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"Made in NY" Production Crafts Training Program Certifies First Cycle


Instructor Billy Miller shows the "Made in NY" Production Crafts Training Program how to set up a c-stand. Photo courtesy of BWI.

July 8, 2010 - The first cohort of the “Made in NY” Production Crafts Training Program has successfully completed its training to prepare for careers in the grip department of film and TV productions. Comprised of fifteen individuals, including ten men and five women from Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx, this first group of trainees got to learn the ins-and-outs of production from experienced professionals in preparation for applying for union membership in Local 52.

Launched by the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting as a result of recommendations from Mayor’s Task Force on Diversity in Film, Television and Commercial Production and administered by Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, training began on April 12 and wrapped on May 17. Day-to-day training took place at Silvercup Studios. Silvercup, which donated a stage and meeting room space for four weeks, also gave the program full access to their equipment. “Silvercup welcomed us with open arms,” said Katy Finch, the program’s director.

“I can’t say enough about Silvercup,” said instructor Billy Miller, a retired grip with thirty years of experience in the industry. “They treated us like any other commercial production company.”

Throughout the course of the program, the trainees learned about the various tasks that would be expected of them in the grip department: working on lifts; laying dolly tracks; building scaffolding, construction flats and grids; setting up stands, frames, flags, gels and diffusion; and practicing safety procedures, like expert knot tying and how to carry a ladder through a crowded set.

“We’d talk about the day’s lesson, like when you might use different dollies, and create a scenario for different dollies,” explained Miller. Then they’d work as a group to design what they needed, order the equipment and begin constructing it.

Miller’s credits as a Key Grip include dozens of projects like The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, and numerous Sydney Lumet films, and he just retired from the industry last year. He never expected to spend his retirement teaching. “I enjoyed working in the film industry. It gave me a lot of opportunities to be happy and raise a family. I wanted to give something back,” he said, adding that the experience was very rewarding because “every student was eager to be there. They were like a sponge, asking a thousand questions.”

The program also included numerous field trips to the sets and locations of various TV shows shooting in the City. On the set of the new AMC series “Rubicon,” the trainees got to see how a grid is built. Visiting a location shoot for USA’s “White Collar” outside the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, they saw multiple dollies in action. On the set of the recently wrapped “Ugly Betty,” the trainees were able to watch as the set and the grid were broken down. “The dolly grips and best boys would stop by and were more than willing to show us what they were doing,” said Miller.

 
The trainees got the chance to visit the set of the new HBO series "Boardwalk Emire."
Photo courtesy of BWI.


Seeing what they had learned about in action generated a lot of questions from the trainees. After a full tour of the set of “Boardwalk Empire,” a new HBO series premiering this fall, many of the trainees expressed an interest in working as construction grips. “It crystallized a lot of concepts for them,” said Finch. The program also visited the sets of “Lights Out,” “Big Lake,” “Mercy,” and “30 Rock.”

According to Finch, on every set they toured, Miller was greeted as something of a crew celebrity. “The grips we met kept telling the trainees that they were learning from the best,” said Finch. At a visit to Local 52, the trainees met with union officials John Fundus, William Gavin Ray Fortune and had the opportunity to ask questions and find out what the union would expect of them if became members and what they could expect from the union.

In addition to Silvercup’s donations, other local businesses pitched in to lend their support to the program. Angel Aerial, a vehicles and lifts vendor, donated fifteen-passenger vans for the field trips and also provided training and space and covered the certification fees for the cohort as to become certified in scissor and boom lift training. Panavision welcomed the program for a full day of training on its collection of dollies, and the law offices of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP provided pro-bono counsel to BWI as the program was developed.

Silvercup was keen to be as supportive as possible of the program. “We’ve worked with the [‘Made in NY’] PA program since the beginning,” explained executive vice president Gary Kesner. “Every class has gotten a tour and gone through the equipment operations.” For the production crafts training program, Silvercup was “happy to help out” again. “It’s a way of getting folks into the industry that might not have access to it,” said Kesner.

All of the trainees worked as an intern for a day on one of the sets they visited. During that day, they also had to take their practical exam, which included building scaffolding, operating dollies, setting up and leveling dolly track, and constructing various platforms. The trainees also needed to pass a written exam to successfully complete the program. Everyone passed both exams.

Since completing the program, the trainees are now trying to get as much experience as possible. BWI will work to get them on paid and unpaid jobs as grips this summer, and Local 52 has them on its permit list to be considered for union jobs if any extra positions become available. One of the trainees, Vanessa Alexis, has already been placed on a union job. Some of the trainees will take the union test in the fall and try for membership. If they pass, they then have to be voted into the union. Others will continue to add to their credits and take the union test next spring.

Michael Barrow, a DP and gaffer who also served as an instructor, shared his anecdotes with the trainees during the program. “Our students were presented with knowledge that could take years to experience,” he said. “I had a fantastic time with the students, who worked very hard and are serious about gaining careers.”

Miller echoed those sentiments: “They had a ball, and so did I.”

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