Film and production chauffeur in Toronto

Toronto is a production town

Toronto is the third-largest screen production centre in North America, with the Pinewood and Cinespace studio complexes in the Port Lands and Etobicoke, the CBC on Front Street, the studio districts in Leslieville and the Port Lands, and locations that double for New York, Chicago and anywhere with a brick warehouse. Productions run on call sheets that put talent in a chair at 5:30 am and wrap at 7 pm or later, move between a hotel, a set, a studio and a location across the whole GTA in one day, and change the plan by text at 11 pm for a 5 am call. The City of Toronto's film office reports well over a billion dollars of production a year, and every dollar of it moves people.

Production transportation is the hourly product run from a call sheet: a Mercedes S-Class or Executive Sedan for talent and above-the-line, Sprinters for crew, twelve-hour-plus days planned to Ontario's hours-of-service rules with a relief chauffeur where one driver cannot legally cover the day, and a dispatcher who reads the call sheet the night before and re-plans when the schedule moves. The multi-day page explains the run; this page is about the production.

What a production day looks like

The call sheet arrives at 9 pm: talent call 5:30 at the hotel, on set at 6:15 at a location in the Junction; a producer from Leslieville to set at 7; a director from Yorkville at 6:30; crew from the hotel block at 5:45 in a Sprinter; lunch at 12:30; company move at 2 pm to a stage at Cinespace in Etobicoke; wrap 7:30; talent back to the hotel, producers to a dinner on King West. The dispatcher assigns an S-Class to the talent with a primary chauffeur from 5:00 and a relief from 2:00, a sedan to the director and one to the producer, and the Sprinter to the crew on a five-hour block each end of the day, and confirms by 10 pm. At 11:15 the call moves to 6:30 because of weather; the dispatcher re-issues the running order and texts every chauffeur. At 5:55 am the S-Class is outside the Thompson on Wellington with the plate texted and the coffee order right.

TIFF week

The Toronto International Film Festival in September is its own season: premieres at Roy Thomson Hall and the Princess of Wales, press days at the hotels on King West and in Yorkville, galas at the Carlu and Casa Loma, the Lightbox on King as the hub, and a city where every black car is booked. Talent needs a car from the hotel to the red carpet at a precise minute - the carpet at Roy Thomson Hall has a drop-off order and a marshal - then to a press junket, then to a party, then to another. Publicists book the car for the talent's whole festival day as an hourly block, typically twelve hours, and add a second car for the entourage. The events page has the red-carpet drop-off detail for each venue; the evening page has the after-party exits. Book TIFF week in July; the engine will show it honestly.

Studios, districts and locations

Pinewood Toronto Studios in the Port Lands, off Commissioners Street; Cinespace's stages on Kipling in Etobicoke and in the Port Lands; the CBC Broadcasting Centre on Front; the studio cluster in Leslieville around Eastern Avenue; Revival on Queen East; the Distillery District as a location; the Financial District's towers doubling for Manhattan at weekends; the University of Toronto's St. George campus; Casa Loma; the Scarborough Bluffs; Hamilton's downtown and Cambridge's Galt for period streets. A production chauffeur knows the crew parking at each, the base camp arrangement, where the honeywagons are, and that a location in the Junction at 6 am means a different route from Yorkville than the same location at 6 pm. The area pages have the roads and the Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo pages cover the out-of-town locations.

The vehicles

The Mercedes S-Class for principal talent and for a director or showrunner who works in the car. The Executive Sedan for producers, department heads, agents and publicists. The Luxury SUV for talent travelling with security or a family, and for winter shoots. The Executive Sprinter for crew, background performers' shuttles, the writers' room to a location, and a talent's entourage - twelve seats, standing headroom, five-hour minimum. Each is its own hourly booking on the production's account. The fleet page has capacities.

Hours of service, relief chauffeurs and the twelve-hour day

Ontario's commercial vehicle operator's rules limit a driver's on-duty hours in a day and a week, and a production day is routinely fourteen. We plan for it rather than pretend: a primary chauffeur takes the call and the morning, a relief chauffeur briefed by the primary takes the afternoon and wrap in the same car, and the handover happens at lunch or during a company move where the talent does not notice. A five-day shoot with fourteen-hour days is two chauffeurs per principal vehicle; a shoot with eight-hour days is one. The dispatcher sets it out per day on the confirmation.

Confidentiality and set etiquette

Production chauffeurs are engaged under confidentiality terms and understand set etiquette: no photographs, no social media, no autographs, no conversation about the production or the talent to anyone, ever. Publicists' rules on where the car may and may not be photographed are followed. NDAs from the production are signed as a matter of course. The talent's name need not appear on the booking; a code name and a publicist's phone are enough.

Invoicing the production

Every vehicle, every day, on the production's account, invoiced weekly or at wrap by vehicle, day and hours, with HST itemised for the production's tax credits and the Ontario Creates reporting. The hourly rate per class is on file for the production's run; volume across a long shoot carries a negotiated rate applied automatically. Petty-cash bookings by a production coordinator can be taken by card in the engine and reconciled later. The corporate accounts page explains the account.

Commercials, music videos and photo shoots

The one- and two-day version: agency and client from a Yorkville hotel to a studio on Eastern Avenue, talent from Pearson, a Sprinter for the crew, and a wrap dinner. The same product, the same call sheet, usually one chauffeur per vehicle because the days are shorter. Music-video shoots and fashion shoots at the Port Lands stages or on location are the same booking. The Pearson page covers talent arriving from Los Angeles and New York, met inside the terminal with a name board on request.

Booking a production

Call the desk with the production name (or code), the dates, the number of principal vehicles and Sprinters, the hotel block and the production coordinator's contact. Send each day's call sheet by 9 pm and the running order returns by 10. Changes overnight go to the dispatcher by text and reach every chauffeur at once. For TIFF, publicists book the talent's festival days in July with the premiere date and the hotel; the rest is filled in as the schedule firms up.

Background performers, extras and the shuttle

A production with two hundred background performers on a location day moves them from a holding area to set and back in Sprinters on a loop - twelve at a time, a five-hour block each end of the day, a chauffeur who knows the base camp. It is unglamorous and it is where a production's transport budget actually goes. The group Sprinter page prices it per vehicle and the dispatcher builds the loop from the assistant director's numbers.

Wrap parties, premieres and the local crew

The wrap party at a venue on King West is an evening booking with cars from the studio and the hotel and, at 2 am, cars home to every corner of the GTA for a crew that has been up since 5. A local premiere at the Lightbox or the Scotiabank Theatre is a gala booking. Both are the production's account, both are booked with the call sheet, and both are the nights the transport coordinator gets to relax because the cars were arranged in week one.

The industry bodies

Toronto production works with ACTRA Toronto for performers and the Directors Guild of Canada for directors and assistant directors; the turnaround and travel-time rules in their agreements are one reason the car outside the hotel at 5:15 matters to a production's budget as much as to its talent. We are not a signatory to either - we are a transportation supplier - but the dispatcher knows the rules the transport coordinator is working within.

Insurance and the production's certificate

Productions ask suppliers for certificates of insurance naming the production company. Ours - commercial passenger liability on every vehicle, the City of Toronto limousine plate, the chauffeur's vehicle-for-hire licence - are issued by the desk on request, in the production's format, and re-issued for each new production entity. It is routine and it is done before the first call sheet.

From our network: LWD article - TIFF black car service · LAI article - five years with TIFF · HotelsWorldwide.Directory - luxury hotels in Canada · VWD - approved limousine affiliates in Toronto · BookingWorldwide.net - Toronto hotels, flights and activities.