Gaffer

What they do

Gaffers start on recces with the cinematographer, reading the paperwork beforehand to find the scenes with unusual demands, checking location restrictions and electrical installation condition reports, and looking at fuse boxes and switch plates for signs of age and overload. They note sun positions, access, measurements and where a generator can sit so it is neither seen on camera nor heard by the sound department. Planning follows: with the best boy they build equipment lists and backup systems, design a power distribution scheme with adequate circuit protection and emergency lighting for a loss of primary supply, design rigs that comply with safe working loads, and specify earthing and protective devices for practicals. Costings are assessed against budget and the lighting list is adapted with the cinematographer's agreement. Running the department means lighting and practical plots, a colour-coded or numbered identification system, a method for storing desk notes against slate numbers, and records of every electrical test certificate. On the day they rough in the lighting to the cinematographer's design and finish it with them at the monitor, work out the fastest order for setup changes, take frequent colour temperature readings on discharge sources, and mediate between the cinematographer and the crew. Electrical safety is theirs in law, which makes some of their decisions non-negotiable.

What they decide

The calls that belong to this role and no other.

• How the cinematographer's lighting concept is actually built: which fixtures, where, on what rigging
• The power plan: distribution, circuit protection, generator siting and emergency lighting
• The order and method of setup changes, which sets how fast the unit can turn a set around
• Crew levels and who is hired into the lighting department, with the best boy
• Whether a rig is safe to work under, which is a veto nobody overrules
• Proposes alternatives when a request is out of budget or out of time; the cinematographer decides

Principles of the craft

• Concept belongs to the cinematographer, implementation belongs to the gaffer: on the ASC's Camerimage panel on exactly this question, Vilmos Zsigmond described the cinematographer as in charge of the concept of the light and the gaffer as responsible for making it happen, and James Plannette described roughing the light in and then finishing it with the cinematographer, who is, in his phrase, the decider. That does not mean there is no argument, only that the argument ends.
• Know which system you are working in: the same panel spelled out that in the American division of labour the grips set the flags, diffusion and bounce while the electricians handle the fixture, whereas in the European system the gaffer and electricians set everything involving the fixture, flags and diffusion included. Turning up with the wrong assumption wastes an hour and irritates two departments.
• Plan the power before the picture: a lighting design a location's switchboard cannot carry is not a design. Read the electrical installation condition report, look at the board for signs of overload and age, and size distribution, protection and emergency lighting for the whole rig.
• Repeatability beats brilliance: a look nobody can rebuild after a unit move is a look you shot once. Numbered or colour-coded channels, desk notes filed against slate numbers, and metered colour temperature are how a night interior matches three weeks later on another stage.
• Speed is a lighting value: the fastest gaffer buys the cinematographer the ten minutes that make the last shot of the day look like the first. Order the setups so the fewest fixtures have to move.

Common mistakes

• Assembling a lighting list from habit, then finding no money left for the one scene that needed a large unit
• Treating a reference image as something to copy rather than as a description of direction, quality and ratio
• Rigging to look good standing on the floor rather than through the taking lens
• The experienced version: over-lighting for safety, because a set with light everywhere never fails and never has a point of view
• Skipping colour temperature readings on discharge sources and finding the greens in the grade
• Siting a generator where the sound department can hear it or the camera can see the cable run

How to learn it

Exercises and routes in, not a reading list.

• Light one interior with a single fixture through a window and nothing else, then add exactly one bounce. Photograph both. You are learning falloff before you learn fixtures.
• Take one reference frame and rebuild it three times, with three lights, then two, then one plus a bounce. Judge each on a monitor rather than by eye and note which version reads closest to the reference.
• Draw a lighting plot for a scene you have already lit, hand it to somebody else, and let them rig from it with you out of the room. Everything they get wrong is a documentation problem, not their problem.
• Measure the colour temperature of every lamp in your home, shoot a face under each without correction, then correct. Keep the readings; that table is the beginning of a working memory.
• Under supervision, wire and load a small distribution run, calculate the draw on paper first, and compare your figure with the meter. Do not skip the arithmetic, because the department's whole safety case is arithmetic.