Why zoom when you can dolly? And why tilt when you can shoot from a jib? One portable solution to this is our inexpensive
Seven Jib by Media Logic. Weighing in at only 45 pounds, this jib has a six and a half foot arm, with a four and a half foot reach. Compact enough to fit in any standard size car, this easy-to-use jib also includes counterweights, and a mitchell tie down bolt; so it may be secured to any larger tripod with a mitchell plate. Other video camera support items that pair well with the Seven Jib include our
Ti Stix Titanium Heavy Duty Tripod with Mitchell top and spreader, as well as the O'connor 1030 Fluid Head with 100mm Bowl base (35 lb Capacity). Want to dolly with the jib? How about pairing with a Matthews Doorway Dolly…or don't have the budget for a dolly grip? Then you should check out our newly fabricated, self-operated Platform Dolly w/skatewheels (Outfitted for tripods).
Your favorite (if we're not, we should be) Indiana Lighting and Grip Rental facility has been hard at work cross training. No, we aren't triatheletes. No, we haven't made any shoe commercials lately. We're teaching each other. Alyssa Davis, our Office Manager, got to go on a shoot last week as part of our cross-training program. She's trying to make your lighting and grip rental experience a good one by learning more each day about the gear that we use. As many of you know, you can look at grip trucks every day and see grip equipment and lights hanging around the shop but until you see them in use you can't fully grasp their application. Seeing a camera dolly set up in some of the funkiest configurations helps tie together those seemingly odd requests from Key Grips. Seeing a studio full of lights helps define their application. So, we take Alyssa along. She gets a break from the offfice. Someone else learns to do her job (so they can fill in if she misses a day and so that they better understand the challenges that she faces), and she gets to see what we face in the field every day. Hopefully the next time you call to talk to Alyssa you'll get a taste of what we're doing here in the Midwest, that we're trying to be knowledgable about each others' work, and that we have the capacity to handle your every question with talent and speed.
Everyone here is rooting for the Colts to win the Superbowl this Sunday. We've had the pleasure of being part of (providing lighting and grip equipment for) a couple of commercials that will air during the Superbowl and several web and TV ads that pertain to it as well. Because of those pesky Non-disclosure agreements I can't give away any hints that would blow my cover but rest assured that we had a part in your Superbowl experience! We got to work with several Colts players and some other well known Indianapolis area atheltes as well as a couple stars that arent from Indy. Tune in On Sunday!
The day has finally come! We are having a new phone system installed at Hammer Lighting and Grip today and it is brilliant! This will improve all aspects of communication at our lighting rental house. We will be a quicker and more efficient team. When you call, you'll be able to immediately connect with the person you need to speak with. You can go directly to Sean if you have a question about a piece of gear on a truck that he is loading for you. Or, you can hit Derek's extension if you have already been working with him about an upcoming job. Or, you can dial Alyssa if you need to schedule a truck or if you have questions about the type of insurance you need. Finally, you can punch my number to speak about purchasing new or used equipment. These extensions will ring us at our desk and on our cell phones simultaneously. Therefore, we will always be available for your lighting and grip rental needs!
"We're in the communications business right?" Words often heard when communications break down on set and it's somewhat true. "Well, for a bunch of people in the communcations business....", yet another phrase we often hear.
Over the last few weeks, Alyssa Davis, our office manager, and I, have been examining the way we communicate with our customers here at Hammer Lighting & Grip. In respect to economic conditions of the recent past we've been hobbling along on a 20 year old phone system that was in the building when I bought it. We've all recognized its limitations and have been frustrated by them. We both feel like we'd like for you, our lighting and grip customers, to be able to reach us faster and easier. So, now, 2 1/2 years later we're embarking on the journey to replace our whole phone system. We have partnered with Cincinnati Bell to set up a cutting-edge commucations platform that will help get you to a real person faster when you call for your next lighting rental need. In the coming weeks we'll be making dramatic changes. When you call us for your next generator rental, grip truck, or for one of our camera dollies you'll first hear an auto-attendant. That auto-attendant will allow you to select which of us you'd like to talk to. Your call will be routed to that person's desk and company mobile phone simutaneously making (317)547-4747 the only number you'll ever need to call. Forget everyone's mobile numbers, forget having to call back, this will be the easiest and fastest way for us to serve you! I'll be further updating here soon as we bring this exciting new system online!
Many people don't know this but along with all of the other lighting and grip rental equipment we provide, we also have Motorola GP300 VHF radios available. As a Midwest lighting and grip rental company, we stock a good amount of these and their accessories. With the rental of this radio, you have the choice of headsets, ear buds, speaker mics, and holsters available for you at no extra cost! (Most lighting rental companies charge extra for this!)
