Film Crew Hire in London
Film crews and production services
for London shoots.
DOPs, camera operators, sound recordists and whole units for shoots in every London borough and the Square Mile, booked from our office on City Road.
500+
Productions
1,400+
Crew in and around London
£10m
Employers’ liability on every crew member
54
Five-star Google reviews
We’re Here Now Films.We crew London shoots from City Road, and we make films of our own.
Agencies, production companies and brands book our crews for shoots all over London, from offices in the City and a 48th floor at Canary Wharf to studios in Shoreditch and Woolwich, and so do teams flying in from the US and Europe. If you need the film made as well as shot, that’s our video production in London.
Day rates, paid in full
Every crew member is paid their full day rate. Our booking fee and insurance go on your side of the quote, not theirs.
One operator or a full unit
A single camera operator, a two-person interview crew, or the whole unit, from a boardroom in the Square Mile to a studio in Battersea.
Crew from our own sets
500+ films in, most of the people we send to your shoot have worked on ours first.
Briefs read within 2 working hours
Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours, then comes back with names and the full price, line by line.
Book a crew in London.
Tell us the date, the borough or the address, and who you need. Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours. Or call us on 07412 543822.
Quick contact form
What are you looking for?
Anything from one camera operator for a day to a campaign shot in four countries. Pick the one that fits and we’ll take you to it.
Crew only
You run the shoot; we supply the people. Camera operators, DOPs, sound recordists and gaffers, each paid their full day rate.
Shooting from abroad
Flying in from the US or Europe? Your contract is with us, a UK company, and there’s one invoice, so you don’t need a UK company of your own.
Crew & production support
Crew plus the work around them: locations and recces, permits, kit, transport, and hotels. We act as your fixer or production service company on the ground.
Creative video production
You want the film made as well as shot. We’re a video production company first, working with you from the first idea and the concept through to delivery.
Global production
Several cities or several countries, run as one production. We produced Cohere’s AI for Empowerment campaign on 35mm in Canada, Norway, the UK, and Portugal.
The crew
Every role on a London shoot. Twenty-four of them, each with its own page.
From the director and producer who run the day to the editor who cuts it. Every role has a page: what they do, a London day with them, what the day rate covers, how it sits against the APA/Bectu card, and how to book them. Book one person, or the whole call sheet on one quote.
Production 06 Camera 07 Data and playback 02 Lighting and grip 03 Sound 01 Hair, make-up and costume 02 Art department 02 Post-production 01
06 roles
Production
Run the day, the schedule and the people.
- Director From £500
- Producer From £450
- Production manager £504–627
- 2nd AD £355–448
- Production assistant £400
- Runner £245
07 roles
Camera
Light it, frame it, focus it, fly it.
- DOP From £850
- Camera operator £529–656
- Focus puller £461–575
- Clapper loader £355–448
- Steadicam operator From £950
- Gimbal operator £529–656
- Drone operator From £750
02 roles
Data and playback
Keep the pictures safe, and on every monitor.
- DIT £527
- Video playback £334–518
03 roles
Lighting and grip
Light the set, power it, move the camera.
02 roles
Hair, make-up and costume
Everyone on camera looking right, all day.
- Hair and make-up £398
- Costume £519–694
02 roles
Art department
Everything in the frame that isn’t a person or a light.
- Art director £675–878
- Set builders £341–512
Not sure who you need? Send the brief and we’ll build the crew, every role on its own line of the quote.
We also crew script supervisors, autocue operators and stills photographers. How our rates work · Photos: Here Now Films, hessam nabavi and Mark Cruz
Rates and set-ups
Crew rates in London.The benchmark, our rate, and what goes on top.
We price every role against the APA/Bectu card: the rates the APA agrees with Bectu for commercials, and the clearest benchmark the industry has. Each role’s page sets our day rate against it, and that rate goes to the crew member in full. On top go our 10% booking fee and 2% insurance, on everything we book for you, kit included. London adds a few lines of its own, each shown separately: parking bays, the Congestion Charge and, for an older van, ULEZ. If we take the production on, it’s quoted as a production instead.
Two ways to book
One question sets the price: who’s the producer of record?
Crew hire
You run the shoot.
10% + 2% booking fee and insurance, on everything we book for you: crew, kit and travel.
We do
- Find, book and brief the crew, and pay them
- Book kit, travel and hotels too, if you want them
- Send the full price before anything is booked
- One person to call all day
- Employers’ liability for the crew we book, and insurance on kit we hire in
You do
- Run the shoot, or your producer does
- The plan, the schedule and the call sheet
- The location, its permission and its public liability
- Responsibility for the production: you’re the producer of record
What the 2% insures: employers’ liability for every crew member we book, and the kit we hire in for you. Nothing else on the shoot. A large kit rental may need extra insurance, as its own line on the quote.
