You\u2019ve seen the credit roll by at the end of the movie \u2013 but what the heck is a Gaffer? Here\u2019s some obscure trivia to start: the word comes from Britain and means an older man or boss, derived from grandfather. But you\u2019ll probably never meet a film gaffer who looks like a grandfather \u2013 they\u2019ve got to be fit and alert and very, very smart.<\/p>\n
The gaffer is the head of the lighting and electrical department \u2013 the guy or gal who works hand-in-glove with the director of photography in creating a shot. The gaffer has to get all the lights ready for each scene, make sure they have the right color gels on them, get everything wired so it will work properly\u2026 and then do it all again for the next shot.\u00a0Gaffers<\/span>\u00a0usually have a small army of grips and electricians to do the moving and rolling of the equipment, though on smaller productions, the gaffer helps unload the trucks and lugs it all to the set. The gaffer creates light effects \u2013 like subway flickers or those annoying red lights that flash during catastrophes\u2026 and even re-creates the sun when a shot needs to look like sunlight is blasting through a window \u2013 what a shock that the sun is usually manmade in movies!<\/p>\n Most\u00a0gaffers<\/span>\u00a0worked their way up the ladder on the set. Thirty-eight-year old\u00a0Piotr<\/span>\u00a0Jagninski<\/span>, who\u2019s done a lot of commercials and film videos, started as a camera technician. He says the hardest thing about lighting is just to make it look natural. He tells the\u00a0Gothamist<\/span>\u00a0that a typical day consists of first pushing, pulling or flying a few tons of equipment up or down stairs, tunnels, hillsides, whatever.\u00a0 Then he sets up the equipment, finds out everything has changed since last night\u2019s discussion, move the equipment to new positions, then run power for everyone else on the set who needs it, like the catering, hair, wardrobe and make-up teams. He says night-time scenes are the hardest to light since you really do have to pay attention to everything you want to see in the shot \u2013 or it\u2019ll be too dark!<\/p>\n Robert Jason is a third generation gaffer who\u2019s worked on big productions like \u201cThe Black Dahlia\u201d and \u201cRush Hour\u201d. In an interview with\u00a0makingof.com<\/span>\u00a0he says his most important lessons are: pay attention to the rehearsal \u2013 that may be the first inkling you get of how the scene will be played. He also says that if he\u2019s stumped \u2013 and there will always come a time when you\u2019re stumped \u2013 just start lighting the background, and as you move gradually to the foreground, you\u2019ll figure it out.\u00a0 The toughest thing is lighting actresses because even if they\u2019re supposed to be playing drunks or homeless people, they still have to look glamorous in every shot, and that\u2019s very demanding. Finally, he says the best thing to do is look at nature \u2013 how nature lights things will give you clues how to light your scenes.<\/p>\n The director may decide what the shot is, but it\u2019s up to the gaffer and the director of photography to bring that shot to life. So another name for a gaffer could be: Lord of Light!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"featured-post":[659],"resource-category":[],"reference-category":[342],"class_list":["post-24009","reference-library","type-reference-library","status-publish","hentry","reference-category-film-entrepreneurs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-library\/24009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-library"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reference-library"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"featured-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured-post?post=24009"},{"taxonomy":"resource-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource-category?post=24009"},{"taxonomy":"reference-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-category?post=24009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}