Lighting Magic

 Hello, I'm Derek Hammer and I'm the owner here at Hammer Lighting and Grip. We are a lighting and grip rental company in Indianapolis Indiana specializing in grip truck, HMI, Kino Flo, camera dollies and generator rental. 4 months ago I barely knew what a blog was let alone how to write one. I've been given the primer on blogging by the blog experts at Compendium blogware and now, here I am, writing my first. It is here that you'll be able to read about the daily going's-on at Hammer Lighting and Grip. You'll be able to read about new equipment when we get it, business experiences with customers and vendors, equipment operation and care tips, as well as a host of other interesting tidbits from the staff here. We'll announce workshops and seminars given by lighting and grip experts on everything from Camera dollies, HMI Lights, Grip trucks and more. We do more than just film and video lighting. We also have clients that shoot still photos and we can do small events. We want to be your Midwest lighting and grip rental source so feel free to contact us or visit our website for answers to your questions.

Sometimes I wonder whether we reach everyone that COULD be our customer or not. If you're a still photographer and you've never rented from us i have to ask "WHY NOT"! We carry a full line of many of the things that you need every day and we have resources to get you many of the other things that we don't have. I guarantee that you'll love the service you get here and you'll like the price too! Check out what it would cost to have one of our talented pool of freelnace technicians bring a truck out to your next job. I'll bet it's a LOT less than you think and you'll be getting an expert with the gear along for the job as well. We can be your photo lighting rental source as well as we do film lighting rental and video lighting rental. Did I mention that we're the only place in town that has Black/White Foamcore IN STOCK, a full line of expendables (tape,gel,diffusion), production support items (heaters, tables, chairs, tents), and new equipment for sale as well? We're truly evolving into a one-stop-shop for everything you need! Come by and see us any time.

CHIMERA TrioletTM Convertible Omni-directional Light

The new Chimera Triolet (Tree-oh-lay) (it's French) is one of the most flexible new lights to make its way into the inventory of the only Indianapolis Film and Video Lighting rental company you need. It can be used with a variety of bulbs with wattages from as low as a standard 25 watt incandescent practical up to the 1000 watt JTT mogul base. It can take 2 pin bulbs up to 750 watts inside its domed, diffused housing and it can take bayonet 2 pin bulbs as well. Not only does this light take an almost innumberable list of lamps, it can also fit a wide range of Video Pro Chimeras and the Chimera pancake and standard lanterns. With all of these options, it is quite possibly the most versatile light we own and it's only $30/day! You'll need to pick which Chimera "bag" you'll want to rent with it. Maybe you could use it with two different "bags" for two different setups? Maybe you could use it for a day interior and a night exterior? You decide how, we'll get you the stuff.

Go here to see pictures and demos of our new Triolet http://www.chimeralighting.com/dspProduct.asp?productid=299

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!

"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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

One of my recent frustrations, turned motivation, is that I often see our clients working too hard or spending too much to accomplish a task for which we often already have an easier and cheaper solution in our vast inventory of lighting and grip equipment. Hammer Lighting and Grip has all of the usual stuff youd expect to find at a lighting rental house, but, we also have all sorts of specialty items for rent that you might not think of us for. If you're a producer, you might need chairs, tables, heaters, fans, coolers, tents, or some other rather mundane item to keep your clients and crew happy. If you're a  Key Grip maybe you didnt know that we have tons of specialty rigging (more than any other lighing and grip company in the Midwest). If you're a DP traveling in from ahother part of the country maybe you want to rent a tripod, anton Bauer batteries or a monitor from us to avoid some travel expenses (it's good, clean, newer gear) If you're a Gaffer maybe you didnt know that we have lights that don't even have a name for shooting high speed tabletop shots. The point is, we've worked very hard to get as much of our equipment as possible onto the website (www.hammergrip.tv) but it's impossible to get every item on it and we realize that you don't have all day to sit around and look at our web site either. So, ask, we'll help.

So, we're wrapping up the grip truck build on our newest, latest and greatest truck! Hammer Lighting and Grip now has the nicest grip truck that Indianapolis film and video lighting has ever known! Midwest lighting and grip equipment rental will never be the same! This thing is 221 square feet of lighting and grip fun. It's an amazing 1878 cubic feet of 33,000 pound cargo carrying enormity! It's box is 2 feet longer, 6 inches wider and a foot taller than our old 5 ton. Then you say, yes but how well will this fit at my next location? Well, because International used modern technology when designing it, this truck is only 4 inches taller than the old 5 ton grip truck. The box is 2 feet longer but the overall length increased by only a foot and the old truck was a cabover versus the new, more comfortable traditional cab with air-rde. it has a shorter turning radius and is now equipped with a trailer hitch to tow your next generator rental! Tow a trailer behind such a big truck you say? Yes, thanks to the color, widscreen backup camera! It's loaded with every piece of grip equipment you could imagine (our most complete package for only $100 per day more) This is the truck I'd rent if I were a producer. All of the extra interior room leaves more space for add-ons, a camera dolly, or camera dollies, if you'd like (did I mention that there's a lot of room?). I saved the best feature for last too. This truck is lighter to start with than the one that it replaced AND we bumped up the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating to 33,000# from 30,000# for a total gain of over 4,000# of massive grip and electric rental hauling capabilty! This is no wimpy truck! Stay tuned for more details!

I've been absent for a couple of weeks from blogging. We took delivery of the new 5 ton grip truck just before Thanksgiving. We had already emptied and sold the old truck in anticipation of the delivery. When we got the new truck I discovered that the lift gate installer (who shall remain nameless) had installed the gate incorrectly and it took a chunk out of the concrete on te shop floor the first time I lowered it! Yikes! Sooo. They had to take it back for another week, cut it off, reweld it (correctly yhis time) and in the process, back us up against our deadline for the IMIN holiday auction. I worked long days for two weeks straight to get ready for the Dec 11th event.

As with our 4 ton grip truck (which is now 2 years old) our new 5 ton grip truck will have LED rope lights in all of the underbody boxes. These allow crew persons to quickly find cable, adapters and other small (and usually black) items whether we are setting up in the dark for a beautiful Indiana sunrise or working into the night. All of our trucks come with amazing 12 volt interior and exterior work light setups and large battery banks. We can plug the on-board charger into the generator or shore power to keep the batteries toped off or we can run independently for a fixed period of time without running the truck engine. This furthers our committment to the environment by not unnecessarily idling grip trucks on set.

Last Friday we took delivery of our new 5 Ton grip truck. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be writing about the trials and tribulations of building this new truck from the ground up. It's a process I've been working on since late August. Our new 5 Ton grip truck will be very different from what you've seen in the past. It's cargo box is 2 feet longer, 1 foot taller and 6 inches wider. While the box is taller, the new air-ride suspension makes it only a few inches taller than the old 5 ton. We'll be ading some cool new features like a much larger lift gate, onboard air hose reel (great for on-set maintenance, art dept, cleaning, etc) all new integrated LED lighting, and more. This new truck will take lighting rental to a whole new level. Check back often for more updates about the newest addition to the inventory at Hammer Lighing and Grip!