Curious About Becoming a Grip? Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the Equipment
Interested in working in lighting and rigging as a grip? Here’s a full guide on how to enter the world of grip-ology to help you become an expert equipment technician.
We know that, to many, it might not be the most glamorous job in the world, but if you're interested in filmmaking, cinematography, and generally enjoy working with lighting, rigging, and other related technical equipment, being a grip can be a very rewarding career choice.
It’s also a skill that crosses over with lots of other roles in filmmaking, so it’s also a good one to explore to simply learn more about the filmmaking process as a whole and further level up your overall talents.
Regardless of why you might be here, if you are interested in learning more about the work of a grip, our friends at B&H have put together a great guide that goes over everything you need to know about working in this profession and the equipment you’ll need to be familiar with.
An Intro to Grip Equipment
You’re here! Welcome to the world of grip. In this great tutorial from the B&H Event Space YouTube channel, the intro video is sponsored by Impact and hosted by product developer Jason Friedman.
The video covers pretty much everything you’d ever need to know about the work of a grip and goes over the basic anatomy of a light stand to advanced rigging techniques. The video also covers why every project needs a grip on set and further breaks down the different grip positions and the technicians needed to make everything happen.
Here’s a full breakdown of what is covered in the video with timestamps.
- 0:00 Intro
- 1:43 Grip 101
- 13:01 Anatomy of a light stand
- 20:10 Light stand & pins specs
- 35:20 Break casting
- 36:37 Light stand head types
- 39:58 Stand types
- 1:01:16 C-Stand uses
- 1:04:22 Grip hardware
- 1:23 Key stand lineup
- 1:30:30 Other key grip equipment
For more info, you can learn more on B&H’s blog here, or check out these additional articles covering lighting, rigging, and filmmaking in general below.
