If the gaffer is thinking about the next shot, the best boy electric is thinking about Thursday. Thursday is when the show moves to a warehouse with no house power, needs a 1,400 amp generator, four extra electricians, and a lift, and none of it has been confirmed yet. Managing that is the best boy's job, along with the department's crew, trucks, and paperwork.
Before the first shoot day
Once the gaffer writes the lighting order, the best boy turns it into something a rental house can pull. That means checking quantities against the shooting schedule, adding the cable and distribution the gaffer didn't list, and getting two or three quotes if the production wants them. The best boy works out with the UPM or production supervisor which items are weekly rentals for the whole shoot and which are day-plays, such as a second generator for two nights of exterior work.
Prep also covers the crew. The best boy calls electricians, checks roster status on union shows, collects start paperwork, and builds the department's crew list. When the truck arrives, the best boy checks the load against the order, notes anything missing or damaged, and signs for it. That checkout sheet protects the production at wrap, when the rental house sends a loss and damage bill.
The daily rhythm
A realistic location day with a 6:00 AM crew call looks like this for the best boy:
- Arrives before call to open the truck, start the generator if the operator isn't there yet, and get the first carts rolling toward set.
- Hands out walkies and assigns electricians to the gaffer's plan for the first setup.
- Around mid-morning, reads the next day's call sheet draft and tells the coordinator about extra crew or equipment needs.
- Calls the rental house about a fixture that failed and arranges a swap or a runner to pick it up.
- Pulls one or two electricians to pre-rig the afternoon location during lunch, if the gaffer asks.
- At wrap, runs the strike, confirms cable is wrapped and counted, and locks the truck.
- Collects time sheets from the electricians, checks them against the call and wrap times on the production report, and turns them in.
Timekeeping errors are expensive. Under the Basic Agreement terms Local 44 summarizes on its wage sheets, hours after 8 are time and a half and hours after 12 are double time, with a 10-hour turnaround in Los Angeles County and 9 hours on distant location. A best boy who calls in two electricians an hour early to pre-rig has just changed their turnaround for the next morning. The turnaround calculator shows the effect.
Pay at union scale
Local 728's schedules list the best boy as Assistant Chief Lighting Technician. For the year beginning August 2, 2026, Wage Schedule 1 sets the minimum at $59.20 an hour for a daily employee. Weekly employees get a guarantee of $3,548.98 for 54 cumulative hours. The math behind that number is 40 hours straight plus 14 hours at time and a half, 61 paid hours, at the weekly base of $58.18.
A best boy on a weekly deal who works a 60-hour week at scale is paid the $3,548.98 guarantee, plus overtime for the 6 hours beyond the 54-hour guarantee, calculated under the contract's overtime rules. That is why productions track weekly crew hours as closely as daily ones.
Kit rentals on the best boy's desk
The best boy often handles the department's rental paperwork, including the gaffer's kit rental and sometimes their own. A best boy kit might be a laptop and printer for truck inventory, hand tools, a meter, and a set of personal tie-in tools. It gets paid weekly on the deal memo with an inventory attached, and it isn't subject to payroll taxes or fringes because it is rent for gear. Keep the list current; a production cannot pay loss and damage on an item that was never on the inventory.
The equipment checklist template is a good format for the truck's check-in and check-out counts.
Who the best boy talks to
Inside the department, the gaffer and the electricians. Across departments, the best boy grip is the closest partner, since the two trucks often park together, share rigging calls, and borrow from each other. In the production office, the coordinator gets crew adds and equipment orders, the accountant gets purchase orders and invoices, and the transportation captain gets truck moves and parking.
How people get the job
Best boys are electricians who proved they can run a crew. The common path is several years as a set lighting technician, then a few shows as a second unit or day-play best boy, then a regular spot with a gaffer. Gaffers usually pick someone they trust with their budget and their crew.
For Local 728, the requirements are the same as for any electrician: placement on the Contract Services Industry Experience Roster or Commercial Roster after 30 days of permitted union employment within a year of the first permitted day, plus a color-blind test and the Contract Services safety and harassment prevention courses. Moving up to the assistant chief classification is then a matter of being hired into it.
Storiara and the truck list
Storiara's Equipment module stores each rental item with cost and rate fields and availability, and it imports CSV or XLSX files, so a rental house quote can be loaded instead of retyped. The printed equipment list works as a starting point for check-in counts. More in Equipment.