Rental Hire From Pixipixel

I'm guessing that everyone who reads 4rfv has at some point rented equipment of one type or another, whether it was a full list of production equipment for a shoot or just a lens to supplement your own selection of glass.

We have all hired something at some point, but how many of you have ever thought about the hire industry and what it takes to get that kit into your hands.

Thinking back, my first experience of the rental industry was at a very tender young age when my dad rented a VCR for us and we got to choose videos from the local store to watch. I recall the racks of videos stretching up the walls out of my reach and how my dad always used to choose one from the top shelf but I was limited to the children's section. With only three channels to choose from on the TV this access to movies was mind blowing to a young lad and the only bad thing was having to get them back on time. I never considered the process involved in me watching these films, the selection, purchase, checking out, checking back in, charging for and so on. I certainly never imagined that I would spend most of my working life in the hire industry.

Just to be clear I have never worked in a video shop and I've never ever hired out a video to anyone. I have however hired out almost everything else imaginable at some point or another, from Scissor lifts to tipper trucks, chainsaws to porta-loos. You name it, I've hired it out. More than a little while ago I decided to get myself out of the rental industry and studied photography in a bid to reinvent myself and change my career path. Well, it sort of worked as I now hire out photographic equipment instead of general plant. At this point may I congratulate everyone in the photographic community for being far more polite than your counterparts in the building industry. I am yet to have to "step round the counter" to deal with anyone since leaving the construction side of things.

So I now work at Pixipixel in Shoreditch. We are probably the largest rental house in London that is still privately owned and family run. We supply all manner of kit to the cinematography and photographic industry and have a reputation, as the go to place for all that is new and exciting in this field.

Being a family run business means that the owner is here working alongside the rest of us and has his finger on the pulse of the industry. This lets us react to trends and new equipment releases quickly and to adjust our stock accordingly on an almost day-to-day basis. In fact by the time you hear about the latest light or camera on the market we will probably already have one, or two at least.

So that brings me nicely to the first responsibility of your local rental house. Which kit to stock! Just like the video shop all those years back, we need to stock the up to date kit, the latest models of all your favourites, also anything that some clever person has come up that may or not be the next big thing. And (this is a tough one) we also need to figure out how many of each model to have. We don't want to over stock and have equipment gathering dust on the shelf and we certainly don't want to under stock and disappoint you, our customers. This is no easy task, and involves keeping a close watch on trends within the industry and new technology as it emerges.

Only years of experience and a dash of good luck can help with this, but we do get it right more often than not. Take the Mamiya RZ camera for example, it's been going strong for over thirty years now and is still a popular hire item. If only today's cameras had such a long working life we would all be laying on a beach in Barbados right now.

Next up in our list of things to consider is how to charge you guys for the kit. We need to take into account the demand, shelf life, running and purchase cost of every single thing we buy, and work out how much to charge in order to make a profit whilst not pricing you guys out of work. This is no simple task as you can imagine. Then at what point do we move the equipment on, do we wait until the demand dries up and then find ourselves turning into a museum of old equipment or do we sell it on whilst it's still current and lose out on rentals? Again this involves a certain amount of crystal ball consultation.

Once we have decided what to stock and how much to charge for it we then need to maintain it. That's relatively simple when we are talking about a C stand as we only need to check 3 grub screws, 3 knobs, 3 feet, 2 tube sections, 6 nuts and a couple of knuckles every time it leaves and returns. That's just for one stand and you guys tend to hire them out by the dozen so you can start to see the amount of behind the scenes work that is required to ensure it reaches you complete and functions correctly. Now try to imagine what's involved with a big job containing lighting and cameras too. That's why we have dedicated departments for lighting and cameras and why we employ experts in each field to keep our kit in tip top condition.

Even just getting the kit to you for your shoot and picking it up after you have wrapped is no mean feet of organization. Our fleet of vans and trucks and our band of drivers start early and work well into the night delivering and picking up equipment from all over the country. We also need to employ couriers, complete carnets, and chase up sub hires long before your shoot starts and long after you shoot is wrapped. That lens you used today is more than likely going out again tomorrow and someone needs to check it in-between, so if you like late mornings and early nights don't join the hire industry.

So that's the easy bit, the hard bit sorry to say is you lot, our customers. Please don't take offence, I know without you we would not exist and yes we do believe that the customer is always right, but along with that the customer is often late, forgetful and sometimes demanding. We have a team of bookers here and like every rental house they are your point of contact. Now being a booker is a funny old game; it's a bit like being a cross between a stockbroker and a juggler, every day we are swamped with kit lists and quote requests coming from all angles, everything from walk in customers to emails and that infernal telephone (at least you have stopped faxing us). Our bookers need to be jack of all trades interpreting lists in various languages from French to American, offering advice, maximizing the use of our equipment, chasing up returns, invoicing and so on, but it's all jolly good fun.

It seems that every day we get a last minute job come into the office email that's three pages long and needed on site at 0700 the next morning, usually an hour outside London. Hats off to the bookers everywhere around the globe, as this is when we have to put a smile on our collective faces and get on with it. Find the equipment, get it booked for you, organize someone to go pick it up, as its probably out on another job, give lighting/cameras the bad news that they need to get it all checked over night and ready to go out again in the morning. I'm not meaning to moan (Really, I'm Not), we do know the score. If you are sending us a list at 1730 it's because you only got it at 1700, this is all part of the Rental Game. Having said that when the job gets cancelled at 0630 the next morning, it can be a tad frustrating for us as well as you too.

So, hopefully this has given you some small insight into our world. It's a strange world and not an easy one by any means but you know what makes it all worthwhile?

