Where you are · 05
You are now the person other people check their offer against.
At this grade the questions change. Not what does the job pay, but what am I offering and can I defend it. Not is this safe, but I am the one signing that it is. Not how do I get into the guild, but which of the people I am hiring should be in it.
There is very little published for heads of department that is not a sales document. What follows is the framework you are already working inside, plus the two purchases nobody makes early enough.
The order
Three things you are now responsible for.
01
Know the framework you are hiring inside
The published agreements and grading schemes are what your crew will check your offer against, whether or not the production mentions them. Knowing them better than the people you hire is part of the grade.
02
Join at your grade, and use the directory
At this level the gate is the point. The events are the product and the directory entry is what productions search when they are crewing at short notice.
03
Understand what you are signing
A risk assessment with your name on it is a personal responsibility, not a form. At this grade safety stops being something you are told and becomes something you own.
The list
Six things, and every one of these links out.
Bectu — agreements and grading schemes (opens in a new tab) · Free to read · heads of department
The agreements, the grading and the terms you are hiring inside. You are now the person other people check their offer against.
Bectu — rate cards (opens in a new tab) · Free · published third-party data
A rate card is a floor rather than a ceiling, and the crew you want will know the number before you say it.
HSE — theatre, film, television and broadcasting (opens in a new tab) · Free · statutory guidance · anyone signing a risk assessment
The regulator’s own guidance for keeping workers and the public safe on productions. This is the source, not a summary of it.
The Mark Milsome Foundation — online production safety course (opens in a new tab) · Independently certified · check the cost on their page · group rates exist
Created after the death of camera operator Mark Milsome on set in 2017. Productions increasingly ask crew to evidence it, and at this grade you are the person who decides whether your department has.
Production Guild UK (opens in a new tab) · Free to read · paid membership · production, accounts, locations, post
Training, masterclasses and the network for the grades that hold the budget. The natural professional home for production management in the UK.
ScreenSkills — skills checklists (opens in a new tab) · Free · no account · used from the other side
The same documents a freelancer uses to plan their development work equally well as a job description when you are writing a crew brief or interviewing. They are published under both headings deliberately.
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.
The gates
What each body’s door actually is.
| Kind of body | What the gate is |
|---|---|
| A trade union | Open to anybody doing the work. Membership is a subscription, not an assessment, and the published cards are free to read whether you join or not. |
| A craft guild | Usually gated by credits at full grade, with cheaper associate tiers below it. Join at the grade you are; the directory entry is what productions search. |
| An honorary society | Gated by election or invitation. Nothing you can apply your way into, and not a thing to plan around. |
| A representation or peer network | Usually free, usually open, and frequently the most useful of the four for finding crew you would not otherwise meet. |
What the published material will not tell you
Four things, and the last one is the important one.
- List item text
- List item text
- List item text
- List item text
Then what