Film fixers in North America: coast to coast

New York City and Los Angeles need no introduction as production centres, but they are very different places to shoot. New York's Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment issues permits quickly and the city's film-friendliness is real, but street closures, parking and union crews are expensive and need planning. Our New York office runs commercial, documentary and branded content shoots across the five boroughs and knows which locations are feasible on which days. Los Angeles has the world's largest crew and equipment base and California's incentive is competitive for larger projects, but the city's permit system through FilmLA and the number of jurisdictions in the county make a local line producer essential.

Beyond the two coasts, the strength of the American market is that every major city has become a production centre in its own right. Atlanta has Georgia's incentive and the studios that came with it. Austin and Texas have crews, locations and a tax incentive of their own. New Orleans, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco each have an active film office, a crew base and a look that no other city shares. Our fixers in each of them handle the permits, crew and equipment and connect your production to the local incentive where one applies.

For international productions the practical questions are visas and unions. Crew entering the United States need the right visa category, and union agreements with IATSE, the Teamsters and SAG-AFTRA govern most feature and television production. We advise on both before a budget is locked, and we structure shoots so that a foreign production can bring a small core team and fill the rest with American crew legally and at the right rates.

Our clients in the United States are production companies, agencies, brands and broadcasters, and the work is creative as often as it is logistical: a director who needs a location that reads as the whole country in one frame, a brand that needs a scene shot in three cities in a week, a documentary that needs access a film office does not grant by email. Hollywood's crews and equipment are available to any production that plans properly, and the film fixers we have in each city do exactly that planning.

Canada is the most incentive-driven market in North America. The federal credit pays 16 percent on qualified Canadian labour, and the provinces stack their own on top: Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia each add substantial labour credits, which is why Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have hosted American television production for twenty-five years. Vancouver and British Columbia double for the Pacific Northwest and Alaska and have the deepest visual effects industry in the country. Toronto doubles for New York, Chicago and most of the American Midwest. Montreal offers Europe in North America, French-speaking crews and some of the best post-production on the continent. Our fixers in all three manage the provincial applications, the crew and the equipment, and work with the city film offices on permits.

Canada rewards the production that plans early. The federal credit on qualified Canadian labour is the base, and each province adds its own: British Columbia's credits have built Vancouver into the third-largest production centre in North America, Ontario's have done the same for Toronto, and Quebec's support Montreal's studios and its visual effects and animation houses. The credits are paid against Canadian labour, so a production that brings a large foreign crew gains less than one that fills its unit locally, which is exactly what our fixers are for. Beyond the three cities, Alberta's mountains, the Prairies, the Maritimes and the Yukon give a production landscapes that double for Alaska, Scandinavia and the American West, and the provincial film commissions in each are experienced with foreign crews.

Practically, filming in Canada means permits from municipal film offices that are among the most organised anywhere, union crews under IATSE and ACTRA agreements, and winters that need to be scheduled around. Our fixers in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver work with the film offices weekly, know which locations can be permitted on short notice, and build schedules around the light and the season. For productions that move between Canada and the United States, the same NEEDaFIXER producer handles both sides, including the visas and the carnets for crew and equipment crossing the border.

Mexico is the fastest-growing production market in the hemisphere. Mexico City has studios, a large experienced crew base and locations from colonial centre to modernist suburb, and the country's coasts, deserts and jungle give a production the Caribbean, the Pacific and the American Southwest without leaving it. Our Mexico office handles the federal and state permits, the crew and the equipment, and the practical side of working across a very large country. Puerto Rico pays a tax credit of up to 40 percent on a minimum spend of USD 50,000, operates under American law and currency with Caribbean locations, and has become one of the most efficient places in the region to shoot commercials and television.

The United States has no federal incentive but more than thirty states offer their own, from Georgia's uncapped credit to California's, New York's, Louisiana's and New Mexico's programmes. Canada's federal credit of 16 percent on qualified labour stacks with provincial credits in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. Puerto Rico pays up to 40 percent. Mexico has incentives at state level and a federal programme for co-productions. Which one applies depends on where you shoot, what you spend locally and how the production is structured, and our fixers confirm the current terms before you commit. The headline numbers for every scheme we track are in our film tax incentives guide.

Most of our North American work is for production companies and agencies sending a shoot across the Atlantic or the Pacific, for brands producing commercials and branded content with an American or Canadian campaign, and for broadcasters and documentary teams who need a fixer for access, permits and crew. You send a brief, and within a day you have a producer assigned, a view on permits, visas and incentives, and an indication of cost. On the shoot our fixer runs the local side. Our quotes show crew, permit and equipment costs as separate lines, and our fixers work with the American and Canadian film offices, studios and equipment houses. If you are comparing film fixers in North America for the local side of a project, the work below is what we have done.