Below the Line contacted three Los Angeles equipment rental houses to gauge the impact of the WGA strike on their business. Here’s what they told us.

Denny Clairmont, Clairmont Camera

Will the strike cause you to lay people off?
We have no intention to do so now, but that could change at any time.

What’s your timetable?
By the end of December we’ll need to see what we’re going to do with employees. I can’t see how I would let people go at this time. My people have families, holidays, medical plans. But right now I’m playing by the seat of my pants.

What about your offices elsewhere?
We have operations in Vancouver, Toronto and Albuquerque. The Canadian offices are greatly affected by the rise of the Canadian dollar as well as the strike. For them it’s a double whammy. All of our shows there are U.S. shows. Say the strike ends in January, I wonder how many of those shows will come back to us because there’s no real incentive to shoot in Canada now.

What’s happening in Albuquerque?
We have two TV shows there. Breaking Bad will be returning equipment in late December and shutting down. In Plain Sight has informed us they will be returning equipment but has not yet given us a date.

How long do you think the strike will last?
There’s no way of knowing. Everyone has a theory. My best guess would be the end of January, but it could go on much longer.

What’s your advice to the two sides?
Settle as soon as possible so we can all go back to work.

Otto Nemenz and Fritz Heinzle, Otto Nemenz International

Are all sectors of your business affected?
Commercials will continue to do well. They always do over the January/February time frame. But TV will die. I don’t know about movies.

What measures have you taken?
We’ve cut out most overtime. We’re taking a watch-and-see attitude. I’m willing to let this thing go through the holidays, then we’ll see how much work there is out there and we’ll do we have to do.

Do you think things will get worse?
If this is resolved before the holidays it won’t have a deep impact, but otherwise the effect will be big and the whole industry will be in trouble.

What about your offices outside Los Angeles?
We have operations in Salt Lake City and Hawaii. Neither one has seen any effect yet, but those places don’t have any TV shows.

Has any equipment been returned yet?
Any equipment we get back from TV series will end up helping out with a shortage of equipment for low-budget features and commercials.

How will the economy be affected?
The strike is hurting not only strikers but also the rest of the industry and the whole economy. There could be tremendous losses in cars, appliances, real estate—and especially in retail right before the holidays.

What do you think of Panavision’s moves?
Every business owner has to do what he has to do. Panavision is heavier in TV than Denny [Clairmont] or myself.

What’s your advice to the two sides?
Get back to the table and make it work. It won’t be pretty going into the season with no paychecks and no jobs.

Rufus Burnham, Camera House

How has the strike affected you?
It has been absolute devastating. After two years of heavy investments in new technology, this strike could destroy us. We had already let go 20 percent of our staff go since last summer in anticipation of a slowdown after we had just begun to recover from the 2000 de facto strike. This is damaging to everybody.

How many below-the-line workers do you think will lose jobs?
I believe that for every working writer, there are 200 below-the-line people affected by the WGA action. I’m praying for a resolution soon. Thousands of people working for vendors are also at the mercy of this strike.