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Production managers, assistants and runners: the separate APA rules
The short answer. Most of the APA terms, including day types, travel, graded overtime, turnaround and breaks, do not apply to production managers, production assistants or runners. Their rules sit in a note to the rate card: overtime on shoot days only, for hours beyond the basic working day between the main unit call and tail lights. It is paid at your basic hourly rate on a weekday, 1.5 times on a Saturday, and double on a Sunday, bank holiday or night shoot, where the day rate is multiplied too.
Nearly every section of the APA terms carries the same sentence: this does not apply to PMs, PAs and runners. Read enough of them and it is easy to conclude that those roles have no terms at all. They do. The rules are shorter, they sit in a note at the back of the rate card, and they work differently from everyone else's.
The clauses below are from the APA Recommended Terms for Engaging Crew on the Production of Commercials, effective 1 September 2026.
Who does this cover?
The note covers production managers, production assistants and runners. On the rate card that is four rows, each marked with an asterisk pointing to the note:
| Role | Minimum | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Production manager | £504 | £627 |
| Production assistant | £350 | £441 |
| Production runner | None set | £245 |
| Floor runner / AD trainee | None set | £245 |
None of the four has an overtime grade. Where every other role on the card shows a grade and a coefficient, these say "Overtime as below".
Trainees in the technical departments are not in this group. The APA sets no trainee rate for them, and TimeMachine applies the full terms, penalties included, to its trainee roles.
Which parts of the terms do not apply?
Each of these clauses excludes production managers, production assistants and runners in its own words:
- Clause 2, day types. The call time bands, continuous working days, night shoots and non-shooting days. The terms point these roles to the rate card note for their day type entitlements instead.
- Clause 3, travel. Travel days, travel time, collecting equipment and mileage.
- Clause 4, overtime. The graded overtime rates, triple time after midnight, and the weekend overtime rules.
- Clause 5, time off the clock, and any penalty arising from it.
- Clause 6, breaks and penalties.
Other clauses carry no such exclusion: the seven day payment term in clause 1, cancellation fees in clause 7, insurance in clause 8, and holiday pay in clause 10.
How is overtime paid?
The note pays overtime on shoot days only, for hours worked beyond the basic working day, between the main unit call and tail lights. The rate, and on some days the day rate, depends on the day:
| Shoot day | Day rate | Overtime |
|---|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | BDR | 1 × BHR |
| Saturday | 1.5 × BDR | 1.5 × BHR |
| Sunday or bank holiday | 2 × BDR | 2 × BHR |
| Night shoot | 2 × BDR | 2 × BHR |
Weekday overtime is at plain basic hourly rate, with no uplift at all. The weekend and night uplifts apply to the day rate as well as the overtime. The terms define the basic hourly rate as a tenth of the basic daily rate and the basic working day as eleven hours including an hour for lunch, and the note uses both terms. Night shoots are nights as the terms define them elsewhere: a call between 5pm and 5am.
Take a production runner on £245 a day, so £24.50 an hour, called at 08:00 and wrapping at 21:00. That is two hours beyond the basic working day.
- On a weekday: £245, plus two hours at £24.50. £294.
- On a Saturday: £367.50, plus two hours at £36.75. £441.
- On a Sunday: £490, plus two hours at £49. £588.
What do the terms leave unsaid?
Three things.
Tail lights. The terms do not define it. TimeMachine counts from the call to the wrap time you enter for the day.
Rounding. The rule that overtime rounds up to the half hour is in clause 4, which does not apply to these roles, and the note states no rounding of its own. TimeMachine rounds their overtime up to the half hour, as it does for everyone else.
Days that are not shoot days. Overtime is for shoot days only, and the note says nothing about what a prep, recce, pre-light, build, strike or travel day pays. Clause 2, which sets those days for everyone else, does not apply. TimeMachine pays each of them at a flat basic daily rate, whatever the hours and whatever the day of the week. A rest day is a flat daily rate too.
What about breaks, turnaround and travel?
Under the terms, none of them apply. There is no late lunch penalty, no missed break payment, no continuous day conversion and no time off the clock for these roles, and travel time is not payable. TimeMachine leaves all of them off, along with pre-calls and early call premiums.
Mileage is excluded with the rest of clause 3. TimeMachine still pays it if it is entered on the day.
Cancellation fees do apply. The clause's provision for crew booked for a longer period, who are owed for work already done plus reasonable compensation if a job is cancelled after they have started, names production managers among its examples.
Why does it matter?
Because the exclusions are scattered one line at a time across the whole document, they are easy to get wrong in both directions: applying the full terms to a runner, penalties included, or assuming nothing applies and missing the weekend and night multipliers that do. The same long day pays a different shape for a runner than for a graded crew member standing next to them.
What we built
TimeMachine puts production managers, production assistants, production runners and floor runners on their own rules as soon as the role is picked. Shoot days get the right multiplier for a weekday, Saturday, Sunday, bank holiday or night, with overtime beyond eleven hours from call at the matching rate. Non-shooting days are a flat daily rate. Break penalties, turnaround, pre-calls and travel time are left off, because the terms leave them off.
TimeMachine is an independent tool for UK film and television crew. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Advertising Producers Association (APA). It references the publicly available APA Recommended Crew Terms as a rate reference only. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.