From the course: Pro Video Tips
Packing a truck
This week I want to talk about something that's not the most glamorous part of what we do but it is a necessary and vital skill to have if you're going to continue down the road of film making and that is packing a grip truck. Regardless of the size of the truck, there's a right way and a wrong way to pack things, and that's what I want to talk about this week. So let's start off by just talking about how we approach the packing of a truck. Before we start bringing cases out, we want to just stop and take a minute and think through what we're going to need to do first on the other end when we get there. So simple logic always dictates that the first things in are going to be the last things out, so one big no-no that we don't want to do is we don't want to put any vital piece of equipment that we're going to need to get to right away all the way in the back of the truck so we'll have to unpack everything first. So remember, first is is going to be the last out, so we want to pack with that logic in mind. We also want to get everything staged out before we start. So as much as possible we want to have each area laid out around us so that we can see exactly how much gear we have and what size the cases are. Any gear should be checked before you load it onto the truck. So if it just came to the rental house and nobody's had a chance to check it, it's not a piece of gear you want to put on the truck yet. No point in takin' it to location if it's not going to work. Now remember, we only want to take as much gear as we need, and maybe a little extra. So we do want extra things like tripods, batteries, anything like that that could possibly break down on you or is very vital, that isn't too costly to get any extra of. But we don't want to take too much extra, because that's just going to be more work and more packing. When it comes to cases, everything should be in a case, preferably in a padded case. Now ridged hard shell cases are always going to be preferable, if you have items like flags and nets, even though these are small light weight items, they need to be in something hard, or they can very easily be damaged by the time they get to the other end. And it should go without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway. Lenses and cameras should always be well packed in very cushioned cases. So the nicest case you have, that's the case that we want to put our lenses and cameras in. Any expensive gear like that, of course, is always going to be stored under lock and key. Or it's going to be right in the cab next to us. So if I have a $95,000 lens, you can bet that I'll probably going to have it on the sit next to me, strapped down by the seatbelt as opposed to sitting in the back of the car. You also want to lay everything flat, on it's widest space, and of course, we want heaviest gear on the bottom, lighter gear on top of that for things that we do have to stack. We want to avoid stacking when we can but when we do, heavy things on bottom, lighter things on top. Any soft cases that we do end up with in our package, we want to make sure those are also on top and secured so they don't fall down or get crushed later on. Now, what about cases with wheels? These require a little extra attention. Any case with wheels, you want to make sure that you strap them to the wall with ratchet straps. So these are heavy-duty straps, like you might see the tow truck driver or movers in the moving van. These ratchet straps are exactly what we're also going to need to secure all of our heavy cases or any cases on wheels. If the wheels have locks you want to also want to use those locks. So once you get the case in place, go ahead and engage the lock, and that's also going to help the wheels to not move. If the case has stationary wheels on one end and moving wheels on the other end, make sure the moving wheels are facing towards the door of the truck, so that when you go to manuever that case and wiggle it out of there, it'll come out a lot easier if the moveable wheels are on the end closest to you and to the door. And then lastly, when it comes to wheels, a magliner, or some other cart, is always good to have on set anytime you're moving a lot of cases like this. So rather than carrying ten cases one by one, I could load ten cases onto one of these carts, move it over to the area I need it to go, same thing when it's time to pack up. So those are immeasurable time and back savers. Now securing things, we already talked about ratchet straps for wheel cases and heavy cases, but we also want to use bungee cords for lighter things. So if we have things like reflector boards or other lighter weight items that just need to be kind of secured against a wall so they don't fly away, a bungee cord is fine for that. However, one thing you want to be very careful about with bungee cords, even though they seem pretty innocent, they can be very dangerous if you're getting into that situation where you're squeezing and trying to tighten those bungee cords up together and they're just barely coming together for you to make the latch. That's a situation where you want to stop and think because on the other end, somebody, maybe you, has to unhook that bungee cord and when they do there's going to be a lot of pressure and the last thing you want is for the hard end of that bungee cord to whip around and hit somebody in the eye. So if the bungee cord is too tight, you either need a longer bungee cord or, or maybe you need to get two bungee cords together or maybe what you're trying to do is better done with a ratchet, like I mentioned before. So just be careful when dealing with bungee cords. Lastly with regards to bungee cords, you can also use your handles as another tying off point. So whether you are using bungee cords or ratchets, you can go through the handles of some of your cases and that's going to help you keep them a little more secure then they might be otherwise. Just a secondary safety. Sand bags can also be used as a buttress to keep things from moving, so if you have wheeled cases, sand bangs by those wheels can also help you, or anything else that I'm worried about sliding, just to put a little extra pressure against whatever those items are. When it comes to organizing in the truck, ideally we want to have everything organized by department. Now what really helps you to do this is if your cases are labeled and, or color coded. I'm a big fan of color coding simply because it's one less millisecond of thought process to figure out where something goes, if I can just look at the color, but labels are a next best thing. So even if your cases aren't pre-labeled, go ahead and take some white camera tape, stick it on everything, and go ahead and label it for whatever department, or whatever item it is. Even your milk crate should be labeled. They might your milk crates, and you might know all the gear that you keep in that blue milk crate, but everybody else on set doesn't, so it's only going to make it much easier for everybody to find and get things moving quickly on set if those cases are labelled as well. Try to store things so that each department can have access to their area without having to completely redo the packing for another area. So largest and heaviest items typically will go in first and lighter items on top of those or after that. We want to lay any delicate items, such as bounce boards, on top. Or sometimes we can find a little slot or some other little hole where we might be able to slip those things into without them getting damaged or pinched. Now our top concern anytime we're doing this or anything else on set for that matter is always going to be safety. So our biggest safety concern when we're talking about things in the back of the truck is making sure everything is secured. If it can be secured or tied down we want to make sure we do. And if it can be otherwise be held in place we want to make sure we do that as well. Anything that is sticking out into the truck way or anything that might be sticking out off the back of your vehicle should have a little flag on it. So any point that somebody might potentially walk into you can tie a little handkerchief on it. You could tie a big, bright colored piece of tape or anything on it just so that people can easily see, and won't walk into it. You want to avoid having anything hanging out obviously at eye level, but if that does end up happening for any reason, make sure people see it. With regards to personal safety, you want to try to wear good, sturdy shoes, steel toe boots will be a double bonus if you have it. But if you don't have steel toe boots, just make sure you're wearing good closed toe shoes. So sandals and flip flops are not going to be happening in the back of the grip truck, gotta be closed toed shoes. When you get on the other end, make sure you remember to take inventory. We want to check and double check that we still have everything that we came with. So it's always best if you write out a written list, but in a pinch sometimes, I've just taken a few phone shots off of my phone, just to recall what I packed and how it was packed in the truck in the truck to begin with. Another safety tip in general has to do with your driving. You want to always try to avoid sudden stops and starts and take it extra easy on the curves. Just a little bit of extra pressure going around that curve can undo all of your hard work of packing that truck, not to mention damaging gear or creating an unsafe situation when you do open the back of the truck later on. So always drive slow because you never know. So just like other aspects of filmmaking, as long as you think it through, get the right equipment, and do it all safely and logically, packing a truck should be a breeze.
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