Film & TV Hire Glossary: Every Term Explained

Ask ten different production coordinators what a "prep sheet" is and you'll get ten confident, slightly different answers.

Hire has its own vocabulary, built up over decades of bookings, customs paperwork and contracts, and most of it is never actually explained anywhere.

You're expected just to know it. This glossary is here so you don't have to guess.

Whether you're booking equipment for the first time, or you've been in the industry for years and just want a quick reference, everything below is grouped by category so you can jump straight to what you need.

Bookmark it and come back whenever a term trips you up.

Pricing & Booking Terms

Day Rate

A day rate is the price charged for one day's hire of an item, a studio, or a freelancer's time.

It's the standard unit of pricing across the film and TV industry, whether you're pricing up a camera, a lighting kit, or a gaffer's time on set.

Charge Days

Charge days are the days you're actually billed for, rather than the full period the equipment may be in your possession.

A collection the evening before a shoot and a return the following morning don't automatically add extra charge days on top, since suppliers typically build a reasonable pickup and drop-off window around the days you're actually using the kit.

It's worth clarifying with a supplier exactly which days count as charge days before comparing quotes, since this is where two similar-looking prices can quietly differ.

X-Day Week

The X-day week rule is a widely used industry convention where hiring equipment for 7 consecutive days costs the same as hiring it for 1-6 days.

It rewards longer bookings without needing a separate discount code or negotiation.

It's worth asking which convention a supplier follows, since terms vary from house to house, but where it applies, it can make a real difference to a multi-day shoot's budget.

Minimum Spend

A minimum spend is the lowest amount a supplier will invoice for, regardless of how small or short the actual hire is.

It exists because processing, prepping and returning kit or crew carries a fixed administrative cost no matter the job size, so a minimum spend protects that baseline.

It's common across equipment, studio and crew hire alike.

Cross-Hire

Cross-hire is when a supplier sources an item it doesn't stock itself from another company to fulfil your order.

It's a normal part of how the hire industry works: cross-hire is described in rental management software documentation as a fundamental part of the business, since no single supplier stocks everything.

From a client's side, a good cross-hire arrangement should be invisible: one point of contact, one invoice, even if the item itself came from somewhere else.

Quote

A quote is a non-binding estimate of cost, given before a booking is confirmed.

It tells you roughly what a job will cost based on the information you've provided, but it isn't a commitment to a final price, and it isn't yet a payment request.

Pencil

A pencil is a tentative, non-binding hold placed on equipment to reserve it ahead of a confirmed booking, without committing to pay for it.

It gives customers time to firm up a job before locking in the hire, but a pencil can be bumped if another customer places a firm booking for the same kit and dates, so it's not a guaranteed reservation.

Heavy Pencil

A heavy pencil is a pencil booking where the job is looking very likely to go ahead, even though nothing's confirmed yet.

It's informal shorthand rather than a different type of booking: people use it to signal a higher level of confidence than a standard pencil, so a supplier knows roughly how firm the hold is when they're juggling the diary.

Confirm

To confirm a booking means turning a pencil into a firm commitment: the job is going ahead, and the kit, studio or crew is locked in rather than just held.

Once a booking's confirmed, it's no longer at risk of being bumped by someone else's firm booking, and it usually triggers the next step in the paperwork, such as a proforma invoice.

Stand Down

Stand down (or "stand it down") means telling a supplier that a pencilled hold is no longer needed, usually because the job has fallen through or gone to another supplier.

It releases the kit back into availability for other bookings, and it's good practice to stand a pencil down as soon as you know it's not going ahead, since someone else may be waiting on the same dates.

Proforma Invoice

A proforma invoice is a request for payment sent before goods or services are delivered, usually to confirm a booking and take payment upfront.

It looks like a normal invoice but isn't a finalised VAT invoice for accounting purposes; it's a step between the quote and the final invoice, used to secure the booking.

Invoice

An invoice is the final, formal bill issued for goods or services, and it's the document that counts for VAT and accounting purposes.

Where a proforma invoice requests payment in advance, the invoice confirms what was actually supplied and is the record both parties keep.

Account

An account is what a customer has with a hire house once the initial setup process is complete, allowing them to hire equipment without repeating identity or company checks each time.

