Well's experiences with Dill gave him an edge when he worked with cinematographer Elliott Davis on Spike Lee's Get on the Bus. "It was my first time working with Elliott, and more than anything else, he needed his key grip to be in his corner at all times. The gaffer and I were his left and right hands." The film had to be completed over just 3 1/2 weeks in four different cities. "Spike sat us all down at the beginning and told us we had to do our homework and be prepared, because we didn't have time to screw up. Fortunately, we didn't."
Dill admits that his preference for working with big, soft sources makes his grips' job more difficult. "It's hard to cut a big source," he notes. Dill recalls working with Wells on the movie of the week Mantis. "I was using a Maxi-Brute, and Derek gave me a flag, a big solid suspended from one of the two Condor cranes I had up one for the light and another one Derek had ordered especially for the solid. Basically, I had the same essential ability to cut light that I'd have with a smaller source."
Dill also notes that grips have to be astute when dealing with wind conditions that arise during exterior shoots. "I've done a lot of night exteriors, and when I'm working with big sources, flags have to be flown high off the ground. The cutting angle is narrow, which makes it more difficult for my grips. But they always make it happen without a lot of noise."
When Dill and Wells worked on Murder Was the Case, a long-format music video directed by Dr. Dre for rapper Snoop Doggy Dog, Dill needed to clear a path for Steadicam operator Kirk Gardner. "Some people think that once you bring in a Steadicam, the grip's job is done," Dill notes. "But that's not true." The Steadicam operator had to follow a character entering a building, then move up to and through a low exterior window so that the camera could meet up with the actor at a party within the building. "To pull it off," says Dill, "we had to build a ramp to get up to the window, and use a hydraulic lift platform so the Steadicam operator could get down once he was inside the window. And it all had to be built before lunch!"
Wells remembers the Murder shoot as "a single seamless shot during which the camera never stopped rolling." He also notes that Gardner, the Steadicam operator, "is a large man, over 240 pounds," and had to get through a 6' x 3' window that was five feet off the ground. "With the apparatus attached to Kirk's body," Wells notes, "he was about 6' 1" and two or three feet wide, which made my job difficult." The ramp had to be strong enough to support the operator, yet light enough to move in and out of the shot without being seen. Wells accomplished the task by attaching a special platform to the head of a Fisher 10 dolly. He recalls, "Kirk helped by keeping the camera moving as he stepped into the window and we boomed the dolly down."
Gary Nepa, a grip who worked with Dill on Robert Townsend's comedy B.A.P.S., notes that "while the grip's role changes depending on whether you're doing a commercial, or a music video or a feature, the grip's relationship with the cinematographer never changes." A grip, says Nepa, is responsible for "all methods of camera movement and all methods of controlling light." The nature of the grip/cinematographer rapport boils down to "fulfilling each cinematographer's vision which isn't always easy, since each cinematographer has a different way of expressing that vision. The cameraman has to tell his key grip exactly what he wants, and give the grip guidance in terms of what's expected next. That way, the grip can anticipate things, and be more prepared. Most importantly, though, the grip and cinematographer have to think in sync. If they can meet up on these points, it should be a smooth transition from shot to shot."
Nepa has also worked with cinematographer Jeff Jur, who helped him rig cameras to shoot car crash scenes for the unaired NBC pilot Cutty Whitman. Nepa will never forget the 12 days he spent in Prescott, Arizona, helping Jur execute a sequence in which a jeep is chased down a cliff by motorcycles. "The real challenge was to create the same point of view that the driver of the crashing jeep would have, so we mounted Eyemo cameras inside the jeep," explains Nepa. Jur bonded with his grip on the challenging shoot, and later called him to do another TV show, but Nepa was already busy on another Bill Dill project. "Bill and I are respectful of one another, and we know how to get things done together," Nepa says. "We also know when to bring a little humor in to lighten things up."
The nature of a grip/cinematographer relationship, Nepa notes, differs depending on the director of photography's experience. When the grip worked with Jeff Cutter, "who is a very talented but relatively new cinematographer who's still learning his art," Nepa was able to help Cutter define and strengthen his relationship with other crew members. "There are things that we can do for him that he might not ask us to do because he doesn't expect it. An experienced grip can be a good teacher for a director of photography who's just coming down the pike. We can give them more tools than they may have expected, and help them expand their abilities."
When Nepa worked with cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh on Jane Campion's Portrait of a Lady, he found the experience to be very different. "Stuart is a talented and well-established gentleman who's been around the block. He knows what works. He is always very specific about what he wants to see, and yet he's very open to suggestions, which creates a very interesting work relationship."
[ continued on page 3 ]