Grip and Rigging · not a course we run
Grip is the one craft in British film with a real qualification behind it. We do not run it.
Almost everywhere else in this industry, competence is credits and references. Grip is the exception. There is a union-structured, portfolio-assessed diploma, and it sits behind two years of paid grip work. A short course at Pinewood is not a step on that ladder, so we do not sell one. This page points at where the ladder actually is.
What the department does
The grips own everything the camera sits on and everything it moves along.
Stands, sandbags, track, dollies, cranes, remote heads and car rigs. During a move the operator and the dolly grip are one unit. The work is physical, it books at short notice, and it is judged on being safe, fast and tidy.
Where to go
The routes into grip, and who runs them.
Grips Branch UK (opens in a new tab) · the qualification
The Level 2 Diploma in Professional Competence for Grips, the Level 2 for Crane Technicians and the Level 3 for Advanced Grips. The branch states they were designed with ScreenSkills and built on the industry’s National Occupational Standards. Level 2 asks for two years working as a grip and five references, four of them from Certified Level 3 Grips. It is delivered by Buckinghamshire College Group at £6,000.
Grips Branch UK (opens in a new tab) · the route in, and masterclasses
The branch’s own recommended order: runner experience, then the trainee criteria — 19 or over, Bectu member, and a Certified Proposer found — then the qualification. It also runs masterclasses in track laying, crane work, rigging tracking vehicles and dolly maintenance.
Bectu London Production Division (opens in a new tab) · certified and uncertified branches
Bectu operates two separate grip branches, Certified and Uncertified Grips & Crane Technicians. No other department in the division is split that way, which tells you how seriously the certificate is taken.
ScreenSkills (opens in a new tab) · money, not teaching
A cash grant toward training, travel, equipment and accommodation, UK-wide, 18 and over, at any career stage. ScreenSkills has also put its High-end TV and Film Skills Funds toward the Level 2 Grip Diploma.
BECTU Vision (opens in a new tab) · Scotland
Hands-on grip training days, and funding toward the Grip Diploma at Levels 2 and 3, for people converting into film and television in Scotland.
IPAF (opens in a new tab) · powered access, the PAL Card
If the job puts you on a MEWP, the PAL Card is the ticket and it runs five years. IPAF does not train anybody itself; its approved centres do, usually in a day or two.
What we do instead
We can put you on a unit where the grips are working. That is not grip training.
Set Ready and Production Simulation Week are floor courses. You will see track go down and a dolly move rehearsed, and you will learn the language. Neither counts toward the diploma, and we will not pretend otherwise.
