Creative agency glossaryVideo and Post-Production

Equipment Rentals (Creative)

Equipment rentals are the cameras, lenses, lighting, grip, sound and specialty gear a production hires for the days of a shoot instead of owning outright.

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What is equipment rentals (creative)?

Equipment rentals is how most professional productions are actually equipped. A rental house holds the inventory, cinema cameras, lens sets, lighting packages, grip and rigging, sound kits, monitors, wireless video, dollies, sliders, drones, motion-control rigs, generators and the trucks to move them, and a production hires exactly what the job needs for exactly the days it needs it. The producer or director of photography builds a gear list, the rental house quotes it, the crew picks it up or has it delivered, and it goes back when the shoot wraps.

The system exists because professional equipment is expensive, changes fast and is only used on shoot days. A cinema camera body, a set of prime lenses and a serious lighting package together cost more than most studios would want tied up in depreciating hardware, and every job wants something slightly different. Renting lets a production choose the right tool for each film rather than the tool it happens to own.

Why it matters

Why equipment rentals matter

The gear shapes the picture. The choice of camera, lens and light is one of the first creative decisions on a film, and renting means that decision is made by what the story needs rather than by what is in the closet. A small studio can shoot on the same equipment as a feature film for the days it matters, which is one of the reasons boutique production companies compete with much larger ones on image quality.

Rentals also move risk off the production. A rental house maintains, tests and insures its inventory, replaces a failed body on a shoot morning and keeps up with formats and firmware. For a creative agency and production studio that shoots across many kinds of work, from a documentary to a product film to a stadium reveal, the rental house is effectively an equipment department that scales with the job.

In practice

How equipment rentals work in practice

  1. 01

    The process starts in pre-production. The director of photography and the producer write a gear list against the shot list: camera package, lenses, support, lighting and grip by location, sound, monitoring, power and expendables. The list goes to one or more rental houses for quotes, usually priced as a day rate with weekly discounts and a reduced rate for prep and travel days. The production's insurance certificate goes to the rental house, since nothing leaves without coverage.

  2. 02

    Prep day is where the shoot is saved or lost. A camera assistant builds and tests the package at the rental house, checks every lens, confirms media, batteries and cables, and flags anything missing while it can still be fixed. On set the crew is responsible for the gear, and at wrap it is checked in against the list, with any damage or loss settled through the insurance. Good producers keep relationships with a couple of rental houses, know which one has the specialty item a job needs, and book early for anything scarce, because the best gear in a city is gone during busy seasons.

At RIOT

Equipment rentals at RIOT

We own the tools we use every week and rent the tools a specific film needs. A luxury holiday window film for Tiffany & Co. calls for different glass and light than a mascot reveal for the Washington Commanders or a product film for Nutrafol x Sephora, and renting is how each film gets exactly its own package. The experience of running those gear lists, prep days and returns across years of shoots is part of why we built Krova, our production software, to make the logistics easier to see.

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Watch out

What people get wrong about equipment rentals

Renting more than the film needs. A gear list padded with everything the DP might want costs money on every day it sits in the truck, and the best cinematographers are ruthless about what actually serves the shots. The second mistake is skipping the prep day to save a rate; the failed battery or missing cable costs far more on set. The third is treating the rental house as a vending machine. The good ones are full of people who know what works, and a producer who asks them gets better packages and better prices.

Related terms

Film ProductionStudio Lighting PackagesCinematic Robotics RentalProduction Studio Rental

Questions

People also ask

How much does it cost to rent camera equipment for a shoot?

It depends on the package. A single cinema camera with a lens set runs from a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars a day, and a full camera, lighting and grip package for a commercial shoot can run several thousand a day before crew. Weekly rates usually equal three or four day rates, and prep and travel days are often discounted.

Is it better to rent or buy production equipment?

Rent anything used only on shoot days or specific to a job: cinema cameras, specialty lenses, large lighting packages, motion control, drones. Buy what is used constantly and cheaply enough to depreciate: edit systems, basic audio, a small everyday camera. Most studios do both and let the job decide.

What insurance do you need to rent film equipment?

Rental houses require a production insurance certificate covering rented equipment, usually with the rental house named as loss payee, before anything leaves the building. Short-term policies exist for single projects, and agencies and studios that shoot regularly carry an annual policy.

Who handles equipment rentals on a production?

The producer or production manager books and manages the rental, and the director of photography and camera assistants specify, prep and look after the gear. On small shoots one person does all of it; on larger ones the camera department owns the list and the production office owns the paperwork.

Next to it in the glossary

  1. Documentary FilmmakingDocumentary filmmaking is the craft of telling true stories on film, with real people and real events shaped into a narrative that holds an audience.
  2. Drone VideographyDrone videography is the capture of video from an unmanned aircraft, giving filmmakers aerial and moving perspectives that once required a helicopter or a crane.
  3. EditingEditing is the craft of choosing and ordering what was captured, in film or in copy, so the finished piece says only what it needs to.
  4. External ProductionExternal production is the practice of hiring an outside agency or studio to plan, shoot, edit or finish content rather than making it with an in-house team.
  5. Film ProductionFilm production is the whole process of making a film, from the first idea and script through pre-production, the shoot and post-production to the finished deliverables.
  6. Filmmaking AutomationFilmmaking automation is the use of software and programmable hardware to do the repeatable parts of making a film, from camera moves and versioning to scheduling and delivery, so people can spend their time on the parts that need judgment.

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