Location Management Services

Here is how this works in practice. We give location managers who take responsibility for each filming site from prep through wrap. Our team handles access planning, base-camp and unit-base setup, parking, power distribution, crowd and traffic control, talent holding and the security plan certain urban locations need. We liaise with property owners, neighbours, local authorities and communities to keep relations positive and disruption minimal, and we run the health and safety practicalities on the ground in line with the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Here is the short of it. Because South African schedules move between a lot different environments, our location managers plan for the conditions each site presents: heat and dust on Karoo and bushveld units, wind and tide on the Cape Peninsula, altitude and weather in the Drakensberg, and power packs self-sufficiency wherever mains power is absent. After the shoot we run full restoration, document the site's condition and secure owner sign-off, so locations stay ready and the production's reputation supports the next shoot.

Here is the breakdown. South Africa is renowned for offering virtually each landscape a production could need. Managing that variety is what location running here is really about. A single project can use Table Mountain. The Cape Peninsula within the UNESCO Cape Floral Region, the colourful Bo-Kaap, the V&A Waterfront and Chapman's Peak Drive, then move to the Cape Winelands, the semi-desert Karoo, the Drakensberg, the Garden Route, the Wild Coast or the Big Five bushveld of the Kruger National Park, while Johannesburg supplies dense urban grit and Soweto. The country doubles convincingly for locations worldwide. This is part of why shoots from 'Blood Diamond' to 'The Woman King' have based here.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. Driving is on the left, distances between units can be big, and many sites are remote, so logistics planning is central. English is the working language of the industry, regional film commissions in Cape Town, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal help access, and the Western Cape's dry, sunny summer gives the trusted conditions location managers schedule against.