For the past three or four years, we’ve used LensRentals.com whenever a filming project requires us to fly somewhere.
And honestly, it’s been a huge part of allowing us to work well beyond Kansas City.
We’ve filmed projects in New Jersey, New York, California, Alaska, Louisiana, and most recently up in the Northwest in Washington and Idaho. The problem with flying to these locations isn’t necessarily getting us there. It’s getting all of our stuff there.
Camera gear travels pretty well. Some of the other equipment we use… not so much.
There comes a point where traveling with large stands, lighting, grip equipment, cases, and everything else we might need becomes impractical—or the airline looks at what you’re trying to check and starts seeing dollar signs.
That’s where LensRentals has been fantastic.
We can rent what we need, have it shipped directly to a FedEx location near where we’re filming, fly into town, pick up a stack of boxes, do the shoot, pack everything back up, and drop it off at FedEx when we’re finished.
It’s ridiculously easy.
There’s another benefit, too: it gives us a chance to experiment with equipment we don’t own. If there’s a particular lens, light, camera, or piece of production gear we’ve been curious about, renting it for an actual project is a pretty great way to find out whether we really need to spend the money to own one.
And then there’s one final benefit.
Whenever someone handling the travel budget asks why we need to rent a full-size SUV instead of the nice, economical little car they found for $38 a day…
We send them the attached picture.
Case closed.
