Established in 1979, VMI have rapidly become one of London's most established HD Camera rental companies, specialising in documentaries, dramas and international co-productions and over the past 4 years, VMI have also supplied equipment on approaching 50 HD feature films.
HD Today Featured Article
When it came to producing a range of eight different slots for an online Tic-Tac campaign, Shaun Dyos, from top agency WCRS, had no hesitation in hiring a Panasonic HPX-500 from VMI.
“I know P2 cards work well from experience,” he comments. “It’s a nice workflow and a reliable one. File-based working is an initial leap of faith, but once you’ve made it, it’s quite reassuring working with these cameras. They provide good images and you don’t have to pay the Earth to be working on HD on the post side of things.”
The slots called for actors dressed as Tic-Tacs to perform in front of a greenscreen, another reason for choosing the HPX-500 as the wide colour gamut of the camera enables operators to get a good key in post. The camera worked excellently on the shoot, Dyos pronouncing himself very happy with the image quality. “The main problem with the shoot was to stop the actors perspiring to death in those suits,” he says.
"It’s also very handy to be able to load the material onto a laptop from the cards to check if it's going to line up in the edit," he adds.
Also handy is the working relationship with VMI. “They’re really good,” enthuses Dyos. “They’re very proactive in keeping you up to date and are incredibly knowledgeable, which as the technology gets more complex is a very useful thing to be able to fall back on.”
Introduction to VMI Broadcast Rental
VMI HD camera training and RED DIT Training Courses for 1Acs, Camera Operators and DoPs in Soho.
Established in 1979, VMI are one of the success stories of the new generation of Digital facilities companies in the UK specialising in quality HD Camcorder hire for drama, Hi Def Camera hire for feature and Hidef camera hire for documentary productions. We support every HD format for camera rental including HDCAM SR, HDCAM, RED, DVCPRo & Varicam, XDCam HD, XDCAM EX, P2, AVC Intra and SD formats and also supply VTR hire as well.
VMI also rent the range of New Canon DSLR cameras
RED Camera hire
VMI’s RED Camera Hire and RED Camera Rental kits are built to outstanding specification with a good choice of film lenses. The latest formats including P2 AVC Intra and XDCAM Hire now also includes HPX 3700 Hire, HPX 3000 Hire, HPX-2700 Hire, HPX-500 Hire, HPX 301 Hire, HPX-201 Hire, HPX-171 Hire, PDW 700 Hire, EX3 Hire and EX1 Hire as well. The Sony PDW 800 Hire will be available later this year.
VMI specialise in supplying quality HD Camera hire and broadcast hire plus grip equipment for drama, feature and documentary productions. We support every HD format for camera rental including HDCAM SR, HDCAM, Varicam, XDCam HD, P2 and SD formats and also supply VTR hire as well.
VMI operate out of 3 London offices: the North London office is the main equipment prep area which includes camera test rooms; HD post production is located at West Digital in Shepherds Bush and the Soho office includes a 16 seat HD screening room and client hospitality area.
VMI also has a specialist HD film unit specifically set to provide support for feature films. This department includes assessing film finance subsidies to part defer charges for camera hire, post production and screening facilities. Over the last 3 years, VMI have been involved in the production of approaching 50 feature films supplying HD hire on these projects and has taken investments in many of them.
VMI have been recognised for excellence winning many awards including Hire Company of the year, Broadcast Camera Hire Company of the year and also the Natwest Business award for good business practise; VMI is a recognised Investors in People company in for its training and staff development.
To ensure that clients are equipped to cope with the rapid advance of technological progress, VMI also run seminars and camera courses on High Definition production - Over 100 DoPs have attended VMI courses to shoot on HD, all of which are now shooting HD features, dramas and documentaries.
With such vast HD experience, VMI has made the conversion to HD both painless and enjoyable. We encourage face to face meetings with clients to discuss the choice of HD equipment and project-manage the programme migration, oversee post-production route and advise on such technical issues such as format, frame rate and delivery.
Our staff are well trained in HD and this ensures that we can advise clients well. VMI offer free camera testing facilities for the crew and viewing facilities for the production company and every HD production receives a free screening in our HD screening room- all of which explains why VMI is number 1 for HD Camcorder hire.
