Major Project Production Unit - Location Permissions London

Since we know where we want to film, I want to ensure that everything is confimed by boroughs and companies to make sure we know we are covered and will have no issues.

With London, after several emails from each individual borough, they all had different responses. The borough for Picadilly Circus replied explaining that no permit will be needed as they are fine with crews filming that are 5 or less, not including the actors. Since we are a group smaller than that size, we will not need the permit that I was applying for and should only re contact them if the crew increases or if we need to use tripods etc. Although I would like to have some sort of paperwork, I have accepted the fact that their email clearly expresses that a permit will not be sent to me as they are happy for us to film without one.

In regards to Chelsea and the financial district, I was told it would be fine but if we wish to obtain an insurance permit for our records we needed to go through the film app website which deals with film permits. I wanted as much paperwork as I needed to ensure we were fully backed up if someone was to stop us. I Applied for the permits with both locations by using the film app website and went through the process.

I first off had to make an account from the main homepage. Once I had done this I was able to log in and move onto the next stage.

The next part was applying for the permit itself. I clicked on the section apply for a permit and selected a new application.

After this, I had select the borough and exact area of where I wanted to film and then enter a lot of details including the production name, a short story synopsis, release date, where it will be shown, budget costs, cast and crew number and equipment being used. I filled all of this in and then explained the type of shots we were doing as well as uploading a copy of the universities liability insurance. Once this was complete I was able to pay and submit my application to be reviewed and then agreed or disagreed. 

After a few days, I received a number of mandatory phone calls from the borough asking us what we were doing, reconfirming crew size and the nature of what we were filming, I was finally given a permit to film in the financial district which you can see below.

I will ensure to take a copy of this on the shoot so if there are any issues I can show them this documentation.