Alexandra Elkin - Grip

Translated from French

WHAT IS YOUR JOB? HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?

I’m a grip. For the past few years, I’ve mostly been a best girl, and I’ve just completed my first year as a key grip. In this job, it’s all about team effort: you work closely with the director of photography and the camera and lighting departments. 

You deal with three things in this job. There’s the camera and everything related to it: its position, how it is mounted, how it’s going to move. There’s the lighting: how we shape the light, how we hang the lights. And then there’s the more mechanical rigging work, which is more of an assembly job, kind of like Lego for adults. If you like one part of the job more than another, you can specialize, especially on a big crew, and do more lighting, or camera, or building things if you like working with your hands. 
But either way, there’s always problem-solving involved. You can come in one day and they’ll ask you to build a platform over an in-ground pool, or securely attach a camera to a helicopter. 

It’s a stimulating and challenging profession, in which you can really grow if you’re motivated and ambitious. In addition to the manual side of things, you need to have an understanding of anchor points, pressure, weights and balance points. You need to understand light and how it works. You’re learning all the time!

WHAT PART OF THE JOB DO YOU LIKE THE BEST?

I really like the social side, working in a team. I love problem solving, and I really enjoy preparing rigs of all kinds; it keeps my mind busy!

But above all I love the variety and constant change in my work. You never get bored!

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE PROJECT?

I’d have to say Xavier Dolan’s La nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s’est réveillé because it had a big budget, so it was much less frustrating than some other productions. And we had a great crew, a director who knew what he wanted, who wanted to make something artistic and good. You don’t often get to work on something artistic and good, something that motivates you to give more.

There was a really home-like feeling on the set. It was small enough that you knew everyone’s name but big enough to produce something great.

IS THERE AN ANECDOTE ABOUT YOUR WORK THAT COMES TO MIND?

Once, for a Macy’s commercial, we were in the studio at Mels, and for the last shot, they released 200 or 300 helium balloons. The next day we had to get the balloons down, which normally would have been done by the art department, except that there were light grids and it was tricky to get in there with the cherry picker. So they enlisted the help of the grips to pop the balloons. I spent 4 hours in a cherry picker popping balloons! It was pretty funny.

HOW DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE OF THE PROFESSION?

As a grip, I think my job will always be what it is. Unlike other departments like lighting or camera, for example, the equipment we use doesn’t change much. Yes, we can make it easier to handle, or use it more effectively, but it isn’t constantly evolving. 

As far as the industry is concerned, in Quebec we’re really stretching ourselves. We’re doing more with less. For example, the dolly grip is practically disappearing because tight budgets mean that we’ll have to find cheaper alternatives and settle for less. 

When I started out, if you had two cameras on a set, you automatically had four grips, and if you had a dolly you needed 5. I just did a TV series where there were 2 of us for a dolly and two cameras. 

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE QUEBEC AUDIOVISUAL INDUSTRY’S GREATEST STRENGTH?

Definitely the technicians, in all departments. We have extremely talented people who are able to do a lot with very little, who are flexible and know how to work on all types of productions. We’re able to adapt quickly and we make great content!

We know how to take our work seriously but have fun doing it, and that’s what makes it enjoyable.

I love the energy on the set. We have all these very different people and together we all gel. I think that’s a magic you can’t find anywhere else.