Michael Sanutti (right) with Charles Lo and Kaleem Daniels on the set of the movie “Hard Feelings.” (Photos courtesy of Michael Sanutti)
ArtsATL’s new series, Set Life, focuses on local creatives who work in Atlanta’s film and television industry. We’ll talk to those who work on both sides of the camera and explore their struggles and successes in navigating Georgia’s volatile film and TV scene.
::
“Any time the camera is moving, there’s a grip standing beside it,” says Michael Sannuti, an Atlanta-based grip in the professional film industry. “On top of that, we’re dealing with all the lighting issues, so being a grip or key grip is 80% problem-solving.”
Over the past 15 years as a critical crew member, Sannuti has honed his ability to figure things out on set. His work has helped bring to life films such as The Hunger Games, Identity Theft and 67 other professional productions where he performed the job of key grip, which is the lead grip on a film set, requiring him to oversee a team of grips and the entire grip department.
Along with responsibility for the camera — where it’s placed to get a shot, physically moving it where it needs to go and its overall safety — Sannuti says grips are laser-focused on lighting.
Michael Sannuti stands in the portal that he helped build for the latest BMW commercial with actor Tim Meadows.
“There’s a saying, ‘Electric makes it bright and grips make it right,’” he says. “We are there each time a light is placed, making sure it’s achieving the look and feel the director and the DP (director of photography) want.”
With responsibilities surrounding camera and lighting, the job of the grip on a film set is understandably not a one-and-done — ever. And the workday is at least 10 to 12 hours. On occasion, 14.
Once a shot is captured, every single time the angle or direction switches (and a new shot is achieved from a different perspective), the camera and lights must be moved to the opposing side.
“We make sure the light consistently looks the same, and we go back through with the gaffer (the overseer of lighting design) and check all the light meters and levels so there’s the same sense of lighting and color. We put stuff up and take stuff down without it looking like anything moved,” Sannuti explains in layperson’s terms.
“It’s not glamour. It’s really hard work,” he adds. Technology has changed dramatically throughout the years, too, meaning a grip must be both a workhorse and ultra-flexible to adapt.
Sannuti knows, because he had another demanding job for over a decade before he became a professional crew member in the film and television industry.
“I was a master pressman for 15 years — doing envelopes, business cards, etc. — and I had no reason to do anything else. I could’ve just done it for the rest of my life,” he says. But then one day a friend came over to hang out, and everything began to change.
“He was working on the Fast 4 movie (Fast & Furious film franchise) and told me about the money he was making in the film industry. And he was getting lots of work and working on really big productions,” Sannuti recalls.
Sannuti, center, with Chris Roe and James Persinger on the set of the movie Flick.
Sannuti’s friend told him that wanna-be crew members could do freebie gigs to start. And if they did good work, they might get a call-back to work for a day on an actual TV show or film.
His interest was undeniably piqued.
So when his film industry friend asked if Sannuti would like to work pro bono for 16 hours with a director of photography and a key grip on a production being filmed at The Masquerade in Atlanta, he said yes.
“Afterward, they said I was amazing, but I figured I’d never hear back from them again,” Sannuti says. “I left and went on with my life.”
Then, one day when he went in to talk to his boss at the printing job — who hadn’t given Sannuti a raise in three years — the boss said, “I think I’m getting what I pay for.” So the aspiring film grip said, “OK, I’m taking vacation and I’ll be back in a week.” About then, his phone rang. It was his friend asking him to come and work on the 2012 film Wanderlust with Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston.
“I left and never came back to my old job,” Sannuti says. When you ask him for a few of his favorite film projects throughout the years, without a moment’s hesitation you hear, “I really enjoyed the Clint Eastwood movies, The Mule and Trouble with the Curve.”
Despite his success, he says nothing was easy. “I used to tell the newer people when I started that if they’d ever seen Survivor, the job is like that. You have to be the latest and greatest or you’re not back next week — somebody else is.”
Left to right: German Valle, Michael Sannuti, Kaleem Daniels, Charles Lo, Bobby Dunn, Nick Lo and Sebastian Rose on the set of Not My Family: The Monique Smith Story.
Today, the competition is even fiercer since the 2023 Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes, which essentially held U.S. production at a standstill for five months.
Sannuti says that for the 12 years before the strikes, good film and TV crew members, like grips, were extremely busy. Today, post-strike, not so much. Adding to the sluggishness, the Marvel franchise that used to keep so many Atlanta crew members in business packed up and moved to Europe. And once a production moves overseas, it’s exceedingly difficult to lure it back.
“If you’re not amazingly good, you won’t work,” Sannuti notes about today’s film industry — in Atlanta and everyplace else. “There are 6,900 in the IATSE union (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Local 479), with less than 2,000 of them working. There are not enough shows to support more. Only the ones who are really good at the job and who are really good workers are working.”
Technological changes have necessitated adjustments over the years. The move from shooting on film to shooting primarily digitally has meant crew member job shifts. As Sannuti puts it, “Fifteen years ago, I’d be the DP’s No. 1 guy and the gaffer was third person in line. And now it’s all about what the lights can do and shaping the lights, and the grip is third in line now, and it’s the gaffer with the DP.”
That said, Sannuti finds, “Atlanta is a great place to work. We have a little bit of everything as far as filming and locations. I hope eventually things come back stronger. This year, we’re just going to see what happens and hang on tight.”
Today, as a sought-after veteran key grip and crew member strategist, Sannuti is steadily working along — and always keeping a laser focus on industry developments.
::
Carol Badaracco Padgett is an Atlanta-based freelance writer who focuses on film and television, the automotive industry, architectural design and collaborative storytelling projects.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings