Bags, Lights, Tripod... How do you guys travel with your equipment (airports suck)

J

JCVR

Well-known member
Alright, So my main DVX gear consists of a kata bag (which is very airport legal) a Tripod bag and a Light kit about the size of the tripod bag. Do any of you ever check your gear when you fly? I'm terrified to do so. The problem is that If I bring on my DVX bag and tripod bag, that doesn't really leave me room to bring on anything else on the plane. Quite a pain in the butt.

How do you people normally travel with gear? Car? Trains?
 
When I travel by air with gear, I check everything except the camera. I carry the camera on-board, with a lens and a battery (so airport security can turn it on), and throw it in the overhead storage bin (and this is a full-sized Betacam) with a bunch of pillows. Although I've carried sticks in soft bags with no problem before, you may want to invest in a hard case for your sticks and your lights.

The other problem is that most airlines allow only two pieces of checked luggage and charge $75-$100 per extra bag. They also charge more if any single bag weighs more than 50 lbs. If you tell them you are news crew, they will give you a discounted rate on extra luggage ($40-$50).
 
So, you're not afraid to check a tripod or hard case light kit? I'd be afraid of damage or theft. Good plan otherwise though.
 
No. Just make sure everything's packed tightly with enough cushion so nothing moves around inside your case. The only damage we've ever had was a broken PAR lens for an HMI once.
 
Usually, there is too much at stake, to trust my gear to the airlines.
I've learned to ship it all ahead of time. UPS or Fed-X can deliver it to almost anyplace in the world... or at least... close enough.

If you've ever changed flights, and your gear doesn't, you know what I mean.
I can't afford to miss a shoot while waiting for the airlines to find and return my stuff... or even worse have it stolen, or broken.
 
I've shipped mine FedEx also. But you MUST pack everything VERY WELL or you could be F'ed when you get to the job.

If your shooting involves a lot of travel you should be buying gear with that in mind. I used to use 4' Flos and that was a total joke. I cringe when I think back on that... man was I ever putting a lot of faith in FedEx.

Samsonite makes a hardside roller that's only $100 at Costco. I'd get two of those. Another thing to consider (if you must bring tall stands) is the hardside golf-bag which (ironically enough) is available from Sky Mall for around $100. I have a friend who got one and I was surprised at how nice and protective of a case it was at that price... especially from Sky Mall of all places! (You might want to check around on that anyway.)

Everything I shoot with now is planned out for travel size. Some of it is still heavy but it all breaks down into the Samsonite bags I mentioned. Oh and they MUST be hardside. I used to use a softside roller until I saw it coming down the belt with a tripod leg barely poking through. And don't think you can lock up anything valuable in there either! I carry on ALL my mics, recorders, and everything that is small and costly. Figure it out... you can get it all in one bag and you WILL be held up at security for an extra 15 minutes... so plan on that... but don't be stupid and check a $1K mic while you made sure to have clean underwear in your carry-on.

If you arrive with nothing you can buy all new clothes for the WEEK with a couple hundred bucks.
 
I used to travel a lot as camera op with a three man crew. Me (camera op), Producer/writer guy, sound/lighting guy. Our gigs were always 3 day gigs, travel day, shoot day, travel back home so we didn't need a lot of personal luggage. I'd carry the Betacam onboard in a Portabrace case. Everthing else was checked. Two large hard tubes, one for the tripod and one for the C-stands,flags, etc.. And one fairly large Arri 4 light case. So we each checked one personal bag and one equipment case.
NEVER lost anything and I'm talking about traveling EVERY week for over 6 months. I guess we were just lucky. One time the Arri case did come off the baggage belt with a huge gash in the side of it but the gear was untouched.
This was all pre-911.
 
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