Grip Equipment

Here is how this works in practice. We source grip kit from the rental houses concentrated in Warsaw and in Łódź — the historic heart of Polish cinema — where inventory has deepened markedly since the Polish Film Institute introduced its 30% PISF cash rebates in 2019. Our team builds grip packages around the demands of each setup: dollies and track for moving shots, cranes and jib arms for elevated coverage, and a full complement of stands, flags, clamps and rigging hardware for lighting support.

Here is the short of it. For studio shoots we set up grip delivery and crew to stages at ATM Studio in Warsaw — one of the largest studio complexes in Central Europe — at WFDiF, and at Alvernia Studios near Kraków. On location, whether in Kraków's preserved historic core, the 19th-century industrial build style of Łódź or the streets of Gdańsk, we plan rigging access and transport in advance. Because hire from Polish vendors counts as qualifying spend toward the rebates, sourcing grip locally is budget-efficient. Any pro rig not held in-country moves freely by road from Germany or the Czech Republic under the EU single market with no carnet for intra-EU transport.

Here is the breakdown. Poland's temperate continental climate shapes how grip kit is handled through the year. Cold, snowy winters call for careful running of hydraulic dollies and crane systems whose fluids stiffen at low temperatures, and our team allows warm-up time and monitors track for ice when shooting exteriors in the Tatra Mountains or along the Baltic coast at Gdańsk. Warm summers bring fewer constraints but more demand on rigging crews.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. Productions arriving from outside the EU clear imported grip hardware on ATA Carnets through the National Revenue Administration (Krajowa Administracja Skarbowa), with Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW) as the main air-cargo gateway and road links to Berlin, Prague and the Baltic ports. Billing is in Polish złoty (PLN). Poland is an EU member but not in the Eurozone — and gear hire carries 23% VAT, both reflected in our quotes. We can also supply skilled key grips and grip crews alongside the kit, so setup on demanding builds runs efficiently from the first call.