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Props and Set Decoration · Stage 1

Props and Set Dec Trainee

Everything the actors touch and everything around them when they do: get into props and set dec and earn your place on the truck.

Set decoration chooses and pays for everything in the room; props finds it, dresses it and hands it to the actors. How the two crews work, a trainee's day from pre-call to returns, the skills and safety a props master hires for, where experience comes from, including the prop houses, and a plan.

2 hours · 6 modules · 18 lessons

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What you’ll learn

  • Know how the props and set dec crews are structured on a UK feature, from set decorator and props master down to trainee, who you answer to, and what a trainee's day contains in prep and on a shooting day.
  • You will be able to define dressing, action, hand, hero and standby, know the paperwork from hire note to props bible, and have a scored skills audit and a plan to fix the two gaps a props master would notice first.
  • You will have found three real routes to experience this month, including a prop house, theatre props department or saleroom, and you will know the rules on pay, unpaid work, the union, manual handling, weapons and working with the armourer and SFX.
  • You will have a one-page Stage 1 CV outline titled Props Trainee, built beside the site's example, with a photographs page planned and a way of approaching props masters and buyers that does not annoy them.
  • You will have a saved plan and be able to say MFJF's five Stage 1 exit statements honestly, knowing what to do next: a mentor session, an Academy workshop and the HotList.

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 props and set dec crews actually do from the script breakdown to the last return, the words that divide the work, who is in the two crews, and what a trainee's day contains hour by hour.

  1. readWhat props and set dec do, from the breakdown to the last return8 min
  2. readWho is in it, who you answer to, and what your day actually contains8 min
  3. checkCheck: the crews and the day4 min
Module 2

Before day one: skills, kit and the language

20 min

The skills a props master and a set decorator hire for and how to get each one now, the paperwork and kit to be fluent in, the words of the props truck, and the ten things every trainee is told.

  1. readThe skills a props master and a set decorator hire for, and how to get each one now7 min
  2. readPaperwork, kit, the language and the ten things every trainee is told6 min
  3. taskTask: your props and set dec skills audit7 min
Module 3

Getting experience at Stage 1

20 min

Where props and set dec experience really comes from, including the prop houses, theatre props departments and salerooms most beginners overlook, and the rules on pay, unpaid work, the union, weapons and safety.

  1. readWhere props and set dec experience really comes from7 min
  2. readThe rules: pay, hours, unpaid work, the union, weapons and staying safe6 min
  3. taskTask: find three routes this month7 min
Module 4

Your CV, your photographs and your first approaches

20 min

What a Stage 1 props CV contains and leaves out, the photographs that go with it, the cover email, how to approach props masters and buyers without annoying them, and what a reference means here.

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

The industry around the role

20 min

The wider map: the studio clusters and the hire houses around them, the kinds of production, the union and the guild, the two ladders and the site's three-year plan, where else the same skills get hired, and what the people in the case studies did.

  1. readThe wider map: hire houses, studios, the union and the guild, and where the path leads7 min
  2. resourcesThe props and set dec library8 min
  3. checkCheck: the industry around the role5 min
Module 6

Your plan: Stage 1 to Stage 2

20 min

Your plan, saved: the role, the side of the branch, the three routes, the skills to fix and the first approaches. Then the five statements that tell you that you are ready for Stage 2, and what to do next on MFJF.

  1. plannerYour props and set dec plan10 min
  2. readHow you know you are ready for Stage 26 min
  3. checkCheck: 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 Props and Set Decoration. 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: Props and Set DecorationTwo 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. Find your role in the career plannersEvery entry-level job by department, with a three-stage planner for each.
  7. Read the career guidesWhat each job is, the day, the way in and the pay: one guide for every role.
  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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