Film Career · Location Management
Key Assistant Location Manager
Location Management · Teamsters Local 399 in Los Angeles; varies by market
- Union
- Teamsters Local 399 in Los Angeles
- Day rate
- ~$3,500–$5,500+/wk
- Experience
- 8–18+ yrs
What does a Key Assistant Location Manager do?
A key assistant location manager leads within the location management department, answering for its output while managing the people and logistics behind it.
Union coverage for the position varies: teamsters local 399 in los angeles; varies by market. The role is engaged show by show, and careers in location management are built on the department heads and crews who hire the same trusted people back.
What does a Key Assistant Location Manager make?
- This is a department-head chair, toward the top of its department's range.
- Location work is paid weekly with heavy prep and overtime: assistants lower, and location managers roughly $3,500-$5,500+ a week.
- Roughly $60K-$250K+ a year (Teamsters Local 399 in Los Angeles).
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You can scout, permit, and manage locations
Soft skills
- You are as comfortable managing people as doing the craft
- You make decisions calmly and own the results
The ladder
Related chairs in this craft family, ordered from entry toward leadership:
- 1Assistant Location Manager
- 2Location Manager
- 3Key Assistant Location Manager (this role)
- 4Key Location Manager
- 5Supervising Location Manager
Career progression
Within this craft family the recognized progression runs from assistant location manager toward supervising location manager, with each step earned through set time and the trust of the chairs above. Where this role sits on that ladder is less important than how the location management department works: people move up when the department already believes they can do the next job.
A typical path, from entry to the top of the craft. Times are rough and vary by market, luck, and how steadily the work comes.
~$60K–$250K+/yr
~$130K–$250K+/yr
- Key Assistant Location Manageryou are here
~$60K–$250K+/yr
~$60K–$250K+/yr
~$60K–$250K+/yr
How do you become a Key Assistant Location Manager?
The path here is internal: the location management department promotes this position from within, based on a track record built in its junior chairs. Start at the department's entry level and let the work argue for you.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.