HOW THE LIGHTING AND GRIP LOTTERY WORKS

The SFTV Lighting and Grip Lottery has different guidelines than the Camera Department Lottery.

L&G Lottery takes place every Thursday around 12:00 pm. You need not be present to participate.

Every project that’s scheduled on the SFTV Production Schedule will be automatically added to the Lottery. You have until 6 pm the Monday after your lottery drawing to submit your reservation via Patron Portal. Failure to submit your reservation by 6 pm Monday will result in your priority being dropped to last in the queue.

More on the Lottery

Lottery drawings are held two Thursdays in advance of your shooting weekend at 12:00 pm.

  • For example, in Fall 2023 if you are shooting September 22nd – 24th then the drawing is on Thursday, September 7th.
    • Camera department will immediately follow with their lottery at 12:15 pm.
  • You must submit your online reservation by 6 pm Monday, September 11th.

Here’s a calendar to illustrate the timeline.

  1. Date of the lottery.
  2. Due date of your online reservation.
  3. Pick-up date of your reservation.
    • This is the day before Day 1 of your project.

How the Lottery Works

The purpose of the Lottery is to establish priority for gear. We do not have enough gear to provide every production with every item they request. We use the lottery to determine priority for the cuts*.

An online random number generator generates numbers between 1 and 100 for each name entered. The lower the randomized generated number, the higher your priority. The priority is also based on class level. See Class Level Priority.

For example, if Person A draws #98, Person B draws a #99, and Person C draws #10, the priority order would be:

  1. Person C
  2. Person A
  3. Person B

Additional Guidelines –

  • The last day to submit a reservation is no later than two days before your planned pick up.
    • L&G will not have time to perform cuts* on your order, but we will accommodate and replace as many items as possible and let you know all changes at time of pick-up.
  • If you have an outstanding fine with L&G, you cannot check out your order until you have paid your fine.    
  • Orders go out on Thursday and must come back on Monday (before noon) unless they get pre-approval from Studio Operations Administrator and Production Administration Team. 
  • Cuts are made Friday the week before your shoot.
    • You will receive an email from Web Checkout notifying you of changes made to your order. 

For more information on making a reservation, please visit our Reserving Equipment page.


*Cuts are changes made to your reservation that reflect available inventory based on your class level priority and your lottery number/time and date of receipt of reservation form.

Class Level Priority

PRIORITY IN THE FALL

Through Week 8
1st: 400
2nd: 650
3rd: 300/600
4th: 200/500/550

After Week 9
1st: 650
2nd: 400
3rd: 300/600
4th: 200/500/550

NOTE: SCWR 680 GETS 1st PRIORITY AT THE END OF THE FALL SEMESTER.

PRIORITY IN THE SPRING

Through Week 3
1st: 650
2nd: 400
3rd: 200/500/550
4th: 650

After Week 4
1st: 400
2nd: 300/600
3rd: 200/500/550
4th: 650*
*BECAUSE YOU SHOULD BE SHOOTING PICK-UPS AFTER WEEK 3.

NOTE: SCWR 680 GETS 1 PRIORITY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SPRING SEMESTER.

Skip to content