Full production
We’re the producer of record.
15% + 5% production fee, plus insurance and contingency, on the whole production budget. Quoted as a production.
We do
- Our producer plans it with you and runs the day
- Locations, permits, kit, studio, travel and hotels, booked and paid in our name
- Insurance for the whole shoot, public liability included, plus the risk assessment and the call sheet
- One contract and one invoice, so overseas teams need no UK company
You do
- The creative calls
- Signing off the plan and the budget
What the 5% pays for: our production insurance across the whole shoot, £10m public liability included, and the contingency.
Not sure which you need? If your own producer or director will run the day, it’s crew hire. If you want us to take the production on, it’s a full production quote. VAT on top of both. 50% by card when you book, 50% on receipt of the final rushes.
Worked example. Crew hire: a DOP and a sound recordist for one day £1,568 + VAT
| DOP, day rate | £850 |
| Sound recordist, day rate | £550 |
| Booking fee, 10% | £140 |
| Insurance, 2% | £28 |
| Kit | Their own, or hired in at the same 10% + 2% |
| Total | £1,568 + VAT |
Worked example. Full production: the same two and our producer, before kit £2,220 + VAT
| DOP, day rate | £850 |
| Sound recordist, day rate | £550 |
| Our producer, day rate | £450 |
| Kit | At cost, under the same 15% + 5%: a two-camera interview kit is from £765 a day |
| Production fee, 15% | £277.50 |
| Insurance and contingency, 5% | £92.50 |
| Total, before kit | £2,220 + VAT |
Every day rate is for an 11-hour day including lunch, with overtime at card rates, agreed with you before it happens. The card is the APA/Bectu commercials rates from 1 September 2026, fixed until at least August 2027. Each role’s rate is in the crew above, and set against the card on its own page.
Common set-ups
Three common crews, priced live for one 11-hour day. The crew total includes our booking fee and insurance; each piece of kit is its own line, plus the same 10% + 2%. Parking, the Congestion Charge and travel go on the quote as their own lines.
Premium interview set-up Interviews, testimonials, customer stories and B-roll Crew from £3,792.32 + VAT
Crew
£3,792.32 + VAT, with our booking fee and insurance.
Kit
- Two-camera interview kit: Sony FX6 or similar, cine lenses, LED lights and tripods from £765 a day
- Gaffer van from £600 a day
- Grip package from £1,320 a day
Plus the same 10% + 2%. Sound kit, travel and parking are their own lines.
Low-footprint interview set-up For shoots that need a small team Crew from £2,072 + VAT
Kit
- Two-camera interview kit: Sony FX6 or similar, cine lenses, LED lights and tripods from £765 a day
Plus the same 10% + 2%. Sound kit, travel and parking are their own lines.
A unit around your DOP or director You bring the DOP or director; we crew the rest Crew from £2,764.16 + VAT
Crew
£2,764.16 + VAT, with our booking fee and insurance.
Kit
- Gaffer van from £600 a day
- Grip package from £1,320 a day
Plus the same 10% + 2%. Sound kit, travel and parking are their own lines.
Something else?
Any role, any size. Send the brief and we’ll come back with names and the full price, line by line.
Services
Everything around the crew.Kit, places, permits and the rest.
Most bookings need more than people. We sort these with the crew, and each one gets its own line on the quote. If you’d rather sort them yourself, each guide shows how it works in London, borough by borough.
01
Kit rental
Dry hire from the camera houses in Greenford, Acton and Park Royal, or wet hire with the crew’s own kit, which often comes in cheaper.
02
Locations and permits
Where to shoot, who says yes, and how much notice each wants, from the borough film services to the Royal Parks, TfL and the Thames.
03
Studios and set builds
Drive-in stages in Acton and Park Royal, the big stages at 3 Mills, coves you can book by the hour, and set builds.
04
Props and wardrobe
Prop houses in Park Royal and Hayes, costume houses from Hendon to Rotherhithe, and the stylists and hair and make-up artists who run them on the day.
05
Logistics
Parking suspensions, the Congestion Charge and ULEZ, unit bases, kit vans, and pick-ups from five airports.
06
DIT and data
Cards checked and copied on set, rushes handed over at wrap, sent across town, or straight to our edit.
One quote covers the lot, line by line. Or call us on 07412 543822.
