Working in Film and Television Crew in Ireland

It is six in the morning in a car park outside Ardmore Studios in Bray. A locations assistant is taping cable runs to the tarmac before the camera trucks arrive. The director of photography has not yet appeared. The first assistant director is already on the radio. You, as a floor runner, are being asked to find a specific type of gaffer tape, a double espresso and a missing costume rail, in that order, before the unit call time in forty minutes. This is not a metaphor for the industry. This is the industry.

The departments that actually need people

A film or television set runs on departments, each with its own hierarchy. The ones consistently short of entry-level crew in Ireland are the art department, locations, camera, grip and electrical. The art department — covering props, set decoration and construction — draws heavily on people with backgrounds in theatre, architecture and fine art. Grip and electrical work, which handles the physical rigging of cameras and lights, transfers well from construction and live events. If you have worked a festival stage in Marlay Park or rigged lighting for a touring theatre company, you already understand load-bearing safety, working at height and the logic of a call sheet.

Production departments on longer shoots — drama series rather than single features — also hire production assistants and coordinators. This is administrative and logistical work: managing call sheets, travel, accommodation, clearances. It is unglamorous and essential, and it is one of the more reliable entry points because the skills required — organisation, discretion, the ability to track many moving parts — are not exclusive to film.

How people get their first credit

Screen Ireland, the state agency, runs or co-funds trainee placement schemes that attach new crew members to funded productions. Places are competitive and the schemes change depending on what is in production. Checking Screen Ireland's own site regularly is not optional if you want to use this route. These placements matter because your first credit on a production that went to festival or broadcast is a reference point that travels with you for years.

The more common path is less structured. Someone who has worked in theatre stage management contacts a production coordinator they met at a wrap party. A runner who made themselves useful on a short film shot in Cork gets called for a longer shoot in Wicklow the following spring. Word of mouth is not a soft concept here — it is the actual mechanism. A production coordinator hiring for a six-week drama shoot in Galway is not posting on jobs boards for the most part. They are ringing people whose names came up twice in conversation.

Running — carrying things, driving, sourcing props, standing in fields managing traffic — is how most crew start regardless of what department they end up in. It pays modestly, sometimes not at all on low-budget shorts, and it requires you to be available at short notice for irregular hours. The hard part is that this phase can last longer than you expect, and there is no formal ladder telling you when you move up. You move up when someone with the authority to hire you decides you are ready.

Freelance life between productions

Most Irish film and television crew are self-employed for most or all of their working life. A production hires you for its duration. When it wraps, you are available again. The gap between jobs is not a failure of the industry — it is the structure of the industry.

In practice, experienced crew in busy departments — camera, grip, post-production — move between productions with short gaps. Less experienced crew can face longer periods without work, particularly outside Dublin. The volume of production in Ireland has grown, driven partly by international studios using Irish tax incentive structures, but work remains concentrated around Dublin, Wicklow, Cork and Kerry. Being based in or willing to travel to these locations is not optional for most crew roles.

Revenue from a production job needs to cover tax, PRSI, equipment maintenance if you own kit, and the weeks between jobs. Some crew supplement income through corporate video, events, or related work in advertising production. Understanding how to register as self-employed and manage irregular income is something you will need to sort early. Siptu's Irish Film and Television branch and the screen industry unions hold information relevant to rates and working conditions that is worth knowing before you sign your first contract.

Transferable skills worth naming on your CV

• Stage management and theatre production: scheduling, cueing, physical rigging
• Live events and festival crew: load-in logistics, working at height, crowd and site safety
• Construction trades: set building, carpentry, electrical installation
• Hospitality logistics: catering and unit management on location

Your most useful next step

Go to Screen Ireland's website, read what productions are currently in development or production in Ireland, and identify which department aligns with skills you already have. Then find the short film community in your nearest city — Dublin, Cork, Galway — through social media groups or local film societies, and offer to crew on a no-budget short in that department. One credit with a reliable account of your work is worth considerably more than a CV listing things you almost did.

Where to look next

The bodies that set the rules and run the routes into this work.

• Screen Ireland — Funding, production news and talent schemes
• Screen Skills Ireland — Crew training and trainee placements on productions
• Irish Film & Television Network — Production listings and crew job calls

On Findmino: Film Production Assistant · Camera Operator · Set Designer · Costume Designer