Careers A–Z · Production
Runner
The runner is the entry grade on a unit and the commonest way into the industry. You are paid to be useful, everywhere, all day.
It is not a career. It is a year or two in which the whole industry gets to see whether you are worth training.
The basics
Also known as, and where the grade sits.
| Runner | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Runner, floor runner, unit runner, production runner. Post production runner is the equivalent in a facility. |
| Level | Entry. |
| Reports to | The 3rd AD on the floor, or the production coordinator in the office. |
| Comes after | Nothing. This is the door. |
| Leads to | Any department. 3rd AD, camera trainee, art department assistant, production secretary. |
The job
What does a runner do?
You do what needs doing. Setting up unit base, moving equipment, driving, lockups, walkie-talkies charged, teas and coffees, paperwork distributed, and finding the one person nobody can find.
Floor runners work to the ADs and hold the edges of a set. Production runners work to the office and keep the machine supplied. Both jobs are mostly logistics and goodwill.
The unglamorous end: long hours, low pay for the responsibility, standing in the cold on a lockup, and being blamed for a coffee order. The compensation is that you see every department at work.
The requirement
What is a runner good at?
Attitude decides everything at this grade. Almost nothing else does.
Reliability
Early, present, and where you said you would be.
Initiative
Doing the obvious next thing without being told twice.
Cheerfulness
Under pressure, at hour twelve, with wet feet.
Discretion
You hear everything. Repeat none of it.
Driving
A clean licence widens the jobs open to you enormously.
Kit
Tools of the trade.
| What | The actual items |
|---|---|
| Radio | Walkie-talkie, earpiece, spare batteries, and the channel discipline that goes with them. |
| Paperwork | Call sheets, movement orders, risk assessments, and a pen somebody else can borrow. |
| Vehicle | A car or van, a clean licence, and the sense to plan a route before setting off. |
| Kit | Hi-vis, waterproofs, torch, gaffer tape, cones, and a bag that holds all of it. |
| Phone | Charged, on silent, with the unit list and the shared drive on it. |
The unit
Who does a runner work with?
| Who | What passes between you |
|---|---|
| 3rd AD | Your instructions on the floor, and your lockup. |
| Production coordinator | Office tasks, movement, paperwork and travel. |
| Every department | You will be sent to all of them. Learn their names first. |
| Locations | Access, parking, cones, signage and the neighbours. |
| Cast | Politely, and only when the ADs ask you to. |
Routes in
How do I become a runner?
The most open door in the industry, and the one worth using well.
Direct application
Production offices, facilities houses and studios hire runners constantly.
Trainee schemes
Funded entry schemes place runners on drama and features.
Crewing agencies
Agencies and crew databases fill runner jobs at short notice.
Local and regional
Work coming to your area needs local crew who know the roads.
A degree is not required for this grade and it will not put you ahead of somebody with a driving licence and a good attitude. Many runners have one; it is not what got them the job.
The thing that moves you off runner is a head of department who asks for you by name.
Nearby
The grades either side of this one.
Runners go everywhere next. Pick the department you want.
Production department guide
The paperwork, the office, the published rates and the free route through all three.
Never been on a set? Start here. Offered a first day? Read this first. Want to know where this grade leads? Where people have gone names people who trained here and the productions they went to.
