Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking

Reef or Shoelace Knot

Applications

I’m sure you already know how to tie a shoelace knot. In film production, this knot is handy for several reasons. Since everyone knows how to tie it, even untrained volunteers can use it for everything from binding diffusion material on a 6′ × 6′ frame to fastening a cable tie.

A shoelace knot is actually a reef knot with double draw loops. The name of the reef knot comes from sailing where it was used to tie a rolled-up or “reefed” sail to the cross spar. A reef knot is also known as a square knot or Hercules knot (see figure 37-1). You can see that in a properly tied knot, on each side of the knot the two lengths ...