Grip Services

Here is how this works in practice. We deliver complete grip kit packages with crews who know how to make camera support work on difficult Icelandic ground. Our key grips plan dolly track and crane positions for surfaces a standard set-up never sees — uneven lava, loose volcanic scree, snow and shifting black sand — using levelling systems, weighted base plates and dance-floor decking to create stable runs.

Here is the short of it. Wind drives a great deal of grip planning here, so we rate stands and rigging for the gusts of exposed coasts and Highland plateaus, and we carry weather protection for camera and crew. Cold is the other constant: hydraulic and mechanical gear needs cold-weather handling, and we plan for it. We supply jib arms, sliders, dollies, track, scaffolding and bespoke rigging, and our grips build car mounts, body rigs and overhead set-ups as the shot demands.

Here is the breakdown. We staff from the skilled Reykjavík crew base and bring in extra grip gear from the UK and mainland Europe under ATA carnet for larger shoots, integrating the grip department closely with camera and lighting.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. Iceland's terrain is the reason grip expertise matters here more than in most countries. A subarctic island on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it gives locations of dramatic scale — glaciers, waterfalls such as Gullfoss and Skógafoss, the rift valley at Þingvellir National Park — but almost all of it is location work rather than studio, so camera support has to be engineered to the ground each day.

Here is how the picture comes together. Much of that ground is fragile: moss and lava recover only over decades, so our grip crews plan track lays and rigging footprints that follow durable surfaces and respect the 'leave no trace' principle, setting up with the Environment Agency of the country in covered areas. The fast-changing subarctic weather means a heavy grip set-up has to be planned with backup, because repositioning a crane mid-day is not quick.

Eligible grip-crew and gear spend can count toward the country's production reimbursement of 25 per cent, rising to 35 per cent for qualifying projects, administered by Film in the country.