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Go here to see pictures and demos of our new Triolet http://www.chimeralighting.com/dspProduct.asp?productid=299
Go here to see pictures and demos of our new Triolet http://www.chimeralighting.com/dspProduct.asp?productid=299
Yes, we have done it!! Film and Video lighting rental is now on Facebook. This will give us the opportunity to give you, our clients and friends quick updates to those who become a fan. Please log onto your Facebook page and Search Hammer Lighting & Grip, click "Become a Fan" and you are in!!
We will be able to give you the latest updates on new gear, as well as linking our blog to our page as well. You will also get the opportunity to see some of our work with the pictures and videos that I will be uploading.
We will be able to give you the latest updates on new gear, as well as linking our blog to our page as well. You will also get the opportunity to see some of our work with the pictures and videos that I will be uploading.
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.
As you know I am more of the Office Manager than a Gaffer, Key Grip, or Grip that knows more about the technical aspects of an HMI Light. I was hanging out with some friends and they had asked what I do. Now, for most people I tell them I'm in the Lighting and Film industry and I'm the one who takes phone call, run estimates, invoicing etc.... They had asked, what type of lights do you use normally? I mentioned the infamous HMI Lights. So the question became, "What does HMI really mean"?
I looked it up on Wikipedia's website. So much information came up that I thought I would share a few pointers as to what HMI really means. There are so many facts about this light that even my boss was impressed!!!
I looked it up on Wikipedia's website. So much information came up that I thought I would share a few pointers as to what HMI really means. There are so many facts about this light that even my boss was impressed!!!
So HOW do you really pronounce HMI?? I think I will leave that up to you! Its a hard word to say but now you may know more than you would ever know about the HMI Lights.
Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide, or HMI, is a mercury-halide gas discharge medium arc-length lamp with a multi-line emission spectrum. The "H" in HMI stands for hydrargyrum, Latin for mercury (Hg). An HMI lamp uses mercury vapour mixed with metal halides in a quartz-glass envelope, with two tungsten-coated electrodes of medium arc separation.
We have a varity of these HMI Lights right here at Hammer Lighting & Grip for your rental needs! Here is a picture of the Mole Richardson 1200 Par that we carry:
Mole Richardson 1200 Par HMI
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!
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!
One of the necessary evils of operating a lighting and grip company is complying with the laws governing "heavy" trucks. I'll spend a total of more than 4 hours of my day today working on this one issue. I'm training two drivers today. Many people don't understand that almost any "commercial" truck (used in business) is required to comply with federal DOT regulations. Even pickup trucks and vans often qualify. Failure to comply can result in heavy fines and the potential for open-ended lawsuits should there be a traffic accident. This is why we cant let just anybody take a truck on their next rental. The freelancers that drive our trucks are trained professionals. They know how to drive a grip truck safely and how to comply with the regulations so that the truck can actually make it to the job. In Indiana we are the lighting a grip rental company that looks out for YOU. It's our job to know the laws, not yours. Just another added benefit you get from renting from the most buttoned up lighting and grip rental facility in the Midwest!
Prepare yourself for the 20 degree days by renting the winter essentials from your favorite Indiana Lighting and Grip Rental House! We have 10'x10' and 10'x20' EZ-Up tents available for you! When requested, they come with sides to keep that cold wind at bay. You could also keep warm with our portable heaters! They are 18,000 BTU heaters that are safe to use indoors and come with 16 ounce propane tanks. Each tank lasts 3 hours and is very easy to change.
If these heaters aren't enough for you, we also have the Salamander! This beast could melt the abominable snowman in seconds! It is a 155,000 BTU propane heater that will be sure to keep your clients and crew warm in any conditions!
We feel that as a Midwest lighting and grip company, we must provide the best options for keeping you warm in the winter! Don't forget the hot chocolate!
If these heaters aren't enough for you, we also have the Salamander! This beast could melt the abominable snowman in seconds! It is a 155,000 BTU propane heater that will be sure to keep your clients and crew warm in any conditions!
We feel that as a Midwest lighting and grip company, we must provide the best options for keeping you warm in the winter! Don't forget the hot chocolate!
One of the newest additions to the Hammer Lighting and Grip rental inventory is the Chimera Triolet Convertible Omni-Directional Light (Model #9950). It's one of the most versatile lights we have! It can be used with any Video Pro Chimera or the Pancake Lantern, if you choose, with a quick release speed ring. It comes with a 2-Pin adapter, a double contact bayonet adapter, a diffusion glass dome, and a medium household screw-in adapter. Point is, all of these accessories allow you to use this light with 1000w, 750w, 500w, 200w, or 150w bulbs!!
I've packed the light, all of the adapters, and 2 of each of these bulbs in one medium-sized Pelican case for your convenience. The only thing that's not included in this kit is a Chimera. You can pick that out when you call in your order to Alyssa at 317-547-4747!
Enjoy!
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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
Although these improvements can be expensive, we think they are very important to maintaining our top of the line lighting and grip equipment.
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!
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.
Well, It was a long cold winter here at Hammer Lighting & Grip! I'm staring out my office window at green grass, new leaves, and trash! It's time for some spring cleaning. That reminded me of something you might not have known about us. It's a small thing but I think it says big things about how we roll. I looked around a film or video set that we were lighting one day at all of the trash and it disgusted me. For some reason the lift gate on the grip truck collects all sorts of empty water bottles, gel scraps, tape, you name it! So, we found these handy little collabsible 20 gallon trash cans that neatly store on every truck. Viola! Clean. No more empty water bottles on the camera dollies! I always want us to be known as the "clean" lighitng rental house. I said it was a small thing. But I think it says big things about our phiosophy.
Did you know that at Hammer Lighting & Grip we can put both of our 60kw (500 Amp) LitePower genernators on one flatbed truck to make a 1000 amp capable power system? Our F550 Flatbed has the capacity and capability to haul both plants and more! The generators are not phase-matched (synchronized) but they sure do make a convenient package! We have generators from 2000 watts (20 amp) to 60,000 watts and with this capability we have an effective 120,000 watts available in one compact package. Call us to see what we can do to power your next job!
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