Michael McDonald was a student at Saint John High School when the movie Children of A Lesser God, began production on the streets of Saint John. He remembers staring out the window at the activity on Canterbury Street and wanting badly to be a part of it.

�They were creating something,� McDonald reminisces, �I didn�t want to do math, I wanted to create.�

A friend who was working on the show got McDonald a part as an extra and thus began his love affair with movie making.

�I felt like I was behind the scenes in Hollywood,� says McDonald.

After Children of A Lesser God wrapped up, McDonald went about his life. He spent almost a decade working as a theatre and rock �n� roll technician in Saint John, Vancouver and England before having another opportunity to get back into the frenetic world of filmmaking.

�I moved home from Vancouver in 1998 and landed my first job as a grip just a couple months later. Since then I�ve worked on over 30 films, both features and made for television productions. I�ve also worked on television shows and series,� McDonald says.

Although McDonald began his gripping career lugging sandbags, he quickly moved up the grip hierarchy and keyed his first film, Black Swan, in 2001. He�s currently the only key grip in the province.

�The key grip works closely with the director of photography and the gaffer (key electrician) to help create lighting set-ups and determine the placement of cameras; it�s non-electrical support to camera and lighting,� explains McDonald. �The name key grip comes from back in the golden age of filmmaking when there weren�t huge crews of people to make the movie. Legend has it that the actual name comes from the bag, also known as a grip, which the technician used to carry his tools around the set.�

McDonald is also a qualified dolly grip. �A dolly is a hydraulic buggy used to create flowing, moving shots,� says McDonald. �There are different kinds of dollies and a dolly grip is in charge of building the track the dolly glides on, mounting the camera and pushing the camera operator and the camera, which is a lot more technical than it actually sounds.�

McDonald is pleased that he�s been able to earn a living making movies in Eastern Canada, but he says that his job isn�t always creatively fulfilling. �The main attraction for me when I got into the film business was to understand how the film process worked,� he says. �I knew that down the road I would have my own stories to tell and by being a technician all these years I�ve gained the experience that will help me tell them.�

McDonald�s first project is a short script he wrote himself called �Hunting Lessons.� He was awarded a grant from New Brunswick Film�s Short Film Venture Program to help him make the film, which he plans to direct this summer after he returns from a cross-Canada trek as a grip with the Canadian Antiques Roadshow.

A Toronto production company is also shopping a reality television treatment he created to prospective markets.

�I am happy to say that there is a growing community of independent filmmakers in Saint John,� says McDonald. �We are all connected and supportive of each other and I think a growing independent industry will only mean good things for the future of film in the city.�

McDonald hopes to screen �Hunting Lessons� at Fredericton�s Tidalwave Film Festival in the fall.