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A production department

Transport and unit

Transport and unit: who is in them and what each of them does

Unit base is the film's village: trailers, mobile offices, the costume and make-up trucks, the dining bus and the toilet truck, all of it parked, powered and watered before the crew arrive. Transport is what moves the film between there and the set.

MFJF's courses treat transport and catering as separate trades that are on every big unit, booked and chased by the production office and laid out on the ground by the locations team. The unit manager owns the base, the transport captain owns the vehicles, and the facilities and catering companies arrive with their own drivers and their own kit. For a new entrant this is the part of a set that is easiest to be useful in on a first day, because almost all of it is arriving early and knowing where things go.

  1. Unit manager

  2. Transport captain or transport manager

  3. Unit driverEntry-level job

  4. Facilities crew

  5. Unit caterers

  6. Unit base runnerEntry-level job

Drawn from MFJF's own Foundations courses Start Here (transport, catering and security as separate trades on a big unit), Production Runner and Office PA (what the office books and chases with transport), Floor Runner and Set PA (05:30 at unit base), Location Runner and PA (building and running unit base, and the facilities companies), Director's Assistant (the transport captain) and Hair and Make-up Trainee (the unit drivers). 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 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.

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