Holding up productions since 1959 -[ HMM ]-
Image by Carbon Arc
Gaffer’s tape, an indispensable product in the motion picture, TV, sound, audio-visual, and other production professions. This harder-to-find and somewhat pricy product is a cousin to ordinary duct tape (which, ironically, is not approved for sealing ductwork), but has properties that make the tape easy to apply quickly, hold strong, and remove cleanly when used properly*.
Back when I set up audio-visual equipment for special events, I was accused of overusing gaffer’s tape, especially for taping down cables (often exceeding the standard set in the first two minutes of this excellent instructional video I found on YouTube). My reply to those accusations was that, even though the tape itself was not inexpensive, it was cheap insurance against a tripping accident and the specter of a financially and reputationally disastrous lawsuit.
*That includes how to remove the tape. Hold cable(s) down first, then peel the tape away from the cables. The tape will fold around the cables if cables are pulled up before the tape is removed, resulting in a mess requiring considerable time (and, I must confess, some foul language along the way) to clean up.
