Equipment rental houses are at the heart of the industry. Keeping pace with the
ever-changing state of technology and forming a constant interface with a
multiplicity of production houses and broadcasters, they are in a better position
than most to offer insights into the state of the business as a whole.
Industry upturn
The outlook offered by South African rental houses a year ago was relatively
downbeat. Gear costs were high and difficult to amortise and the stream of work
had slowed to little more than a trickle. While the problem of working gear hard
enough to make back its cost remains a challenge, the volume of work in the
industry seems to have turned around over the past few months.
Martin Smookler, managing director of Randburg-based gear renter Nates Audio
Visual, notes that there has been a remarkable upsurge in the number of drama
shows being commissioned. “Since the start of the year we have quoted on quite a
number of drama productions for companies responding to SABC and e.tv briefs,’
he says. “So that’s an encouraging sign.’
Glen Theron of Cam-A-Lot Rentals, also based in Randburg, observes that the
explosion of digital platforms and the fact that technological developments makes
the creation of video content easier and easier, means that there is more demand
than ever for gear from people outside of the production industry.
“The diversity and growth of the industry is definitely on the up. We are finding
more people are wanting to create video. Where in the past video was never a
consideration it is now almost a necessity; so many corporates are now doing little
videos for the web.’ Although professional television and film work makes up a
sizeable portion of Cam-A-Lot’s business, Theron says that the increased demand
for gear from the amateur and prosumer market is a tremendous asset to the
company and also a very interesting measure of the enabling power of advancing
technology.
Industry veteran Frank Meyburgh, recently returned to South Africa after an 18-
month stint in the United Kingdom, was surprised to find that a large number of
clients approaching his boutique, Bryanston-based operation, The Magic Lightbox
Company, are creating content for social media platforms, rather than the
traditional broadcast and film work he has dealt with for so long. Houses of worship
are another growth sector for him.
On the other end of the spectrum, Media Film Service, probably the country’s
largest rental operator, continues to cater to high-budget film and television
productions and reports that 2014 was a bumper year, leading to expansion for both
itself and its sister company Digital Film Service.
New gear
Operating a successful gear hire company means always staying on top of
technological developments, especially as far as cameras are concerned. Today’s
most popular camera could be reduced to museum piece status tomorrow. This is a
state of affairs completely unlike the heyday of film, when cameras could be in
demand for several years, and it is also a situation that is unlikely to change
anytime soon.
As far as the hottest products at the moment go, Sony seems to the word on
everybody’s lips. Everyone is asking for the DSLR-style A7S and the FS7 Super
35mm production camera. At the higher end, RED and Arri are still very much in
demand, with the RED Dragon and the Arri Alexa showing remarkable staying power
considering the ever shifting market. According to Meyburgh, in fact, the market
share of these high-end cameras has gone up substantially from a few years ago,
when many DOPs and cameramen not employed on big-budget productions would
have opted for mid-level gear that could do the job almost as well.
Considering the current state of South Africa’s power utility, the demand for
generators has also increased. But the standard diesel-driven genny is the bane of
many an onset sound recordist, so several kit hire companies are stocking up on
silent models.
Owner-operators
One thing that continues to affect the way equipment rentals do business is the
increasing number of owner-operators in the industry, on both the higher and lower
ends of the market. Meyburgh notes that there has been a marked increase in
owner-operators since he left the country. For his business model, this does not
present too much of a problem as he deals in both sales and rentals, meaning that
he can sell operators the camera and also rent them the various accessories or
“knickknacks’ required. For those businesses that rely entirely upon rentals,
however, the proliferation of owner-operators presents a challenge.
“It was the entry of the Canon 5D into the market that changed the way rental
businesses work,’ says Smookler. “Now you also have the A7S and it’s just a
phenomenal camera; it’s available at a very reasonable price, it makes the
cameraman’s work that much easier and why would he rent it when he can buy it
for himself? This puts us in the position where our cameras are not working as hard
as they should and the way technology moves nowadays, any camera will only be in
demand for about three years before it’s out of date. So that’s all the time you have
to let that camera make back its cost.’
This does bring into question the sustainability of a business model based on pure
rental and aside from the sales/rental hybrid model proposition, there seem to be
few answers as yet. However, while the complexities of fast-moving technology the
fierce competition between equipment manufacturers brings a number of challenges
for rental houses, these better dealt with in a thriving industry where production
creates sufficient demand to keep gear working.
The fact that there is an upturn in this area, seemingly driven by freer spending on
the part of broadcasters, bodes very well for the year ahead.
– Warren Holden
