How to find productions hiring crew near you

Updated September 15, 2026 · Production List

Productions hiring crew in a given city are the ones in pre-production there with a shoot start in the coming weeks. Film offices and local trade press announce them as they set up; a directory that tracks stage and shoot dates by location, such as Production List, lets you see them in one place and reach the production office before the crew list is full.

Where productions get announced

New productions surface in three places, roughly in this order: the trade press (Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter) when a project is greenlit or cast; the state or city film office when it applies for incentives or permits; and local press once trucks show up. By the third stage the crew is hired. The first two are where the useful lead time is.

Reading all of them daily for one city is a part-time job, which is what a tracking service does for you. Production List ingests trade announcements hourly and files each production under its stage, dates and shooting locations, so a city page shows what is in development, pre-production and production there, with the dated shoot starts up top.

How to read a listing

Three fields tell you whether a listing is worth acting on. The stage: pre-production means hiring is happening. The shoot start: if it is four to ten weeks out, the department heads are being hired now and the departments right after. The location: a production “based” in Los Angeles that shoots in Atlanta hires most of its below-the-line crew in Atlanta.

The people attached tell you who to write to. A listing that names a line producer or UPM is a listing where you know who to address. A listing that names only the production company means you write to the production office and ask for the department.

Casting a wider net

Crew travel. If your market is quiet, the neighbouring one may not be. The hubs below cover every city with at least three tracked productions, and each one links to the productions currently in pre-production there. Several markets are large enough to have their own local crew communities and Facebook groups; those are worth joining, but they usually hear about a production after the office has opened, which is later than the listing.

Common questions

How do I find out what is filming in my city?

Check your state or city film office’s current productions page, the trade press, and a tracking directory. Production List has a page for each city with tracked productions, showing what is in pre-production and production there and the upcoming shoot starts.

Which productions are actually hiring?

Those in pre-production with a shoot start in the next one to two months. Productions already shooting have hired their crew; those in development have not started.

Do productions hire locally?

Largely yes for below-the-line crew, and incentive programmes in many states require a share of local hires. The shooting location on a listing is the market a production hires in, regardless of where the company is based.