Film and Production Crews Landing in Edinburgh: Kit, Recces and Call Times

Kit is the constraint, always

Camera bodies, lenses, lighting, sound and grip travel in rigid flight cases that are heavy and cannot be squeezed. A crew of four with personal luggage and eight cases is a two-vehicle job, and pretending otherwise wastes everybody's morning. Send a manifest — case count and rough dimensions — and we confirm the vehicle plan before the shoot rather than at the terminal. If kit is arriving separately by freight, say so, because that changes the answer completely.

Recce days have no itinerary

A location recce is by definition open-ended: you look at a glen, decide it is wrong, and want to see two others before dark. That suits a car booked by the day rather than by the journey, with a driver who knows which of these roads a unit truck can actually get down and where a generator could stand. We price recce days as day hire with a fixed figure, so changing the plan four times does not change the invoice.

Call times and confidentiality

Unit call times routinely mean pickups before five in the morning, and there is no surcharge for that — the fixed figure covers the day whenever it starts. Confidentiality is assumed rather than requested: what is discussed in the car, what the shoot is, and who is in it are not talked about. For productions that need it, we work to whatever NDA the production office uses.

Setting up a production booking

1. Send a kit manifest with case count and rough dimensions.
2. Say whether kit flies with the crew or arrives by freight.
3. Book recce days as day hire, not point to point.
4. Send the NDA if the production office requires one.