Location Manager
In film and television production, you work as the location manager — scouting locations, securing permissions and permits, managing on-location operations, and the work behind getting productions filmed in real-world settings.
What it's like to be a Location Manager
Days tend to mix location scouting, owner negotiations, and steady production coordination — driving the territory to scout potential locations, working with property owners on permissions and rates, securing city or municipal permits, supporting director-and-cinematographer location decisions, managing on-location operations during shoot days. Locations secured on budget, owner relationships, and shoot-day execution tend to be the visible measures.
The hardest part is often the variable-conditions dimension — location managers work outdoors across all conditions, navigate property-owner expectations that sometimes shift during shoots, and absorb the live operational pressure of production. Variance across employers is wide: major studio productions run with significant production infrastructure; independent productions run leaner; commercial and corporate-video productions run shorter cycles.
Strong location managers tend to carry deep film-industry knowledge, comfort with property-owner negotiations, and the calm composure that live-production work requires. Production-industry experience, growing location relationships, and union (Teamsters Local 399 or DGA) memberships anchor advancement. The trade-off is the freelance project-based employment of much production work and the long hours that shoot days involve.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
How this category is changing
Skills & Requirements
Navigate your career with clarity
Truest gives you tools to understand your strengths, explore roles that fit, and plan your next move.
Explore Truest career toolsTruest editorial: Fit check, role profile, things that vary, advancement analysis, lateral moves, interview questions.