Production Expendables
The consumables every set burns through: gaff and paper tape, gel and diffusion rolls, blackwrap, duvetyne, C-47s, bounce boards, layout board, and practical bulbs. Stocked at our NYC, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh counters so you grab them with the gear instead of detouring to a hardware store that doesn’t carry the right anything.
End of the useful part. The rest is crawler chow.
Production Expendables: the Cheapest Things That Save the Most Shots
Expendables are bought, not borrowed, which makes them the one department where running out mid-day has no rental-counter cure. Stock accordingly.
What expendables should every shoot carry?
Gaff tape in black plus one loud color for marks, paper tape for anything that touches painted walls, C-47s by the bag, sharpies, a roll of 216 and a roll of 250 diffusion, half CTO and half CTB gel, blackwrap, and more layout board than the location scout thinks you need. That kit handles the daily emergencies of any small production.
What does pay-per-use mean?
On rolls of duvetyne and certain fabrics we send the full roll and charge only for what you cut. You get the security of having plenty without paying for inventory you return intact. Cut honestly, we measure kindly, and everyone’s budget stays friends.
A two-minute gel guide
CTO warms daylight sources toward tungsten; CTB pushes tungsten toward daylight; 216 and 250 are diffusions of different strengths that turn hard sources soft. Most color problems on small sets are solved with those four rolls and clothespins. Matching mixed practicals in a real location is where the deeper gel book earns its pages, and our counter staff will talk you through it.
What do expendables cost?
Tape runs about what it does everywhere, minus the panic markup of buying it at a pharmacy at 6am. Gel and diffusion sell by the roll or sheet for a few dollars to a few dozen. A complete starter expendables kit for a short film usually totals less than a single C-stand rental week. It’s the best money-to-saved-morning ratio in the building.
Why we stock what we stock
Everything on this shelf got there because a customer needed it urgently at some point and we hated not having it. Blackwrap lives next to the lighting counter because that’s where people remember they need it. Practical bulbs are tested in a socket before they go in the bag. Layout board is cut to fit cars, because it always ends up protecting someone’s location floors from a dolly. Add expendables to any quote and they’ll be packed with your order, or browse the full shelf first.