Another item in our inventory that people often forget about is the bullhorn! Why is this item so obsolete now? Do you not need to get the attention of the crew anymore? Don't let some dazed and confused grip walk through the shot... use the bullhorn to announce "ROLLING!"
For questions about either of these items, call Hammer Lighting & Grip at (317) 547-4747!
Here at
Hammer Lighting and Grip we take pride in our equipment by making sure it is as clean as it can be. I had the task to start working on the
director chairs we own. The chairs have been thru several shoots in the past years. The seats end up getting worn, torn and just plan ugly! I ended up painting our one and only white chair to black. Also, I took the chair seats and dyed them black. They didn't exactly turn full black. The fabric was so thick it took a week to try and get them to turn black. They ended up turning to a navy blue. If you ask me they are a ton better than they were before. They are unique in their own way! I always want to make sure our equipment goes out to YOU in the best way possible.
Here are a few pictures of the updated director chairs.
Before Tall Director Chair..........
After Tall Director Chair.......
Dyed Black...(turned Navy blue)
OK, well it's not actually Earth Day nation wide... just for us here at Hammer Lighting & Grip! Derek purchased two Red Sunset Maples recently and we finally have time and a perfect day to plant them.
They will go in front of the building and really look beautiful on the property. I can't wait until this fall when the leaves turn that great color!
Along with maintaining the grip trucks and lighting and grip equipment, we also like to spend time on our property. We have made many improvements to our lot over the last 2 years it's really looking great!
The staff here at Hammer Lighting and Grip has been busy over the last few weeks reorganizing the warehouse. With so much new equipment in the last two years we've found ourselves out of floor space so it was time to clean house, condense, and go UP. We bought a vintage 1974 Clark forklift (she's the same age as me) and rearranged our racking system. Julie has put all of the grip equipment in an awesome bin system that organizes each item into its own separate labeled (of course) bin. Sean rearranged some of the other lighting and grip equipment onto the shelves. We put our overflow stock up high and we made a lot of extra floor space. That means that all of our trucks still fit inside this Winter which means that we'll have fewer worries about trucks starting on cold mornings which means that we are the Midwest lighting and grip rental company thats looking out for YOU. It also means the many jobs that require lots of cable or other large heavy things can be loaded by forklift, keeping costs down here, which keeps costs down for you.
The lighting rental equipment here at Hammer Lighting and Grip is constantly changing. It is my job to make sure that we have every bit of information on the items coming in and out of our rental inventory at our fingertips at all times. I created what I enjoy calling the "Mega Master Inventory List" many, many months ago. However, I cannot seem to complete this project. We keep finding more rental gear to add to it. I never realized how much lighting and grip equipment you must have to run a rental house like this. Even just today I found a few pieces of grip equipment in our warehouse that was not on this list. There are so many things that have been custom made or ordered for certain productions that nobody even knows about! My goal is to provide our customers with all of the information on these pieces so they can take advantage of the specialty items that exist right here in Indianapolis!
Please call us at 317-547-GRIP if there is something in particular you are looking for or visit our website at
www.hammergrip.tv! Check back often because as I said before, it is constantly being updated!
Our job here at Hammer Lighting and Grip is often about maintaining and improving our rental inventory. Sometimes in the process we learn something new or find a great resource. Grip equipment is rare and often doesnt come with a manual. Lighting rental isnt included in the "For Dummies" book series. I was working today to order some parts to fix some damaged Cardellini clamps and ran across this page. Take a look.
http://cardellini.com/clamp_info
Along with our lighting and grip rentals, we also have plenty of grip equipment to sell! We recently had Steve Jensen, a local freelancer by day/carpenter by night, build us some apple boxes for our grip trucks. We decided to have him build extras for anybody who might want a set or two. Give us a call at 547-GRIP or check them out in our display room if you are interested!
As we all know the month of May is finally here. In the Midwest this is a pretty big deal! I have to say this one of my favorite times of the year. There is just something about the Indianapolis 500, the people, and the events around the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway .
There are also many other events that go on in May's such as the
Indy 500 festival which includes a Parade in downtown Indianapolis, the Mini Marathon and the opening of the summer concert series!
This is also one of the busiest months at
Hammer Lighting and Grip. We have plenty of gear around for any of your Lighting and Grip Equipment needs. So come on over to our
shop or give us a call we would be glad to help!
GRIP GEAR IN A TRAILER? BRILLIANT!
My most recent assignment here at Hammers House of Lighting was to turn an empty 6x12 cargo trailer into the best new grip package in the Midwest! In my mind, this was a excellent idea! We've had this trailer for years and at first it was a great way to transport gear and supplies around town but with the acquisition of so many other vehicles, the use for this one became obsolete. Should we sell it? No!
