Grip Services

Here is how the work lines up. New York grip departments run under the same IATSE Local 52 regions as the electric department. The key grip-gaffer partnership is the structural backbone of each shooting day at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn Navy Yard, Silvercup Queens, Kaufman Astoria, York Studios Bronx, JC Studios Brooklyn, and Broadway Stages — and on each Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens exterior our coordinators schedule under MOME film permits. Our key grips bring credits from Severance, Mrs. Maisel, Stranger Things New York shooting blocks, The Marvelous Mrs.

Here is the breakdown. Maisel period rigging, The Deuce, Boardwalk Empire, Succession interiors, and the A24, Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon, and HBO Hudson Yards features that define the East Coast production calendar. Department structure pairs the key grip with a best boy grip, dolly grip on each camera-move day, firm grips for set rigging, and rigging grips dedicated to overhead truss, greenbed construction, and pre-rig blocks.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. Packages route through Eastern Effects in Gowanus, TCS, ARRI Rental NYC, Stockwell, Hello Bro Rentals, and LMG. Chapman/Leonard Hybrid IV and PeeWee IV dollies, Fisher 11 dollies with Hustler IV track, Technocrane 30 and Supertechno 50 telescoping arms, Movi Cart and Foxy doorway dolly setups, plus Modern Studio and Matthews stand inventory, Westcott Scrim Jim and Matthews RoadRags flag-and-diffusion frames, and full overhead butterfly and silk rigs for daylight balance.

Here is how the picture comes together. Productions briefing a Manhattan dolly track up a brownstone stoop, a Brooklyn warehouse interior with overhead butterfly, a Hudson River process trailer with Chapman/Leonard Russian Arm, a Williamsburg rooftop greenbed rig, a Times Square crowd-control follow with NYPD Movie & TV Unit clearance, or a Steiner sound-stage truss-and-grid pre-rig receive a key grip recommendation matched to the shot list rather than a generic crew quote.

Here is what we have to work with. Our coordinators arrange tech scouts and pre-rig days for complex setups, plan car and process work using Chapman/Leonard Hydroscope and Russian Arm camera cars, set up FDNY film safety officer sign-off for overhead rigging and pyro-adjacent setups, and integrate grip with the Local 52 electric department under shared call-sheet regions. Specialty work covers car-mount and process-trailer days for Manhattan and FDR Drive pickups, greenscreen frame construction on Steiner and Silvercup stages, rain-and-wind FX support with Matthews and Rosco effects gear, and overhead silk-and-bounce rigs scaled to NYC dense-build interiors.

Here is the layout. Rigging is performed against OSHA fall-protection standards and certified by ANSI-aligned rigging supervisors, all insured to NYC industry standards under NYS Film Tax Credit-aligned production cover, with forms prepared wherever the production qualifies for the 30%-plus-10% NYC uplift under one Local 52 contract.