Film Production Support & Location Services
One partner for the location, the crew, the logistics and the risk.
Algoz supports productions on the ground. Features and television, commercials, documentaries, branded content and social campaigns, in cities where you have a shot list, a delivery date and no local relationships. We coordinate locations and permits, place local crews and talent handlers, move equipment across borders, run production transport and unit base, arrange accommodation and catering, and hold the protective side of the set rather than subcontracting it away from the plan. The creative is yours. Everything that has to happen around it is ours.
We are not the camera department, and you should be wary of anyone claiming to be both. What we provide is curation and accountability: we place the best photographers, directors of photography, gaffers, grips, fixers and drivers available in that city on your brief, contracted through us and answerable to one Algoz contact. That is the difference between a list of phone numbers and a crew that turns up at the right gate at the right hour. We work brand-side, and white-label for agencies and production companies, under NDA from the first message.
- Locations sourced and permits coordinated with the authorities that issue them
- Local crews, fixers, talent handlers and drivers placed on your brief, contracted through us
- Equipment freight, carnets and customs handled by licensed specialists in each country
- Transport, unit base, accommodation and catering built into one schedule
- On-set security, closed sets and discreet protection for cast, talent and equipment
- Standard coordination begins within 48 hours of an enquiry, priority matters within 24
What producers ask before enquiring.
What we handle
Locations and permits, local crew and talent handling, equipment logistics and customs, production transport and unit base, accommodation and catering, aerial units where the law allows, on-set security and closed sets, and the post handover. You keep the creative, the edit and the client. We hold the ground.
What we work on
Feature and television units on location, commercials and campaign shoots, documentary field crews, branded content, stills campaigns, music promos and social-first content made in a week rather than a quarter. Unit size changes what we staff, not how the ground is planned.
Where we operate
The network runs across Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece and Turkey, into the UAE and the wider Gulf, across Brazil and Latin America, and onward through North America and Asia. Where we hold no standing relationship we say so, and price the first week honestly.
Who we work for
Production companies shooting outside their home market, agencies delivering for a brand, in-house content teams, documentary producers, stills and fashion campaigns, and executive producers who need one number at four in the morning. Brand-side or white-label, delivery is identical.
How fast we move
Plan on seven days. Vetting the brief, releasing the right officer and completing the advance work takes that long. Under 48 hours means additional fees and no guarantee of cover. Short notice buys people and vehicles. It cannot buy a permit a city issues on its own calendar, so the honest answer to a compressed schedule is often a different location rather than a faster stamp.
What we do not do
We do not write your treatment, direct your unit or claim the credit. We do not promise a permit a jurisdiction will not grant, and we do not fly a drone where flying it is unlawful. Constraints are named at the brief stage, in writing, not discovered on a call sheet.
Six workstreams, one production schedule.
Locations and Permits
Scouting against the shot list rather than a photo library, options walked and photographed, owners and estate managers approached properly, and permission confirmed in writing before a date is published. Permit regimes differ by country, city and sometimes by street: what is a form in one place is a committee in another.
Local Crews and Talent Handling
Camera, lighting, grip, sound, art, wardrobe, hair and make-up, runners and assistants, placed from crews we have used before and contracted on one agreement. Talent is handled by named people: pickups, hold areas, riders read in advance, chaperones where minors are on set, and one owner of the talent schedule.
Equipment Logistics
Camera and lighting packages sourced locally where that beats flying them, and moved properly where it does not. Freight, carnets, temporary admission and customs go through licensed specialists in each country, prepared before load-out rather than argued at a border. High-value kit travels under asset transportation.
Production Transport
Crew shuttles, talent cars, camera vehicles, company moves and the unit base itself. Drivers know the city, the parking position and the route to the hospital, and vehicles are sized to what is carried. Where cast need a security-trained driver, that runs through executive transportation.
Accommodation and Catering
Hotels blocked at crew rates, apartments for long shoots, rooms held near the location rather than the airport, and a catering standard built for a fourteen-hour day rather than a lunch order. Dietary requirements, rest arrangements and a hot meal at a company move are logistics, not luxuries.
Aerial Units and Post Coordination
Drone and aerial units are arranged only where the law permits, through operators holding the authorisation their civil aviation authority requires, with airspace and overflight confirmed before the day. Afterwards we coordinate the handover: media wrangling, secure transfer of rushes, local grade or edit facilities, and archive shipment home.
