The Producer Report: Camera hire
CHANGING TECHNOLOGY might be able to highlight beforehand: “It’s
Switching to tapeless is not as simple as buying a important that every member of the production
new camera. In order to transfer files to a non- team, from researcher to PD, understands, for
linear-editor, the production company or edit example, how to exchange cards or manage rushes,”
house may need new video players and hard disc reports Endemol’s Tom Leeburn, who production
readers capable of handling the new formats. managed a switch from DSR and Z1s to EX1 and
“The speed and quality of response you give out EX3s for Sky1HD’s Football’s Next Star (pictured left).
of hours can make all the difference,” says “Hire companies are in a great position to do this
Procam’s Andrew Black. “If someone gets stuck since they’re on top of the technology.”
with software log-in or transfer on location and its Hire personnel can also play a role instilling
11.30 at night they need support.” confidence among producers about storing
A multi-camera production might arrive at a precious rushes in a non-physical form. “People are
post house with material on USB, memory cards so nervous because they have to wipe everything
and hard drives. Each camera shoots to its own from the recording media (in order to reuse it),”
codec and own file format, all of which needs observes TwoFour Digital head of post production
unpicking before entering the offline and then re- Rick Horne, who oversaw a tapeless workflow for
imported or conformed for online. This can throw ITV’s Road Warriors.
up all sorts of problems which a hire company
A FALSE ECONOMY
“The bigger and more price-driven the company
the less service friendly and more complacent they
are,” believes Impossible Pictures’s Jukes-Adams.
“In my experience they are too busy servicing the
larger indies and corporate deals instead of meeting
production needs. We’ve had incidents where we’ve
got a good deal on the kit but found that the hire
company’s response to our location needs has been
poor. We’ve wound up spending more than normal
to fix it.”
It helps if hire staff are ex-camera operators, she
adds. “I won’t choose solely on price but on the
company’s ability to think a production all the way
thorough to completion. I demand that companies go
the extra mile so that the project feels like a team effort.”
Rent’s Bingham agrees: “Some hire people
don’t have an understanding of how to get a
production to the next stage after acquisition.
Many edit houses don’t understand the acquisition
process. If both sides wash their hands of a
problem the producer is left in no-man’s land.”
“It really helped that Rent was linked to The
Farm,” confirms Endemol’s Leeburn, who routed
Register today
26th Jan
London
www.televisual.com/roadshow
26 January 2010
At ENVY, Rathbone Place, London W1
32 theproducer Winter 2010
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