Film Crew Hire in Birmingham

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. Birmingham adds its own lines to the quote: parking suspensions at £18.90 a bay, Production Central WM’s street permit from £84 plus VAT, and, for a car or van below Euro 6 diesel or Euro 4 petrol inside the A4540 Middleway, the Clean Air Zone at £8 a day, all 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, and every production starts at £9,500.

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 Production Central WM, canal and Network Rail 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.

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. Production Central WM asks for five working days for a small-scale shoot and four weeks for a large one; seven days for kit on the highway, 14 days for a residents’ letter drop, and 21 days for a road closure (checked October 2026). The Canal & River Trust wants five working days too, New Street adds £500 with less than five working days’ notice, and a drone inside Birmingham Airport’s zone needs at least 14 days for air traffic control.

On council land, yes. Filming on council land in Birmingham goes through Production Central WM, the West Midlands film office, which took over from Film Birmingham and covers the seven combined-authority councils: Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Dudley. Applications go through its Open Brolly portal. Birmingham’s 2026–27 street filming permit is £84 for a crew of up to ten and £191 for 11 to 24, plus VAT; a parking suspension is £18.90 a bay, and applying inside two business days adds £182 (checked October 2026). Production Central WM asks for at least £5m public liability and a risk assessment before it issues a permit. Filming after 23:00 has to be agreed in advance, and only the police can stop traffic. The canals need the Canal & River Trust and New Street needs Network Rail, each on top. On a full production we apply for all of it; on a crew hire it’s yours, and we’ll tell you who to ask.

Yes, with the right permissions. Birmingham Airport’s flight restriction zone is a 2.5-nautical-mile circle around the airport, plus zones off each end of the runway, up to 2,000 feet. Flying inside it needs air traffic control’s permission, through the NATS portal, with at least 14 days’ notice. A drone permit from Production Central WM is £229, with a flight map, RAMS and £5m to £10m insurance, and five working days’ notice (checked October 2026). The landowner has to agree too, and over the water the Canal & River Trust charges £179 an hour plus VAT for a commercial drone and allows no recreational ones. Since 1 January 2026 the pilot needs a Flyer ID from 100g and an Operator ID from 250g, or 100g with a camera.

Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone covers every road inside the A4540 Middleway ring road, around the clock. A car or van below Euro 6 diesel or Euro 4 petrol pays £8 a day, an HGV or coach £50 (checked October 2026). It’s paid online, up to six days before or by 23:59 on the sixth day after; miss it and the penalty is £120, or £60 within 14 days. Parking bays are suspended through Production Central WM at £18.90 a bay, for technical vehicles only, parked next to the filming, and a yellow-line dispensation takes five working days. Each goes on the quote as its own line.

Yes, with the owner’s permission. Birmingham New Street is a Network Rail managed station: corporate and commercial filming is £750 an hour for up to ten crew, two hours minimum, plus VAT, weekdays 10:00 to 16:00 or after 20:00 only, with up to £10m public liability (checked October 2026). Less than five working days’ notice adds £500, and filming can’t run into the peak hours. The canals, Gas Street Basin and Farmer’s Bridge Locks among them, belong to the Canal & River Trust: online video from £196 an hour plus VAT, five working days’ notice and £5m public liability (checked October 2026). Requests go through the Trust’s FilmApp.

Yes, on the same quote as the crew. The city’s studios include Steven Knight’s Digbeth Loc. Studios, home to Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man; Curzon Street Studios in Eastside (Studio A is 14 by 17 metres with a 6.1-metre grid); and the BBC’s Tea Factory in Digbeth, due to open in 2027. We check what’s free for your dates, and on a crew hire the studio goes on at the same 10% + 2% as everything else we book.

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 Birmingham. 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.

Many own theirs, from camera packages to lighting kits, and it goes on the quote as its own line so you can compare. Otherwise we hire it in: Birmingham kit houses include Media Dog Hire at the NEC, and Wex Rental, collected from Wex Photo Video on Hagley Road. Specialist kit can come up from London or across from Manchester. Kit we hire in goes on at the same 10% + 2%.

Yes. Our insurance on a crew booking covers two things: employers’ liability for every crew member we book, up to £10m, and the kit we hire in for you. That’s what the 2% pays for. A large kit rental may need extra insurance, as its own line on the quote. The 2% doesn’t insure the rest of the shoot: public liability, the location, your own kit and anything you book yourself stay with you, because you’re the producer of record. If you’d rather we were, it’s quoted as a full production, and our insurance covers the whole shoot, public liability included. In Birmingham, Production Central WM and the Canal & River Trust ask for £5m public liability and Network Rail up to £10m at New Street (checked October 2026), and on a crew hire the certificate they want is yours.

Our base is in London, at 124 City Road, with bases in Manchester, Bristol and Cornwall. Birmingham crews are booked by our producers, with crew from Birmingham where we can and from Manchester, London or Bristol where the brief needs them, and the travel goes on the quote before anything is booked. New Street is 1 hour 17 minutes from London Euston on the fastest trains, about an hour and a half from Manchester Piccadilly and an hour and a quarter from Bristol Temple Meads; Birmingham International, for the airport and the NEC, is ten minutes out (checked October 2026).