FAQs

Filmbase.uk has been set up by members of the Art and Set Dec departments to provide a central resource for crew working on film and TV projects in the UK.

We are currently only listing Art Department, Set Decoration, Drapes and Props Department crew, but may expand to include other departments soon.

We want to make it easier for crew to find jobs, and for employers to find crew. We also want to support people who are new to the industry and encourage employers to look further afield for crew, beyond the traditional hiring strategy of 'it's who you know'.

It is based on the hugely successful Graphics Union, which over the last few years has grown to list over 250 graphic designers working in the UK film and TV industry. After seeing the success of the Graphics Union, a number of Set Decoration members, who had joined together to form Set Dec United, approached the same team who had built up the Graphics Union, and proposed a collaboration on a website specifically for Art Department and Set Decoration.

The result is Filmbase.uk, which has been rapidly growing since it's official launch in September 2020. For more information, see the About page.

The membership fee is needed to cover all the admin and tech requirements of running a website and service. Our aim is to keep the membership fees as low as possible, particularly for the New to the Industry membership, as we feel financial circumstances are already too much of a barrier for getting into the Industry. At the moment, all the membership fees are being fed straight back into the cost of running the site. This includes the costs of the membership and payment platforms that we use, as well as development fees for building the site and automating job alerts and other areas. Currently, the Job Alerts and member approval are processed by volunteers.

You can fill in the Crew Request form on the relevant Members’ Directory page. There is a Crew Request form for each of the departments. Links can be found here.

You will need to select the crew positions that you are looking for as well as further details of the production, including budget band. Your request will then be emailed, as a Job Alert, to all crew who have selected the relevant options in their profile. You can also request crew by emailing help@filmbase.uk directly.

Crew requests are processed as quickly as possible and often within the hour. The maximum time for processing crew requests is 24 hours. (During the working week)

Job alerts are adverts for crew, posted by employers such as Production Designers, Supervising Art Directors and Set Decorators. They are emailed directly to members of Filmbase. You can see examples of recent Job Alerts that were sent to members on this page.

Accredited Filmbase members (two or more credits) are sent Job Alerts, by email, for jobs where the employer is looking for experienced crew.

You will only receive alerts that match the roles that you select in your profile. You can also choose what budget bands you would like to receive alerts for by selecting options in your profile. 

Employers may also contact you directly from the directory by email.

New to the Industry Filmbase members (less than two credits) are sent Job Alerts, by email, for jobs where the employer is looking for junior crew, or in busy times when experienced crew are not available. Please check the Job Alert details on this page to see if it was sent to Accredited or New to the Industry members.

You will only receive alerts that match the roles that you select in your profile.

Employers may also contact you directly from the directory by email.

Have a look at the Tips for Starting in the Industry page in your Department hub for tips on how to make the most of your profile and receive the most relevant job alerts. It is important to select the roles that are most relevant for your experience.

This is entirely dependent on the number of productions that are in need of crew at any time. We have links with many employers who are all actively using the directories to look for crew. Whether they choose to send a job alert or not for a particular role will be dictated by their own requirements. You will receive more job alerts if you have ticked more roles (up to a maximum of 3 for Accredited members, 6 for New to the Industry members) in your profile. Some grades, particularly the more experienced ones, are in greater demand and will likely receive more alerts.

We sometimes get 4-5 job alerts a day in busy times, but the Film and TV industry is seasonal and there will be times when no crew is needed for several weeks.

You will only receive job alerts for the roles that you have selected in your profile. If you are an Accredited member, you can also choose which budget bands to receive alerts about, so please check which preferences you have chosen. If you are a New to the Industry member then you will be sent job alerts for all budget bands that match your profile settings. You can edit your profile setting here.

Most of the job alerts are for Accredited Members who have 2 or more credits. There are job alerts for New to the Industry members, but not as many.

You can send a job alert to Art Department, Set Decoration or Props Department crew by filling in a Crew Request form.

We currently have three department directories and memberships on Filmbase. These are Art Department, Set Decoration and Props Department. We hope to add further departments (including Prop makers) in the coming months.

You can join any of these departments by selecting them department that you are interested in on the Join page. For the different departments, you can then choose either the Accredited membership or the New to the Industry membership.

If you are not sure which department you want to join, we suggest you pick the department that you have the most experience in for now. If you decided to change departments at a later stage, we will be happy to transfer your membership for you.

With an Art Department or Set Decoration membership, you are able to tick a maximum of 3 roles, across both the Art Department and Set Decoration. For the Props Department membership, you can select 3 role within Props. You will then receive Job Alerts for the roles that you have selected. We will be looking further at accommodating the needs of members who work across departments.

The Art Department and Set Decoration memberships are linked and you are able to choose 3 roles across both departments, although you will only have access to the members section of the department that you have joined. This is to accommodate roles that cross over. For example an Art Director might work in the Art Department and also as a Set Dec Art Director.

The Props Department Membership is currently a stand-alone membership and if you join Props, you will only be able to have a listing on the Props Department Directory. We are currently looking at ways of accommodating our members who cross over departments.

If you work across both departments, we suggest that you join the department that you would find it most useful to have access to the suppliers directories and forum. You can then tick job roles across both departments. For example, you can be listed as a draughtsperson on both the Art Department and Set Decoration Members’ Directories.

