What does the Gaffer do?

[Michael Frymus]

I know the gist of what the Gaffer does. Design the lighting with the DOP.
Then talk to the Best Boy/Electrics and Grips on what needs to be done.

The Electrics and Grips setup the lights for the scene. But, what happens to the Gaffer then?

I've been asked to work on a production as the Chief Lighting Technician, which I believe they are referring it to as the Key Gaffer.
They said they'll be other gaffers and grips below me, but I think they just worded that incorrectly.

Whenever I worked on productions as a Gaffer, I did have an electric who would setup the lighting, but as the Gaffer I didnt tell them what to do and have them do it all for me.
As the Gaffer, the DOP told me what needed to be done and I setup all the lighting. The electric just helped me out. And the grips would do their job like normal.

But if I have electrics that should be doing the lighting and not the Gaffer, what does the Gaffer do then in the mean time?

On this production, I'm not being involved in the pre-production as the last Gaffer was kicked off and now I'm taking the new spot. but, I dont think the last gaffer was either.
So, everything will be told to me the day of.

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

it varies... a gaffer could just dictate to the electrics and correspond with the key grip, what the DP has decided upon.. and hes always the ear between DP and the lighting crew..

and ive seen some gaffers who light the entire thing on their own.. the dps in these situations are usually political DPs

 

[Craig Parkes]

I imagine a big consideration with this sort of question is scale.

If you have enough skilled people below you to physically do all the lighting, and the DOP knows how he wants things to look, but not necessarily the specific fixtures or equipment to achieve the look, then as gaffer presumably your job would be to take the information from the DOP, work out what fixtures at your disposal would work best to get the desired look, then pass on that info to the crew and give them the instructions on how to tweak it when the DOP wants changes.

There's probably a not inconsiderable amount of general HOD responsibility (paper work, ensuring the gear is being treated properly by the crew, assigning the right lighting guys to the right task etc.)