Industries
Why agency employees leave and how to understand why
Creatives, planners and account teams leave for reasons beyond pay. How to run an exit conversation in an agency, spot patterns by account and act on them.
7 min readRead article
Marketing, Advertising and Creative · Film, television and animation
HR for Film, Television and Animation: Crews, Freelancers and Delivery Dates
Production houses assemble crews for a project and release them when it ends. Hiring, pay, credits and long hours all follow the project, and delivery dates are fixed by a broadcaster or platform.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsA film, television or animation company makes content for cinema, channels, streaming platforms and brands. A small permanent core of producers, line producers, editors, accounts and production managers is joined for each project by directors, camera crews, artists, animators, writers and runners, often freelancers. Daily shooting schedules, long edit weeks and tight delivery dates drive the pattern of work. Animation studios hold larger teams of artists for months on one series. Payment from commissioners can be late, which strains crew wages. Credits, reputation and the next project matter as much as pay. Safety on sets, travel and late-night wraps raise duty-of-care questions. See HR for marketing and creative agencies.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in film, television and animation, you may see
- Crews are hired project by project
- Overtime is the default
- Payment from the commissioner is late
- Freelancer status is unclear
- Artists leave mid-series
- Credits and ownership cause disputes
- Safety on set is patchy
- Behaviour on set goes unchecked
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in film, television and animation
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Producers and line producers
- Production managers and assistants
- Directors and assistant directors
- Camera, lighting and sound crew
- Editors, colourists and sound editors
- Animators and artists
- Accounts and production accountants
Roles we help you hire in film, television and animation
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in film, television and animation. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
Job descriptions for this sector
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
We set up the interview and hiring process for film, television and animation
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
1. Role brief and scorecard
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
2. Stages and sequence
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
3. Question bank and scoring
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
4. Interviewer readiness
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
5. Offer and follow-up
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Where HR strains in film, television and animation
Crews are hired project by project
A team is built in days, works intensely and disperses, so rules, pay and expectations are explained in a rush or not at all.
Overtime is the default
Long shoot days, night wraps and edit crunches are common, and the extra hours go unrecorded or unpaid.
Payment from the commissioner is late
The studio owes the crew while waiting for its own payment, and weeks of delay cause anger and no-shows.
Freelancer status is unclear
People work like staff, with set hours and a single client, while the paper says contractor, and disputes surface later.
Artists leave mid-series
A strong animator or editor gets a better offer and the schedule collapses.
Credits and ownership cause disputes
Who gets named, and who owns the work, is decided late and badly.
Safety on set is patchy
Rigging, power, stunts, night travel and remote locations carry risk, and briefings are short.
Behaviour on set goes unchecked
In a rushed shoot, shouting, harassment or favouritism are accepted, and juniors do not know where to complain.
HR topics for film, television and animation
Start with the topics that matter most here: Employee Administration; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Employee Relations. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for marketing, advertising and creative, not in general.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a film, television and animation business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Write a crew agreement template
Scope, dates, rate, overtime, payment terms and credit in plain words, signed before the first day.
What this coversHide
Write a crew agreement template
Scope, dates, rate, overtime, payment terms and credit in plain words, signed before the first day.
What this coversHide
Scope, dates, rate, overtime, payment terms and credit in plain words, signed before the first day. The HR documentation process helps.
Plan call times and wrap rules
Daily hours, meal breaks, rest before the next call and transport home.
What this coversHide
Plan call times and wrap rules
Daily hours, meal breaks, rest before the next call and transport home.
What this coversHide
Daily hours, meal breaks, rest before the next call and transport home. The attendance and leave process covers the record.
Pay on a fixed date
A crew payment date set to the production's own cash plan, with the commissioner's payment tracked.
What this coversHide
Pay on a fixed date
A crew payment date set to the production's own cash plan, with the commissioner's payment tracked.
What this coversHide
A crew payment date set to the production's own cash plan, with the commissioner's payment tracked. The payroll process helps.
Run a set induction
A short briefing on safety, conduct, contacts and complaints at the start of each project.
What this coversHide
Run a set induction
A short briefing on safety, conduct, contacts and complaints at the start of each project.
What this coversHide
A short briefing on safety, conduct, contacts and complaints at the start of each project. The workplace health, safety and wellbeing work supports it.
Create a core retention plan
Recognition and a stable path for editors, producers and senior artists between projects.
What this coversHide
Create a core retention plan
Recognition and a stable path for editors, producers and senior artists between projects.
What this coversHide
Recognition and a stable path for editors, producers and senior artists between projects. See employee engagement.
Agree credit and ownership early
A written note on named credits and rights at the start, reviewed with a qualified professional.
What this coversHide
Agree credit and ownership early
A written note on named credits and rights at the start, reviewed with a qualified professional.
What this coversHide
A written note on named credits and rights at the start, reviewed with a qualified professional.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- Look at your last crew agreement and see whether it states hours, overtime and payment date.
- Count how long your last shoot day ran and who was paid for the extra hours.
- List all unpaid dues to freelancers and why they are late.
- Ask a junior crew member where they would complain about a senior.
- Check whether anyone was shown the safety briefing on your last shoot.
- Write down which key staff you want to keep between projects.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the contract, safety and workplace duties that apply to a production company like yours.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- HR documentation
Crew agreements, call-time rules and credit notes that avoid late disputes.
- Payroll process
Fixed payment dates for crews, tied to your own cash plan.
- Workplace health, safety and wellbeing
Set induction and safety routines that suit short, mobile shoots.
- Grievance and disciplinary process
A safe route for complaints about conduct on and off set.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in marketing, advertising and creative, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Process
One employee, three versions of the record: fixing employee information management
Payroll says one joining date, the personal file says another and the manager remembers a third. How to establish a single trustworthy employee record and keep it that way.
7 min readRead article
Industries
Variable pay for product and engineering teams: simple structures that hold up
Simple variable pay structures for product and engineering teams: four options, why individual metrics backfire, a build plan and a one page outline to adapt.
6 min readRead article
HR Process
A grievance procedure for a company with no HR department
An employee brings you a complaint about their supervisor. What happens next should not depend on who is in the room. A grievance procedure a small company can actually run.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Document the terms clearly, check how the person actually works and review the arrangement with a qualified professional. Wrong labels create trouble later.
The role, dates, rate, overtime rule, payment date, credit and conduct points. Keep it to one or two pages.
Set aside cash against the production plan, negotiate staged payments with the commissioner and tell crew the dates in advance.
Offer a retainer or a standby agreement, plan the next project early and keep them informed. Silence is when they accept other offers.
Name a person who is not in the direct reporting line, tell everyone at induction and record every complaint and outcome.
We would ask how crew terms are written, when crews are paid and how hours are tracked. A good first project is a crew agreement with a payment calendar and a set induction. Scope is written for you to accept or change.
More on HR for marketing, advertising and creative
All 38 business types in marketing, advertising and creative · Find another business type
Film studiosTelevision production housesAnimation studiosPublishing companiesSign and printing companiesRadio and broadcast stationsEmployee Administration in marketing, advertising and creativeCompensation, Payroll and Benefits in marketing, advertising and creativeEmployee Relations in marketing, advertising and creative
See all HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative, or another industry.