Yup, sounds reasonable. Looks good...I'm just mentioning most of this on behalf of the venue. Looks like they did a really good job. I don't mess with rigging like that. I'm sure they paid up pretty good for it.
Pin-spotting table centerpieces
- Thread starter rickryan.com
- Start date
I was able to get a glance at the work order at my competitor's office. They charged $50 per can or $750 for the can rentals. I have no idea when they got for the rigging or wiring but I'm betting the entire quote was $1500-$2000. Makes me think I might be able to fudge my prices up next season.
I'm making an assumption but I think the lift at this event belonged to the hotel. I've co-worked a couple of other events with this lighting contractor at another facility where I know the facility charges $150 for use of their genie lift. To date, I've avoid jobs that need a lift but know I'll have to eventually make provision and start offering it. The lighting stuff has taken on a life of its own this past year.
I can tell you that lighting has become super important in my business. People like the super sweet sixteen look....black lights, lasers etc. But the structural lighting is something I don't want to mess with too much. It looks like though that people are wanting it and few offer it. May be a really good move.
Best way to tell is to charge a bundle for it because until you know the venues inside and out you'll be doing LOTS of walkthroughs with clients...you'll find a way to do it if its something you want.
I'd go for it right now but having access to a lift is what I've not done before. I also only have a van at present and upgrading to a box truck isn't an option for now. I've gotten my foot in the door at a lot of the better rooms in town but still considered the new guy on the block. The actual wiring/rigging doesn't bother me in the least. That's just labor hours to sell.
I've thought about offering table pinspotting but use a 19 ft crank stand to do the hoisting. Even then, I've still got a problem trying to haul around a monster like that but at least it's a possibility.
We do a TON of lighting... we have dozens of light pillars, 15 event trees, 500+ ft of drapery, ^>'s, xbars, bases, 8 crystal chandeliers, 60 pinspots, various gobo fixtures, global truss, about a dozen elation moving heads, 100+ "modified" chauvet techno strobes for uplights, 4 bliss50's, 4 50 watt h20's). Packages going up to 9 grand.
I am in the same boat as you guys with the lift situ. Currently, we use stands with pinspots on them http://ow.ly/alXMV . Just recently we lost a $2,100 contract to a client all because we wouldn't hang the pinspots from a venues vaulted ceiling?! It turns out they were quoted by 2 other lighting companies. These other companies ganged up on our acceptable method and talked the client into otherwise.
I still have not made the leap into ceiling suspended pinspots because I'm not sure on the following:
- if every venue has/needs a lift
- if they do, can I access it
- what are their restrictions (this is a loaded question)
- if I rent one (with non-marking tires) can I drive inside and onto their carpet the day of the wedding
- what type of airwall hangers will fit the channel (would I need to charge the client for a genie on a site visit to get the right clamp)
- if there is no airwall, can I use a light bulb socket to attach a pinspot with barn doors
- would my setup/teardown time be restricted/altered due to the room layout (ie, I have to wait until the tables are broken down before I can access certain parts of the ceiling)
The last point is a real stickler for me, because we will do many events in a single night. The genie could affect the scheduling for picking up and dropping off equipment (making it more of a pain to coordinate the times for my guys). Then on top of that we would have to make arrangements to have a lift that would work with their ceiling height. Now there are variables in the equipment used for the day which leaves room for error (we bring the wrong sized airwall hangers). I like uniformity with our setups, since we do a large volume of events. I would hate to have to refund someone all because we grabbed the wrong bag.
You would have the client pay for the genie, it might be marked up at your discretion to cover your time to make the arrangements.
The technician fee would depend on the skill set required for your team to rig the pinspots. The client could pay anywhere from 40 per hour to 150 per hour. I have subcontracted master electricians for previous events. Packages like this need to be determined in scope first before giving a finalized technician quote to the client. Here is an example of one event we did with (12) 575 watt Source 4's http://ow.ly/alZM7 . The tree patterns looked amazing http://ow.ly/am0iK, but between setup/teardown/multiple uhauls/15 other events,I didn't sleep for 3 whole days
.... no joke...What I understand is that if you own a genie (a decent one costs 10 grand), then you can drag it behind you on a trailer. You wouldn't want to drive it into a box truck because they typically weight over 5,000lbs. If you are thinking about the box truck, check your local ordinances. These are restricted from parking in residential areas (you would have to park it at your studio/warehouse). If you don't use them that often, then it would be more cost effective to have a rental company drop it off and pick it up (and charge you a daily rate around 150 bucks).
I know how much is involved with suspending fixtures on a larger scale. Eventually in the coming years we might have to change our method of highlighting centerpieces. IMO, the stands are working just fine.
This style ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/2008-Genie-.../260975056316?pt=US_Lifts&hash=item3cc35355bc ) is less expensive and much lighter (around 750#) than the scissors lifts. I know Genie makes these in multiple sizes and I'm sure there are others.
Cerebro, what kind of stands are you using? I've been giving some thought to picking up a crank stand and wondering if a 13 ft would be high enough or whether I'd need to go 18-20 ft. Your thoughts?
There are two very important aspects that have to be considered when offering this type of service. Qualified/Licensed Installers, Liability Insurance with the venue and also with the workers. Do you get coverage for one or both cases?
Right now I am using stands regular telescoping stands that go about 10 feet tall http://ow.ly/an87A . I've considered getting some of the avenger light stands http://ow.ly/an8cq . They have some models that go 14 feet tall. Once you get into pin spotting that has fixtures going that high, you would at least need a ladder to adjust the beams. This means the package would require a little giant ladder and a van/suv. Also we have 20lb sand bags for our tree's bases. These could be used to weight down the legs of the avenger light stands (reducing the liability).
Hey Cerebro what kind of pinspot fixtures are you using? How many pinspots do you have mounted per light stand? Any pictures of the stands? Thanks