Where you are · 02
You have been offered a first day.
Almost nobody is sent home from a first day for not knowing something technical. People are quietly not asked back for standing in the wrong place, talking over the radio, walking through a shot, touching kit that was not theirs, or disappearing at the moment they were needed.
All of that is learnable in an evening and none of it is taught anywhere obvious. This is that evening. It is for runners, trainees, placements, people crossing over from another industry, and anybody who has been offered a day and is now lying awake about it.
Where to start
Two hours, in this order.
01
The shape of the industry first
An introductory module from the sector skills body takes about a quarter of an hour and explains who is on a set, what the departments do and how the contracts work. Do it first, because every other video assumes you already know this and none of them says so.
02
Then learn to read a call sheet
The call sheet is the document your whole day runs on. Read a real filled-in one before somebody hands you one in the dark at half past five. Free worked examples are easier to learn from than any explanation of a blank template.
03
Then the etiquette, last
Set etiquette only makes sense once you know what the departments are doing. Take it in that order and it reads as common sense rather than a list of arbitrary rules.
The list
Free, checked, and enough.
Each of these has been opened and read. Where a source is an archive rather than an active channel we say so, because writing about craft ages far better than writing about kit.
ScreenSkills — Introduction to working in the screen industries (opens in a new tab) · Free · free account · 18+ · about a quarter of an hour
Production processes across film, high-end television, unscripted, animation, VFX and games, the roles available, and the contracts you may be offered. Do it first, because every other video assumes you already know this and none of them says so.
StudioBinder — call sheets, shot lists and breakdowns (opens in a new tab) · Free templates · paid software · read before your first call
Downloadable templates plus worked examples and a written explanation of what each field means. Print a filled-in call sheet, sit with it, and stop being frightened of the piece of paper.
The Black and Blue (opens in a new tab) · Free · written archive · runners and trainees
Camera assisting, slating, marking and set conduct, including the clearest writing anywhere on what juniors do that irritates their seniors. Treat it as an archive: the craft advice has aged well, the kit references have not.
Crash Course Film Production (opens in a new tab) · Free · 15 episodes, about 10 minutes each
Screenplays, crew, departments, production management and delivery. It explains the whole machine in one sitting, which is exactly the map a first-day runner is missing. Take the departments episodes before you take anybody’s etiquette advice.
ScreenSkills — job profiles (opens in a new tab) · Free · no account · before you pick a department
What each job is, what a day looks like, what you need to know, and how people get in. A reality check before you commit a year to chasing a department.
ScreenSkills — Getting into the screen industries (opens in a new tab) · Free · five modules · for the second day, not the first
Identifying a role, finding work, applying and interviewing. The second day is the one that matters and it is asked for, not offered.
The Film and TV Charity support line — 0800 054 0000 (opens in a new tab) · Free · confidential · 24 hours · no membership needed
Open to everybody working behind the scenes in film, television and cinema, including trainees and freelancers. Mental health, money, legal problems, bullying and discrimination. Put the number in your phone today rather than on the bad day. An independent organisation, unconnected to us.
The Mark Milsome Foundation — online production safety course (opens in a new tab) · Independently certified · about an hour and a quarter · check the cost on their page
Created after the death of camera operator Mark Milsome on set in 2017. The closest thing the UK has to a baseline production safety credential for a new entrant, and the cheapest credible line on a CV with no credits.
We have not linked a set etiquette video. There are hundreds and most are one person’s opinions filmed in a car. The etiquette that matters is in the Crash Course episodes on departments and in The Black and Blue archive, which both explain why the rule exists.
Every link here goes to the owner’s own page, in a new tab. How we treat other people’s work · Last checked September 2026.
Money on it
One real cost nobody warns you about
Your own travel and food for the day
A day on a distant unit can cost you real money before you have earned any, and for most people that is the barrier rather than any lack of knowledge. If the cost of getting to a set, or of a safety course, is the thing standing in your way, say so — funded places and travel support exist for exactly that.
A real cost
If the cost of a safety course or of getting to a set is the thing standing in your way, say so. Funded places and travel support exist for exactly that.
The paperwork
Four documents your day runs on.
| Document | What it is, and what you do with it |
|---|---|
| Call sheet | Where to be, when, and who else is there. Read it the night before, twice. Everything about your day is on that one page. |
| Movement order | How to get to the location and where to park. The commonest reason a first day starts badly. |
| Risk assessment | What the production has decided is dangerous and what it has decided to do about it. You are allowed to read it and you are allowed to ask. |
| Deal memo | What you are being paid, for how many hours, and what happens after them. Get it before the day, in writing, however small the job. |
What actually gets people asked back
None of it is technical.
- List item text
- List item text
- List item text
- List item text
- List item text
- List item text
- List item text
Then what
Pick the department you are going to be standing in.
You do not have to choose today. But a runner who knows what they are aiming at gets asked different questions from a runner who does not.
Production and assistant directing
Where most people actually enter, and the department with the most job titles.
Any word you hear on the day and did not understand is in the glossary, in UK terms.
Where the gap gets filled
On a working unit, with somebody watching you.
A production simulation is a working unit with a call sheet, real kit, real departments and real pressure, run so that when you get it wrong somebody stops and tells you rather than quietly noting it. Set Ready is the shorter version and where most people with no experience start.
If this page is all you ever take from us, it has done its job.
Futures in Film x Screen Sisters SPACS Production Simulation at 3 Mills
To be embedded once uploaded.
