Consumables charge?

[Gazlights]

After going through another 24 rolls of black gaffa tape I got into a conversation with a friend of mine who works at another local venue.....he said that they charge clients a flat fee in order to replenish consumables....

 

Quite a good idea I thought as we are spending quite alot of cash on tape atm......out of interest I'd like to ask a question..

 

Do you charge people who use your venue for consumables?

 

cheers :unsure:

[david.elsbury]

24 rolls on the one show, or over how long?

 

Anc WRT your statement "another 24 rolls..." It's part of the industry really. We use gaffer, that's how it is... :unsure:

[Boat Anchor]

At my venue here in NYC, there is a a 'perishables' fee of $50-

(buried in the small print / operating costs of renting the hall)

$50 doesn't purchase very much, but multiplied by a dozen or so events per month,

helps keep our shelves stocked a bit.

 

The larger productions that come through normally have their own 'perishables budget'-

The technicians traveling with the production will usually contact the venues 'House Heads'

to determine what we might be short on, and are generally happy to arrive with their work boxes

stocked to the gills, and unless they are traveling onto other cities- will 'gift' any remaining goodies

over to the House Heads on the loadout, sort of a 'one had washes the other' goodwill gesture.

[gareth]

The clue's in the name - colour, PVC/gaffer tape, paint for the floor, etc. are consumable items, and should be budgeted for as such as part of the operation of a venue. There are some venues who, as has been mentioned, charge a 'flat rate' for consumables as an extra chargeable item - but not very many. One of the things that used to really[ annoy me when I was touring was going to a venue where every little thing, no matter how insignificant, was brought out and used as though it was some sort of holy artifact, and a big fuss was made about how it would have to be charged for. Then, at the end of the week, the contra would be full of itemised charges for every single roll of tape, piece of colour, box of screws, and so on - petty-mindedness taken to extremes.

[LXbydesign]

Gareth, the most annoying venues for that, as you probably know are conference centers / hotels etc

 

For anyone not in the know , a busy London venue near Earls Court (no names mentioned!!) has a man with a clipboard following you around everywhere - so whenever you need another table or a chair or extra power points or piece of gel or roll of LX etc etc the staff couldnt be more helpfull to get them for you....!

 

All the time though, this man is ticking his boxes and writing it down - so at the end of gig, you are handed what looks like a shopping list for B&Q and the contra bill can be massive.

 

So a tip for anybody production managing events in these type of venues - leave nothing to chance and make sure you have everything ordered and ready for you on arrival - and maybe even just order some extra bits of furniture just in case. It might add a few quid onto the budget to begin with - but it will save you huge £££ if you have to end up requesting stuff on the day of get-in.

 

Of course im not telling anybody how to suck eggs here - but hope it might be of use to newbies and/or student PM's ;)

[Bryson]

For those of you with influence over how the rental fees for your venues are decided upon: make sure you include this stuff in the overall fee - an additional charge, or worse, the type of super-detailed contra that Gareth describes, just makes you look petty!

[Bobbsy]

I've worked with both scenarious (and both as a venue provider and as the renter). I've also worked with a third set of conditions, namely where the venue provides NO consumables and you have to bring in all your own gel, tape, etc. etc.

 

I have to say, I'm with Bryson. Trying to work out if you used 24 or 26 metres of gaffer tape is just silly. Frankly, if it's not included I'd rather have the situation where you bring your own stuff..at least you can negotiate your own rates and not have to worry about that jobsworth with the clipboard.

 

Bob

[The Gaffa]

I agree with Bryson, Fees should include most things within reason.

 

I know of a certain venue in Hounslow that adds on charges for heating to the bill, without warning.

[GridGirl]

I agree with Bryson, Fees should include most things within reason.

 

I know of a certain venue in Hounslow that adds on charges for heating to the bill, without warning.

 

I know of a venue which charges extra to use the air conditioning - but it is compulsory to use it when you have an audience in. Oh, and they read the meter beginning and end of each working day and charge you for the electricity you have used....

[djw1981]

So what does the rental / hire of that venue actually include? Just teh use of the space?

 

I msut admit that on events I;ve been involved in planning we aimed to atke everything ourselves so we knew the costs beforehand and also that we knew we had what we needed on site and were not reliant on venue staff to be available to get stuff for us and upon the venue to have what we needed in stock.

[jamienip]

I know of a certain venue in Hounslow that adds on charges for heating to the bill, without warning.

 

I am led to believe one of the two main theatres in manchester (both run by a large chain) also contra cleaning staff back to the visiting company. How rude!

[mac.calder]

I have seen a lot of contracts where "Cleaning above and beyond the standard level will incur additional fees" - ie if you leave the place a pig stye we will make you regret it. TBH - I think it is a fair call too...

 

As for consumables - the corporate world is shocking. A company I worked for added a 3% surcharge for consumables - worked out fine for the small gigs - $12 for consumables with a laptop, projector, tripod screen, lecturn + PA is not too bad... But the larger gigs - there is no way we would use $1,500 worth of consumables on a large-ish gig. In fact some of our larger gigs were the sort where we would only go through a roll of lecci.

 

And when you were not paying for us and are using a third party supplier, it all depended on how well you/your supplier got on with the tech on duty. If you/they were a pain, rude, arrogant or in any way got on the bad side of the TOD, we would charge through the nose for things like gel and tape etc that you may borrow. Yes, that's $17 for the cut of L195 for your Source 4 Par, because we had to cut into a new gel sheet, yes, that's $12 for a roll of gaffa tape. If you treat the TOD well, things like that don't get noted. It was unofficially a way of ensuring that the TOD's (which clients generally object to paying for) are treated well.

 

Charging for AC and Heating is ridiculous. I mean if they make a special request that the venue be kept at 17 deg C for the entire duration that they have the venue hired, sure, negotiate a cost, but if the cooling/heating was going to happen anyway, then the cost should be built into the price.