BURBANK, CA — Assembled beneath the studio’s iconic water tower, grips from the Warner Bros. staff watched Monday as their key grip solemnly lowered a 40-inch century stand to half-mast.
“Easy,” key grip Dennis Haskins said while loosening the main knuckle. “Easy. Let him down gently.”
Witnesses reported that grips removed their baseball caps during the proceedings, while one crew member, unable to watch, turned away to quietly reorganize a pile of 20-pound shotbags. A piece of black duvetyne was subsequently folded into a triangle and presented to a best boy whose start paperwork had been pending since February.
Haskins, who requests privacy during this time, noted that this marked the third time he had lowered the stand, having previously done so for the AT&T acquisition and the Discovery merger.
“There’s barely any travel left on the riser,” Haskins said, looking at the remaining four inches of exposed chrome. “One more synergistic restructuring and we’re going to be hitting the turtle base.”
Production later confirmed that the moment of silence would be counted as lunch.
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