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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Complete Grip, Lighting, Camera Package Truck (including Red) for Rent

Wow. What city?
 
Hi Albert, good to hear from you. We never did manage to have that coffee. Perhaps if we get the truck on one of your sets we can always have a "truckuccino".

Montreal - hey, if you have a long enough shoot to sustain it there, I'm always open to the idea.

Cheers,
Dale
 
hehe; I do love a great expresso:) and you never get that on the set.
Great idea.

If you're doing nothing on Saturday, I m making a pyri pyri chiken; sorta a house warming thing.
let me know.

Cheers
 
I wanted to leave a review of having just worked with this truck on a 3-day commercial shoot. The producer I was hired by has rented this truck on two previous shoots, and has always been happy with it. It was my first shoot with this instead of a truck from one of the big Toronto rental houses, so I was curious to see how it compared.

My view is that it's a whole lot of bang for your buck. It's an appealing mix of HMI, tungsten, and fluo where a truck of this size/cost wouldn't usually include HMI.
I haven't cross-checked equipment lists exactly, but compared to the big rental houses, I was left with the impression that some items are only single quantity in a single size, but the overall variety of categories is a bit broader. They had a number of items on-board that would have been specific add-ons that you'd have to special request from the big rental houses. So as long as your gaffer/grips are a little bit creative and not old sticks in the mud, it'll have you covered at a very reasonable price.

We added some specific gear from one of the big rental houses - a Matthews Intel-a-jib and Cartoni Lambda head for instance - and they were able to pick that up and drop it off for us, which was a huge time-saver.
When our gaffer noticed we were going a bit crazy with apple box usage, they picked up some extras from the same rental company and showed up on set the next day with them on-board and ready to go.
Dale, the owner, is also quite receptive to hearing what we thought of the truck, and wanted to know what we thought could be added, so with that kind of positive attitude, the package can only get better with time.

The truck was driven by a guy named Steve (whose last name I probably wouldn't spell properly) and he was great to work with. A young guy with a can-do attitude, he was exactly what you always hope for - someone who just jumps at every request and happily gets you the gear without ever making you feel like you're a pain in his ass! He was a big help with set-up and tear-down, making him a definite PA/grip type asset on a non-union shoot.

All in all, the truck might not always have every single piece of gear you can think of, but then it's probably going to have something else that can the job done. And sometimes it'll surprise you with something you'd never expect to have on-hand. For the price, and how enjoyable it is to rent from Dale and to work with Steve, I'd give it two hearty thumbs-up. The producer sure likes it, so I think I'll be seeing a lot of this truck in the future, and I'm definitely looking forward to it.
 
Wow, Stephen, thank you for the very kind words. We're constantly trying to improve the truck, but I'm very happy to hear it is meeting your needs.

As you point out, I obviously have no intention of competing with the big guys out there, just trying to offer a mobile package that meets my needs and hopefully others looking for this type of product. My goal with it was simply to provide (for myself and others) an all inclusive mobile unit that can work off of standard household power, a putt-putt, or stove/dryer plugs and at the same time contain enough options to supply independent productions with a very useful assortment of gear. On certain specialty shots we can always sub-rent a genny, larger lights, etc. But so far, it's been working out pretty good, and I'm always open to ideas or equipment to make this a better product for me, my friends, and my clients.

As for Steve, I have to say, I've been blessed with a great team of hard working, creative, honest, trust-worthy, make-it-happen type of people over the years and Steve is a shining example of just that.

Hope to have the pleasure of meeting you some time Stephen and if I can help in any way in the future, just let me know.

Now if I could just get my website updated, we might really get this puppy rolling.

Respectfully,
Dale

PS - forgive me if the truck's website (www.mobilemoviemachine.com) goes down intermittently over the next few day, my website updates are not uploading for some reason, or uploading with wonky formatting. Hope to have this sorted out soon.
 
Just looking at that looks like a sweet deal.

My biggest concern is with the number of sandbags and with the dolly. I normally go with 30 or more sandbags on set, since it always seems to be a windy day where and when we shoot.

Depending on the shoot I also normally go with a Fisher or Chapman Peewee dolly, since the shooting style we normally do is fast paced and we need the stability.

Overall though, looks like a great package. I'll definitely give it consideration on future shoots.
 
Thanks for the comments Mark.

Just an FYI - We can always supplement the package with more sandbags, different dollies, generators, or what ever your heart desires.

With the new speed wheels we got for the briefcase dollies the horizontal moves are stunningly smooth. If you want vertical and horizontal moves, we also have an 18' Advantajib available.

This package was designed for economy, while still providing most practical tools you might need to achieve your goals on small to medium sized mobile productions. However, I'm always upgrading and adding more stuff.

Cheers,
Dale
 
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