We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bianca Halpern. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bianca below.

Bianca, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you have any thoughts about how to create a more inclusive workplace?

When I was a Freelance Cinematographer I realized the Guys in my generation always had access to better equipment and were attached to projects that had better budgets, so when I had the Opportunity to open a Business, I realized I neede to create a space that I wish it existed for myself when I was freelancing.

Bianca, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started my Cinematography Career in L.A. after graduating from Chapman University MBA in 2007. There was a writer’s strike back then so work was a little slow, but as an International Graduate Student I fought hard to make a good use of my PTO year which led me to be hired by a Production Company. The recession hit hard in 2009 and I ended up moving back to Brasil where I worked as a Cinematographer for Short Films, Music Videos, Live Concerts and TV shows. Those years were great but I had an opportunity to open a Business and decided to come back to Los Angeles to be closer to the Heart of the Industry. After some research I learned that there were no woman owned Camera Rental Houses in L.A. so I thought, I am sure LA needs one! I called Gillian Munro who was my Director in Film School, I used to shoot her films and we became best friends, and I told her I was coming back to open a business. She helped me from day 1, from choosing a name, Branding, and now she is the one responsible for our hiring and many other things. We deifnitely have the most diverse crew ! Our first Rental was in 2017 and we are now in our 7th year. Surviving the Pandemic and the Writer’s Strike we are in a delicate moment where everything is changing. We are really proud of the Community we built and have been working with all types of projects from shorts, features, commercials, music videos to TV Shows, the latest one being The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 that was shot by Cinematographer Moira Morel. We also offer Childcare at the Rental house, based on the need that I had when I became a mom and went to my first Camera Prep, I realized, how are parents doing this? Sometimes you are not making enough money on the prep to pay for childcare, so we provide that for our clients! Our goal is to work with more TV shows in a year so we can keep also supporting our Independent Films

I also have been a part of the PERG Council (Production Equipment Rental Group), and have been nominated Chair for the year of 2024. We recently started offering more Educational Workshops , as one of our goals is to educate and provide a safe space to all Filmmakers.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In 2023 During the Writer’s /Actor’s Strike it was really hard for us. We had grown a lot in 2021/2022 and we had 13 employees, we had moved to a 7000 square feet location, then suddenly the work stopped! There were still some student films going on but that was about it. I was staring at my computer for 3 weeks trying to figure out how to make the next payroll! One of my Directors from Brasil gave me a call and said, hey, I need help producing a job for Coca Cola in L.A., can you do it? I immediately got super excited and said yes. I did all the Production Services for the team that came from Brasil to shoot in L.A, not only it helped financially to get by, but also mentally, as I was keeping busy and working with people that I admire. Together, we did a couple of episodes of Coke Studio and I produced it all! It was amazing, I love working with music and cameras. When the job was over I was like, what now? So I was working on a Camera Rental Quote for another client and he also happened to be Brasilian like me. He mentioned, by tomorrow I will know who my Local Production Services will be, hat’s when I saw my chance : I said, well, I just finished a big job for Coke where I did all the Production Sevices. We talked about numbers and i realized I could do that too, so next thing I know I was on my next Production Sevices job. Throughout the Summer I ended up producing 4 jobs total, and not only it helped financially but also helped me to keep going while the Camera Rentals were so slow.

When you believe in yourself, things will happen! Think outside the box and don’t be afraid to ask!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This year in March we were really still figuring out how to get through our Strike Debts, but it was Women’s Month so we decided to do various events, and one of them included 7 different groups that we work with : Women in Media, AWD, ICFC, Film Girlz Brunch, SLMBR Party, Not Your Daddy’s Films and Film Fatales. Gillian Munro who was worked with me since Day 1 of BECiNE, came up with the wonderful event name ” How We Come Together”, we packed our house with 160 women ! It was a true magical night. A lot of us in the room had been out of work for so long, and just being all together made us remember why we do what we do, and that is through Community that we find Resilience. In the event, we also had lenses for testing , provided by our sponsors for that night which were Atlas, Cooke, Angenieux/BandPro, Zeiss and Leitz.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.becine.com
• Instagram: @_becine_
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bianca-halpern-4698bb4/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEX6hm4dFTJGIpFm84UtyZw
• Other: Personal Instagram @bhalpern