This department is sometimes surprisingly more technical and less "arty" than the name suggests, but there's no doubt it's an extremely creative department. As part of your progression up the roles, you'll most likely spend a lot of time drafting at a board or on a computer, producing technical drawings for the construction team. In some junior roles, you might not spend much time on set until you get more experienced, and your main tasks will be office based on larger productions. On smaller productions, you may be called on to help with a bit of everything and anything. In the long term, you'll learn skills like surveying locations and producing construction drawings. In senior roles, you'll supervise the builds and manage the team.

Concept artists work within the Art Department, so if you like drawing in a freer way than technical drafting, concepting could be for you. These days, concept art usually requires a good knowledge of at least one 3D modelling program as well as being able to produce 2D concepts. Generative AI is also being used more by concept artists as studios get to grips with the legal constraints. You'll be helping the Production Designer create the look of the film before the technical drafting begins.

If you're more of an organiser, but like to be where the "art" is, you could look at being an Art Department Coordinator.

The Set Decoration team works closely with the Art Department. They source, hire and commission props and dressing for the sets. There's very little drawing, apart from floor plans to show where the dressing goes, and you might make mood boards to help establish the "look". There's a lot of driving involved too, to source the dressing, as well as being on set in the studios or at locations, where you'll dress the sets with the help of the props team.

If you like varied working days, this department will be great for you. Good management and multi-tasking skills are needed, as well as a fantastic eye for pulling together all the dressing and creating a beautiful, cohesive set, using pieces sourced from all over the country, or even the world.

This department is in charge of all the props and dressing that the Set Dec department has sourced. Crew members look after the logistics of making sure the props and dressing are on the right set at the right time, as well as stored and transported properly.

They're generally extremely practical and multi-skilled. If the Set Dec team wants to hang some heavy drapes on a delicate wall, it's the props team's job to make that happen in a way that doesn't damage the location wall. There's also a fair bit of hefting heavy items around to get them on set.

This department is mostly only found on bigger films. If a smaller production needs a special prop created, they'll most likely source the job out to an independent prop workshop rather than hire prop modellers. It's workshop based for the most part, although you may also be involved in larger items like vehicles and spaceships, or specialist effects such as glowing stalactites in a cave, which need work out of the workshop and on set. This department suits people who are great with attention to detail and technical skills. You'll need to learn a lot of skills with hand tools, machines and various techniques with chemicals. You might specialise in one area of prop making, such as mould making, metal work, 3D printing, leatherwork, or one of the other disciplines.

And lastly, Graphics. Graphics is its own sub-department, sometimes under the umbrella of Art or Set Dec, but usually working for both of those departments as well as Props and numerous others. If you're into typography and illustration, there are many directions you can go in with this department. You can specialise in sci-fi and modern eras with screen graphics and contemporary or futuristic graphics, or you can focus on period jobs. On productions set in medieval times, you might have to polish up your calligraphy and write letters with a quill, or for the Victorian period you'll be trying to fake a printing press effect for playbills. You'll inevitably spend a lot of time working on the computer, but there's also a fair bit of creating physical items. It can be really diverse, and you'll get to work on a huge range of items, from carpets, tapestry and marble floors, to maps, neon signs and spaceship control panels.

We often get asked about the Costume and Production departments, so here are some notes on these too. Both are very different to all the departments above. Costume can be very creative, as you can end up designing and concepting. However, it can be some time before you get to that stage, and junior roles will be more about sourcing and buying. There are also lots of technical roles within costume, such as pattern cutters and breakdown artists, where you'll need to have learned a lot of technical skills.

Production is all about organisation. The Production department is the hub of the feature or series, and sorts out all the logistics for all the other departments. As a junior, you're likely to start by organising office equipment and spaces, as well as distributing production paperwork. Eventually you could work in positions with a lot of responsibility, taking care of the whole crew and also the production budget. Great for multi-taskers who are organised, hard workers and amazing problem solvers.