Yes, it's you guys and the projects you get us involved in. Every day we play an important part in fashion shoots, feature films, TV adverts, music videos and everything else in between. We get to share in your success and achievements and build great relationships with some fantastic folks.
It's hard work, but “you're worth it!”

Lighting
One thing that unites us all in this industry is the need for light. Yes it is possible to shoot with only the sun to illuminate your subject, but let's face it, we live in England and the sun here is not as reliable as it could be. It tends to sleep in for six months of the year and some days it hardly shows up at all. Add to that the fact that we tend to shoot next summers' stuff this winter and most of us don't have the budget to fly off to hotter, drier climates to do so and we can start to see that almost every shoot requires some sort of additional light. I have to admit that we rather like this situation here at Pixipixel because if we have anything we certainly have lights, truck loads (literally) of them in fact.

Lighting should be a simple thing but it rarely is, there are lots of things to consider when deciding what you are going to use. Happily, Pixipixel has plenty of options as far as lighting is concerned, from flashlights for photography to continuous lighting for you cinematographers.

We are used to experienced users sending through lists of lighting that they wish to use, but are equally at home talking customers through the whole process and helping them decide what's the best kit to use to achieve their desired results. We even offer to demonstrate lights in house for those who are still "in the dark".

With light you need to bear in mind three major things; the direction, quality and colour. Direction is down to you for the larger part. We can offer advice but as we are not on the shoot, exactly where you place the lights is out of our control. As far as the quality of light, be it hard or soft, flood or spot we have enough modifiers to create whatever effect you desire. Colour is again no issue be it daylight, tungsten or anywhere in-between we have the light to suit, even if you are after "black" light (UV).

All the major quality brands are here waiting for your selection. We carry the best of the best as far as lights are concerned with equipment from Profoto and Broncolor for the stills guys, through Briese, ARRI, Filmgear and so on for you moving image types.

Tungsten, HMI and LED lights are all here and in great numbers and as far as power is concerned we have lights up to 24k and down to a Maglite.

Oh, and don't worry about plugging that 24k in, as we can always supply a generator to suit, but it may need a driver as it's wrapped up in a truck. We can find the driver too of course.

We will also calculate what you need in the way of leads and boxes (distribution) to enable you to run the kit. Just let us know what power is available and we will work out the rest. Likewise we can help with sand bags and stands, scrims and reflectors.

So if you only need one umbrella for your own flash head or a plethora of HMI's for your latest blockbuster we can help whatever your budget may be.

Finally, don't forget our hazers and smoke machines that will add the atmosphere to your shoot and our wind machines will blow you away!

Cameras
Now one thing is for certain in our crazy world and that's the need for a camera on every shoot. Let's face it, you're going to look daft with a studio full of "talent" and crew and enough lights to wake the dead but nothing to capture an image with. Don't laugh, it happens occasionally!

With cameras being such an integral part of what we do, Pixipixel has an entire department dedicated to all things camera related. Staffed by our team of stills and video experts, this department ensures that our digital kit is in tip top condition and ready for your hire.

Every day I am glad to have our camera experts close to hand as we receive many a technical question from you guys regarding frame rates, codex licenses, anamorphic lenses and so on. Our camera guys and girls always have the answer. I've no idea how they do it but I'm very glad they do. This is a great example of how a Rental House is more than just a supplier of equipment.

Think about a car hire firm for a second; they hire you out a shiny new Ford Focus yes but do they show you how to change a flat, let alone tune the engine?

This is exactly why a dedicated department is necessary. We want to offer the entire package to our customers and this, critically, includes support. Things can go wrong and one incorrect camera setting or misbehaving lead can bring a shoot to a standstill, costing you time and money. Our experts diligently prepare every bit of equipment before it leaves us, checking functions, settings and all peripherals. This is done whether it's just a GoPro kit or an entire ARRI Amira system. We don't stop there either, regularly troubleshooting during the hire as questions arise or things change. Generally this can be done over the phone but if required we will attend the job to help keep you shooting.

I am perhaps getting ahead of myself a bit here as our camera department's involvement with a hire starts much earlier than you would think. Taking care of everything camera related involves a lot of behind the scenes work. All our cameras and computers need to have their firmware and software updated regularly to keep them current and just ensuring sensors are spotless and lenses are tack sharp is a full time task itself. Our experts are also on hand for camera tests and to assist in anything technical that is required.

I'm not going to bore you with a list of the cameras we stock; I will put it simply, be it moving image or stills, digital or analogue, if it's worth shooting with then we have it and we probably have several of it too!

Now a camera is of little use without a lens on the front (unless you're a pinhole guy like myself) so we stock almost everything decent that Canon and Nikon make along with a great range of cinematic glass from the likes of Cooke and Zeiss. Our inventory includes vintage hard-to-find lenses for that special feel, right up to super modern offerings from all the top manufacturers, so whatever you are after we can supply.

So once you have selected a camera and some sexy glass, you need to think about support. Not the support we offer this time, more a support for the camera, like a tripod or dolly. Again, here we have a staggering amount of equipment; tripods from Manfrotto to Gitzo with more heads than a box of matches, enough dollies to put Play School to shame from Fisher amongst others, jibs, steady cams and gimbal rigs the list goes on and on.

So that's it then, your shoot should be covered, with the help and support of your new best friend Pixipixel. You have ordered everything from lighting to cameras, grip to special effects equipment; all will be delivered by one of our marvellous Pixipixel trucks ready for you to do your thing and shoot something beautiful.

So good luck from us and don't forget we are here if you need anything, even if it's just a "well done" and a pat on the back.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope to catch you at Pixipixel in the future sometime soon, but in the meantime you can get another fix of my insane ramblings on the pixipixel blog at www.pixipixel.com.

Cheers BB (Brucie Blogger).

www.pixipixel.com

(JP/LM)