Two shoots, one FX6
The company owns two cinema cameras, a set of primes, a zoom, a lighting kit, three radio mic sets and a gimbal. Bookings go on a whiteboard in the kit room and a shared Google Calendar called KIT. On Wednesday a producer books the A camera package for a two-day corporate job. A director on another project books the gimbal and the primes for Thursday, not realising the primes were part of the A camera package.
On Thursday morning the camera assistant preps the gimbal kit and finds the primes are already in Leeds. The director shoots on the zoom and is not happy. Meanwhile, the radio mics from Monday's shoot came back but one set has a broken cable nobody noted, and it goes out again on Friday.
Why a calendar cannot track kit
- Kit goes out as packages, but a calendar booking names the package, not the items in it.
- The same lens or battery can belong to several packages.
- Prep days before a shoot and check-in days after are not blocked out.
- Damage and faults are reported by word of mouth and not attached to the item.
- Kit also goes out to freelancers or on dry hire, which is recorded somewhere else.
Rental houses use dedicated systems for exactly this, Current RMS being a well-known example. Production companies with a modest kit room often have nothing between a whiteboard and a full rental system, and neither fits.
What double bookings cost
A missing item on the morning of a shoot means a last-minute hire, a compromise on how the job is shot, or a delayed start. Faulty kit going out again because nobody recorded the fault causes worse problems on set. Producers stop trusting the kit room and start hiring kit they already own, just to be sure.
How we build the kit booking system
- Every item is recorded: type, make, model, serial number, and which packages it belongs to, such as A camera package or interview lighting kit.
- Bookings are made against a shoot for packages or single items, with dates.
- Prep time before and check-in time after each booking are added automatically, with lengths you set per package.
- When a new booking includes any item already booked at the same time, whether directly or inside a package, the system shows a clash naming the item and the other shoot.
- Check-out and check-in are done with a phone scanning QR or barcode labels on each item, so it is clear what actually left and came back.
- At check-in, any item can be marked as faulty with a note and photo, and it is blocked from new bookings until marked as fixed.
- A day view for the kit room shows what goes out, what comes back and what needs prepping.
| Event | What the system records |
|---|---|
| Booking | Shoot, package or items, dates, prep and return time |
| Clash | Item, both shoots, and who booked each |
| Check-out | Items scanned, who took them, when |
| Check-in | Items scanned back, missing items flagged |
| Fault | Note, photo, item blocked until fixed |
Booking kit the following week
The director tries to book the gimbal and primes for Thursday. The system shows a clash: the primes are in the A camera package on the corporate job. She talks to the producer, who swaps to the zoom for the corporate interviews, and the director gets the primes.
When the radio mics come back on Monday, the camera assistant scans them in and marks one set as faulty with a photo of the cable. It cannot be booked until it is fixed, and Friday's shoot gets a working set.
Missing items are caught at check-in rather than on the next shoot. If a battery or a lens cap does not scan back, the item is flagged against the shoot that had it, so the producer can ask the crew while they still remember.
Could this be your kit room?
- Kit is booked on a whiteboard or shared calendar.
- Lenses or batteries turn up missing on shoot mornings.
- Faulty kit has gone out again without anyone knowing.
- Producers hire kit you already own to be safe.
- Nobody knows exactly what came back from the last shoot.