How it works
How a booking works
You send one brief. We come back with names, the full price and the notice your location needs, before anything is booked.
100%
of each crew member’s day rate goes to them. Our booking fee and insurance sit on your side of the quote.
Send the brief
Date, the borough or the address, who you need, any kit.
We send names
Who’s free, the full price line by line, and the permits the date needs.
Confirm
Book the crew. We take 50% upfront by card, and the other 50% when you receive the final rushes.
Call sheet
Times, address, the nearest Tube, parking, and contacts.
Shoot
One person at our end answers all day, on set or from City Road.
Who books us
From global shoots to single crew, one day.
Four kinds of client book our London crews, from agencies in Paris and New York to in-house teams in the City. They all get crew who’ve worked on our own sets, and one person at our end who answers all day.
- AgenciesWhite-label. The crew turn up as your crew, under your name. WordAppeal in Paris has booked two London interview days with us.
- Production companiesUS teams fly in their director and DP and book the rest of the unit here, as one did for four days in the City and Uxbridge.
- In-house teamsInterview days in your own office, with every crew name and the kit list sent ahead for security, as Davies Group needed at 20 Gracechurch Street.
- One person, one dayA normal booking for us. There’s no minimum crew.
Whichever you are, it starts the same way: send us the brief
From abroad
Shooting in London from abroad.No UK company needed.
Production companies and agencies from the US and Paris book their London crews through us. Your contract is with us, a UK company: we contract and pay the UK crew, and you get one invoice.
Booked from abroad
The US
The City, Uxbridge
A US production company · Four days of customer stories, September 2025: a law firm’s office on Cannon Street, then an office in Uxbridge. We crewed and produced it around their director: producer, gaffer, 1st AC, sound, HMU, grip, swing, playback and stills, and came in £498 under budget.
Paris
Wimbledon
WordAppeal · International Women’s Day interviews at a European gaming group’s London office, February 2025, and a second shoot there in June.
Oregon
Portsmouth, London, Oxford
Swanson Studios · Three days of interviews for a medical robotics company, November 2023. The London day was in the boardroom at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, with our PA, gaffer, HMU, DIT, sound and a lighting director.
The US
Woolwich
A US production company · The London crew for a sportswear brand’s studio day in Woolwich, January 2025, the day after its New York shoot.
The US
Marylebone
A US production · A startup series at a workspace in Marylebone, May 2025, with us as fixer: DP, AC, sound, gaffer, DIT, HMU and PA.
The US
London
Matt Dunstan, a US director · Shoots in London in February 2024 and July 2025. After the first: “We had one hell of a team.”
Two ways to work with us
Crew hire
Your producer runs the shoot.
We find, book and brief the crew, and send the full price before anything is booked. Day rates plus 10% and 2% insurance.
Best if your own producer will be on set.
Production service company
Our producer runs the shoot.
We organise the crew, the borough and TfL permits, kit, transport and hotels. Your director keeps the creative decisions. Quoted as a production: 15% plus 5% insurance and contingency.
Best if you’re flying in without a UK company or a UK producer.
Insurance
What we hold, against what the law and London ask for.
£10m
Employers’ liability. The legal minimum is £5m.
£10m
Public liability, as your producer of record. London’s boroughs and the Royal Parks ask for £5m; TfL, Network Rail and Canary Wharf for £10m. On a crew hire, that certificate is yours.
Arriving
LON
Five airports
Heathrow Express: 15 minutes to Paddington.
Gatwick Express: 30 minutes to Victoria.
Stansted Express: about 48 minutes to Liverpool Street.
Luton: the DART, then about 22 minutes to St Pancras.
London City: the DLR, from the terminal.
Eurostar: into St Pancras. Arrivals and transport
Before you fly
An ETA for each visitor
Most visitors from Europe, the US, Canada and Australia need one: £20, valid for two years. Apply at least three working days before you travel. GOV.UK
Your own team
Crew employed by your company can work a location shoot as visitors, if the film is made and paid for outside the UK. They stay on your payroll. British Film Commission
Your kit
Bring it in on an ATA Carnet, or we’ll hire it in London: kit houses here include Panavision in Greenford, ARRI Rental in Uxbridge and VMI in Acton.
Time zones
London is five hours ahead of New York and eight ahead of Los Angeles for most of the year, and an hour behind Paris. We set calls, check-ins and rushes deliveries around your day.
Watching from home
Video playback can stream the monitors to wherever you are. For a US production company’s four days in the City and Uxbridge, the playback package carried a Teradek and a livestream licence.
Fixer, service company or crew hire?
