MFJF map · UK
The lighting department: the people and the process
The director of photography is responsible for the image, and three crews work to the DoP: camera captures the picture, lighting makes and shapes the light, grip builds what the camera sits on or moves on. The sparks are electricians by trade and by law: they power the set and rig, operate and de-rig every lamp. In the UK they and the grips are separate crews with separate heads, trucks and trainees, and both are short of people.
The lighting crew, top to bottomWho is in it
A small drama: a gaffer, a best boy, two or three sparks and a trainee. A studio feature: as many as forty across the shooting and rigging crews.
The grips beside themThe other crew at the camera
In the UK the grips are the camera-support crew only. Everything that shapes or cuts light, from a flag on a stand to a twelve-foot frame of diffusion, belongs to the sparks.
Recce and prepBefore the shoot
Everything a trainee rigs was decided on a recce, which is why the gaffer's answer to "why there?" is usually "because of the recce".
Pre-rig and the shootOn the floor
Called before most of the crew; on a pre-light day, they are the crew. Ten to twelve hours on camera, more by the time the truck is closed.
The trainee's dayFrom the truck to the de-rig
Nobody expects you to know a 2K from a 5K. They expect you to listen, repeat back, carry, put back, ask before you touch power, and keep going at hour eleven.
Where you start, and where it leadsThe bottom rung, and the ladder
A best boy wants a trainee who already knows how a floor moves, so the first days come from places that do not ask for set experience. The trainee grade itself usually takes two to three years.