Usually, the initial setup includes sending over personal or company info, ID documents, hired-in insurance policies, and sometimes trade references.

This also varies from company to company.

Once an account is active, bookings are typically faster and more straightforward, since the customer's details are already on file and verified.

PO Number

A PO number (purchase order number) is a reference code a customer's own company issues to authorise and track a specific booking internally, usually required before an invoice can be raised or paid.

It's most common with larger productions and companies that run their own procurement process, and quoting the right PO number on an invoice is often what gets it paid on time, since it lets the client's finance team match the invoice to an approved spend.

Dry Hire

Dry hire means booking without the extras bundled in, and what exactly that means depends on what you're hiring.

For equipment, it means the kit on its own with no operator included, so you supply the person running it.

For a studio, it means the space on its own with no equipment included, so you bring or separately hire whatever kit the shoot needs.

Wet Hire

Wet hire is the opposite of dry hire: the extras are bundled in as part of the same booking.

For equipment, that means the item comes with an operator, useful for specialist gear like a jib, drone or PTZ rig where an experienced operator is genuinely part of the value.

For a studio, it means the space comes with equipment included, so you're not sourcing kit separately on top of the room.

Logistics & Timing Terms

Turnaround Time

Turnaround time is how quickly a supplier can get equipment, studio space or crew ready and out the door for a booking.

It depends heavily on availability and, for equipment specifically, on how much prep an item needs before it can go out again.

Prep (Kit Prep)

Prep is the process of checking, testing, charging and packaging equipment before it goes out on hire.

The UK's own camera prep technician occupational standard describes this as building shooting packages to a production's spec and carrying out first-line maintenance and fault diagnosis, which is exactly the work happening behind the scenes before your kit ever reaches you.

It's also why turnaround isn't instant: batteries need charging, lenses need checking, and cameras need testing before they're fit to go on a shoot.

Prep Sheet

A prep sheet is the internal document a kit room uses to track exactly what's being prepared for a specific job: which items, which accessories, and what checks have been done.

It's mostly for the supplier's own use, but it's worth asking to see one if you want confidence that everything on your kit list has actually been checked before collection.

Delivery Note

A delivery note is the paperwork that accompanies a hire on collection or delivery, itemising exactly what's included.

It's your reference point if anything's missing or if there's a dispute later about what was actually supplied, so it's worth checking it against your kit list before you sign for anything.

Insurance & Legal Terms

Hired-In Insurance

Hired-in insurance is a policy the hirer takes out to cover damage, loss or theft of equipment while it's in their care.

Most suppliers require proof of this before releasing kit, since their own business insurance covers their operations, not damage a customer might cause on set.

It's one of the first things to sort out once you know what you're hiring, not something to leave until the day of the shoot.

Carnet

A Carnet is an international customs document that lets equipment be temporarily exported, moved through transit, or brought into another country without paying import duty or VAT at the border.

The London Chamber of Commerce is the UK's national guaranteeing body for carnets and specifically names film and TV production companies among its typical users, since international shoots regularly need to move camera and lighting kit across borders without a full customs declaration each time.

Hire Terms

Hire terms are the contractual rules governing a hire agreement: liability for damage, what happens if kit is returned late, cancellation policy, and payment terms among them.

Every reputable supplier will have a published set, and it's worth reading before your first booking rather than after something's gone wrong.

Sugarland's own hire terms are a good example of what this typically covers.

Equipment-Specific Hire Terms

Kit List

A kit list is a comprehensive inventory of every item a hire house owns, along with its hire pricing.

It gives customers and productions a clear view of what's available and at what cost, helping them plan and budget before reaching out to put an order together.

Package Deal

A package deal is a pre-bundled set of equipment, often built around a specific camera or shoot type, priced as a single line rather than item by item.

It can work out cheaper than hiring everything separately, but it's worth checking exactly what's included, since package deals vary in how comprehensive they are.

Conclusion

Hire has always had its own shorthand, and most of it gets passed down informally rather than written anywhere useful.

Hopefully this page closes that gap a little.

If a term you've come across isn't here, or a quote you've received uses language that doesn't quite make sense, it's always worth asking the supplier to explain it plainly.

Any hire company worth working with should be happy to.

Ready to put any of this into practice? Request a quote and we'll talk you through exactly what's included.