Use of Cinematography Equipment

Equipment Lists

In all messaging, the project and contact type needs to be clear from the title of the email. For example:

Production Name / Production Number / Camera Equipment

Production Name – Number / Workflow test

Production sends us two separate lists as an email attachment, one for camera equipment, one for lighting equipment. The lists need to include the following details in the file:

• Name of the production and production number
• Contact information of the producer and cinematographer (with phone number and email)
• Scheduling
  • Equipment prep and pick-up dates and time of day
  • Shooting days
  • Return date and time
  • Building and transportation days separately
• The list of equipment
  • Only include equipment found from our inventory (in the list for in-house equipment)
  • Please use the specified names

We will be saving the files and as we coordinate and check productions’ needs multiple times, it is important that the lists themselves include all the necessary details.

Production drives and radio phones are often requested separately by producers, for these items it is not necessary to create a list attachment, an email or a phone call will suffice.

Updating Bookings

If we have received rough preliminary lists, it is sensible for us to just delete those pre-bookings and create the actual finalized booking from scratch. But once the full list has been sent and booked, we need a method to update the bookings without checking hundreds of lines individually, as there will always be a need to make some adjustments before the action starts.

The recommended way is to send us the full list again, but with the changes clearly indicated, what items were removed, what were added, what was the original item count and what is the new.
Remember to also update the file name for new version, for example with a “v2” suffix. That way everyone can easily make sure they are referencing the latest version of the list.

Of course, if the production equipment consists of just a handful of gear, simple email will suffice.

Equipment Rentals

Student film producer will send their camera rental and light rental lists as attachments to rental services of Aalto Studios. Please send these to toni.tolin at aalto.fi email.

Please use the same file handling, naming and info sharing convention as described above in this Use of Cinematography Equipment instructions.

Send your lists as early as possible. Minimum is two weeks before the production.

We are running multiple productions at the same time. With good pre‑planning, keep last‑minute changes and adjustments to a minimum.

We are using public funds for productions. This money must be used responsibly, economically, and in accordance with the letter of the law. That is the reason why we make centralized price inquiries to several rental houses of all rented equipment.

If our own in-house equipment is booked to other course / student film, Aalto Studios will rent the replacement equipment. Aalto Studios will cover these additional replacing equipment costs. This is only done for courses and student films. For “välityö” productions, Aalto Studios doesn’t rent replacing equipment.

Few tips for good rental list:

• It’s good to have a “master list” covering the entire shoot, with any additional gear for one-off days appended at the end.
• Camera equipment price inquiries are done separately from lighting/grip equipment. This means camera gear may come from rental house X and lighting/grip gear from rental house Y.
• Let’s not modify equipment lists once price inquiries are underway. Prepare the lists as thoroughly as possible before starting the inquiries.
• We will keep student producers in loop of the price request of the equipment.
• Make changes by email only, not by phone, so there’s a written record.

Note:

• The production must allocate enough funds in its own budget to cover rental costs so they fit their budget.
• Rental equipment appears on the rental house’s lists, and Takeout equipment on Takeout’s lists. There is no single unified list.
• Vehicle rentals are handled by the student producer themselves according to Aalto’s instructions, using their own project number.
• Audio equipment rentals to pasi.pelkonen at aalto.fi

Production drives

Productions may borrow 3 drives from Takeout for the whole post production period. Currently we have 1x 4TB SSD & 2x 5TB HDD for each production. Once the post production has been finished and all the material is backed up elsewhere, these drives are to be returned back to Takeout for the next productions.

DIT Station includes two SSD’s, which are to be kept with the DIT machine at all times. Takeout will also format the DIT drives between each production. If you think you need extra time to transfer all the files from the DIT Station, please make sure to arrange it with us.