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Arri Alexa rental?


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Hi there,

 

I'm shooing a short film and I would really like to shoot on the Arri Alexa, but I dont have the budget to rent one for 1500/day + lens prices! Does anyone know of a place where I could rent an Arri Alexa for like $1000/day max? I live around LA, so anywhere in SoCal is fine!

 

Thanks,

Austin Millinder

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You could always try to buddy up with a rental house and see if they'd cut you a student rate. I would imagine it would be pretty unlikely, given the demand of the camera and their potential reluctance to rent it to a student. But, you'd be surprised what stopping by in person and being sincere can do...

 

Just from a quick Google, these guys list additional student, indie, and weekend rates that could potentially lower your rate than what you'd expect.

 

http://www.t-stopinc.com/ARRI-ALEXA/rentals.html

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You know another system to look into which Arri really gave me a great quote on was the D-21. I am sure a lot of them are just sitting 'round right now with teh great demand for the Alexa; but if you talk to CSC you may be able to get it at a steal.

It's not as good as the Alexa, and the ISO is around 200 and it's quirky, but I was very pleased with the images coming out of it even though we were only dumping to ProRes422 (in log c- however). You can even go ArriRaw if you so wish with an S.two or a Gemini.

I paired it with the old Zeiss Standard Speeds and was happy as a clam.

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You know another system to look into which Arri really gave me a great quote on was the D-21. I am sure a lot of them are just sitting 'round right now with teh great demand for the Alexa; but if you talk to CSC you may be able to get it at a steal.

It's not as good as the Alexa, and the ISO is around 200 and it's quirky, but I was very pleased with the images coming out of it even though we were only dumping to ProRes422 (in log c- however). You can even go ArriRaw if you so wish with an S.two or a Gemini.

I paired it with the old Zeiss Standard Speeds and was happy as a clam.

 

I like the D21. I follow a tv series that was shot on the D21 and the first series looked Magnifico!

I assume the new series is shot on the Alexa (not sure) and there's been episodes that definitely looked nowhere near as good as series 1.

 

I've not seen that much shot on the D21 but what I have seen all looked great!

 

love

 

Freya

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I was really happy how it resolved this shot. I just grabbed it right quick over lunch (foot-held... e.g. using my foot as a prop up as I sat indian style with that behemoth!) just on, I think, 50mm Zeiss Standard Speed, right 'round F22, I think, and man, it pulled in a lot of information.

I also found, even on our interior shots; that it was slightly "creamier," and perhaps a bit "softer," than an Alexa would've been. But we were doing a lot of soft lighting/window lighting; so I think an alexa could've handled it as well.

Still; when I saw they were selling off some D21, had I had the money sitting 'round under my mattress, I certainly would've picked one up!

 

Also that was just to ProRes. The Raw i've seen out of it is even more fun!

post-12485-0-64496800-1353527195_thumb.jpg

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I'm glad you had a good time with the D-21 Adrian, I've been championing that baby for ages!

 

Also like your "foot-held" technique, people often underestimate the sensitivity of their lower prehensibilities. Should be more foot-held going on.

 

On a technical note, the Alexa Studio is really only a stop faster than the D-21, since its mechanical shutter halves the native 800 ISO down to 400.. not that Arri like to admit it.

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I like the D21. I follow a tv series that was shot on the D21 and the first series looked Magnifico!

I assume the new series is shot on the Alexa (not sure) and there's been episodes that definitely looked nowhere near as good as series 1.

 

I've not seen that much shot on the D21 but what I have seen all looked great!

 

love

 

Freya

 

Are you talking about Downton Abbey, Freya?

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Dom;

Did not know that about the Alexa Studio! I wonder, in all honesty how much of a difference it would make given the noise characteristics of the Alexa. My biggest qualm with the D-21 and what took me a bit to get used to was the shutter-- how, for example, I don't get a video feed to the monitor without it spinning (which makes total sense) but did present a bit of a mind **** while I was trying to figure out why changing the aperture on the lens wasn't changing the scopes... d'oh.

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How is it halving the sensitivity? It would if everyone shooting with an Alexa was shooting with no shutter, and then were forced to go to 180 to use the optical finder, but I'm almost always at a standard 180 shutter when using the Alexa. The exposure time is the same, so what are you saying is halving the sensitivity?

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Are you talking about Downton Abbey, Freya?

 

Ooops! Only just seen this!

I'm afraid I've never seen Downton beyond some short semi graded clips of series 2.

 

erm I was actually coyly referring to Leonardo, which is a children's programme although I have to say that I personally think it is no worse than Merlin which is supposedly a "family" show. Some of these distinctions are arbitrary. I like Leonardo as it is a true 21st Century programme for the most part and I like the way it mixes humor without getting too silly and plays hard and fast with historical accuracy. Theres a few people who don't get it and are like "but the bicycle was only invented in 1872!", er yeah and I reckon converse trainers are probably a bit more recent too. It does require you bring a little imagination and suspension of disbelief with you to the table.

 

It obviously also doesn't hurt that the cinematography and set design are usually very nice too.

 

Sadly Kindle entertainment are fantastically bad at marketing. :( So far they have been getting by through being pally with the right people (always helpful in the UK, although that seems to shift on a weekly basis) and winning lots of awards. Kind of heartbreaking as theres few companies that can do the quality tv thing. Anyway as a result theres not much out there I can show you. All I could find from season one is a rather poor trailer:

 

 

and heres a clip from season 2:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/clips/p010vcbv

 

Gives you a vague idea anyway. Looked like a D21 in series 1 but I have no idea what the new series was shot on. Just guessing they may have gone alexa, but I get the impression they also had a budget cut for the new series. Whatever it doesn't look quite as nice to my eyes as series 1 but it's a close thing.

 

Think it looks very impressive for a digitally shot tv series made for a childrens channel, budgets can't be huge.

 

love

 

Freya

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  • 2 months later...

If you're still looking, we just dropped our price on our Alexa EV package $1,099/day at HD Planet Cameras. Available in LA, Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, and Atlanta.

 

Check us out at www.5kcamerarentals.com or shoot us an email at info@hdplanetcameras.com

 

We also have some great deals on Alexa studio and Alexa Plus 4:3, EPIC, f65 and F3

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