A British Grip Talks about the British System.

One of our readers, Ian Mussel, is a British Key/Dolly Grip. After several years in England, he now works in the Middle East.

I asked him to tell us how he got started and some ways the British system differs from the U.S.

I started out in the British industry completely by accident, I was looking for building or

mechanical work both of which I had experience in. I was introduced to a great guy called Andy Young who "needed a hand with a crane"

I was very grateful for the days work, not knowing what I was letting myself in for. The job turned out to be a Giraffe on the hairpin of a race track for the world touring car championship! I remember thinking wow this has got to be the best way in the world to earn a living! Incidentally I still feel the same way now!

So from there I went onto a tv drama with the same guy as trainee and got some great experience which led me to become a crane and remote head tech at Panavision. So my foot was in the door of the big budget features world where I met, in my opinion, one of the greatest grips in the uk, Vic Hammond. After a while he offered me the position of 'b' camera grip on a movie he was doing, I was terrified, a real baptism of fire! I got through it though all be it with a lot of help from Vic. I went on to grip a much smaller movie on my own and the rest I guess is history!

Here are some questions:

D- A British Key Grip I used to work for, named Chunky, told me once about prospective dolly grips being put in a room and practicing circles with dollies all day. Did you do this?

I've heard a lot about chunky from the guys i trained with but never heard of rooms full of potential grips dollying round in circles! (might not be a bad idea though!)

D- Do ac's operate the boom?

it is traditional for 2nd ac's to operate the boom in the u.k, i personally don't like this method and normally dolly and boom myself, i do however always do my best to train 2nd ac's to boom as many other grips insist they do it.

D- What dollies do you use there? Which do you like?
i always try and use the hustler 4 regardless of how challenging the location (see american cinematographer 12/07) if its a real problem then i use the peewee 3+, i find the hustler to be amazingly stable and very quick and easy to make comfortable for the operator.

D- What exactly do British camera grips do? Do you protect the lens from flares?
british camera grips are responsible almost solely for camera support equipment, if there is a flare then the lighting department fix it or occasionally the camera crew depending on who you’re working with. we tend to have far less grips on set than the electrical department the general rule is one grip per camera.

D- I know you work in the Middle East now. How much work is there? What kind?
the work in the middle east is surprisingly plentiful i think more so than anywhere else in the world mostly because there are only 4 or 5 of us keys here! we don’t get any work from tv and very few feature films, but last year i did over 70 commercials! the majority being high end car commercials.

I'd like to thank Ian for his interesting answers. I hope you like them.