They overlap. Here’s what each means, and what we do in London.
You run the shoot; we supply the people at their full day rate, plus our booking fee and insurance.
A local who makes the shoot possible: permits from the borough, TfL or the estate, locations, crew and the problems on the day. We’ll put a London producer on it, from £450 a day, as we did for a US production’s startup series in Marylebone in May 2025. UK film and TV fixers
Delivers a whole shoot for a production based elsewhere: crew, kit, permits, insurance, payroll, transport and hotels. It’s what we did for a US production company’s four days in the City and Uxbridge in September 2025. Working with a UK production service company
Runs the schedule, the budget and the bookings. Producers in London
Finds the places, recces them and gets the agreements signed, from the borough film service to the estate team. Filming in London: locations and permits
How we pick
and vet crew
A call first, then a paid trial on one of our own shoots before anyone goes near a client’s set. We check references and past work, and rebook the people who do well. For schools, hospitals and care homes, we book crew with current DBS checks.
1,400+ people in our network live in and around London. When an office tower or an estate wants every name, vehicle registration and kit list before the day, as Canary Wharf and the City’s towers do, we send them with the booking.
What clients say
Crew in London?
Join the list
Interview days in City offices, studio days from Battersea to Woolwich, brand campaigns, documentaries, and local crews for teams flying in. We pay you your full day rate on every job: our fee goes on the client’s side of the quote, not yours. Joining is free, and we only post real jobs. London openings
Creative video production
Need more than a crew?
We’re a video production company first. We work with our clients from the first idea and the concept through the shoot and the edit to delivery: 500+ films since 2016.
Video production in London
Brand films, corporate films, customer stories and documentaries. For KYN alone, 15 films over three years.
Post-production
Edit, grade and sound. All in-house, baby.
Video production across the UK
500+ productions, for clients from AlTi Tiedemann Global to FatFace.
Global production
Several countries, one production team.
When a shoot crosses cities or borders, one booking covers the whole schedule. We crew and produce across the UK from our office on City Road and our bases in Manchester, Bristol, and Cornwall, and work with local service companies abroad, as we did in Norway and Portugal for Cohere.
Cohere · Canada, Norway, the UK, Portugal
Four countries on 35mm
AI for Empowerment: one principal photography day in each country, local service companies in Norway and Portugal, and one grade across every asset.
Swanson Studios, Oregon · three UK cities
Three cities in three days
Portsmouth, London and Oxford: interviews in two hospitals and an office, on three days running.
An events agency · Paris
Five weeks in Paris
Crew and kit at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Flying in to shoot in London? Here’s how that works. Our other bases: Manchester film crew · Bristol film crew · Cornwall, where we started · Film crew hire across the UK. Shooting in Europe as well? We run it from London: send the cities and dates.
Hiring a film crew in London: questions
How much does it cost to hire a film crew in London?
You pay each crew member’s day rate, which goes to them in full, plus our 10% booking fee and 2% insurance on everything we book, kit included. A DOP and a sound recordist for the day comes to £1,568 + VAT. London adds its own lines to the quote: parking bays, the Congestion Charge (£18 a day) and, for a van that misses the standard, ULEZ (£12.50 a day), both checked October 2026. If we’re the producer of record, it’s quoted as a production instead: everything at cost, plus a 15% production fee and 5% for insurance and contingency.
What’s the difference between crew hire and a full production?
Who’s the producer of record. With crew hire, you or your producer run the shoot and carry the production: we find, book, brief and pay the crew, and book kit or travel if you want it, for 10% plus 2% insurance. With a full production, we take it on: our producer plans and runs it, and we book and pay for the crew, kit, locations, the borough and TfL permits, and travel in our name, on one contract. That’s quoted as a production: everything at cost, plus 15% and 5% for insurance and contingency.
How far ahead should I book a crew in London?
Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours and comes back with names and the full price. What usually sets the date is permission, not crew. The FilmFixer boroughs ask for three working days’ notice for a small shoot and five for a medium one; Westminster three working days for seven people or fewer, 10 with parking, and 15 for a bigger crew; the City one to three weeks by size; the Royal Parks five working days for 10 or fewer; TfL three weeks; and a drone in the restricted zones at least 21 days for NATS clearance. All checked October 2026.
Do I need permission to film on a London street?
