Certainly the rise of DV has made equipment ownership more widely affordable for many shooters and editors, but if your needs run to typical camera packages weighing in at $300,000 and up, and editing systems costing tens of thousands of dollars, for some facilities and independent filmmakers renting is still the smartest alternative.

The classic and well-known benefits remain — renting is cheaper than buying, it's fully tax deductible (no amortization), you don't have maintenance costs and headaches, you have access to the most up-to-date equipment, and you always have access to equipment that suits the job. Consider a cinematographer who needs a camera that records sound for one project, and a camera that doesn't record sound for his next project. “Just right there, this person would have to own two different types of cameras,” says Lon Stratton, owner of Detroit-area Stratton Camera Inc., which specializes in motion picture camera equipment.

Stratton states that more of his customers today are renting Super16 format cameras, and attributes that trend to the increasing popularity of HDTV. In Chicago, Tom Fletcher says that his customers have increasingly been asking for 24-frame progressive (24p) high-definition systems.

In fact, according to Fletcher, his company's decision to get into the high-definition market is responsible for the 30 percent increase in growth he expects his company will achieve for 2000. “Getting into the HD game 2 1/2 years ago was an important decision for us,” Fletcher says. “We're a big player in HD, and we have been since the early days, when Sony came out with its new HD camcorders. Without that, I don't know how much we would have grown. The Screen Actors Guild strike hurt Chicago pretty bad, and a lot of companies here were slowing down. But HD carried us through that.”

An additional benefit to renting is being able to access highly trained people who can recommend equipment that's appropriate to the task at hand, and/or who know how to run the equipment themselves. “Software versions change almost quarterly,” notes Yosef Yosifove, president of Orlando-based Video Central, which provides computer-based film, video, and audio tools and services nationwide. “Having access to the latest and greatest equipment has substantial ramifications in terms of a speedier workflow and better productivity, but only if you know how to use it.”

For busy facilities that rent equipment for every project they work on, some rental companies, such as Video Central, offer special leasing programs as an alternative to renting. “Rentals are for the short term, generally less than a year,” Yosifove says. “Once you're renting for more than a year, you might want to consider leasing.”

Video Central's leasing programs enable customers to rent equipment with an option to purchase it at the end of the lease period. “A lot of our clients are acquiring their systems on an operating lease, which is basically a long-term rental,” Yosifove says. “One benefit to this type of lease is being able to expense all your payments. Another is you're not married to the technology at the end of the lease. You can return the old system and start a new lease with an up-to-date system.”

How to Choose?

If you're planning to rent equipment for your next project, what should you look for in a rental company?

One important quality, according to Bob Zahn, president of Manhattan-based Broadcast Video Rentals, is availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “We think this is very important in case you have problems, you need extra equipment, or you need to switch the equipment you rented to something else,” he says.

Another criteria to consider is longevity in the business. “Film equipment is sensitive and requires a lot of care. The ability to service and maintain equipment correctly takes years of experience,” says Stratton. “Even a low-budget film shoot is expensive. You don't want your equipment to break down and bring to a grinding halt a shoot that could be costing your customer thousands of dollars a day.”

A third quality is knowledge. “It's important that the company you rent from knows its equipment and can deliver it to you the way you want it set up,” notes Fletcher. “You can set up a camera in so many different ways. If you don't know much about the equipment you're renting, you don't want to have to play around with it in the field, trying to learn how to set it up.”

Zahn concludes that customers should also check to see if the company they're considering renting from belongs to the Production Equipment Rental Association (P.E.R.A.; www.productionequipment.com), a global trade association whose members are among the top suppliers of professional film/motion picture and video/television production and post-production rental equipment.