Film Crew Hire in Bristol

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. Bristol adds its own lines to the quote: Bristol Film Office’s street permit from £84 plus VAT, a parking suspension at £22 plus VAT a vehicle for a day in a pay and display bay, and, because Bristol’s Clean Air Zone is Class D, £9 a day for a car or van below Euro 6 diesel or Euro 4 petrol, 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.

Yes. We’re a crew agency with 2,800+ freelance crew on our books across the UK, 150+ of them in and around Bristol and Bath, so we can scale a crew from one person for a morning to a full unit for a week. We book local crew first. When a shoot needs more hands, or a role Bristol is short of that week, we bring them in from across the South West, Cardiff or London, and the travel is on the quote before anything is booked. Our Bristol office is at Raw Space, 111 Gloucester Road, and our headquarters is in London, at 124 City Road.

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 Bristol Film Office, Bath Film Office 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. Bristol Film Office asks for at least seven days’ notice and a letter to neighbours and businesses seven days before the shoot; a parking suspension takes three working days, Stop/Go traffic control seven days, a road closure of up to two days two weeks, and one of three days or more usually eight to ten weeks (checked October 2026). Temple Meads wants five working days for a crew of up to ten, and adds £500 with less notice.

On council land, yes. Bristol Film Office, part of Bristol City Council and based at The Bottle Yard Studios, permits filming on council land, and applications go through FilmApp. It covers the city only: Bath and North East Somerset has its own film office. A commercial shoot on council-managed land needs a permit; news filming doesn’t, unless it flies a drone. Bristol’s 2026–27 street filming permit is £84 for a crew of up to ten and £163 for 11 to 40; parks, green spaces and the harbourside are £178 for up to ten, all plus VAT (checked October 2026). Bristol Film Office asks for at least £5m public liability and a full risk assessment with every application. Night shoots need the go-ahead from the Film Office and Avon and Somerset Police first. Clifton Suspension Bridge has its own trust and Temple Meads 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. Taking off or landing on Bristol council land needs a Film Office permit, from £245 a day, with seven days’ notice; city centre flights are considered only early on Sunday mornings, and nothing takes off from a road without a road closure, sub-250g drones included (checked October 2026). The Film Office wants a risk assessment and method statement, £5m public liability, the pilot’s A2 CofC or GVC, and a map of the take-off, landing and flight path. Drones of 250g or more stay 50 metres from Clifton Suspension Bridge. Around Bristol Airport, check the flight restriction zone on the NATS Drone Assist app: inside an airport’s zone, up to 2,000 feet, you need air traffic control’s permission. Since 1 January 2026 the pilot needs a Flyer ID from 100g and an Operator ID from 250g, or 100g with a camera.

Bristol’s Clean Air Zone is Class D, so it charges cars as well as vans: £9 a day for a car or van below Euro 6 diesel or Euro 4 petrol, £100 for an HGV or coach, around the clock. Bath’s zone is Class C and doesn’t charge private cars (checked October 2026). It’s paid on GOV.UK, up to six days before, on the day or up to six days after, and the charge runs midnight to midnight, so a vehicle that crosses midnight pays twice; miss it and the penalty is £120 plus the charge, or £60 plus the charge within 14 days. A parking suspension in Bristol needs three working days: one day in a pay and display bay is £22 + VAT per vehicle, and several days £15 + VAT per bay per day plus a £30 coning fee (checked October 2026). Unit bases at Ashton Court’s Church Lodge car park and Redcliffe Wharf are £600 a day plus VAT. Each goes on the quote as its own line.

Yes, with the owner’s permission. Clifton Suspension Bridge belongs to its own trust: handheld cameras are welcome, a tripod needs a word with a Bridge Attendant and an indemnity form, and drones of 250g or more must stay 50 metres from the bridge (checked October 2026). Commercial filming is agreed case by case with the Bridge Master, with charges on request, and closing the bridge to the public costs extra. Bristol Temple Meads is a Network Rail managed station: corporate and commercial filming is £750 an hour for up to ten crew, two hours minimum, plus VAT, on weekdays 10:00 to 16:00 or 20:00 to 06:30, with up to £10m public liability (checked October 2026). Less than five working days’ notice adds £500, and a shoot can’t run into the peak hours.

Yes, on the same quote as the crew. The Bottle Yard Studios in Whitchurch, the largest film and TV studio in the West of England, has 11 stages across two sites, the biggest 21,700 sq ft, plus a 5,000 sq ft green screen studio (checked October 2026). For interviews and product days, Floating Harbour Studios has a 90m² black box on a 1905 Dutch barge on Welsh Back, Qu Studios in Bedminster a white infinity cove and a green screen cove, and Factory Studios in Barton Hill an 82m² studio with an infinity cove. 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.

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: Bristol’s kit houses include Films at 59 Rental in Clifton and at The Bottle Yard, VI Rental and Grip Services at The Bottle Yard, and Floating Harbour Studios on Welsh Back. Specialist kit can come down from London. Kit we hire in goes on at the same 10% + 2%.

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 Bristol. 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.

Two things. Employers’ liability for every crew member we book, up to £10m, and insurance on 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 Bristol, the Film Office asks for £5m public liability and Network Rail up to £10m at Temple Meads (checked October 2026), and on a crew hire the certificate they want is yours.