About
Bolt Lighting Rental was founded by Matthew Stouppe and Ryan Thomas in 2016. We’ve grown from our humble beginnings as owner/operators in 2011, working inside an old naval warehouse to now being Bolt Lighting Rental, a full service rental house in Berkeley, CA.
We started Bolt Lighting Rental after using other rental houses for years. We had a few ideas of how to do it better, but ultimately the answer was in auto manufacturing! It’s called the Toyota Production System, or Lean Manufacturing and it’s how Toyota manages to build millions of reliable vehicles every year, we’ve taken their concepts and applied it to lighting rental.
To do this we had to create a culture of continuous improvement, one where education was a priority, and where our employees felt empowered to make changes to make our trucks and gear better.
The start of this was our morning meeting. Every day at Bolt we spend the first hour cleaning up our workspace, learning about one of our processes and one piece of equipment, and then making one small improvement to our shop. Basically…we fix what bugs us! It’s a super simple idea, but we had lost count how many times our previous employers wouldn’t listen to our ideas or wouldn’t recognize that something was a struggle. We don’t guide our employees on what improvements to make, we’ve hired them because they’re smart and we need their input to succeed. This has paid off in a huge way, check out their awesome improvements on our Instagram.
Because we have created this culture of continuous improvement we think we have created one of the most innovative lighting rental companies around. We’ve created our own rental management software, created a line of milk crate dividers to help organize gear, and have the cleanest trucks in the Bay Area.
Of course this all means nothing if we can’t keep the costs low. Using the latest technology and constantly improving the process, our prep times are quick and efficient and allow us to always meet your budget.
Thanks for considering us and we hope you’ll consider using Bolt Lighting Rental for your next project!
Meet Our Leaders
RYAN THOMAS
Ryan Thomas is an LA based director of photography who also helps Bolt stay up to date on the latest trends. Coming from a lighting background himself, he’s worked in the lighting department on a number of popular TV shows and movies. As a Local 728 member, he is the Chair of the Young Workers Committee and is dedicated to making Bolt a good employer for the future. As a result we’re focused on paying good wages and make all of our merchandise in union shops in the USA.
Matthew Stouppe
Matthew Stouppe is a Bay Area Gaffer with over 10 years in the film industry. He's taught a lot of the new generation of lighting technicians in the Bay Area with his popular workshops, becoming a mentor for many young filmmakers. His years of experience on countless union and non-union productions allows him to know exactly what it takes to shoot your project in the Bay Area.