Gaffer - Definition and Overview

In the motion picture industry a gaffer is the head of the electrical department, responsible for the design and execution of the lighting plan for a production. Sometimes the gaffer is credited as Chief Lighting Technician. In television the term Lighting Director is often used, but sometimes the Technical Director (T.D.) will light the studio set.

The gaffer reports to the Director of photography and will usually have an assistant called a Best boy and a crew of rigging electricians. In some countries like Australia, the gaffer is expected to own a truck complete with most basic lighting equipment and then rent extra lighting equipment as needed.

Derivation

Early films used mostly natural light, which stagehands controlled with large tent cloths using long poles called gaffs (stagehands were often beached sailors or longshoremen, and a gaff is a type of boom on a sailing ship).

In 16th Century English, the term "gaffer" denoted a man who was the head of any organized group of labourers, and the usage continues in colloquial British English to this day as a synonym for "boss". The word is probably a shortening of "godfather" (rather than the more commonly believed "grandfather") and is sometimes still used colloquially to refer to an old man (as in Gaffer Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings). In 16th and 17th century rural England it was not confined to elderly men and was used as a title slightly inferior to "Master" and similar to "Goodman". The female equivalent was "Gammer" (which also came to colloquially refer to an old lady).

See also

• Film crew
• Gaffer tape and adhesive tape

Example Usage of Gaffer