RENTA L ROUND TABL E INDUS TRY.
“We used the downtime in 2020-21 to add another area to the business: LED volumes. We like to put the technology to its limits and are always looking to trailblaze” rental, we have always stocked the most popular cameras and lenses that other rental companies need and, more recently, we have been growing our inventory with equipment that not everyone is willing to take the risk on. When we look at camera equipment, there are only a select few that dominate every production. But with the recent launch of the Sony Venice 2, and announcements of an Arri 4K S35 and Red Raptor XL, the market is going to become more saturated. Is this a positive thing for business? SMITH: Saturation is a good thing for the crew – it’s a nightmare for rental houses. Before the Arri Alexa Mini LF and Sony Venice launched a few years ago, the Arri Alexa Mini dominated the market for years, so owning that as a rental outfit made sense. But this year, there’s going to be another shift in what’s popular, with the Venice 2 just launched and the Arri S35 4K on its way – I’ve never seen so many options. Investing and not knowing longevity, or having guaranteed utilisation, is a real risk. Our focus is to alleviate this or our clients, so they can have access to the cameras when they need them. Our LTR programme is the perfect hedge for any rental house against the risks of saturation. LOLLIOT: Since the move to Super 35 many years ago, we’ve seen consistent changes and new releases from camera manufacturers. It is no surprise then that the move to full-frame went very
Having in-house engineering and a passionate team is certainly a massive boost for this! Again, we used the downtime in 2020-21 to add another area to the business: LED volumes. As with everything we do, we like to push the technology to its limits and are always looking at ways to trailblaze new things. LED was no different. This led us to purchase a small stock of the highest- specification LED panels on the market – the high refresh rate AOTO RM2.3 – with industry-leading Brompton processing, as our in-house R&D playground. We set about creating shots that most of the manufacturers didn’t believe were possible. We also partnered with G6 MoCo, using its robots to create some truly fascinating content. Multi-scene, multi-pass and high-frame-rate shooting are only part of what we have achieved. Although, in general, being able to bring this technology to our client base at an affordable cost level – and for them to have the ability to shoot against woolly jumpers and through glass and clear liquid (with dynamic lighting) – seems to be exciting enough! BEARD: We’ve never been ones for following the crowd, and recognised from the outset that both the industry and the way people want to transact is changing at an ever-increasing rate. We are at the end of the phone, but find a great number of our professional customers book after hours online, using our live availability and booking system – which means no more waiting around
for quotes. Customers see what’s available in real time, get an instant price and can book 24/7. Something else many customers have commented on, was our ability to adapt to the change in client working patterns, by offering delivery nationwide to customers’ homes, places of work or one of our 30 click-and-collect locations. ANDREW PRIOR: For us, being part of the wider Arri family is a major factor in terms of the equipment we offer, but we also develop our own exclusive products in-house. Arri Rental is very customer focused; we listen to what creatives want and that feeds back into how we develop our exclusive products and invest in other equipment. What our customers demand drives what we develop or buy. Our Alfa large-format anamorphic lenses, for example, evolved out of artistic collaborations with filmmakers. We reacted to requests from DOPs we were working with, who had a desire for a new anamorphic look for large format. Then, out of these collaborations, we defined the specifications for a production series of Alfa anamorphics and launched them as an exclusive Arri Rental lens series. MARNER: Having worked at Video Europe for 25 years, I have seen lots of highs and, unfortunately, some lows! We have brought together all the highs to help shape us into the company we are today. Now that we exclusively rent to other rental companies, I feel that we have truly found our ‘sweet spot’. Video Europe was the first company to offer long-term
65. APRIL 2022
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