← Glossary · Crew - Grip

Key Grip

aka Head Grip

The head of the grip department, responsible for camera support, rigging, and shaping light with flags and diffusion.

The key grip leads the grip department: the crew that handles everything the camera sits on or moves with - dollies, tracks, cranes, car rigs - and everything that shapes light without powering it, such as flags, nets, diffusion and bounce. The grips work hand in glove with the gaffer's electricians (the gaffer powers the light, the grips control and cut it) and with the camera department on every move. The best boy grip is the key's second, managing the truck and the crew. On the schedule, complex grip rigs - a crane, a tracking vehicle, a tight rig in a stairwell - are the setups that eat time, so the key grip's read of the shot list shapes the day order.