Trounce Alley Lighting Company

We have taken on projects with first time filmmakers & academy award winning directors alike, on all size productions ranging from self-funded “passion projects” and music videos, to high-end commercials and feature length films supported by investors and distribution.

Working with an LA based production company and cinematographer Mark Richie, TALCO meets Nickelback and creates lighting for a Walmart Soundcheck exclusive video. The artist performed 5 songs and conducted an interview for their new album release, “Dark Horse”.

You can see the lighting (and a recognizable TALCO technician or two in the background) in the following Soundcheck interview video:

If you’d like to get a glimpse of the performances, heres the recording of the song “Animals” by Nickelback for Walmart Soundcheck:

WFW International supplies TALCO with large equipment as needed.

TALCO is more then capable of organizing a large scale production with circus, generators, pre-rigging crews, condors, cable trucks, and the works.

All you need to do is rent a gennie and/or a slush truck with supplemental distro, oversized lights and grip gear from a rental house using our truck as a base of tools, expendables, and expertise. In many cases you can avoid, or minimize an expensive prep day.

We have a working relationship with William F. White International Commercials Division and can arrange to sub-rent larger equipment as needed. Our experience with the rental company ensures that we get exactly what we need at the best price possible for your production.

By building our relationship through the commercials department we are able to get personal attention and bypass the hierarchy and b$ of the features world while maintaining full access to the equipment we need and the support we trust.

Our base truck package makes sub rentals easier because we already have many of the stands and support items. This means less equipment for the rental house to pull off their shelves, and less prep for us — equals more savings for you. It provides flexibility within budgets all around.

When you contract TALCO for your large scale productions, we bring business to the rentals houses in the form of subrentals — keeping everything in it’s natural order. You will not incur wrath by trying to bypass the established houses because they operate on different levels from us, and we actually work together with them. They provide the large equipment we need, and we provide the expertise and skill to create the production value the producers want. The more we can help the producers attain their vision, the larger the productions they can do in the future, and the more we go back to the rental houses for even larger equipment. This integrated concept allows us all to grow larger together.

 TALCO has an excellent truck package and a versatile set of equipment, but we cannot provide and maintain on our own the thousands and millions of dollars worth of equipment required for a large scale production. This is where the rental houses make their money. 

For smaller shows sometimes it costs so much just to have the rental houses pull the orders, and for producers to arrange for pickups, inventory, and returns — that many times the rental house will prefer you to go with TALCO and rent only the few extra things you need from them.

When you contract us you are gaining our skills, crew, expendables, and simplifying your prep time. It is a win-win situation. Having our truck on set provides confidence for us to improvise and handle any situation we encounter on set. All too often does a production stumble when it finds it is missing something obvious that is overlooked. Many times a producer wont even be aware of the shortcoming because every department improvises the best it can. But it comes at a cost in speed and efficiency. We can count on our truck and the knowledge of our tools without having to waste time with less. As a result our department runs smoother and faster so you get your shot list with time to spare. 

Lets go big together — it is within your reach — and we have the support of the industry behind us!
All you need is OUR truck and some big DREAMS!

Taking a streamlined approach from the commercials world and utilizing small crews of highy skilled technicians we combine lighting and gripping as the Europeans do, allowing us to create the hollywood result in North America at a fraction of the expense and without the usual bloated heirarchy, accounting, and other complications of a typical oversized hollywood production.

Production managers know first-hand how much easier it is to work with TALCO and a preloaded truck then a typical lighting department and grip department, each with their own inventory lists that require prep days, transport, etc. In most cases we can accomplish with one gaffer, one best boy, and a small truck what would normally take a whole transport crew, 40′ trailers, and multiple departments and keys to organize. Producers understand immedetiatly that these savings translate directly into increased production value for every dollar spent.

My favorite film ”City of the Lost Children” (La Cité des enfants perdus) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, for example, could not have been made in a Hollywood style. The director explains his budget was so tight that his cheif lighting technician brought in a construction crane for a shot where they needed, but could not afford a movie crane. They strapped a steady-cam operator to the bucket of the lift and that was how he got one of the final scenes which was an aerial shot ascending from the set.

It is this type of innovation that TALCO values and the “Can-do” attitude that states: where there is a will, there is way! We pride ourselves in our ingenuity under pressure and are confident in our abilities and tools to overcome any obstacle a production may face.

The City of Lost Children trailer. Separate montage from film is posted below:

TALCO provides a one-stop shop for all aspects of lighting and grip combined. We start with a base-package of equipment, tools, and expendables. We have active working relationships with the major rental houses and can sub-rent generators, electrical distrobution, HMI, and larger equipment on an as-needed basis. We have a lot of specialty gear, rigging, and custom tools to accomplish things many productions never even dreamed possible on their budgets. Our flexibility and resourcefulness allows a production to go places and film things in ways they never imagined possible. 

Farewell Geoff Browne

Vancouver loses one of its finest spirited filmmakers in writer, director Geoff Browne of Boundless Light, known around town for his Tibetan documentary, Kall it Karma. He has moved to Los Angeles to pursue directorial projects on feature length productions.

He may be gone for now, but his name, along with TALCO, will be appearing soon on a 2-month shoot produced by Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker Malcom Clarke. Look for this highly controversial feature length docu-drama to be released within the next year making headlines big time.

TALCO is pleased to have participated in 6 weeks of interviews followed by 2 weeks of big budget reconstructions which will bring this terrifying story to life.

In the mean while, you’ll have to see Malcom’s recently Oscar nominated, Prisoners of Paradise – or perhaps even more intense his 1985 exploration of  American Vietnam vets hiding from a society in which they are no longer fit to coexist with, Soldiers in Hiding.

As for us, we are happy to have had an opportunity to work with filmmakers of such high caliber and for an extended period of time. Thanks as well to Barna Alper from Toronto for organizing, producing, and distributing this very interesting production.We look forward to working on many more amazing documentaries and we wish Geoff Browne great success abroad until we may next work with him again.