Get A Grip…Truck

For years, whenever a Geomedia production called for a grip truck , we’d rent one from video equipment rental companies like Gear in Austin. Gear is an awesome company to work with, but as our live action business began to expand outside San Antonio into other Texas cities like Dallas and Houston, and smaller locations like Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland and Corpus Christi, it started to become clear that renting may no longer make the most sense.

Beyond the financial considerations, and perhaps even more important, owning the equipment (along with our Red One Digital Cinema Camera package) would provide us the freedom to be more nimble in helping a client ramp up a fairly elaborate video, tv or film production more quickly.

Not having to do two round trips to Austin for each rental wouldn’t hurt either. We were convinced.

So now that we’d decided that owning made more sense that renting, the choice came whether to buy a grip truck from someone or build our own.

We took kind of a hybrid approach.

First, Murray found a well cared for 2006 GMC W4500 at Enterprise Truck Sales. We then turned to ABC Truck for a new Dry Freight Van Body that would hold all our equipment.

At this stage we had what you might call a pretty basic cargo van with an Interlift Lift Gate.

 

 

Now…the interior.

Our Animation Director Troy (of Devo Hat fame) loves to build things in the real world as well as the virtual, so he took the lead from here and began by adding a custom 1/2 inch plywood layer to the interior.

 

 

To help secure our carts while we’re on the road, Troy custom cut 10′ horizontal E-Track pieces for the walls…

 

 

…and then we mounted some steel rails for hanging light stands from the rear swing-out doors.

 

 

As the interior continued to evolve, our DP Zach was busy putting together a plan for how to organize the truck (including finding a place for our Chapman Leonard Super Peewee III+ Dolly).

All that remained from here was a final quick trip to LA to acquire the remaining equipment needed to fill out the Geomedia Two Ton Grip Truck.

 

 

Nice work, Murray, Troy and Zach.