Matthews has been building grip equipment in Burbank, California since 1968. Not licensing it. Not sourcing it. Building it — in a machine shop, a few miles from the studios that use it. This is some of what that looks like.
It started in a garage
In the late 1960s, Key Grip Roy Isaia began supplying studios with production materials out of his mother’s garage in Burbank. Filmmaking was still a frontier craft. There were no standards. If a grip needed a thing, a grip made the thing.
Ed Phillips — a former drummer who had been making lighting equipment — partnered with accountant Carlos DeMattos to buy the business. They put in a machine shop. That decision is why Matthews still exists.
Writing the standards nobody had written
The most consequential thing Matthews ever made wasn’t a product — it was an agreement. Working with Washington, Matthews helped formally establish the 5/8" Baby Pin and the 1-1/8" Junior Receiver.
Every stand, every head, every plate and adapter on a set anywhere in the world now mates to those two dimensions. A grip in Prague can hang a fixture on a stand built in Auckland because of a spec written in Burbank.
1974: the leg that folds
Ed Phillips invented the folding-base 40" Century Stand. Before it, C-Stands didn’t nest — which meant a truck could only hold so many, and a corner of a stage was always full of legs.
The folding-leg C-Stand is now the worldwide standard, made by everyone. It started here.
Three Academy Awards
The Academy Plaque — gold-plated bronze on black marble, engraved Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Scientific and Engineering Award. It has been in the Burbank office since 1986.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has recognized Matthews work three times — twice with Ed Phillips and Carlos DeMattos named directly on the citation.
- The Tulip Crane — Technical Achievement Award (Academy Certificate), presented at the 55th Academy Awards in spring 1983, to Ed Phillips and Carlos DeMattos of Matthews with Constant Tresfon and Adriaan De Rooy of Egripment.
- Cam-Remote — Scientific and Engineering Award (the Academy Plaque pictured above), presented at the 58th Academy Awards in spring 1986, to Ernst Nettmann for the invention and to Edward Phillips and Carlos DeMattos of Matthews for the development.
- The MAX Menace Arm — Technical Achievement Award, presented February 9, 2013, to its designer, Hollywood Key Grip Richard Mall.
From the Matthews archive, not long after the win: “The Academy Award winning Crane by Matthews is a portable crane system ideal for film and video application. Equally at home on rough terrain or a studio floor... It breaks apart and folds to 8 feet for easy transporting.” 600 pounds. 16 feet 5 inches of height. A negative drop of minus 3 feet.
See the full awards & innovations timeline →
Paper, before the internet
The 1992 product catalog. Corporate office: 2405 West Empire Avenue, Burbank. Order hotline: (800)-CE STAND.
Matthews has printed a catalog nearly every year since. The current one is available to download, and we’ll still mail you a paper copy.
Made here, still
By 2012 Matthews was a 44-year-old manufacturer with more than 80 employees, shipping to clients in 78 countries — recognized that year with the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce Export Achievement Award, and separately with the President’s “E” Award for Exports.
The welding, machining and assembly still happen in Burbank today.
The people it was built for
A Matthews crew jacket, circa 1984 — between the Tulip Crane award and the Cam-Remote award.
The International Cinematographers Guild eventually saluted Ed Phillips “for forty years of service and love to the crews who make the art and craft of filmmaking.” That phrasing is the whole point. This company was built by grips, for grips, and it has never really thought of itself as anything else.
Now
Matthews is led today by President and CEO Tyler Phillips, still headquartered in Burbank, still running its own machine shop, with more than 2,000 products in the line.
Awards & Innovations timeline | The Matthews story | Our team | The Griptionary
Have a piece of Matthews history — an old catalog, a photo from a set, a stand still working after thirty years? We’d like to see it: info@msegrip.com
