who pays for bulbs on long rental?

Patryk_Rebisz

Patryk_Rebisz

Veteran
General question to folks out there. ON long rental (for a feature) who's responsible for spare bulbs? Specifically for expensive HMI bulbs. Is it the rental house (in this case me) or the production?
 
The longest shoot I was on, with rental gear, was a three week shoot. We went through a couple of spare bulbs and they were charged to the production company by the rental house in the final bill. It is like gel, "Expendables billed as used".
 
My immediate answer would be the production. But since you threw in the HMI option that might change things a little bit. I have not rented so can only presume that with a newer bulb the production. would incur most if not all the cost but if the bulb is older perhaps the rental house would share in that cost. Then you get into how to you track the number of hours on the bulb. All things being equal I would put the expense on the production. (This train of thought was for a bulb needing to be replaced). As for simply a spare on the production, I would think that perhaps a deposit on the spare which if not used, they would get that deposit back but if they blow the original bulb and the spare is used the deposit (which would be the cost of the bulb) would not be refunded. That would seem fair to me. In the end, bulbs are expendables and should in my view be expensed on the production side.
 
Cryogenic Filmworks said:
My immediate answer would be the production. But since you threw in the HMI option that might change things a little bit. I have not rented so can only presume that with a newer bulb the production. would incur most if not all the cost but if the bulb is older perhaps the rental house would share in that cost. Then you get into how to you track the number of hours on the bulb. All things being equal I would put the expense on the production. (This train of thought was for a bulb needing to be replaced). As for simply a spare on the production, I would think that perhaps a deposit on the spare which if not used, they would get that deposit back but if they blow the original bulb and the spare is used the deposit (which would be the cost of the bulb) would not be refunded. That would seem fair to me. In the end, bulbs are expendables and should in my view be expensed on the production side.
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Yeah, I forgot about Patryk asking about the HMI bulbs. If they blow after a few hours, I would think that a smart producer would definitely talk to the rental house about that (In fact they should probably throw a genuine "B*tch fit about it!). However after a while, and a bunch of days shooting with multiple hard on gear company moves, I think that it would probably fall to the production company.
 
Where I come from..HMI is rented as a lighting unit plus bulb burn time. (Per Hour)

That means the Rental company replaces the HMI bulbs if the blow or malfunction at their cost. The cost per hour covers the hmi bulb and allows for a profit.

Tungsten bulb units are generally paid for by the production company.
 
I think I've read a policy from at least one rental house in which they covered the cost as long as they got the blown globe back. Each light would come with a spare globe and if the one in the unit blew but was brought back at the end of the rental for proof that the spare wasn't stolen, they wouldn't charge anything. But if the unit came back with the spare globe installed but without the blown out one, they would charge for the spare one.
 
FWIW - sometimes the HMI bulb is changed or replaced in the unit when it nears the end of its life and changes color temp.
 
Shooter said:
Where I come from..HMI is rented as a lighting unit plus bulb burn time. (Per Hour)

That means the Rental company replaces the HMI bulbs if the blow or malfunction at their cost. The cost per hour covers the hmi bulb and allows for a profit.

Tungsten bulb units are generally paid for by the production company.
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This is a pretty clever way to do it. Not bad.

In San Francisco the rental house usually covers it unless there's some sort of obvious negligence. Good example of that is we sent out a Lowell sun gun with some 30v or 24v bulbs for battery usage. They plugged two into the wall, burning out both the globe that was installed along with the spare. So...that was that.
 
Shooter said:
Where I come from..HMI is rented as a lighting unit plus bulb burn time. (Per Hour)

That means the Rental company replaces the HMI bulbs if the blow or malfunction at their cost. The cost per hour covers the hmi bulb and allows for a profit.

Tungsten bulb units are generally paid for by the production company.
Click to expand...

This.... this is how I've always rented HMIs and it's fair imo. The rental house takes the hit, but funnels it out over time. Win win situation. In short... I would always feed the bill to the production, it's them using the lamp!

I know you can get some counters that you can attach to the HMIs or something, then the rental house can read out how many hours were used on the production.
 
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Here in the UK, the model is generally the same as one mentioned above. Each is supplied with a spare. If you use the spare, then you just call the hire company and another appears - at their cost. They do reserve the right to charge you for them if the blown one is not returned to them. Same applies to big projectors - the Barcos we hired last year had lamps that cost over $5000, in this case, we installed the spare provided - and returned the faulty one. Most of the discharge lamped equipment we use has an hour counter that you reset when you revamp. Remember that the manufacturer usually recommends that discharge lamps are replaced before they fail, when the rarted life is reached because they often shatter when the fail, filling the inside of the fixture with broken glass. Hire rates are calculated to cover the cost of lamp replacement. The only exception to this is when a hire is for a long period (perhaps 6 months upwards) where the hire contract specifically states that lamp replacement is the responsibility of the hirer. Lamps are always mentioned in hire contracts here - for this very reason.
 
If there is a timer on the HMI, charge a small Mount per used hours. The HMI bulbs have an average life, divide the price of the bulb by the average life and add this to the price per hour.
Then switch the bulb then. If they break 2 in 2 days. Prod should pay for it as its. It normal wear.
 
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