How to Work With a Gaffer as a Director (From the Gaffer You’re About to Hire)
Most directors I work with are great at story and shaky at talking to their gaffer. That's not an insult — nobody teaches you this. You come up thinking about performance, framing, and the edit, then you're on a commercial set with a lighting crew and not sure who to talk to or when. So you either micromanage the wrong person or go quiet and hope it works out. Both cost you time, and on a commercial, time is the budget.
I've been on both sides of this. I'm a working gaffer and DP in Central Florida, which means I'm usually the guy a director is trying to work with. Here's how to work with a gaffer as a director and get the look you want without burning your day.
What Your Gaffer Actually Controls (And What They Don't)
The first thing that trips directors up is not knowing the lanes. Your gaffer owns light and power — the fixtures, where they go, how they're shaped, the electrical distribution that runs them, and the G&E crew who make it happen. If it glows, dims, or plugs in, that's your gaffer.
What your gaffer does not own: the camera (that's the DP and camera crew), the performances and blocking (that's you), and the schedule (that's your AD). This matters: aim a change at the right person and you get there faster. If you're fuzzy on who sits where above the gaffer, DP vs. director: who does what on set lays out the chain — and the short version is that on most commercial sets you talk to your DP about the look, and the DP and gaffer translate it into light. For the role itself in full, here's what a gaffer actually does.
The Pre-Production Conversation That Saves You Hours
The best directors I work with front-load the work. Before the shoot day they get on a call or send a deck, and they bring three things:
- Reference images. Not a hundred — five or six frames that actually show the lighting you want. Stills from films, commercials, photographs. A single well-chosen reference tells me more than ten minutes of adjectives. "Moody, but the face still reads" plus one image and I've got it.
- The practical constraints. Locations, how many setups, whether we're inside or fighting the Florida sun, and the rough schedule. That's what lets me spec the right package instead of guessing.
- What matters most. If there's one hero shot the whole spot lives on, tell me in pre-pro. I'll build the day so that shot gets the light and the time it deserves.
What doesn't help: vague vibes with no picture, or a "reference" that's really about color grade, not lighting. Bring the lighting reference — that's what keeps us from problem-solving on the clock.
On-Set Communication: Who to Talk To and When
Here's the etiquette that keeps a set fast. On a commercial with a full crew, you talk to your DP about the look. The DP talks to me. I talk to my crew. That sounds like a game of telephone, but it's the opposite — it keeps the set quick, because everyone's getting clean direction from one source instead of three people calling adjustments to an electrician on a ladder.
So the one thing not to do: don't walk up to my G&E crew and start redirecting lights yourself. Not because anyone's precious about it — because that electrician is mid-execution on something I asked for, and now they've got two bosses and no idea which one wins. If you want a light moved, tell me or your DP — it'll happen faster, I promise.
When should you talk to me directly? On creative intent, always — pull me into the reference conversation, tell me what you're going for, ask what's possible. Just keep the live, on-set adjustments flowing through the DP so the crew has one voice to follow.
How to Give Lighting Feedback Without Killing Momentum
Directors often go quiet on lighting because they don't have the vocabulary, then they're vaguely unhappy and can't say why. You don't need the technical words — just describe the feeling and the problem and let me handle the how.
"Her eyes are going dark, can we get some life in them?" is perfect. "It feels flat, I want more shape" — perfect. What's less useful is prescribing the fix ("add a 4x4 with a half grid") unless you know the gear — you might send me chasing the wrong solution to a problem I could fix three faster ways.
And give feedback in the moment, not after we've moved on. If something's off at the monitor, say it while we're still lit for it. The most expensive words on a set are "actually, can we go back to the first setup" — because relighting it costs everyone the time you saved by staying quiet.
The Director Mistakes That Quietly Cost You Time and Money
A few patterns I see eat a day:
- Not sharing the shot list until you're on set. If I don't know how many setups are coming, I can't pre-rig or pace the lighting. Give me the day in advance and I'll be lit before you need it.
- Changing the plan without telling the gaffer. Drop a setup or add an exterior at lunch and that's a lighting and power change — loop me in the second it happens, not when we walk to the new spot.
- Over-lighting by committee. Six people at the monitor all wanting one more tweak turns a ten-minute setup into forty. Decide who gives lighting notes — usually you and the DP — and let the rest ride.
- Treating the gaffer as a rental instead of a collaborator. The reason you hire someone who does this every week is the problem-solving. Ask me what I'd do — I've probably lit your exact situation before.
None of these are about talent — they're about workflow, and workflow is learnable in a single shoot.
How to Work With a Gaffer in Florida
Strip it down and working with a gaffer as a director comes to this: know the lanes, front-load the creative in pre-pro, keep on-set adjustments flowing through your DP, describe problems instead of fixes, and treat your gaffer as the collaborator they are. Do that and you'll get more of your day back than any piece of gear will give you.
I'm a working gaffer and DP based in Orlando, lighting commercial and branded work across Central Florida. If you've got a spot coming up, this is exactly how we'd work together — hire a gaffer in Central Florida, see what a gaffer costs in Florida, and if you're still building the camera side too, here's how to hire a DP for your commercial. Send me your references, locations, and hero shot, and I'll tell you straight how to light the day.