I think your idea would work easily if there was only one shooter/editor and 10 investors who received a share of the profits.

This is why a rental house is a much better way to go. They have the mechanisms in place (insurance, replacement gear, overnight shipping etc.) to cover these types of eventualities.

Why not take the 100K between the 10 guys though and START a rental house? That way you have some form of ownership over the material and rather than 10 guys losing 10K everyday the equipment gets older, you'll have established a revenue stream. The owners can rent from themselves at very low prices but only if the equipment is not out on a paying rental job. It limits your ability to use the equipment when you want a little, but you still have access to it and WORSE case scenerio, if it's a really important shoot, the owner/partner can rent at the retail rate from himself.

This would seem to be the best solution frankly...

I'm game......

Jon

In my area we have a network of about 5-10 freelancers and we "share" gear with each other when possible. I rarely have to rent anything. We have a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours policy" it is not always perfect but we have had very few issues. We figured last year that we saved in total over $30,000 in rentals.




ash =o)