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Renting out vintage recorder for shoot


rstl99

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Hi all,

Someone up here found out I own some vintage Nagras and wants to rent my III for an upcoming film shoot.  Period piece set in the 60s and they need a III with reels turning.

I've never loaned out anything like this and assume there will be some kind of contract that ensures I get the darn thing back, but what kind of daily rate would be acceptable for something like this, any idea?

Thanks.

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This may be obvious but: whatever day rate you decide on make sure that it is in the contract that they will cover the full replacement cost of the III should anything happen to it. Most rental places insist on the renter either having insurance or authorizing the full replacement cost on a credit card before they pick the item up. 

-Mike

Edit: Pro Sound has the Nagra IV-STC listed for $125/day if that helps at all. 

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Thanks Mike and Crew, that's helpful.

Yeah, I like my old Nagras and this III is in fine shape, which gives me pause sending it off out of town like that.  I may decline the offer, though it would be interesting to see my Nagra featured in a tv series.

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Don't do it. Do Not Do It.  Regardless of intentions,  prop and art departments treat most items carelessly. They are working too fast with too many items to do otherwise. Assume it will not come back in the condition you sent it.  Do not rent anything to a production that you can't afford to lose. 

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Ah, and i heard of that incident on Hateful8 where an actor slammed a super vintage guitar against a wall. the real one. SOMEBODY fucked up. bah. 

On 8/24/2016 at 7:18 PM, Werner Althaus said:

As long as the director's name isn't Quentin Tarantino....:mellow:

HAH!

 

On 8/25/2016 at 2:10 AM, rstl99 said:

Thanks Mike and Crew, that's helpful.

Yeah, I like my old Nagras and this III is in fine shape, which gives me pause sending it off out of town like that.  I may decline the offer, though it would be interesting to see my Nagra featured in a tv series.

Not enough to see it come back with a small scratch that will leave you sleepless for nights... 

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2 hours ago, soundtrane said:

Ah, and i heard of that incident on Hateful8 where an actor slammed a super vintage guitar against a wall. the real one. SOMEBODY fucked up. bah. 

Ya, for those of you who haven't... It looks like the story came out via Mark Ulano. :-)

Kinda weird use of "amusing" in this excerpt from a SSN story:

Ulano related one particularly amusing story while shooting a scene where Kurt Russell’s character smashes the guitar being played by Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character. “The guitar was a loner from the Martin Guitar Museum and there were six doubles made. The guitar was from the 1870’s and was priceless. What was supposed to happen was we were supposed to go up to that point, cut, and trade guitars and smash the double. Well, somehow that didn’t get communicated to Kurt, so when you see that happen on the frame, Jennifer’s reaction is genuine.”

Ulano spoke of the on-set reactions. “Kurt shattered the antique guitar and everyone was pretty freaked out. Tarantino was in a corner of the room with a funny curl on his lips, because he got something out of it with the performance.” Funny enough, the Martin Museum representatives only asked two questions after the incident. “‘Do you need another one and can we please have all the pieces to display in our museum?’

Rest of the SSN article:

http://www.ssninsider.com/ssn-screening-series-the-team-talks-about-the-qt-factor-smashing-guitars-and-shooting-in-minus-10-degrees-on-the-set-of-tarantinos-the-hateful-eight/

Reverb picks up the story:

Martin Responds to “Hateful Eight” Destruction of Antique Six String

“We were informed that it was an accident on set,” [Dick Boak of Martin] says. “We assumed that a scaffolding or something fell on it. We understand that things happen, but at the same time we can’t take this lightly. All this about the guitar being smashed being written into the script and that somebody just didn’t tell the actor, this is all new information to us. We didn’t know anything about the script or Kurt Russell not being told that it was a priceless, irreplaceable artifact from the Martin Museum....As a result of the incident, the company will no longer loan guitars to movies under any circumstances.”

Rest of the article:

https://reverb.com/news/cf-martin-responds-to-the-destruction-of-145-year-old-guitar-on-hateful-eight-set

 

And the shot:

 

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On August 30, 2016 at 0:29 PM, pverrando said:

Don't do it. Do Not Do It.  Regardless of intentions,  prop and art departments treat most items carelessly. They are working too fast with too many items to do otherwise. Assume it will not come back in the condition you sent it.  Do not rent anything to a production that you can't afford to lose. 

Actually, I dug out a spare III that I had bought for parts some years ago.  The motor transport works and it plays back, it just doesn't record and I have no time nor inclination to figure out what component has failed in it.  Anyway, the production only need a Nagra III with reels turning, so I'll lend them this one (if they give me enough money to cover its value which is not very high, a few hundred $'s).  Well, we've all heard stories about Nagras falling out of planes and still working, so this could be another good story!  I'll read the contract before I agree to ship it.

So sad to hear that story about the vintage Martin (being a guitar player and owning a few vintage Martins).  I hope Kurt Russell felt pretty sheepish after that incident (although maybe he had no awareness of what he had in his hands).

Thanks folks.

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On August 31, 2016 at 1:29 AM, soundtrane said:

<<As a result of the incident, the company will no longer loan guitars to movies under any circumstances.>>

that's it. so even people who might be UBER careful will not get a chance. a precedent has been set. 

They can get perfectly-nice modern guitars that look just like and sound pretty-much the same as the old ones. My neighbor could build them one for $10,000....

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The production person told me their script has changed and the event to be filmed is in the early 50's, and asked me if I happened to have a Nagra I to loan them!   I told them there were maybe only a handful left in existence, and all those are likely in museums and worth several thousand dollars, and I would not loan one if I had one.  I pointed them to the museum of magnetic sound in Texas and maybe they can loan them a suitable vintage recorder of the early 50s (non-Nagra), whatever that may be...  

Unless someone here has a nice Nagra I that you would want to lend out?  :-)  And by the way, no the director is not Tarantino!!

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