ABOUT THE GRIP SHOP

David Nichols

David Nichols started gripping in 1984 in Sydney, Australia. David secured his first key grip role in 1987 on a children’s’ TV series and secured his first feature film as key grip in 1989 in Hong Kong on a US feature. This began a long association with the US film industry. David is currently the most experienced key grip in Australia working on foreign feature films. David has worked on 6 of the most financially successful films produced in the world (films that have grossed over $US200 m.) and these films have grossed a combined worldwide box office of US$2.86 billion. These include “Superman Returns”, “Star Wars Episode II & III”, “The Last Samurai”, “Vertical Limit” and “Crocodile Dundee”

In 1995 David opened The Grip Shop to provide a sales and hire service to the rapidly growing Australian film industry for the supply of camera support, lighting support and specialised grip equipment. The Grip Shop has supplied equipment to all the “Matrix” films, the two “Babe” films, “Lord of the Rings”, the Sydney 2000 Olympic TV coverage and to many Australian films both short and full feature, TVC’s, live TV events and has supported many student and first time film makers.

1999 saw David help initiate the Canal Road Film Centre located in Leichhardt, 6 km from Sydney CBD. The Centre is home for over 80 film, TV and audio visual related businesses. David is currently on the board of Directors and acts as company secretary.

In 2006, David became a founding member and public officer for the New South Wales Film Makers Group. This group was formed to increase New South Wales as a viable and competitive filming location and is responsible to several submission to federal and state organizations to raise the awareness in government of the needs of the film and TV industries.

David is still a key grip on feature films, TV series, short films, TV commercials and rock clips.

DOWNLOAD DAVID'S RESUME (Adobe Acrobat PDF Document)

About Grips

The term “grip” originates from the early days of motion picture making when a person was required to “grip” and hold the camera so that it would not fall and become damaged and would therefore stop the film making process.

Today the Grip Department is responsible for several tasks on the film set. These include the on-screen camera movement for film and TV productions. On-screen camera movement is used for a variety of reasons, including dramatic effect. For example, a moving camera behind a bush watching a vulnerable hero creates a sense of danger, or a camera move to an elevated position creates a sense of occasion appropriate for the opening of a film or to isolate an actor in their screen environment and therefore their dramatic place in the film at that time.

The grip department is also responsible for positioning cameras and their camera crew in extreme situations and ensuring that both equipment and the crew are free from harm and hazard. This could be on a boat at sea, in wind and rain, on the side of a cliff at over 10,000 ft. or on a fast moving vehicle through busy CBD streets.

Lighting control is another task that is the responsibility of the grip department. Natural sunlight needs to be controlled in order to maintain a lighting continuity and for the best conditions for film. This may include the placing of black fabric throughout locations to create night during daytime, or large overhead fabrics that diffuse direct sunlight.

The grip department is also responsible for placing coloured screens used in creating computer-generated filmmaking.

One old key grip explained that the grip department is responsible for everything you don’t see on screen for example camera moves should be smooth and almost seamless, a shaft of direct sunlight in the background of a shot is eliminated by putting a light cutter.

Terminology

Key Grip – Head of the grip department
Best Boy Grip – Second in charge of the grip department. Responsible for organizing crew, equipment, transport logistics, occupational health and safety issues and liasing with the production office.
Dolly Grip – Creates onscreen camera moves using a variety of tools and equipment including camera dollies, camera cranes, dolly track and camera rigs.