Production Lighting Rental

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

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!