Trailblazer Talks: an Insight into the TV Camera Rental Industry

The TV camera rental industry spans several industries. We are a highly technical group of companies providing exacting production kits to a multitude of areas of TV including:

• Film production
• Drama Production
• Documentary
• Music
• Corporate
• Multi-camera sports
• Webcasting
• Other

We are represented by a group association for which I sit on the board, called ASPEC.

There is an entirely separate field of AV, which is not represented by our industry and stands quite alone and has its own group of companies and representative association.

Based in London and Bristol (UK) and established in 1979, VMI specialises in hiring quality digital camera packages for Features, Drama, Documentary, Natural History, Commercials, Promos and Corporate TV productions, stocking every 4K+ camera format for hire including Sony Venice, RED & ARRI cameras to Sony C500Mk IIs. VMI’s rental range also includes the Phantom VEO 4K super slow-motion and Canon ME20 super low-light cameras, plus lighting, grip & sound.

We believe that our meticulous attention to detail, high level of presentation, generously accessorised packages and fanatical level of customer service are the main reasons why VMI clients return. Our 2018 client survey saw 125 clients voting our customer service 4.7 out of 5, a figure we are extremely proud of.

VMI set up a division called VMEDIA in 2017 to rent out the fastest and largest memory cards and SSDs including Sony AXS, RED MiniMag, CFast 2.0, XQD, SDXC cards etc., expanding its range to include high-capacity batteries and flight-safe batteries in late 2018.

Primarily, COVID.

Safe working practices means that all of our organisations have found new ways to work safely, but for our clients, this is sometimes harder.  None more so than scripted drama.

BREXIT too presents real challenges, since many of our clients work across country borders and take equipment to and from Europe, so carnet and travel challenges present new difficulties and uncertainties.

Three things:

1. Sharing industry knowledge.  For this, ASPEC has been extremely active to provide solutions. During the lockdown of 2020, ASPEC companies tirelessly worked together to agree on protocols and safe working procedures.
2. Having an agreed BREXIT transition deal…
3. A vaccine bringing things back to normal, so that industry can return and all uncertainties can be removed.

The problem is that taking on additional apprentices brings more people into organisations.  This has health & safety implications, and we all need to keep our staff safe. This is one barrier.

We can’t make apprentices redundant either if our business can’t afford to pay for them and this provides resistance to taking on a 2-year commitment of new apprentices.

I chair the trailblazer group responsible for bringing the Camera Tech apprenticeship standard into being. Still, we have deferred starting it and taking on our first cohort as a consequence of the above considerations.

I know that money is tight for Government and they have provided a £2,000 bonus for new apprentices taken on before the end of Jan 2021. However, this is too early for us to do since Dec/Jan/Feb are traditionally quiet times for TV production: days are shorter, and Christmas provides a complete month-long stoppage to production.

My idea would be to extend this deadline of the £2,000 COVID grant to taking on new apprentices to the end of April.

All of the rental companies who have expressed an interest in the Apprenticeship standard (about 15) have plans to take on 20+ new apprentices but are meeting on 18th January.  Such an incentive may help to encourage wavering companies to commit to this project.