I loaded the trailer with a C-stand cart, 3 combo stands, and 6 baby stands. There's a grip cart with cardellini's, mafers, grip heads, quakers, apple boxes and other common grip equipment. You'll find a flag cart with a basic supply of cutters, nets and silks in sizes that range from 18"x24" to 48"x48". There is also a 42"x42" silver reflector, a 48"x48" bead board, and a 8'x8' frame with a solid, silk, and ultra bounce. And of course you will see stingers, shot bags, furniture blankets, expendables, and a ladder. If you need anything else, we'll throw it on for you!
The fact that this package is in a trailer gives you options! You could bring your truck or van here and pick it up. You wouldn't have to hire a driver. Or, we could drop it off at your location for you. If you would like to rent a truck with it, of course we have that too. There are many options here but the point is... this package is light, compact, and perfect for your next production!
In my mind, the worst thing a lighting rental house could do is stop the ebb and flow of gear. Here at
Hammer Lighting & Grip, we are always buying and selling rental equipment. We have already replaced 3
grip trucks and 2
generators in our 11 years in business. This is especially important with
HMI's. The technology is so new that we must keep buying and selling HMI's so that we are constantly improving the quality of our inventory. Manufacturers are always making changes to their lights. For example,
Kino Flo improved the design on their backplates. They have changed the 4 push pins design into a easier and safer twist lock backplate. This is a great improvement and we will soon be switching all of our heads and backplates to the new design but it will cost us about $300 per light!
Although these improvements can be expensive, we think they are very important to maintaining our top of the line lighting and grip equipment.
Recently at
Hammer Lighting and Grip we have had a great opportunity to rent our Grip Trucks, Camera Dollies, Lights and our Generators to a few Independent Films. Last year we got to work on the movie
www.mynameisjerry.com . It was all filmed in Muncie, In.
This year we are doing two, yes I said two
Independent Films at once!!! That means the month of April will be busy. We have BOTH our
3 Ton Truck and our
4Ton Truck out for a full month. We're supplying them with camera dollies and generators too. Now, this doesn't mean we are out of trucks, dollies, lights and generators. We have plenty of options to get you the truck package you will need. We don't want to you to forget about our
1 Ton and our
5 Ton Grip Trucks that are sitting waiting to be loaded up with lots of gear!!
I've spent the last few days working on one of our three generators that we offer for rent. It's an older unit with a long history in our market but, as with all of our gear, we're constantly efforting to bring you the highest quality Lighting and Grip rental equipment in the Midwest. We've given it a bit of a facelift, gone through all of the mechanicals; added a newer, better fuel tank, and performed the usual periodic maintenance. Why? Why would I want to get my hands dirty and play mechanic when I could hire it out? I do it because it gives me an intimate relationship with each and every piece of gear that we own. When it comes to generator rental in the Midwest, we're the ones you can count on!
Did you know that we stock all of the most commonly used lighting and grip expendables right here in Indianapolis?
We have a display room filled with all kinds of globes, gel, rope, and tape (like the 2" black gaffers tape pictured here). If you venture on into our warehouse you'll find different types of showcard and foamcore amongst our lighting and grip equipment.
Why hunt these items down and ship them from L.A. when we have it right here for you? Just stop by and pick it up before your next production! Or give us a call and we can have it on your doorstep in no time.
One of the most asked about items from our lighting and grip rental inventory is the camera dolly.
We have a total of 5 riding camera dollies but 1 of them has been left in the dark! The most forgotten about dolly is the Matthews Western. It has a HUGE platform with a 1200 lb capacity. Its wide tires make it perfect for transporting equipment across rough, sandy, or super soft terrain (like astro turf fields)! If you're worried about losing the capabilities of the Fisher dolly, just throw one of our J.L. Fisher 10 or 11's on top of the Western and go! It also makes a great platform for a jib arm. So, next time you call us to order a dolly, don't forget about the Western! Yeehaw!
Midwest winters can take a toll on a lighting and grip rental company. I was out taking a stroll after lunch today to assess the impact of this winter on our grounds. We fared pretty well aside from a few landscaping tasks. As I was walking along I noticed a crawdad who was apparently just waking from a long winter nap. I picked him up and noticed that he was missing a claw. As I examined the claw I realized how much some of our grip equipment looks like that claw and how strong both can be. Pound for pound, that little crayfish is probably way stronger than any grip clamp. However, it's hard to get a truck load of crayfish to work and they small far worse than a bunch of grips (hard to believe, i know). So, your only consolation is to call us. We have grip trucks from 1 ton to 5 ton and a couple in between. They're loaded with clamps, pipe, wood, and a whole lot of other goodies just waiting to hang, clamp, span, dangle, or suspend anything on your next job. Think of us as the "do anything that anyone else on the crew can't" guys. Yes we're grips. No, we don't smell like crayfish.
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