Production transportation and logistics.
Production transportation covers everything a shoot needs moved: camera and grip packages out of the rental house, props and furniture from vendors and prop houses, set materials, and the whole load again at wrap. Hartman Production Co. runs production vehicles for photo and content shoots throughout Greater Los Angeles, and plans the day around drive times rather than mileage.
Start a projectWhat it covers
What we move on a photo shoot
Camera, lighting and grip packages out of the rental houses. Props, furniture, surfaces and set materials from vendors and prop houses across the city. Expendables, backdrops, hardware and whatever had to be bought that morning. Then the whole load again at wrap, back to the right vendor inside the right window. On a shoot with a build or a dressed set, the volume going out is frequently larger than the volume that came in, because flats, packing and waste have to leave too. We plan for the return leg at the same time as the outbound one, which is the part that most often gets left until it is a problem.
How we size the vehicle to the job
The obvious question is whether everything fits. The question that costs more time is what happens at the other end. A vehicle that swallows the package in one trip is no use if it cannot make the driveway, clear the height bar on a parking structure, or legally stop outside the location. Height bars are the recurring trap in Los Angeles: a great many parking structures, hotel entrances and residential garages sit between six and seven feet, which rules out most box trucks. So the vehicle is chosen against the load-in path and the street, not only against the volume of gear. For most photo and content shoots that means a cargo van or a small box truck plus carts, rather than the full studio transportation package a two-day editorial shoot has no work for.
Rental-house pickups, deliveries and returns
Most camera, lighting and grip houses in Los Angeles sit in a corridor running through Hollywood, Burbank and Sun Valley; prop and furniture houses are scattered, with a concentration on the east side and in the Valley. We handle pickups and returns from all of them, plus vendor collections, deliveries to set and mid-day location moves. Cases get opened and counted at the counter, because a missing plate, a dead battery or the wrong bulb costs nothing there and costs a round trip against traffic anywhere else. Returns are tracked against their windows from the moment the gear is collected, since gear from three vendors has to go back to three vendors and a truck packed for the outbound trip is rarely packed for the inbound one.
Load-ins, load-outs and long carries
A great deal of production transportation is not driving. It is the hundred feet between where the vehicle can stop and where the gear has to be — the stairs, the gate, the freight elevator that is shared with a construction crew, the hill down to a house that sits below the road. That work goes faster with carts, protection, a staging point that is out of frame and out of the walking path, and a load order that puts the first thing needed at the front. We plan the load-out during the load-in rather than at the end of a long day, and we start it early enough to clear a dock window or a building curfew.
Where a production vehicle can legally park in LA
Where a vehicle sits for ten hours is a question with a real answer, and it is worth having before the day. On permitted shoots, street space is usually held through the permit and posted in advance, with a lead time measured in days. Without a permit the vehicle is subject to the same posted restrictions as everyone else: street sweeping, permit-only residential blocks, metered limits, and rush-hour no-stopping lanes that turn a legal space into a tow at four in the afternoon. We read the whole sign for the hours the shoot actually runs rather than the hour we arrive. A vehicle towed mid-shoot is not a parking problem, it is the end of the day.
Production experience includes
Common questions
Do you provide production vehicles and equipment transportation?
Yes. We run production vehicles sized for photo and content shoots: enough capacity for grip, lighting, props, furniture and set materials, without the overhead of a full studio transportation package. We handle rental-house pickups and returns, prop and furniture transport, deliveries, load-ins, load-outs and location moves across Greater Los Angeles.
Can you transport photo equipment and props?
Yes. Equipment transportation, prop and furniture transport, rental-house pickups and returns, vendor collections, deliveries, load-ins, load-outs and location moves throughout Greater Los Angeles.
How far in advance should we book?
A week or more is comfortable for a standard shoot day, because it leaves time to confirm access, sequence pickups and source anything that has to be found rather than rented. We do take shorter notice, and last-minute days are common in this business — the earlier the call, the more of the day we can plan rather than react to.
Related reading
Also from us
Pre-production, crew support, shoot-day coordination, sourcing, pickups, setup, breakdown, and the hundred other things that need to happen before everyone goes home.
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]