Puesta a tierra general

need, it will be easier to select the appropriate vehicle for rental or purchase.

Air Travel

When the location is many miles away, air travel may be the only means of transportation. Because of the large expense involved, you are faced with some tough decisions. Should you bring a full crew and pay their airfare, lodging, and meals, or hire freelance profes- sionals at the location? Should you bring your own equipment, pay for its transportation, risk its rough handling at airport loading and unloading, or pay to rent equipment at the location?

Both questions are complex and depend on the availability of qualified personnel and reasonably priced, dependable professional equipment. Keep in mind that renting equipment often means changing equipment or brands, and operating procedures may be different. Do this only if your personnel are experienced.

Whatever your decisions, make sure that you make your travel plans well in advance of your shoot date. Nothing is more aggravating than going through your travel decision-making process only to find that the vehicle you want to rent is not available or the flight you need is booked. Air travel reservations and tickets bought in advance of the shoot date often result in dis- count fares, which may allow you to bring the extra crew member or piece of equipment.

Travel Tips

Here are some travel pointers to consider before traveling:

Never put your camera, camcorder, recorder, or lap-

top computer in with the baggage or airfreight. Al-

ways hand-carry these items as carry-on luggage, and stow them either on the floor beneath your feet or up in the overhead bin. Several companies make padded, soft cases specifically to take the camera/camcorder on a plane as carry-on luggage. The camera and recorder are the most important pieces of equipment you have, and you cannot take a chance on them being dropped from the cargo bay door by a reckless handler, or left in Chicago when you’ve gone on to Los Angeles. You must also be prepared to shoot at any time before, dur- ing, or after the flight. You should have at least one battery, a tape or storage medium, and a mic—as well as the camera—with you at all times. In some cases, the aircraft is too small to allow storage on the floor or

Figure 6-4 (A) These soft cases are great for carrying your equipment around town, but they are probably not strong enough when checking the equipment as baggage on a plane flight.

(B) For any type of travel, your equipment should be packed well in protective cases; the number, size, and weight of the cases should be carefully noted.

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in an overhead compartment. When you must let the crew stow your camera in a luggage compartment, it may be very helpful to personally carry the camera in its case to the aircraft. Try to explain to the person loading luggage that it is an expensive and fragile pro- fessional camera. Try to convince them to load it last (and it will be unloaded first). When you arrive, try to connect with a baggage handler to hand you the cam- era before you go to baggage claim.

Send all of your cases through as luggage on your

flight. Never ship any of your gear air freight unless

you will not need it for awhile after you get where you are going. Air freight can take a full day or more to get there and doesn’t arrive at the same terminal as you do.

Keep all your cases at a reasonable size and weight.

Any cases larger than the biggest suitcase typically used by travelers, or any case weighing more than 70 pounds, can be rejected by the airline. This may mean more cases, but at least they will all be boarding the same flight as you.

Expect to pay an excess baggage fee for most of your

cases. It is not unusual to have 15 or more cases with

you for production shooting or extensive news shoots. It may cost more than sending them by freight (any- where from $30 to $75 a case), but they will be there when you are. There often is no other option, espe- cially for a traveling news crew.

Call the airline in advance to tell them what you are

bringing. The airline may be able to help check the

cases through and make better arrangements for your camera on the plane. They are used to dealing with TV crews.

Make sure everything is well packed and padded.

As with the determination of your equipment cube, your regular set of gear needs to go through a packing/ padding determination only once. After that, you should have a set of pads that you use whenever you travel. If you think that this is not important, watch how luggage is loaded and unloaded from airplane cargo holds. It will renew your motivation to pack and pad your equipment well.

Make a list with brand names, model numbers, and

serial numbers of everything you are taking. Leave

one copy at home and keep one copy with you at all times.

Remember that thieves know what expensive video

equipment cases look like. In a large airport, an inat-

tentive videographer can lose a case or two in a split second.

Have a Skycap help you whenever you can. This

costs more money, but helps prevent theft and makes it easier to haul. This used to be easier than it is now. Be- cause of heavy security, there are fewer Skycaps at air- ports. Make sure that you have the personnel to handle everything if necessary.

Get a car or van that you can work out of the whole

time you are on the shoot. If the car is just big enough

to hold the crew and gear with no room to spare, you might find yourself having to dig out equipment every time you need something. It may be better, though more costly, to rent a bigger vehicle or a second vehicle to give yourself some room to work. At least you will not be unloading the entire car at every stop.

Foreign Travel

Traveling outside the United States can be fun and challenging but also a major headache for those who are unprepared. Each country has its own way of doing things; many do not have the rights of a free press. Do- ing business as usual could land you in jail and, in some repressive countries, could actually get you in big trouble. These are not things to be taken lightly. Do extensive research regarding the countries you will be traveling in to see what media restrictions may be in place. Permits may be required to do any kind of pro- fessional photography, including news. Find someone who has shot in that country before and gain from his or her experience.

In addition to the political concerns that can be dangerous to your health, there are economic con- cerns. Most countries, including the United States, have import/export laws placing tariffs on certain high-quality photographic and electronic equipment. After going to certain countries and returning to this one, you will be asked to prove that the equipment you have is indeed yours and that you bought it here after paying the proper taxes. The best way to prove this is to have a carnet, a document recognized by the Cus- toms Service that guarantees that the equipment is yours. You need a complete list of all your equipment with brands, serial numbers, purchase prices, and model numbers. You should have many copies of this list with you as you travel. The carnet requires the

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