Location Managers

Here is how this works in practice. We place location managers with productions filming across Serbia, drawing on a Belgrade-centred crew base that has grown competitively over a decade of servicing global features and series. Once a location is chosen, the location manager owns it. Setting up city filming permits, road closures and police liaison, negotiating with property owners, watching the site on shoot days, managing parking, basecamp, noise and crowd control, and running wrap and restoration to pre-shoot condition.

Here is the short of it. Our location managers keep direct relationships with the Serbia Film Commission. Film Center Serbia and local authorities. They handle the heritage layer carefully, working with the relevant cultural-monuments institute and the Serbian Orthodox Church for filming at protected sites and monasteries. Because Serbia's film-services industry is competitively priced, productions secure professional location running in dinar at rates well below Western Europe, and the 25-30% cash rebate through the Film in Serbia programme improves the value. We brief managers on the locations and schedule, then connect you directly.

Here is the breakdown. Serbia rewards a location manager who knows its filming geography. Belgrade, set where the Sava meets the Danube beneath the Kalemegdan fortress, mixes Habsburg facades. The bohemian Skadarlija quarter and the bold socialist-modernism of New Belgrade. Is well practised at doubling for other European capitals, as it did for Ralph Fiennes's 'Coriolanus'. Beyond it lie Novi Sad and the Petrovaradin Fortress, the Djerdap gorge on the Danube, the mountains of Tara. Zlatibor and Kopaonik.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. The medieval Serbian Orthodox monasteries, including UNESCO-listed Studenica, each carrying its own permissions and community sensitivities. Drvengrad, the wooden village built by Emir Kusturica, is itself a purpose-built location. Serbia is an EU candidate but not an EU member and not in the Schengen Area. The currency is the dinar, and driving is on the right. Practical points a location manager factors into company moves. Our managers keep relationships with custodians and neighbours positive for future shoots.