Locations, Permits & Access
A location is a legal problem wearing a beautiful face. The palazzo photographs perfectly and cannot take the power. The square is public until the moment you put a track down in it. The estate says yes to a stills team and no to a forty-person unit, and nobody tells you which until you ask in the right way. We scout against the shot list, approach owners and estate managers through relationships we already hold, and confirm permission, hours, noise limits and parking in writing before your schedule goes out.
Where a location is closed to ordinary approach we treat that as its own problem: private houses, historic venues, working ports and restricted interiors are opened through exclusive access rather than through a booking form. The network runs deepest in Italy and France, across the UAE and through Brazil, with standing relationships in Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey and Morocco.
Enquire about locations and permitsCrew, Cast & Movement
Every travelling production arrives with the same two questions: who is standing next to the camera tomorrow, and how does everybody reach the location on time. We answer the first by placing crew we have worked with rather than crew we have found, sized to the unit and contracted through one agreement, so you are not chasing eleven invoices in a currency you do not use. Stills work follows the same rule: we place the best photographers available in that market on your brief, directed by your team rather than ours. The wider stills practice sits on our photography page.
The second question is a timetable problem. Crew shuttles, talent cars, camera vehicles and company moves are built around the call sheet rather than bolted to it, with drivers who know the parking position, the loading window and the route to the nearest hospital. Cast pickups are named to a person, riders are read before the day rather than negotiated in a corridor, and where a lead needs cover beyond the set it continues under close protection and executive transportation.
Enquire about crew and movementMost fixers buy security late. We were the security house first.
On most travelling productions, protection is a line item bought in the last week from a guarding company that has never seen a call sheet. It arrives as bodies at a gate, it does not know which of the people walking past is the talent, and it reads the schedule on the shoot morning. That is how a set photograph of an unreleased campaign appears before the embargo, and how a lighting truck is emptied at four in a street everybody assumed was quiet.
Algoz began as a protection house and learned production support afterwards, which is the reverse of the usual order and the reason the two sit inside one plan. A closed set is designed rather than declared: the perimeter is walked before the location is contracted, sightlines and overlooking windows recorded, device and photography terms written into every crew and supplier contract before load-in, a controlled path planned from vehicle to mark and back, and phones pouched where the sensitive work happens rather than everywhere all day. Equipment gets the same treatment overnight, because a unit base with no plan is a warehouse with the door open.
Cast and talent protection is sized to the person and the place. An actor who has just finished a scene does not want six officers around them, and a documentary contributor in a difficult neighbourhood may need one person and a route. Officers are licensed in the country you shoot in, briefed on the production and dressed to read as unit. Detail on our event security, close protection and celebrity protection pages.
"The best production support is the kind the camera never sees."
Six stages, in this order, every time.
The sequence holds for a two-day commercial and a three-week documentary alike. Only the head count changes.
Script, Dates and Territory
The treatment or shot list, the delivery date, the cities, the unit size and whether we work brand-side or behind your company name. An NDA is in place from the first message. You are told now what your dates and territory will realistically produce, including what a given city will not permit.
Scout, Permit and Risk Picture
Locations walked against the shot list and photographed properly, with permit, hours, noise, parking and power confirmed for each. In parallel we assess exposure: the cast profile, the sensitivity of the content, overlooking windows, the neighbourhood at wrap time and how the kit is held overnight.
Crew, Kit and Contracts
Crew placed and contracted, equipment sourced or freighted, carnets and customs prepared, vehicles and unit base booked, hotels blocked, catering specified, and the security posture written into the same document as the call sheet. Photography and device terms are signed before anybody sees an address.
Base, Perimeter and Rehearsal
Unit base built, cable runs and access agreed with the building or the authority, the perimeter of the closed set established, arrival and departure routes walked, and one briefing every driver, runner, steward and officer attends. Nobody starts day one without having read the plan.
Days, Company Moves and Wrap Nights
A production lead runs the ground and a protection lead runs the perimeter, both reporting to your single contact. Company moves are staged so the second location is ready before the first is struck. Overnight, equipment sits under a named custody arrangement rather than behind an assumption.
Strike, Media and Clean Exit
Strike and reinstatement of the location to the condition it was contracted in, supplier settlement, rushes transferred or shipped under custody to your post house, and any local facility handed over. You receive a short written debrief on what to do differently next time.
