One of the most common questions we get from New to the Industry members is "How do I find out what jobs are starting, and who I should contact?" It's certainly not easy, but with a bit of detective work, you can find out a surprising amount.

You can find out about newly slated productions from websites like deadline.com, theindustry.co, filmlondon.org.uk (they even do their own monthly update on what's shooting, for anyone in the London area), and movienewsnet.com. There are tons of others, each printing useful press releases from the studios and production houses about their new plans.

Occasionally you'll find a general update too, Screen Daily's UK and Ireland section is a good one to check in on.

Print magazines do this too, of course, you'll find brief stories mentioning a new series, a sequel, or which director has been announced for the next Marvel movie. There are plenty of magazines to choose from (Empire, Total Film, Sight & Sound, Variety, Rolling Stone), and it's worth checking out their websites too. We always enjoy this one, by Total Film's parent company.

Production companies and studios may also announce a new drama or series with a press release. For example, here's one from Channel 4's press office: channel4.com/press. There's also a useful list of other production companies (some aren't film or TV, but you can tell the difference).

Take a look at this BBC story as an example. A story like that mentions numerous production companies and other industry names, all worth checking out and following up online to glean what you can.

And lastly, there are some newsletters you can subscribe to, such as The Oracle, UK Production News and The Production List.

You can pick up useful nuggets of information from social media too, follow the studios and big production houses at least. There's no shortage of movie podcasts either, though generally they're talking about productions that are about to be released rather than ones just starting out.

And of course, keep an eye on the Filmbase Job Alerts page. Even if a Job Alert is advertising a role you're not interested in yourself, you may be able to work out what the production is by connecting all the dots from the sources above. You can find the Job Alert brief descriptions on our Instagram, Facebook and here.

The example below is from a past production, used to illustrate the method rather than as current news, the trail will look different each time, but the approach stays the same.

Back when it was first announced, we did a bit of sleuthing about the four Beatles movies that were then meant to be shooting the following year (at time of writing, in November 2024). This story was big enough to be covered in the national press, including the BBC.

From that, you could see that Sam Mendes was directing. Once you find a director on IMDB, you can see who their key crew members were on their last few films. Check out who their Production Designer was, and in turn who they hired as Set Decorator and as Supervising Art Director.

In Set Dec, the hiring is done by Set Decorators and/or the Coordinator, so these are the people you'll be trying to reach.

In the Art Dept, hiring is done by the Supervising Art Director and/or the Coordinator on bigger jobs, and sometimes by the Designer on smaller jobs. You'll need to take a judgement on what size jobs people mostly work on. There's no point, for instance, trying to call a big-name designer, as they don't hire. Designers who generally work on smaller jobs do do the hiring and will be worth contacting. Never be afraid to make a pain of yourself by calling and emailing, politely!

For Props, have a look at who the Set Decorator normally works with as a Prop Master, that's your contact.

It's a time-consuming but fun process, and you'll learn tons about the industry along the way.

A poll we took with HODs recently showed most people preferred email as an initial means of contact. Most HODs in the poll said they didn't like being approached via WhatsApp or text message. You can find a lot of useful contacts in the Filmbase Directories: Art Dept, Set Dec and Props.

Good luck!