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A production department

Locations

The locations department: who is in it and what each of them does

Locations finds the real places a script needs, gets permission to film in them, gets the whole circus in and out, and hands them back exactly as they were found. First crew on site in the morning, last to leave at night.

The department works between the production and everyone who does not work in film: owners, residents, councils, the police and the companies that supply the trucks. It starts months before a shoot, breaking the script down place by place, and it finishes after wrap with the thank-you letters and the reinstatement, because the industry keeps going back to the same streets and the owners remember. A location PA is a production assistant in name only: you answer to the locations team, not to the ADs.

  1. Supervising location manager

  2. Location manager (LM)

  3. Assistant location manager (ALM)

  4. Unit manager

  5. Location scout

  6. Location assistant

  7. Location runner or location PAEntry-level job

Drawn from MFJF's own Foundations course Location Runner and PA (What the locations department actually does; A location day, hour by hour; The map around locations) and MFJF's location runner careers guide. The words are My First Job In Film's. © My First Job In Film 2026.

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Where next

Your recommended next steps

Picked for Location Runner and PA. Signed in, they follow your stage and the roles your answers point to. See your whole MFJF journey, step by step →

  1. My MFJF JourneyOne page for everything MFJF has built, in the order you need it.
  2. My Reading ListThe books, blogs and bodies you have saved, in one place.
  3. Start the Stage 1 course: Location Runner and PATwo hours on what the job is, how people get in and what to do first.
  4. Get on the HotListPut yourself in front of productions looking for crew.
  5. Join MFJF DayPlayersDay work on productions for crew with the credits and the skills.
  6. The career planner: Location Runner and PAWhat to do, learn and be able to do, from no experience to paid work.
  7. The career guide: Location Runner and PAThe job, the day, the way in and the pay, in one guide.
  8. See how it all fits on the career maps17 maps of how films get made: the people, the process and the departments.
  9. Who works whereEvery department on a shoot and every kind of film company: who is in each and what they do.
  10. Industry EssentialsThe books, industry bodies, websites and blogs worth knowing, department by department.
  11. Read the MFJF Survival GuidesStraight answers to what everyone starting out asks: how long it takes, what you get paid, and what to do every day.
  12. MFJF Academy workshopsLive sessions with people who do the job, and the monthly career clinic.
  13. Build your CV with the CV BuilderThe industry's format, built from your profile and your current CV.

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