White-Label for Agencies & Production Companies
A large share of this work is delivered for agencies and production companies rather than for brands directly. We execute on the ground as your discreet local partner while you keep the client relationship, in any city, under NDA. That is a commercial promise as much as an operational one: we do not approach your client, we do not appear on their invoice unless you want us to, and we do not put the work in a portfolio or name it in a pitch. If the client asks who is holding the location in Rome, the answer is your company.
We can sit behind your line producer, work alongside them, or act as the production service company with your director in charge of the frame. Your staff can be badged into our accreditation scheme, briefings run in your name, and reporting delivered in the format you already give your client. What agencies call us for most often is the element hardest to buy at short notice in an unfamiliar city: a licensed protective team that reads the call sheet rather than standing at a gate. The same arrangement runs on our brand events side.
Enquire about white-label deliveryQuoted to the brief, with the elements broken out.
There is no rate card for production support and any published one would be fiction, because a two-day stills shoot where we already hold crew and a three-week documentary crossing a border are not the same problem. What moves the figure is set out before you commit: unit size and shoot days, the city and the season, how many locations and whether they are public, private or restricted, the permit regime and its lead time, whether the kit is local or freighted, vehicles and company moves, the catering standard, aerial requirements, and how much protective cover the content justifies.
One figure we publish honestly is the protective one, because it is the same across this site. A close protection officer, including a security-trained driver, is from EUR 850 per day, the market base for a single officer on twelve-hour cover, with the final rate shaped by profile, itinerary and season. Everything else is quoted to the brief and confirmed in writing before anything is booked, with production, transport, permits and protection broken out separately rather than as one opaque number. See our close protection pricing page and event security pricing page.
Speak to us once the location is a candidate, not once it is confirmed.
As a working guide: for a commercial or campaign shoot in a city we already cover, three to four weeks gives real location choice and a comfortable permit position. For a feature or television unit, or anything crossing a border with a freighted equipment package, six to twelve weeks, because carnets, customs and filming permissions sit on other people’s calendars rather than yours. Documentary work is the exception in both directions: a field crew can often be supported inside a week, while a sensitive subject in a difficult territory needs longer than the schedule suggests.
Plan on seven days. Vetting the brief, releasing the right officer and completing the advance work takes that long. Under 48 hours means additional fees and no guarantee of cover. What we will not do is pretend a compressed timeline is free: it is paid in options rather than fees, meaning fewer locations and a permit that arrives on the authority’s schedule regardless of yours.
Send the script, the dates and the cities.
A treatment or shot list, the dates and the territory are enough for a written plan and a price. Brand-side or behind your company name, one contact holds the ground from recce to wrap.
EnquireWhat this connects to.
Close Protection
The officers holding a closed set also cover principals across a city. See bodyguard and close protection and celebrity close protection.
Event and Set Security
Access control, accreditation, press and drone management, and the perimeter around a live floor. See event security.
Transport and Freight
Crew shuttles, talent cars and security-trained drivers, plus sealed movement for high-value kit. See executive transportation and asset transportation.
Photography and Content Capture
Campaign stills, behind-the-scenes and editorial capture, placed as part of the production. See photography.
Brand Events and Access
Launches, activations and the closed doors a shoot sometimes needs. See brand events and exclusive access.
How We Work
One contact, NDA from the first message, licensed partners in each country. See how we work and become a client.
Algoz FZ-LLC (Trade License 5033995 | TRN 105119056700001) is licensed for Businessmen Services and Lifestyle Development Consultancy by RAKEZ. Algoz is not a film studio, a broadcaster or a customs agency, and does not directly provide armed or unarmed security, bodyguard or close-protection services. Crew engagement, equipment hire, freight, customs clearance, catering, accommodation and protective execution are performed by licensed, insured third-party partners holding the necessary local permits (for example Italy’s private-security framework, guardia particolare giurata licensing under the TULPS, authorised by the competent Prefettura); Algoz acts solely as coordinator and point of contact on the client’s behalf, under NDA. Filming permissions, location consents, airspace and drone authorisations, image and music rights, labour and union obligations and any tax or incentive filings remain subject to local law and to the competent authority’s decision, which may be refused; nothing here is legal advice. Clients remain responsible for the lawfulness of the content produced and for the permissions their location or subject requires. Armed services require a minimum 30-day lead time for authorisation, which may be refused. All activities comply with UAE laws and RAKEZ regulations.