Lighting and grip are two separate crews in the UK, and you will choose one. The lighting crew, the sparks, are electricians who power, rig and shape every lamp, and here they also own the flags, frames and diffusion. The grips build and move everything the camera sits on: track, dollies, jibs, cranes and car rigs. A lighting trainee answers to the best boy, then the gaffer; a grip trainee to the grip they are with, then the key grip. You carry, coil, hand up and put back, and never touch power until a spark has shown you. Stage 1 is what you learn before any paid day: both crews, the kit, the safety and which side is yours. Stage 2 is shorts, a rental house, an electrical course or the grip route, and references. Stage 3 is paid trainee days and the qualifications for spark or grip. Mark each line done, next or later, and be honest.
Read the career guide for what the job involves day to day.
Stage 1: Before your first job
34 things to do, know or be able to do
Experience 11
- If you are studying, push your college or university for work experience and for crew places on its final-year films.
- Work on student and properly run no-budget shorts carrying stands, running cable or helping the grip, and ask first who the gaffer is and where the power is coming from.
- Email a lighting rental house (Panalux, MBS, Sunbelt Rentals, Universal Production Services or a regional house) or a grip house and ask for a few hours in the warehouse or a day watching a prep.
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Skills 11
- Take your driving test if you do not have a licence; lighting and grip crews move kit to locations by van.
- Know that a car licence passed on or after 1 January 1997 covers vehicles up to 3,500 kg; a 7.5 tonne lighting truck needs category C1, and driving one for work brings rules on hours and records, so never drive one until the best boy says you are covered.
- Can you set a C-stand safely: legs open, the big leg under the load, a sandbag on, the arm and knuckle locked the right way?
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Knowledge 12
- Know the UK split: the sparks own the lamps, the power, the flags, the frames and the diffusion; the grips own camera support only. Read the Grips Branch's What is a Grip? page, which explains how the American split differs.
- Know who you answer to: a lighting trainee to the best boy, then the gaffer; a grip trainee to the grip they are with, then the key grip.
- Research the example CVs on MFJF; there is no lighting or grip example yet, so use the Stage 1 skills-based template and the Camera Trainee Stage 1 example.
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Stage 2: Experience and contacts
28 things to do, know or be able to do
Experience 10
- Work towards 5 credits on shorts as a lighting or grip trainee, ideally with a different gaffer or grip each time so your references multiply.
- Take paid prep, pre-rig and de-rig days on commercials and drama when a best boy rings; many first paid days come from them.
- Apply for the two-year Level 3 Screen Lighting Technician apprenticeship when Access, the training provider, posts places (September intakes over the summer, sometimes a February intake in winter); you are usually employed by a lighting rental house, and it began in the South East of England.
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Skills 8
- Are you able to demonstrate a professional attitude on set?
- Can you fly and sandbag a frame of diffusion with a spark, and bring it down when the wind picks up?
- Can you run cable from the distro to a lamp, mat it where people cross, and never pull a connector under load?
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Knowledge 10
- Read the lighting rate cards on the Sparks Branch site and the Grips Branch rate card on BECTU's ratecards page before you agree a rate; the film cards are set by budget band.
- Know that commercials crew work under the APA crew terms, updated each September, and that the Sparks Branch publishes the lighting rates that go with them.
- Know the National Living Wage from April 2026: 12.71 pounds an hour at 21 and over, 10.85 at 18 to 20; a production that treats you as a worker must pay at least that.
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Stage 3: Paid work
23 things to do, know or be able to do
Experience 7
- Work consistently for 2-3 years as a trainee on features and high-end TV; the grip scheme counts at least 400 shoot days, and in the current market allow longer.
- Take rigging and pre-rig days on studio features, where many new sparks and grips are taken on.
- Be the spark or the grip on short films so you have run a small rig yourself before you are paid to.
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Skills 7
- Do you feel confident working with new people?
- Are you able to fit into an established team?
- Can you operate a lamp through a take and change it on the cue without being told twice?
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Knowledge 9
- Look for work before the job you are on finishes.
- Have a network of best boys, gaffers and grips who know who you are and what you can do.
- Keep refining your CV, keep it to one page, and rebuild it in the MFJF CV Builder each time your title changes.
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Ways in for a lighting and grip trainee
Real schemes, checked on the organiser’s own page. A shut one is still here with when it comes back, because half the big schemes are closed at any one time and that is worth knowing.
- Trainee FinderScreenSkillsPeople over 18 who live in the UK and have less than 12 months of paid production experience in their chosen department. No on-set experience is needed, and there is no upper age limit.Final deadline 28 October 2026
- Sara Putt Associates Trainee SchemeSara Putt AssociatesTwo professional credits but under three years' cumulative experience, in Camera, Sound, Edit, Production Office, Art, Costume, AD, Script Supervisor, Locations, or Hair and Make-Up.Final deadline 24 January 2027
- GBCT Camera Trainee SchemeGuild of British Camera TechniciansPeople wanting to start in the camera department.Not open right now
Sources and References
This is MFJF’s own three-stage career plan for a lighting and grip trainee, written up from our Foundations course and careers guide for the role. Open any of them yourself.
- MFJF careers guide: Lighting and Grip Trainee what the job involves day to day
- The Three Career Stages the framework all three stages follow
Every link checked 19 September 2026. The plan itself was last revised October 2026.