Usually, and it comes from the borough, not one city office. Each borough has a film service: FilmFixer runs Camden, Islington, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Kensington and Chelsea, and Greenwich, while Westminster, the City, Hackney and Lambeth run their own. In the FilmFixer boroughs, five people or fewer with handheld kit or a tripod, leaving 1.5m of pavement clear, can generally film without a permit; Westminster allows five or fewer, handheld only, with 2m clear. Anything bigger needs a permit and £5m public liability. The Royal Parks, TfL, Network Rail and private estates such as Canary Wharf each give their own permission. On a full production we apply for all of it; on a crew hire it’s yours, and we’ll tell you which office to call. Checked October 2026.
Can you fly a drone in London?
Yes, with the right permissions: there’s no London-wide ban. The City, Hyde Park and the Isle of Dogs are restricted areas, so a flight there needs NATS clearance, applied for at least 21 days ahead. Heathrow’s zone needs a permit through the NATS portal at least 14 days ahead, and RAF Northolt wants 21 working days. Then the landowner: Canary Wharf and Battersea Power Station allow no drones at all, and the Royal Parks only with written permission. Since 1 January 2026 the pilot needs a Flyer ID from 100g and an Operator ID from 250g, or 100g with a camera, and flies no higher than 120m. Checked October 2026.
How do parking, the Congestion Charge and ULEZ work on a shoot?
Every unit vehicle pays the Congestion Charge inside the zone: £18 a day since 2 January 2026, 7am to 6pm on weekdays and noon to 6pm at weekends and on bank holidays, and vans pay the same as cars. ULEZ covers every London borough, 24 hours a day: a van that isn’t Euro 6 diesel or Euro 4 petrol pays £12.50 a day on top. Parking bays are suspended through the borough: in Westminster from £51 a bay on the first day, with 10 working days’ notice; in Camden £100.35 a bay on the first day, with five working days’ notice for pay-and-display bays. Each goes on the quote as its own line. Checked October 2026.
Can you film on the Tube?
Yes, with TfL’s permission, and it takes planning. TfL wants at least three weeks’ notice (15 working days), £10m public liability and a site-specific risk assessment. A location permit for up to 10 crew is £900 an hour plus VAT and staff costs, with supervision from £70 an hour, and filming runs 10am to 3.30pm and 8pm to 11.30pm on weekdays. On trains in service it’s a small crew with lightweight handheld kit; tripods are at the staff’s discretion and never on platforms. For full control, TfL lets Aldwych as an exclusive area, from £2,000 an hour plus VAT. Checked October 2026.
Can you book a studio or a cove in London?
Yes, on the same quote as the crew. We’ve shot at Many Rooms in Battersea, Loft Studios on Scrubs Lane and JJ Studios’ HIDE in Shoreditch, which now trades as JJ Spaces. For drive-in stages and coves, London studios include Black Island and Dukes Island in Acton, Park Royal Studios and Klatch in Park Royal, Big Sky near King’s Cross and 3 Mills in Bow. On a crew hire the studio goes on at the same 10% + 2% as everything else we book.
Can you be the employer of record for an overseas production?
Not in the payroll sense: most UK film crew are freelance. Instead, your contract is with us, a UK company. We contract and pay the UK crew, hold £10m employers’ liability, and send one invoice, so you don’t need a UK company to shoot in London. Your own travelling team stays on your payroll. If you’d rather we ran it as your production service company, we’re the producer of record and our policy covers the shoot, £10m public liability included.
Do London crew bring their own kit?
Many own theirs, from camera packages to gaffer vans, and it goes on the quote as its own line so you can compare. Otherwise we hire it in: London kit houses include ARRI Rental in Uxbridge, VMI and Shoot Blue in Acton, One Stop Films in Park Royal and The Kit Room in Hoxton, and we’ve hired from Panavision in Greenford and FOMO Rentals in east London. Kit we hire in goes on at the same 10% + 2%.
Are your crew insured?
Yes. Every crew member we book is covered by our employers’ liability insurance, up to £10m, and the kit we hire in for you is insured too. That’s what the 2% on a crew booking pays for, and it’s all it covers: public liability, the location and your own kit stay with you as the producer of record. That matters in London, where the boroughs and the Royal Parks ask for £5m public liability, TfL and Canary Wharf for £10m and Network Rail for up to £10m, and on a crew hire the certificate they want is yours. A large kit rental may need extra insurance, as its own line on the quote. When we’re the producer of record, on a full production, our policy covers the shoot, with £10m public liability and certificates naming your venue.
Our London office
Address:
Here Now Films,
124 City Rd,
London EC1V 2NX
Hours:
Monday to Friday
9am to 6pm
Tube: Old Street is the nearest station
Finding us: in Shoreditch, opposite Barclays and above the opticians, in the red-brick Victorian building
Parking: none on site
Directions: Directions to City Road