Equipment lingo

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Years ago, we were shooting a PR film about an almost on line nuke power plant. We were loading onto the reactor’s fuelling floor (where we had to step over these long wood boxes, only to find out these are the shipping cases for the reactor’s “plutonium rods”!), every item, and I mean every item had to be listed on a security sheet as we passes through the security gate.

The grips had to count every clothes pin on their belt, and if anything was accidentally left off the list yet brought onto the floor, it had to be left behind, no excuses (I guess this prevented the grips from taking any plutonium rods out!).

I was the 2nd AC and was rolling a magliner through the gate and verbally giving the old security guard a list of the gear, when I got to “baby legs and baby leg spreaders”, the old guy just stopped in his tracks, looked up to me and said, “Yeah… right! Enough of this bullshit!” He thought I was trying to play him as a fool, especially just after the grips recently passed through the same gate with a dozen “nook lights, pigeon plates and cookies!”
Jeff Barklage