In short: Before your first paid crew day, check four things. Get public liability cover, and insure your own kit separately. Ask the client who decides your IR35 status. Invoice with clear terms, because late payment carries statutory interest. Set your day rate from the days you will realistically book, not the days you hope for.
Most new freelancers get the work first and the paperwork later, and that is the wrong way round. Before the first call sheet lands, you want cover in place, an answer ready on tax status, an invoice template and a day rate you can defend. None of it is hard. This page is general information from a working studio, not tax, legal or insurance advice, and an accountant or broker should look at your own case.
Insurance: what you carry and what the client carries
Two different things get called "insurance" on a crew booking, and they protect different people.
Public liability covers claims from third parties: someone trips over your cable, or a lamp you were handling damages the client's property. Productions and venues often ask to see a certificate before you start.
Kit cover protects the equipment you own. Public liability does not do this job. Bectu's own policy, for instance, excludes items you own, lease, hire or rent from its cover for other people's goods in your care.
Bectu's public liability plan for 2026 is a useful benchmark for what a freelancer's policy looks like:
- public liability up to £10,000,000
- custody and control of third-party goods up to £25,000 a claim and £100,000 in the year, with a £500 excess
- personal accident benefit, with weekly payments for up to 52 weeks if an injury stops you working
- if you engage a helper or an assistant, ask a broker whether you need employers' liability cover separately
- a £40 fee for the 2026 policy year, and you must be a Bectu member
It covers certain sectors, including film, broadcasting, live events and fashion. It is aimed at freelancers and partnerships, and a limited company is covered only in narrow cases, such as the member being its sole director. Other brokers sell comparable policies. Compare the limit of indemnity, the excess and the exclusions, because a cheaper policy often excludes the thing you are most likely to damage.
For your own kit, write a list: item, serial number, replacement value, date bought. Insurers ask for it after a loss, and a client may ask for it before a hire. The kit list and insurance schedule template gives you a layout. If you are on the production side and need to understand the cover a shoot carries, read production insurance explained.
IR35 and status: ask the question at booking
IR35 is shorthand for the off-payroll working rules. They apply when you work through your own intermediary, usually a limited company, and the question is whether the engagement would be employment if you had been hired directly. If you invoice as a sole trader in your own name, there is no intermediary, though employment status still matters.
Who decides depends on the client:
- Public bodies and medium or large private clients decide your status and must give you a written status determination with reasons.
- Small private clients do not. You decide, as the owner of your company.
- Size is a two-out-of-three test: turnover over £15 million, a balance sheet total over £7.5 million, or more than 50 employees. HMRC's manual gives those figures for financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025. Older GOV.UK pages still show £10.2 million and £5.1 million, so ask which test the client used.
If you disagree with a determination, you can tell the client and give your reasons, until the last payment for your services. The client has 45 days to reply and keeps applying its original decision in the meantime. If a client does not give reasons or does not respond in time, the tax liability passes to the client.
Film and TV adds its own wrinkles. Bectu says the status test did not change in 2021, but some engagers became more cautious and insisted on PAYE. HMRC publishes a list of film and TV grades normally treated as self-employed. A role missing from it is not automatically employment, and you can apply for a Lorimer Letter, which needs evidence that you worked for at least ten engagers in the previous year, each for under ten days. Bectu also warns that the online status checker often returns "unable to determine", so do not rely on it alone.
The practical habit is a single sentence in your booking email: "Can you confirm whether this is inside or outside IR35, and send the determination if it is a status decision for you?" Put the answer in your crew deal memo so it is on paper.
Invoicing: get paid on time
An invoice is a reminder of an agreement, so it should say plainly what was agreed. Include:
- Your name or company name, address and contact details.
- A unique invoice number and the invoice date.
- The client's name and the job or purchase order reference.
- Each day worked, with the date and rate.
- Kit hire and expenses on separate lines, with receipts for expenses.
- Payment terms in words, and your bank details.
- Your VAT number, if you are registered.
You must register for VAT when your taxable turnover over the last 12 months passes £90,000, and you can register voluntarily below that. You must also register if you expect to pass £90,000 within the next 30 days. Until you are registered you have no VAT number to show, so check the GOV.UK timing rules as you approach the threshold.
A worked example. A camera operator books three days at £450 a day, which is the indicative rate one UK studio lists for the role, plus £38.40 of train fare at cost.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Camera operator, 3 days at £450 | £1,350.00 |
| Travel at cost, receipt attached | £38.40 |
| Total (not VAT-registered) | £1,388.40 |
Payment terms. If nothing is agreed, an invoice becomes late 30 days after the client gets it or you deliver the work, whichever is later. Where a payment date is agreed it should usually fall within 60 days for business customers. Late business debts attract statutory interest at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, unless your contract sets another rate. That is a lever, not a hobby: most clients pay once they know you know. Send the invoice in the week of the job, put the due date on it and diarise a polite reminder for the day after.
Rates: set them from days booked, not days available
Day rates look generous until you spread them over the year. If you can realistically book 100 days, a £450 day rate brings in £45,000 before costs, tax, kit, insurance, holiday and sickness. Fewer bookings means the same rate leaves much less. Work out the days you expect to book, add your fixed costs, and divide.
For the market view, Bectu publishes ratecards that reflect what its freelance branches recommend as going rates, covering camera, grips, sound, locations, assistant directors, runners, post production and more. They are recommended going rates set by the relevant freelance branches, and lighting technicians have their own page. Check the branch for your role and the date on the card.
A rate is only comparable if you know what it includes. Ask or state:
- how long the day is, and what happens after it
- whether overtime, travel time and meal breaks are paid
- whether kit is included or charged on top
- how much notice a cancellation needs
As a reference, the crew rates one working studio lists, all indicative and plus VAT, are: spark from £350, editor from £395, camera operator from £450, gaffer from £450, sound recordist from £495, director of photography from £575 and director from £750. A production working to a union agreement uses that agreement's rate instead. The crew hire page shows the freelancers Granary books for productions.
Finally, the rate you quote is the rate you will be asked to defend, so write it into the deal memo and the invoice both. See crew rates explained for how to read a ratecard line by line.
Sources
- Bectu, Bectu Extra membership: public liability and personal accident insurance 2026, read 5 November 2026
- Bectu, Ratecards: find out the rates for the work you do, read 5 November 2026
- Bectu, Tax guide (IR35 and self-employment in film and TV), read 5 November 2026
- GOV.UK, Off-payroll working for clients, read 5 November 2026
- GOV.UK, Off-payroll working for intermediaries and contractors providing services to the public sector or medium and large clients in the private sector, read 5 November 2026
- HMRC, Employment Status Manual ESM10006A (company size thresholds), read 5 November 2026
- GOV.UK, Charging interest on late commercial payments, read 5 November 2026
- GOV.UK, When a payment becomes late, read 5 November 2026
- GOV.UK, Register for VAT, read 5 November 2026
Related guides
Questions we get asked
Do I need public liability insurance as a freelance crew member?
Many productions and studios ask for it before you start, and it covers claims from third parties for injury or damage you cause. It does not cover your own kit or anyone you employ, so those need separate cover. Ask the client what certificate they want to see.
Who decides whether I am inside IR35 on a film job?
If you work through your own limited company, the client decides when it is a public body or a medium or large private company, and must give you a written reason. When the client is small, you decide. You can ask a client to confirm its size.
How long can a client take to pay a freelancer in the UK?
With no agreed date, an invoice is late 30 days after the client receives it or you deliver the work, whichever is later. Where a date is agreed it should normally fall within 60 days for business customers. Statutory interest on a late business debt is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, unless your contract sets a different rate.
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