T he next time you settle down in your local fleapit
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with a bucket of popcorn to soak up the latest Hollywood blockbuster, spare a thought for the unsung heroes of the film industry. If it weren't for the efforts of carpenters, electricians, and ioi other tradespeople beavering away behind the scenes, there'd be no sets and no lighting. If it weren't for the riggers there'd be no towers to hang lighting on, and if it weren't for C&D Rigging Equipment there'd be no scaffolding for the riggers to erect.
With a depot inside Elstee Film Studios at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire and another at Uxbridge, Greater London--not far from Pinewood Studios--C&D hires out rigging tackle to many leading production companies. It delivers wherever the film or TV programme is being made. That could be a studio, or in the middle of the countryside far from civilisation.
The business was started in 1990 by Chris Sayers, who is managing director and a partner, and has since retired.
Sayers worked as a carpenter in the film industry, then as a film industry construction manager, before C&D was established. His father worked in the film business too.
The full Mounty
The firm started out building sets, then switched tack and moved into the hire sector in 1992. It is now the biggest operation of its type in the UK. "We send tackle all over the world, as well as all over Britain," Sayers says. "That includes everywhere from Ecuador to Russia."
It's not just scaffolding that has to be transported. "We do staging, beams to which lighting can be attached, and even the wires you need if you want to send somebody flying across a stage," he explains.
C&D and its eight employees have been involved in films such as Event Horizon and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, TV series such as Poirot and Had Girls, and even Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
"We did some work at the Millennium Dome last year, too," he says. Gear that has to be despatched overseas is delivered by a variety of methods, which can sometimes include air freight. If it's going to destinations in the UK, however, C&D uses its own trucks.
They're also deployed on trips to the Isle of Man, which is becoming an increasingly important centre of film production.
fts latest acquisition is an unusual Iveco Ford EuroStar rigid. A flat-bed-bodied sixwheeler with a twin-bunk sleeper cab, and grossing 26 tonnes, it's a Chassis Developments conversion based on a stretched 24oE38PS tractive unit with 375bhp on tap.
The firm runs a couple of 7.5-tonners, and relied on third party transport to carry out the bulk of its deliveries until it bought the EuroStar. Buying in transport had been costing £20,000 to 130,000 a year, which made the acquisition easy to justify.
Fitted with a EuroTronic semi-automatic gearbox, the Iveco has a rear-steer axle and carries a Moffett Mounty fork-lift which will cope with loads of up to two tonnes.
Why Iveco? Because Sayers and his son, also called Chris, who drives the EuroStar, had both been impressed with the back-up provided by the supplying dealer, Dagenham Motors of Hayes, Middlesex. One of the 7.5tonners is an Iveco Ford Cargo.
"They're always happy to help you," says Sayers Jnr. "They put themselves out," confirms his father.
The truck will carry 16-18 tonnes with the Mounty detached, arid has a 28ft body fitted by Rohill Bodies of Andover, Hants. Sayers Jnr was already qualified to drive a fork-lift before the Mounty came along, and took only a week to get used to it.
"You can demount it within a minute if you're in a hurry. It's quicker than a Hiab when it comes to loading and unloading, and you can take it over rough ground," he says. It speeds up collection and delivery because he doesn't have to hang around for hours waiting for a fork-lift driver to trundle along and do the job for him. That means C&D can provide its clients with a faster and more efficient service.
The rear steer axle makes the EuroStar highly rnanoeuvreablejust as well, since C&D frequently has to go to sites where access is problematic. "It means we can get into places that are inaccessible to rigids only slightly smaller than ours," he says.
It's a steal
Awkward access means the rear-view camera the firm has had fitted by Maple can be invaluable. It engages automatically when reverse gear is selected.
Sayers Jrir is impressed by the vehicle's performance, and finds the EuroTronic box "easy to get used to" and a real boon in London's congested streets.
Acquired on HP, the EuroStar will cover about 65,0 ookm a year. "We had teething problems with it in the first week, but apart from that it's been great," he grins. Dagenham Motors takes care of all its servicing.
C&D is in a cyclical trade. There's little activity between December and the end of February, but then things really take off.
"We can have 40 jobs going at once," says the younger Sayers.
Once delivered, rigging equipment can remain in place for several months before it is dismantled. For a TV commercial, however, it may be there for only a day.
No matter what the duration of the job, the tackle has to be delivered on time. Production companies will brook no excuses, and that means early starts to avoid traffic jams.
"You cannot be late," says Sayers. "Time really is money in the film business."
If the Sayers have any complaints, it's about the amount of equipment that mysteriously vanishes. All the film scaffolding companies paint tackle in their own colours—C&D is blue—to make it easy to identify, and C&D stamps its name on some of its gear; yet it still goes walkabout.
"Stealing is rife," says Sayers Snr. "It's a problem that's arisen over the past five years, and it certainly never used to be like this."
He's unlikely to forget the f56,000-worth of kit that went missing in Morocco. "But the production company is responsible for anything that is lost the minute the truck leaves our yard, so it has to pay for it, which may involve claiming on its own insurance," he says.
Fistful of dollars
If a job has been lucrative and only a small amount of kit has disappeared, then for the sake of maintaining good relations C&D probably won't invoice the production outfit concerned. "But we will certainly make them aware that items have been lost," says Sayers Snr.
His own insurance is steep, simply because he's involved in the film business, and insurers load the premium accordingly. "The reason is that if something falls off one of our lorries and injures an actor, the production company may sue for any days lost shooting while he or she recovers," he explains. "The bill could come to ko,000 a day."
So when the kids start screaming at you next summer to take them to see 102 Dalmatians—yes, it's the sequel to tot—then at least you can console yourself with the thought that it's employed at least one transport operator.
"And with all the American money coming into the UK to make films, we reckon we're going to get busier and busier," says Sayers.