Glossary
What people are saying, and what they mean.
Nobody explains the language on a set. They assume you have it, and if you have not, you spend your first week guessing and nodding. This is the page that stops that.
UK usage, UK grades. Where a job has an informal name and a formal one they are paired on first use — clapper loader and 2nd AC, focus puller and 1st AC, best boy and gaffer’s second, spark and electrician. Open an area below.
Area 01
On the floor
Area 02
Camera
Area 03
Lighting and electrical
Area 04
Grip and rigging
Area 05
Sound
Area 06
Production paperwork
Area 07
Post and delivery
Next
Knowing the words is not the same as hearing them at seven in the morning.
This list is free and it stays free. What it cannot do is put the language in front of you at speed, with kit in your hands and a schedule running. That is the Production Simulation Week: a crewed unit, prepped, shot and wrapped, with everybody holding a grade. The glossary is what you read before it.
Missing something
If a term is not here, it should be.
This list is written from UK sets and it grows when somebody tells us what confused them. There is no prize for already knowing the language, and no shame in asking — on set or here.