We ask that you select roles for which you already have experience. If you are looking to step up to the next level in the department, then we suggest that you select your current role as well as the next level up to show your level of experience. Please do not select roles far above your experience level.

Applications are normally processed on the same day, and within a maximum of 24 hour.

Please check your spam folder. It is likely that we have either approved your membership and it has gone to your spam folder or that we have contacted you with a question about your membership that needs addressing before we can approve your listing. If not, please email info@filmbase.uk and we check your application status.

We ask that you have 2 credits on your IMDB profile. The credits must be for the department that you are applying for. Ie, if you wish to join the Art Department Accredited membership, then you must have at least two credits in the Art Department. We also ask that credits are on a professional, scripted drama production, that has either had (or is going to have) a cinematic, streaming or broadcast service release or has been shown at an international festival, as listed on IMDB. Many productions are listed on IMDB well before their release date and we are happy to include these as the required two credits.

Please note that for the Prop Modelling membership, you will need to provide details of two referees who are able to confirm that you have 6 months paid experience in a prop modelling workshop. If you are able to provide this information, then you will not need to provide and IMDB listing.

Our joining criteria for the Accredited membership is: 2 credits on a production that has either had (is is due to have) a cinematic, streaming or broadcast service release or has been shown at an international festival, as listed on IMDB. This can include shorts if they have been streamed or shown at an international festival. Student shorts are not normally included, however, each application is considered individually.

You don't need any credits to join the New to the Industry membership. However, credits are hugely important in showing employers evidence of your experience, so we recommend setting up an IMDB profile as soon as possible, and adding credits for any productions that you have worked on. This can include shorts and online content.

It's really easy to add your credits to IMDB, and we recommend that you do this as soon as possible. You will need to register for a free IMDB account. (You do not need a Pro account). You will then be able to contribute data to IMDB. To add your credits to a specific production, first find the production page, scroll down and click 'edit page'. You can then add your details. IMDB will check the submission and it will usually be accepted within a day or so. Make sure that if you are submitting credits for a series, that you have found the correct season and episodes. There is further information on contributing to IMDB here.

If you have added credits to IMDB and they haven't yet appeared, you can check the status of your submission here. You will need to be logged in to IMDB to access this page.

IMDB may say that they require further information and evidence that you were a crew members. You can upload evidence of a credit here. Once you have done this, take a copy of the reference number, resubmit your credit submission and tick 'explanation' to add the evidence reference number. If you're having trouble with this, get in touch and we will do our best to help you.

If you have two or more pages for your name (Robert Pattinson I and Robert Pattinson II) then IMDB can combine them for you. We do need your credits to be listed on the same page as you can only enter one link on your profile. IMDB has details on how to combine pages here.

To upgrade your New to the Industry membership to Accredited, please fill in this form. The Accredited membership is £35 for the year, although the Props Department is currently discounted. Please check the upgrade criteria below.

We ask that in order to join the Accredited membership, you have at least 2 credits on your IMDB profile. The credits must be for the department for which you are applying for. (ie, if you wish to join the Art Department Accredited membership, then you must have at least two credits in the Art Department.) The credits must also be for professional, scripted productions that have either had (or are due to have) a cinematic, streaming or broadcast service release or have been shown at an international festival, as listed on IMDB. We are unable to take student films into consideration or Production Design credits on shorts.

Please note that for the Prop Modelling membership, you will need to provide details of two referees who are able to confirm that you have 6 months paid experience in a prop modelling workshop. If you are able to provide this information, then you will not need to provide and IMDB listing.

If you need help setting up your IMDB listing, please look at the Credits & IMDB section on the FAQ page, or send us an email us if you have any questions.

We rely on the membership fees to keep the site running so that we can not only help members find jobs and employers find crew, but so that we can also let Art Department, Set Decoration and Props crew know about important industry issues. Even if you're not looking for a job at the moment, we really appreciate your support as a member of Filmbase as it helps us keep crew members connected and enables us to carry on with the work we're doing.

If you would like to cancel your membership, you can let us know by filling in this form and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Cancel my membership.

We ask that all applicants are resident in the UK and are also eligible to work here. That is because the employers who advertise on the site are looking for crew members who are immediately available to work here. If you are a non UK citizen, but have a plan in place for obtaining eligibility and a residency, then we will be happy to consider your application if you contact us with further information

You automatically have the right to work in the UK if you are:

• a British or Irish citizen
• an European Economic Area (EEA) citizen who worked in the UK before 31st Dec 2020
• a Swiss national who worked in the UK before 31st Dec 2020 

EEA countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. UK Citizens advice has further resources on determining if you have the right to work and the documentation required to prove your right to work

We strongly recommend that you consult the Apply for a UK visa section of the Home Office website to determine your suitability for a UK visa.

For some Visa applications you will need sponsorship from the employer before you can apply to work in the UK. This can be expensive and time consuming. For that reason, it is not a route than employers are likely to take, except for very senior crew such as Production Designers and Set Decorators. For that reason, we ask that you do not apply for positions that are advertised on Filmbase unless you have confirmed your right to work already.

The difficulty of employing crew from abroad is frustrating for employers in the UK, as there is currently a crew shortage here. Filmbase is waiting for updates from BECTU, the union, as to whether there will be a clearer pathway to enable non UK citizens to work here.

The British Film Commission has further advice on visas and sponsorship.

Filmbase is not an employer and will not be able to sponsor visa applications.