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Learning path · Production

Locations

The locations job: finding and scouting, recces, permission and releases, and looking after a location properly.

Free films in teaching order, for one craft. Watch, tick them off and test yourself. It's practice that prepares you for an Academy course. This one prepares you for Production office and AD Foundation.

13 lessons · About 1.5 hours · New to set to stepping up · Not started

Lesson 1

Lone Workers

Health and Safety Executive · 2:42 · original on YouTube

You will learn: Know what lone working means and how to stay safe doing it.

Note: Official HSE film. Think of a recce on your own at an empty farm.

Safety first

The public, permissions, weather and working alone

Locations brings the unit into the real world: roads, homes, farms, beaches and derelict buildings. The department's safety job is to find the hazards first, get the permissions, and keep the public and the crew apart.

The hazards

  1. Recces and lone workingScouts and location managers often go alone to empty or remote places. Tell someone where you're going and when you'll be back, keep your phone charged, and don't enter a building that looks unsafe. HSE treats this as lone working.
  2. Old and derelict buildingsRotten floors, open shafts, pigeon waste, sharps and asbestos. A building is surveyed before the unit arrives, and nobody drills, scrapes or rigs into old fabric until it's cleared.
  3. The public and the roadPavements stay passable, cables are covered or flown, and vehicles move under a marshal. Stopping or controlling traffic is done only with the council and the police, by licensed traffic management. Tell the police in advance about anything that could alarm the public.
  4. PermissionsWritten agreement from the owner, the council's film office for public land, and parking and unit base agreed in advance. Letter drops tell neighbours what's happening and who to call.
  5. Weather, water and tidesCheck Met Office warnings before every exterior day and recce. Coasts, rivers and cliffs need a specialist plan: tides turn fast.
  6. Unit baseGenerators sit away from doors, windows and vents (exhaust fumes), with fuel stored safely. Toilets, water, shelter and a clear emergency route. A&E and the location address go on the call sheet.

Who is responsible

  • The location manager finds the hazards, gets the permissions and writes the location's part of the risk assessment.
  • The unit manager runs the unit base and facilities on the day.
  • Location assistants and marshals keep the public safe and the routes clear.
  • The producer signs off the risk assessment and the insurance.

As a trainee, never

  • Never recce alone without telling someone where you are.
  • Never enter a building that hasn't been checked, or go past a 'do not enter' sign.
  • Never stop traffic yourself.

Anyone can say stop. If something feels wrong, say so to your head of department or the 1st AD.

Where this comes from

  • HSE: lone workingKeeping people safe when they work alone, including on recces and late calls.
  • HSE: asbestosWhy old buildings are surveyed before anyone drills, scrapes or rigs.
  • HSE: managing risks and risk assessmentWhat a risk assessment is, and the employer's duty under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
  • Met Office: UK weather warningsCheck before every exterior day and recce.
  • Your council's film officeMost UK councils have a film office or filming officer for permits on public land. Your regional screen agency can point you to them.
  • HSE: theatre, film and TVThe Health and Safety Executive's guidance for the screen and stage industries.

Checked 13 November 2026. This is awareness, not a safety qualification: follow your production's risk assessment and your head of department.

Check yourself

4 situations. Get them all right.

Pass the safety check before the rest of the path. One wrong safety answer means try again. It's practice, and your answers stay on this device.

Question 1: You're recceing an empty mill on your own. The ground-floor door is open but there's a 'danger: unsafe floor' sign. What do you do?

Question 2: The director wants a shot of an actor running into a busy high street. What does locations arrange?

Question 3: The unit generator is being set up beside the open kitchen window of the house you're filming in. What do you do?

Question 4: A Met Office amber wind warning is issued for tomorrow's clifftop exterior. What happens?

By the end you will be able to

  • Explain what location managers and scouts do
  • Scout a location for story, light, power, sound and logistics
  • Run a recce and a tech recce with heads of department
  • Know when you need permission, permits and location releases in the UK

Test yourself

Could you do it on a set?

4 real situations, one for each thing this path teaches. It's optional practice, not pass or fail, and your answers stay on this device.

What's the difference between a location scout and a location manager?

Apart from how it looks, what do you check on a scout?

Who usually comes on a tech recce?

You want to film on a public street in a London borough. What do you need?

Next: do it for real

This path prepares you for Production office and AD Foundation.

How a production runs from office to floor: call sheets and schedules, breakdowns, paperwork and releases, locations, risk assessments and insurance in a UK frame, and floor running on the radio.

It's coming next: register interest and we'll tell you when it opens. Meanwhile, start with Day One.

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How learning with FIF works

Learning path. Free films in teaching order, for one craft. Watch, tick them off and test yourself. It's practice that prepares you for an Academy course.

  1. Learn onlineFree films, paths and Academy coursesYou are here
  2. Competency checkA short check with us, online or in person
  3. In-person practicalOn our unit at Pinewood or 3 Mills
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