I Really Need Some Help (where to rent audio/light in Hickory NC)

mb72378

mb72378

Well-known member
Hey all. I am supposed to be doing a video shoot on Thursday with my HVX200 and the Rental company I was going to be getting some equipment from decided that they needed to use their equipment and can't rent it out. I am in the Hickory, NC area, just north of Charlotte. I REALLY need to rent a Wireless Lav Mic and a 4 bank arri light kit or something close to it I will pay the going production rate. I am in serious trouble. Its my first paying gig out of college and was hoping it would go somewhere. There's no way the client will reschedule. Please, will someone help me. Its only for 1 day!?
 
For lighting, a quick use of Google-Fu turned up Illumination Dynamics and Hollywood Rentals in Charlotte.

Harris-Chewning in Chapel Hill for sound, or you could rent from Trew Audio in Nashville... they'll ship rentals to you.
 
All great options....if only I had production insurance. Most of the rental places around not only require a minimum of $50,000 in equipment insurance (even if the equipment you rent is under $50,000). And they require that you have a minimum of $1,000,000.00 in liability. Yes, that one million dollars. A little ridiculous for someone who is getting paid $1500 to do a 4 hour shoot by himself to spend tons of money on one million dollars in liability insurance. I might just go look into a business loan and buy all the equipment myself and slowly hack away at it when I get jobs. All this headache is really starting to annoy me. All this for a $1500 light kit an a $350 microphone. HAHA
 
$1 million in liability and $50k in equipment isn't really as much as you think. Look into small business insurance... a must if you're going to be doing this professionally and independently. This allows for smaller, monthly premium payments. Neither homeowner's insurance nor renter's insurance will cover production gear.
 
C2V, I will def. look into that. The thing is that this is my first "real" job. I had to take job at Walmart after college when I couldn't find anything. I don't have enough video projects coming in to afford monthly payments yet. Anything I purchase has to come right off the top of what I make for the videos. Hopefully if the economy picks back up I can get enough projects going to do it full-time. In the meantime, I have to try and do things out-of-the-box...haha
 
I have never seen a rental house that does not require some form of liability insurance. I have never bought this liability insurance, but what I have been able to do is use the general business liability insurance of my clients to cover the rental. This has turned out to be pretty convenient in many instances. When I set up the deal with the client, I actually have the rental house contact the business office of client and they work out the paperwork details.

I have had other instances where we (my producing partner at the time and myself) were able to work under liability insurance of a more established filmmaker we where friends with. The deal we had at the time was that we posted the project at our bud's studio and he got paid for that (billed directly to the client) and gave him producer credit on the project. We also had to buy him two bottles of his favorite 12 year old Scotch to use his insurance. He ended up using some of our footage on his reel(s) and we had a real good time with him consuming the Scotch. Of course his Scotch of choice cost us close to $200.00, but it beat liability insurance premiums.

While this might not help for your current project, you may want to keep your eye out for other filmmakers you can get together with to share resources, including the liability coverage insurance.
 
Actually, I used to rent from Silver Hammer Studios in Charlotte. They were great. I never had to have insurance. I just let them run my credit card and hold the info until I returned the gear. Unfortunately, their owner passed away and the place closed for awhile. I think someone else bought them out, and now they require insurance.

I have a friend in Charlotte who may be willing to rent you a wireless mic. He's also got some basic lighting stuff. Shoot me a PM with contact info, and I'll see what I can do.
 
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