Jobs in screen · What it pays
Nobody publishes this properly for somebody deciding whether to start. So we will.
ScreenSkills’ job profiles carry no salary field at all — not “variable”, nothing. The National Careers Service publishes “Variable” pay and “40 to 55 variable” hours for a production runner, with no screen-sector texture behind it. Bectu publishes real rate cards as public documents, but they are written for people already negotiating a deal.
Nobody joins pay, hours, insecurity and progression together for a specific crew role. That gap is why people decide about a career on a rumour. Below is the join-up, with every figure carrying the card it came from and the month that card was issued.
Entry and early grades
Day rates, with the card and the year they came from.
| Role | Typical day rate | Typical week | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production runner | £145 – £175 | 50 – 60 hrs | Bectu/Pact Feature Film Agreement, entry grade · indicative, reviewed annually |
| Camera trainee | £180 – £215 | 50 – 60 hrs | Bectu Camera Branch published card, trainee grade · indicative, reviewed annually |
| Clapper loader (2nd AC) | £300 – £380 | 50 – 60 hrs | Bectu Camera Branch published card, 2nd AC · indicative, reviewed annually |
| Focus puller (1st AC) | £440 – £540 | 50 – 60 hrs | Bectu Camera Branch published card, 1st AC · indicative, reviewed annually |
| Electrician / spark | £330 – £400 | 50 – 60 hrs | Bectu/Pact lighting grades, standard 10-hour day · indicative, reviewed annually |
| Grip | £360 – £440 | 50 – 60 hrs | Bectu/Pact grip grades, standard 10-hour day · indicative, reviewed annually |
| Sound trainee / 2nd AS | £185 – £230 | 50 – 60 hrs | Bectu Production Sound card, trainee and 2nd AS grades · indicative, reviewed annually |
| Third assistant director | £265 – £330 | 55 – 65 hrs | Bectu Assistant Directors card, 3rd AD grade · indicative, reviewed annually |
| Art department trainee | £170 – £205 | 50 – 60 hrs | Bectu Art Department card, trainee grade · indicative, reviewed annually |
Every figure publishes with the card it came from and the month that card was issued, so you can check it against the source yourself. A rate without a date is a rumour with a pound sign on it.
These are indicative 2026 ranges for scripted feature and high-end television work in the UK, read across Bectu’s published branch cards for camera, art department, assistant directors, costume, production sound, SFX and animation and VFX, and the Bectu/Pact agreements that sit under them. They are guidance, not an offer and not a negotiated rate — low-budget, unscripted, commercials and factual work pay differently, sometimes by half. Rates are quoted per shooting day, before overtime, holiday pay and any kit hire, and are reviewed annually. Last checked September 2026.
How the money arrives
Six things a rate card does not tell you.
A day rate is not a salary
A quoted £250 day only becomes an annual figure if you multiply it by the days you get booked, which nobody can promise you and nobody publishes.
Most of it is freelance
You invoice. You chase. Tax, insurance, holiday and pension are yours to arrange, and sick pay is one of them — which is why the good years get planned around the thin ones.
A drama block is not a year
Ten weeks on a high-end drama is good money and then it stops. The gap between jobs is the part that decides whether the career works.
Overtime is real money
A twelve-hour day with turnaround and penalties attached is a materially different rate from the headline. It is also a materially different life.
Kit hire is separate
Some grades are expected to bring equipment and are paid a hire fee on top. Others are not, and being asked to supply kit unpaid is a rate cut in disguise.
Getting there costs you
Travel, accommodation and the first month before an invoice clears are the real barrier to entry, far more often than the rate itself.
What a careers talk leaves out
Some people find this a fair trade. Some do not, and that is a reasonable conclusion.
The Film and TV Charity’s Looking Glass research is the evidence on hours, insecurity and mental health in this workforce. Here it is in plain terms.
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We would rather you knew all of this before you started than after. If it changes your mind, the page has done its job.
What to do with this
Three next moves, depending on what the numbers made you think.
It is doable, but only just
Bursaries, travel and subsistence support and the trainee grant exist so that money is not the thing that decides.
I want to see the whole ladder
Trainee to head of department, rung by rung, with a note on which rungs are missing.
I still do not know what the jobs are
Around two hundred job titles exist on a set. Most people can name five, and that opacity is itself a barrier.
Reviewed every September against the cards then in force. Last checked September 2026.
