They are also responsible for organizing the grip truck throughout the day.

Someone gripped Truck's shoulders: Horst-Sylvia, the biological sculptress, with her heaving coloratura bosom; yellow, motionless eyes stared into his own in passive, mute interrogation.

"When I got there the next day, there's Kevin standing on the back of the grip truck, dressed in work boots and jeans, unloading hotel furniture," Mr. Swanbeck said.

Instead of shooting everything on location, which requires permits, crowd and traffic control, and ability to squeeze huge grip trucks onto a residential street without annoying the neighbors, a compromise is reached.

The grip truck ran into an elderly lady's car the first day of shooting in New Orleans and the crew wound up paying off the lady with hundreds peeled from a roll of bills.