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Production Office · Stage 1

Production Runner and Office PA

The switchboard of the film: get into the production office and stay there.

The production office runs every hire, booking, contract and piece of paper on a film, and the runner keeps it moving. What a production runner and office PA does, how to get your first days of experience, what your Stage 1 CV should say, and a written plan to reach Stage 2.

2 hours · 6 modules · 18 lessons

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What you’ll learn

  • Describe what the production office does in pre-production, on the shoot and at wrap, who sits in it and who you answer to.
  • Know the runner's day hour by hour, the paperwork you will handle and the phrases you will hear, and have scored yourself against the skills a coordinator hires for.
  • Have found three real routes to experience this month and know the rules on pay, unpaid work, hours, tax and safety that apply to them.
  • Have a Stage 1 CV outline built on the site's example CV for this role and a way of approaching coordinators that does not annoy them.
  • Have a saved plan from Stage 1 to Stage 2 and be able to say MFJF's five Stage 1 statements honestly.

Where this leads

By the end you will have written your own Stage 1 plan, checked yourself against MFJF's five Stage 1 statements, and know exactly what to do next: a mentor clinic, an Academy workshop, and Stage 2, the HotList.

Finish the course and you can build your personal plan: MFJF's three-stage planner for this role, ticked from Your Profile and your CV, with dated next steps and the CV line each one becomes.

Module 1

The role and the department

20 min

What the production office actually does across prep, shoot and wrap, who sits in it, and what a runner's day contains hour by hour.

  1. readThe switchboard of the film: how the production office works8 min
  2. readWho is in the office, and what you actually do all day8 min
  3. checkCheck: the office and the role4 min
Module 2

Before day one: skills, kit and knowledge

20 min

The skills a coordinator is actually hiring for and how to get each one before you have a credit; the paperwork, kit and phrases to be fluent in; and an honest audit of where you stand.

  1. readThe skills the coordinator is hiring for, and how to get each one now7 min
  2. readPaperwork, kit, phrases and the ten tips7 min
  3. taskTask: your skills audit, with a score6 min
Module 3

Getting experience at Stage 1

20 min

Where production office experience really comes from when nobody will hire you yet, the rules on pay, unpaid work, hours, tax and safety, and a task to find three routes this month.

  1. readWhere experience really comes from8 min
  2. readThe rules: pay, unpaid work, hours, tax and safety6 min
  3. taskTask: find three routes this month6 min
Module 4

Your CV, cover letter and first approaches

20 min

What a Stage 1 CV for the production office contains and leaves out, the covering email that gets read, how to approach coordinators without annoying them, and what a reference means in this industry.

  1. readYour Stage 1 CV, your covering email, and how to approach people8 min
  2. taskTask: draft your Stage 1 CV outline8 min
  3. checkCheck: CVs, emails and approaches4 min
Module 5

The industry around the role

20 min

The wider map: the companies and departments the office touches, the career path and the site's three-year plan, where else the same skills get you hired, and what the people in the case studies actually did.

  1. readThe industry around the production office8 min
  2. resourcesThe production runner's library8 min
  3. checkCheck: the industry around the role4 min
Module 6

Your plan: Stage 1 to Stage 2

20 min

Turn everything you have produced into a saved plan, then check yourself honestly against MFJF's five Stage 1 statements and decide what you do next on the site.

  1. plannerYour Stage 1 plan10 min
  2. readHow you know you are ready for Stage 26 min
  3. checkCheck: are you ready for Stage 2?4 min
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Sources and references

Where this course comes from. Open any of them yourself.

What this course was written from

Every link checked 19 September 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 Office. 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 OfficeTwo 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 OfficeWhat to do, learn and be able to do, from no experience to paid work.
  7. The career guide: Production OfficeThe 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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