A general assistant on a movie set responsible for handling production equipment, such as setting up and moving camera dollies, lighting, etc. The head grip is called the key grip.[From English grip since the task required firmly holding bulky material.]
Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=grip
"'When I write a novel, I'm the writer, director, producer, best boy, grip, actor. I'm in control,' he (Brad Meltzer) says."
Connie Ogle; Big Name, Zero Game; Miami Herald (Florida); Mar 15, 2004."Ben Younger: I also worked as a grip on indie features like Walking and Talking. I got a ton out of that, especially technical proficiency.'"
Matt Diehl; Celluloid Heroes; Rolling Stone (New York); Apr 13, 2000.
If you ever stay behind at the end of a movie (or stay tuned on TV) to read the rolling credits you'll see many funny sounding titles. They describe people who are essential to the movie-making business. Without them no movie would be possible, no matter how good the actors or director.
What do those titles mean? This week's AWAD defines them.
Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/grip.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/grip.ram
Permalink:
http://wordsmith.org/words/grip.html