Sunday, October 3, 2010


 You gotta at least admire the little guy's moxie.


















JD said...

New, special lights, eh? Keeping secrets now? Sadly what you experienced probably had more to do with gender and less to do with experience. I've worked with female Grips who have had bad experiences on male dominated crews. They refer to it as the "Bros before hoes" mentality. I personally don't subscribe to that mentality and don't tolerate it on the set, no matter where it's coming from.

Peggy Archer said...

Sadly, the film industry is full of sexism and ageism.

Happily, the film industry is also full of fat old guys who can pull cable like nobody's business:)

Just ignore the bad and enjoy the good. If you're a good worker and competent, at some point the questions will stop.

Michael Taylor said...

Peggy's right -- the only way to shut everybody up is to prove them wrong and earn their respect. That usually takes a while for new guys, which means it'll take that much longer for a new woman on set, doing job that has always been predominantly male.

There's no shortage of troglodytes in grip/electric, and plenty of jerks who have "issues" with women in general. It's a bitch that you have to endure such crap while working so hard, but that's the reality of this end of the business.

Eventually you'll earn the respect of those who matter -- the gaffers and best boys who will put your name on their "first hire" list.

It just takes time.

A.J. said...

JD - Yeah, I'm keeping the kind of lights a secret. Until they're as ubiquitous as Kino (or even a balloon light) I kind of risk outing which show I was on due to their scarcity. Sorry! And I think my encounters had to do with both gender and experience, although I can't say I've ever used the term "Bros before Hoes" to describe the sexism on set... But may start to! And good for you for not tolerating that kind of mentality!

Peggy - Thanks for the encouragement. If the fat old guys want to push me out of the way and wrap all the 4/0 by themselves, then so be it. Better their backs then mine. :)

Michael - Luckily, it's the Best Boys and Gaffers who don't seem to have a problem with my age or gender. Unfortunately, they're not the ones I have to directly work with.

Anonymous said...

Just stumbled upon this text when I was following a link from another page.. Will definitely be following this blog :)

I am a female spark and I have to say, I haven't had massively bad experiences, I guess there's a lot of bullshit said behind my back but at least I don't get it straight to my face (I've heard of other female sparks being told "they're a man down because she's there" and riggers asked if they mind working for a female gaffer..!). I know lot of people won't hire me because I'm a lass but then again, I wouldn't really wanna work with them anyway! I think the biggest difference has been that often guys with less experience get hired before me. And people from other departments (and often lighting as well) try to take stuff off my hands when I'm carrying them, thinking I'm not able to do it.

One thing that earns me a lot of respect that often me, 164cm short skinny girl, is the only one of the lighting crew with the ability to drive a 20t lighting truck or a generator. I don't get questioned as much about my ability when I hop off the truck on set in the morning!

Sometimes guys even forget I'm the opposite sex and tell really nasty sexist jokes and wonder why I don't find them funny..! :P


A.J. said...

Jenerator - Welcome to my blog! It's always great to hear from bad-ass women in this business!

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