Join Now For Free
A production department

Production office

The production office: who is in it and what each of them does

The production office is the film's switchboard: every hire, rental, booking, contract and cost runs through it. It opens weeks before the first shot and is still working a month after the last one.

Every film has a set, where the pictures are made, and an office, where everything that lets the set happen gets arranged. The office is up and running an hour before the set's call time and stays open at least an hour after wrap, from the first week of prep until the production is closed down. It is the department that turns the film's plan into hires, bookings, contracts and paperwork, and it is the one room where every department, every document and every decision crosses a desk.

  1. Line producer

  2. Unit production manager (UPM)

  3. Production supervisor

  4. Production coordinator

  5. Assistant production coordinator (APOC)

  6. Production secretary

  7. Office PAEntry-level job

  8. Production runnerEntry-level job

  9. Producer's assistant

  10. Production accountant

  11. Assistant production accountant

Drawn from MFJF's own Foundations course Production Runner (module 1: The switchboard of the film: how the production office works, and Who is in the office, and what you actually do all day; module 5: The industry around the production office), with the producer's and line producer's seats from MFJF's Producer's Assistant course (What a producer does, and where the assistant sits). The words are My First Job In Film's. © My First Job In Film 2026.

You are not doing this alone

You have your own personal career mentor

That is us, the MFJF team. Book an MFJF Mentor Session with us every month: we guide you through this journey and answer all your questions, from which job is yours to your CV and your next application.

Book my MFJF Mentor Session

Where next

Your recommended next steps

Picked for Production Runner and Office 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: Production Runner and Office 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: Production Runner and Office PAWhat to do, learn and be able to do, from no experience to paid work.
  7. The career guide: Production Runner and Office 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.

Matching Production Runner and Office PA right now

Live from the job board, the Academy, the mentor programme, the Industry Essentials, the film course directory, Industry News and the competitions open now.

All jobs →
All workshops →
All mentors →
All Industry Essentials →
All film courses →
All Community Blog posts →
All trainee schemes →
All competitions →