As I have mentioned before, I do not trust Rental Technicians when it is my career on the line. Double-check and prep everything carefully! Place your order with the Rental House early, at least a few days in advance. If you have a shoot coming up, but it has not yet been 100% confirmed, let them know this. They can pencil your order in tentatively, and then check in with you later to verify a firm commitment.
The worst thing that you can do is to march in to a rental house and expect them to drop everything and assemble you a complicated package right on the spot. For your own sake, give them some advance warning!
Be very specific when you order. General terms such as Stage Channel are fine when talking with producers, but have little meaning in a rental house. Tell them exactly what you want, and itemize every accessory and adapter cable that you envision needing. Take nothing for granted in terms of assuming that the technician knows “all about that stuff” -- unless you are familiar with the technician personally and have dealt with that person before!
Always write down the name of the technician that you are dealing with. Yours may not be the only order; nor may there only be one person working in the rental department. For that matter, make sure that both of you are clear on what name the order is reserved under (your personal name, the company name, or the name of the production itself).
You would not expect to walk into a strange bank and walk out with fifty thousand dollars in cash without a lot of credit checking. Do not assume that rental houses are any different. Establish an account with them well in advance of the date you need the equipment. Their credit check is not to guarantee that you’ll pay them the fifty bucks for the rental of the recorder, but that their ten thousand dollar recorder and you aren’t just going to disappear!
Sometimes, the rental can be billed directly to the account of the production company hiring you. Personally, I prefer to do business that way when I can. If the equipment rental is on my account, and the production company decides not to pay when they are supposed to, then I am stuck holding the bag. They owe me, but I am the one owing the rental company!
If you are acting as the “agent” of the production company -- in other words, doing the ordering and picking up of the equipment, but not financially responsible -- make sure that this fact is clearly understood by the rental house. Do not let them confuse your personal rental account with that of your client or employer.
Insurance on all equipment is mandatory. All equipment must be insured at “full replacement value” by the insurance carrier, with the owner of the equipment (in this case the rental house) listed as the “loss payee” (the check would go directly to them).
Proof of insurance must be provided to the rental house in the form of a “certificate of insurance.” This certificate comes direct from the insurance company itself (not from the production office), and must be requested in advance so as to be received by the rental house before the day of equipment pick-up. The advent of the fax machine has made this process a whole lot easier and quicker.
Note that this is a special business or commercial insurance, and is not included with typical homeowners or automobile policies. The proper insurance category is ENTERTAINMENT INSURANCE.
On large productions, the production company will have their own insurance policy covering all of the equipment. Professional freelancers will also tend to have their own blanket insurance policy, covering rented equipment during the year.
Insurance is available from several major companies specializing in motion picture or entertainment industry services. Check your local film/video trade directories for listings, or ask the rental house.
Some rental houses also offer house insurance, which is billed as a surcharge to your rental. It is usually billed as a percentage (e.g. 10%) of the daily rental fee, multiplied by each calendar day that the equipment is in your possession. Calendar day means that you have to pay the insurance even if it is not a billable rental day (such as a holiday, or a long-term discount).
Rental rates are based on the “daily rental.” A daily rental is a one-day rental. You can pick up the equipment late afternoon the day before (since shoots start early in the morning), and can return it in the morning of the day following the shoot. So, for a Wednesday shoot, you could pick up the equipment Tuesday afternoon and return it on Thursday morning.
If the rental house is closed due to holiday or weekend, you do not pay since you could not have returned the equipment on that day. It is also “assumed” that neither you nor the drivers from the production company are working.
Friday afternoon to Monday morning (a Saturday rental) sometimes may only be billed as a one-day rental.
A rental week consists of any seven consecutive calendar days. Most rental houses offer a discount in that you will only be billed for an “XXX-day week.” Most common is the “four-day week,” although some houses offer “three-day” and even “two-day” weekly rentals on equipment that is hard to rent. However, as long as a holiday or a weekend does not reduce the number of available working days to below four days, you will still be billed at the four-day weekly rate.
Some rental companies offer additional discounts for long term rentals. For some, long term means four weeks; for others it may mean six weeks, etc. Ask your local rental house about their definition of and discounts for long term rentals.
Ask about travel days, rain days, and shipping. Travel days are days that the equipment is in your possession, but not being used because the gear is in transit. On long term rentals, these days may be gratis; on short term it is negotiable at the time the order is placed.
Shipping charges are normally paid for by the renter. It is usually far cheaper to ship one-day air and pay more for shipping but save on the rental. Some rental houses will charge you for a rental day even if the equipment is in transit. Sometimes, they will split the difference: not charge you on the day that it is shipped out, but you continue to pay rental while it is shipped back.
A note about shipping equipment. I recommend that you open your own UPS and FedEx accounts. Whenever possible, have sales and rental houses use your own account number rather than bill you for shipping. That way, you only get charged for the actual shipping costs without creative accounting inflating the charges.
Also, avoid checking in your equipment as baggage at airports. Security may over react when they see the profile of mics, cables, and electronics on their screens, causing you long delays. Theft of baggage is very high, since employees can access X-ray screens and master keys for your TSA approved locks. Mis-routed or lost baggage occurs quite a bit. And the airlines only reimburse you up to $500 on a claim. Overall, it is better to just ship your stuff via UPS or FedEx to your destination, with lots of insurance.
Rain days are days when the production is postponed due to inclement weather. You must call in the morning of a rain day; you may be asked to return the equipment for the day to avoid rental charge, or a discount may be applied via phone. Again, these things must be negotiated in advance.
In the event of equipment malfunction while out on location, contact the rental house as soon as possible and inform them of the problem. They may be able to trouble-shoot the repair over the phone, or may be able to send out a replacement to you right away. Or maybe not. (Production Mixing is the art of creative problem solving.)
However, do not expect to receive a discount or credit for faulty equipment -- unless you alert the rental house within 24 hours. (How are they to know whether the radio mic that you rented broke down on the first day, or worked great for 13 days out of a 14 day shoot?) The rental house may opt for you to return the equipment for a replacement, return the equipment for a credit, or just hold onto it until the end of the shoot.