About GripDude
The gaffer picked up the phone.
GripDude started because international productions kept needing one thing in Korea they couldn't book through an agency: someone on the floor who owns the problem.
GripDude is run by Seunghaak Philip Lee — a working gaffer and DP who has lit campaigns for Gucci, Dior, Coach, Dyson and Hyundai, features that traveled to Locarno, CPH:DOX and Busan, and documentary for Netflix. Not a coordinator with a vendor list: a head of department who reads your treatment the way your own gaffer would.
The company grew the way a crew grows. First the lights and stands, then the 3.5-ton liftgate truck, then GripTools — our own rental house, so foreign productions stopped paying a margin on a margin. Today one chat thread gets you crew, kit, trucks, locations and paperwork, in English or Korean, invoiced in the currency your accounts team prefers.
We stay small on purpose. The person who quotes your job rigs your job — that's the whole model, and the reason teams from London, LA and Tokyo book us twice.
Festivals our work traveled to
- Locarno — Cineasti del Presente (world premiere)
- CPH:DOX Copenhagen
- Busan IFF — Wide Angle
- Sarajevo Film Festival
- Filmfest Hamburg
How the crew grew
Timeline
2014–2020
Korea National University of Arts — Film & Broadcasting (BA)
2019–2022
Netflix Persona 2: Sulli — lighting; WATCHA originals — production & technical direction
2022
GripDude founded — gaffer-run production service, Seoul
2023
GripTools launched — own lighting & grip rental house
2022–2024
Riot Games VALORANT films & VCT Pacific — DP & gaffer, Seoul / LA / Shanghai
2023–2026
Gucci, Dyson, Coach, UGG, Stone Island, Dior Beauty — gaffer for international campaigns in Korea