For people who are experienced in the film industry, they will mostly get their work through word of mouth. Over years of networking and getting out on set, everyone knows to hire them because they know they will do a good job, but what if no one knows who you are or what you’re capable […]

This post is a continuation from a previous post. To see Part I, go HERE. Again, if you want to just use the profiles I created download the files from this google drive folder. Currently I only have profiles for the Alexa Mini with the LCC lut in 800 and 1600 ISO, as well as […]

Sekonic Meters have the functionality to be able to chart and display your cameras dynamic range both on your meter and on the computer. I think this function is seldom used because of its complexity and the time most people will have to spend to understand it, especially for cinema use. I hope with this […]

As a rental house we see tons of equipment requests every single day, as you can imagine this had made us strive to figure out how to do it better when ordering equipment for ourselves. Here are a few things we’ve found to be very helpful in ordering equipment. Create a Template The number one […]

Getting paid can be a frustrating endeavor sometimes. We’ve heard it all before, “the check’s in the mail!” Learning how to approach this diplomatically can be helpful if you want to work with the client again, but at the same time, you’ll need to know when to be firm. A lot of the timeline here […]

Here at Bolt Lighting rental, we want to make sure that renting will take place in the safest manner possible. Over the shelter in place time we have taken many strides in developing a way to make sure that our shop, employees, and most of all you as a client will be safe. To reach […]

We have been experimenting a bit  with this awesome new website called www.glideapps.com    They allow you to make simple iPhone and Android compatible apps using google sheets as the database. I’ve been wanting to create a better system for prepping for projects as a DP, it can be really tough sometimes to remember all […]

Last we left you guys we had just finished the design on the sprinter. It’s definitely been a while, but the truck is complete and has been working. Thought we would show you the second part of the process of building out this truck. Since we got the first truck, learning to weld has been […]

Disclaimer: Misclassification of your employees as independent contractors is illegal. The IRS sets clear guidelines for who can be an independent contractor and who cannot, see here (https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/understanding-employee-vs-contractor-designation) Furthermore most people who work in the film industry are employees as they are told when to report to work, when to go home, when to go […]

While our rental software is pretty robust and can export some great reports out of it, it’s really just a lot of numbers that requires a trained eye to go through it and draw conclusions from the data. I also got so tired of just going with my gut, I wanted to know what to […]

About 8 years ago I listened to the episode of This American Life about the NUMMI automotive plant in Fremont, CA and how they turned one of the worst performing plants in the country into the best, just by instituting the Toyota Production System. This later became more broadly known as Lean Manufacturing and I […]

Have been working hard at building out a new grip truck here at Bolt Lighting Rental and we thought we could make this blog post to let you into the process a little bit and see how we go about designing our shelving in the vans and trucks. We recently purchased a 2500 Dodge Sprinter […]

Calculating overtime can be such a mysterious question for people in the film industry. With prepaid overtime and a lot of misinformation floating around, it’s difficult to figure out your hourly rate or know at what point you should be paid what. There are a myriad of different state laws out there, so we are […]

Have another blog post installment for everyone. We have DP Ryan Thomas and really fun commercial he shot using some S-60 skypanels and other RGB units from Bolt. Check it out! I have been wanting to shoot a colorful, yet moody commercial for some time and was really excited when Director Spencer Selover and I […]

Everyone who has been doing film for a while knows what it’s like to get on your first job big enough for them to have walkie talkies. It’s an exciting moment, but then you realize you’re supposed to have your own headset. You ask if they have a spare and they hand you the dreaded […]

We go in depth into all of the crew positions that you’ll find on a grip and electric crew. You’ll learn what everyone does and how to implement this knowledge for your next show.

Have another blog post installment for everyone. This time around we have DP Josh Pausanos and this pretty insane one take music video he put together using some of the RGB LED fixtures from our arsenal. Here’s his breakdown. I had the pleasure of working with director Hong Kim last year for a one take […]

A quick article about what you should carry on your tool belt. Written for both the lighting and grip department in mind.