The video production industry is full of talented creatives, but it is not the most consistent industry, and companies experience periods of downtime. Ben Mills, the founder of Hellfire, experienced this and decided to help young creatives by renting out the company’s equipment while not in use. He chose Booqable as the platform to showcase their inventory and accept online bookings.
Hellfire
London-based Hellfire was founded in 2019 by Ben Mills with one mission: to create original, well-produced content they are proud of. During the last five years, they have worked with everyone from major brands to musicians on everything from advertising to music videos. They have established themselves as one of the leading production companies throughout this time.
Of course, after years of producing content, they have amassed quite a collection of equipment. They found themselves in periods where some pieces were not in use and decided to help young creatives in the community by renting them out at affordable prices. In this sense, they are filmmakers assisting filmmakers rather than a rental company.
Hellfire offers everything an independent filmmaker needs to produce their own content. They have a range of professional cameras, lenses, lighting, grips, accessories, and sound equipment. In addition, they can hire team members for the day to assist customers with their productions. This includes a camera assistant, a director of photography, and more.
Showcasing and tracking equipment
When Hellfire started offering equipment to filmmakers, it spent a lot of time on administration. It had to organize pickups and dropoffs and was often left guessing who had what equipment. This was not ideal, especially if its production work coincided with a customer’s. So, Ben started looking for a solution that would make inventory management more straightforward and help market its rental services.
During his search, he tried many solutions, but they were either too expensive or cumbersome. He wanted a solution that solved the challenges of running a rental operation in a simple and easy-to-use package. This led him to Booqable, and he quickly saw the benefits of having their inventory and website in one system.
All their equipment is now tracked and organized in the inventory management system. They know exactly where each piece is and who has it. This has made it much easier to get an overview of availability and block out dates when they need the equipment. In addition, they could easily create a rental website to showcase their inventory that matched their branding perfectly.
A simple process
Since implementing Booqable as their rental management system, Hellfire has received feedback from customers about how simple the booking process is. They have enabled several young filmmakers to achieve their dreams while keeping their budget affordable. As for themselves, Hellfire hopes to continue producing high-quality content for major companies and work on more feature films in the coming years.
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