Production support in Los Angeles.
Production support is the practical work that gets a shoot from a call sheet to a wrap: booking and sequencing the day, collecting gear and props, prepping the location, keeping the schedule honest, and solving the problems that arrive after call time. Hartman Production Co. provides that support for commercial, editorial and branded photo shoots across Greater Los Angeles.
Start a projectWhat it covers
What production support covers on a shoot
Production support is the practical layer of a shoot: the collecting, moving, prepping, staging and problem-solving that has to happen for the camera to work. On a typical booking that means pre-production planning against real drive times, gear and prop collection from rental and prop houses, location prep and protection, staging and set dressing before call time, coordination through the shoot day, and strike and returns at wrap. The scope is agreed before the day and written down, because the most expensive thing on a shoot is a job everyone assumed somebody else was doing. Some clients book the whole span from prep through wrap; others bring us in for one piece, usually the one that would otherwise land on a photo assistant at six in the morning.
What happens before the shoot day
Most of the risk in a shoot is absorbed before anyone arrives. We sequence the day against Los Angeles traffic rather than against a map, which usually means collecting from the Burbank and Hollywood rental houses the day before instead of building a shoot morning around three pickups. We confirm the things that stop a morning: where the vehicle parks and for how long, how far the carry is, whether a freight elevator needs booking, who holds the keys and the gate code, and what the neighbours have been told. Anything the shoot needs that has to be found rather than rented gets sourced early, while the vendors that stock it are still open. By the night before, the vehicle is loaded in the order the day will call for things.
What happens on the shoot day
Someone opens the location before everyone else arrives: gates, alarms, power, water, bathrooms, and the vehicle positioned where it can legally stay all day rather than where it was convenient to stop. Floor and corner protection goes down before the first case is carried past. Gear is staged out of frame and out of the walking path, so every later setup is fast. The first setup is dressed, cleaned and lit before call time, and the schedule gets watched against the shot list from there. Then the day changes, because it always does — a prop arrives broken, a location is added, a twenty-minute setup takes ninety — and the job becomes absorbing that without stopping the shoot.
What happens at wrap
Strike runs on a plan made during the load-in rather than invented at nine at night, which in practice means the load order was decided while everyone was still fresh and the return path was cleared while the light was good. The location is left as it was found, and photographed if it matters. Cases go back to the right vendor inside the right return window, which is its own piece of work when the gear came from three of them. Anything damaged or missing gets reported the same night, not discovered at the counter a week later. A clean wrap is mostly a matter of having decided things earlier.
Who books production support
Photographers who produce their own work and need the day handled so they can shoot it. Producers who have the job under control and need capability rather than another management layer. Agencies and brands running small and mid-size commercial, editorial, e-commerce, interiors, product and branded-content shoots. Production companies who want transportation, sourcing and additional on-set crew inside a defined scope on a larger job. And visiting productions who need a team already in Los Angeles rather than a second production flown in. If the job actually wants a full-service production company, a permit service or a production designer, we will say so — a shoot that hired the wrong shape of help is bad for everyone on it.
Production experience includes
Common questions
Can you provide production support for a photo shoot in Los Angeles?
Yes. Hartman Production Co. provides production support for commercial, editorial and branded photo shoots throughout Greater Los Angeles, including transportation, logistics, prop and material sourcing, location prep, setup and strike, production design support, and experienced crew on set.
What is the difference between production support and a full-service production company?
A full-service production company takes the whole job: budget, bidding, casting, permits, crew, insurance and delivery. Production support covers a defined part of it — usually logistics, transportation, sourcing, prep and on-set crew. Hartman Production Co. is a production support company. On small and mid-size shoots we can carry most of the production; on larger ones we work alongside the lead production team inside our own scope.
What does production support cost?
It depends on the crew, the vehicle and the number of days, so we quote against the actual job rather than publishing a rate card. Send the shoot dates, the locations and what you need moved or handled, and we will come back with a number and what is in it.
Related reading
Also from us
Production vehicles, equipment transportation, pickups and deliveries, location moves, load-ins, load-outs, and logistics throughout Los Angeles.
Experienced hands on set to keep equipment, locations, vendors, schedules, and production needs moving.
Sourcing, props, furniture, materials, transportation, installation, setup, and strike for production-design needs.
Coming to Los Angeles to shoot? We can be your team on the ground for transportation, sourcing, logistics, prep, and shoot-day support.
Let’s make the shoot happen.
Send the basics — what you’re shooting, when, where, and what you need from us. We answer every enquiry, including the ones we’re not right for.
Hartman Production Co. — Los Angeles, CA (323) 420-5227 [email protected]