What does Grip Equipment mean?
Grip Equipment refers to the specialized tools, supports, and hardware used by the grip department to position, move, and control cameras and lighting on a film or television production. Grip equipment includes camera dollies, tracks, cranes, jibs, car mounts, tripods, fluid heads, C-stands, sandbags, flags, nets, diffusion frames, and a wide range of specialized clamps, arms, and mounting hardware. The grip department’s equipment enables the camera department to place and move the camera in virtually any position or configuration the director of photography requires.
Example:The key grip inventoried the grip truck before the first day of filming, confirming that all the camera support equipment and rigging hardware needed for the production’s planned shots was on hand — from the standard dolly and track to the specialized low-mode adapter needed for the ground-level chase sequence.
Example: The grip team used C-stands, sandbags, and a large diffusion frame to create a soft, even light quality for the outdoor interview setup — grip equipment working in service of the lighting design as much as the camera placement.
Did you know?
The grip department’s name comes from the earliest days of cinema, when crew members were called grips because they physically gripped and carried heavy equipment by hand on mobile productions. Today the department still requires significant physical strength and dexterity — a working grip may lift, carry, and position hundreds of pounds of equipment daily. Despite the physical demands, experienced grip crew members develop extraordinary spatial intelligence and problem-solving ability, finding creative solutions for placing cameras in positions that would seem physically impossible.
You can also find “Grip Equipment” and related terms in this category: Filming and Production.
