Life on the lamp dock
The door is still locked, the phone off the hook, and the drapes still pulled -- and I'm not coming out until I feel like it. Right now, I don't feel like it. With no pearls of below-the-line wisdom to share this week, here's a photo I snapped while on a mission to the studio lamp dock last year. If you're in the biz, you'll probably understand -- if not, you'll doubtless be baffled by the terminology.
Much as I was thirty-five years ago.
I'll be back when I've got something worth posting, but given that the baseball playoffs are currently underway, that might be a while. We all have our priorities, and for a baseball fan, this is the best time of the year. When not at work, I'll have my eyes on the Toob or my ears glued to a radio broadcast for the next couple of weeks, until the World Series has been decided.
If time and inspiration permit, I'll put something up. Otherwise, see you in November...
10 comments:
Go Giants!
Local 16 --
Oh yeah...
First and third are two bits of slangthat I don't think I've heard before. More West Coast lingo?
JD --
A "grumpy" is a flat metal plate with a double-headed baby-spud fitting allowing a lamp to be mounted (over or under-hung) on a set wall. I've seen many iterations of this particular device, but they all accomplish the same thing.
A "happy elephant" is similar to a grumpy, with only one baby-spud fitting. That means you have to think about it before screwing it into the set wall -- and make sure the gaffer knows whether he wants it over-or under-slung.
Both devices do the same job, but a grumpy is more versatile. With an under-slung lamp, the grips can use the top spud to mount a gobo head and short arm with a flag to top the light. You can't do that with a happy elephant.
One of these days I'll get some pics and post them -- in this case, a picture really is worth a thousand words...
JD -
While the slang is new to me as well - and I'm west coast - they seem to be variations of the standard "baby plate" or "nail-on plate" (I think I've heard them called "pigeons" or "pigeon plates" as well)
The happy elephant is simply a right angled version of these. Pretty common.
The grumpy, I have never seen before, but seems to be a combonation of the baby plate and double header side arm made for stands...2 90 degree heads. I wonder if these are made in-house because I can't find them anywhere.
I gotta say, the only thing I understood from that picture was "butt plug"...
...Now if you'll excuse me, I may have to go re-think my career choice. :)
Jessie M --
Your descriptions are better than mine. I haven't heard the term "pigeon" for about twenty years, but when I did, it was in reference to a junior plate for studio 2Ks and any 5K or 10K smaller than a Big Eye Tener. Essentially, a pigeon is like a baby-plate, but bigger and with a female receptacle rather than the male baby spud.
How this got to be called a pigeon is the deepest of mysteries.
Grumpys seem to backing up your notion that they're home-made.
My frame of reference comes from various books, Uva's Grip book, Set Technician's, etc. and on set slang usage. Neither Grumpy nor Happy Elephant appear in either book nor in the catalog of any grip manufacturer I've seen. One would thing that Mole-Richardson, being as old a company would have both in their equipment lineup. I hear and use the term pigeon or baby plate. Junior plate or Junior nail-on is the same, only 1-1/8" in diameter and female.
Butt Plug is in the same "category" as Ubangi.
Why does pizza box persist as slag for a 2x2' beadboard reflector when "real" cardboard pizza boxes haven't been 2x2' for ages?
...one would think....
AJ --
Given the current state of the industry, I wouldn't argue with anyone in our biz who's motivated to re-evaluate their career choice... but for most of us, here's where we are and here's where we'll stay. For better or worse...
JD --
The term "butt plug" seems to be universal (and in the same politically incorrect jail cell as "ubangi"), but I never ran into a grumpy, happy elephant, or becky (yet another device for hanging a baby or smaller lamp off a wall) for the first 20 years of my so-called career, during which I mostly did location jobs with a occasional forays on stage. It was only when I started working extensively at the major studios that I ran into all these oddly named items.
It doesn't really matter. There's always another way to skin a cat, and you can have a long, successful career in grip/electric without ever seeing or using a grumpy or a happy elephant.
As for "pizza box," I have no idea. Some key grip probably came up with that as on-set shorthand with his crew, and the term spread. None of the grip crews I currently work with use that term.
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