Home › Departments › Lighting › Chargehand Electrician

Chargehand Electrician

Leads a team of sparks on a stage or location under the Best Boy/Gaffer: allocates tasks, keeps cable discipline and delivers the plot on that set.

Duties

• Read the call sheet and sides before arriving
• Maintain radio/set etiquette and H&S
• Hand over notes/kit status at wrap
• Allocate sparks to tasks
• Lead practicals and set electrics under Best Boy
• Enforce H&S and cable discipline
• Support rig and derig

Reports to

Best Boy (Lighting) / Gaffer

Works with

Sparks, Practical Electrician, Grips, Locations

Career path

Lighting Technician → Chargehand → Best Boy → Gaffer

Day to day

Take Best Boy briefing; split crew across hangs and power; quality-check focuses; keep the set tidy and safe; escalate problems; hand over at wrap.

Call times

Lighting/pre-light call is often earlier than general unit; shoot sparks usually match unit call (commonly 07:00–08:00 on UK drama) and wrap after camera unless a lighting wrap is called. Night exteriors flip the day — always read the call sheet header.

What to wear

Matte blacks; steel toe-caps or production-approved boots; gloves for hot lamps; hard hat on rigs; hi-vis when Locations require; weather layers for UK exteriors; radio pouch.

Tools & kit

Multimeter, gloves, radio, personal hand tools as allowed.

Tips

Confirm title, agreement, budget band, prep/wrap and kit fee on the deal memo before accepting. We never invent Bectu figures — check bectu.org.uk ratecards / your branch.

Software

• Lightwright / plot PDFs
• Shared call sheets
• Lightwright / Vectorworks / CAD plot PDFs
• Shared call sheets (StudioBinder / Yamdu / PDF)
• ShotDeck / PureRef for look refs
• DMX desk familiarity (ETC Eos, grandMA basics)
• ChatGPT / Claude for quick gel/CCT notes (verify on set)

Related roles

Lighting Technician (Spark), Best Boy (Lighting)

More Lighting roles