mounted on a wheeled cart along railroad type tracks so that it can follow action such as the actor walking and talking in the scene. You’ve seen it hundreds of times without knowing.
The Gaffer is not a guy who follows a braindead 90 year old politician and keeps tabs on his gaffs.
This person is the head of the lighting department and makes the Director of Photography’s (DP) desired look for the film happen. Lighting is everything to a film and is even used outdoors in bright sunlight to even out the color and fight unwanted shadows.
The Second Unit Director commands a small skeleton crew who shoots segments of film that no actors are in. They will splice the pieces in where needed.
When Tom Cruise gets into a car to ride down the road and then you see the car driving from the air, he is not in it. At $25-plus million dollar salary, they aren’t going to have him ride up and down the road for hours to get the right shot.
The Location Scout is a person who drives around the area looking for… you guessed it… locations to shoot in when filming away from the studio and sound stages. They may look for buildings that would look cool, places that fit the look of the story, etc. Then deals are made to get permission and payment to the appropriate owners.
They take lots of photos, measurements and notes and present them to the Production Designer so they can design the shot.
On a legitimate show, only the Armorer is in 100% in charge of all firearms or weapons and the rules for handling of these are very strictly enforced. Armorers are super heavily trained, and they are well paid.
Weapons and specialized ammunition are checked constantly.
Even certain blank cartridges can be lethal up close, and the armorer has to decide what to use. Live rounds are never allowed on a movie set. Not ever.
When “cut” is called out, weapons are quickly confiscated from the actor holding them. And rechecked.
The movie “Rust” cheaped out and did not hire a real armorer.
Alec Baldwin did not bother to read my articles I guess.
Thom Caraccio ([email protected]) is a retired musician and retired motion picture scenic artist living in West Palm Beach, Florida who hails from Columbus. He graduated from S.D. Lee High in 1968 and still considers Columbus his real hometown.
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