FACILTIES FRIDAY: THE QUIET BACKBONE OF PRODUCTION!

Direct Film has been a quiet backbone of the North West’s screen industry since the 90s, supplying the facilities that keep productions running long before most people even know a shoot is happening.

Based in Liverpool, they provide everything a production needs once it leaves the studio – make‑up and costume trailers, production offices, green rooms, toilets, generators and all the slightly less glamorous things that are integral to keep a set functioning. As they put it: “We’re a circus on wheels!” Their approach is simple: do the job, do it well, and make the long days feel a little less long.  

The company began with two rigid trucks, a tiny budget and, as they put it, “a wing and a prayer”. Their break arrived quickly on the 1996 production ‘Thief Takers’ although the job came with a little surprise last minute. “Production dropped the bombshell that we’re going to France for the first four weeks,” they recall. “So we just did it. We took two trucks over and hoped for the best.” Those same two trucks went on to complete the entire 36‑week shoot, helped by a producer who had worked with them before and chose to back an independent company making their start in the industry. “She stood by me and gave me that break,” they say. “And once someone gives you that break, it’s up to you to prove yourself.”  

Three decades later, Direct Film is the largest facilities supplier in the North West and the only one based in Liverpool. Their work has grown alongside the industry: where two vehicles once covered a production, now it can take fifteen to twenty; power demands have surged from small generators to 60–100KVA units; and actor trailers have become increasingly specialised. They’re also moving into a greener era, with a hybrid‑generator vehicle on the way and all their consumables, from bin bags to hand towels, biodegradable or recycled. “As time moves on, so do we.”  

Behind almost all of our region’s most major TV productions, recent credits include ‘Missing You’, ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’, ‘House of Guinness’, ‘Maternal’, ‘Time’, ‘The Cage’, ‘This City is Ours’, ‘Run Away’, ‘G’wed’ and ‘Lazarus’ to name just a few! But some projects have stayed with them more than others – ‘Peaky Blinders’ for its challenging locations and brutal weather, and the north-west based ‘Fool Me Once’, a production they ‘didn’t know what to expect of’ but watched explode into a massive hit. ‘People were asking, have you seen that? And we could say, well yeah – we worked on it.” It’s those kinds of moments they can look back on with real pride.  

For Direct Film, the Liverpool City Region is the ideal place to work. The area can transform into almost anything, period streets, modern skylines, New York, Birmingham, Gotham, with coastlines, countryside and industrial landscapes all close by. “It’s a huge scope in such a small radius, and for us, we’re right on the doorstep.” But more than anything, it’s the people: “There’s real camaraderie when you shoot here. A community feel – us scousers are a different breed”!  

After building a business from almost nothing, their advice to those starting out is honest and encouraging it begins with someone taking a chance on you. “Be yourself. Be determined. It’s a tough business, sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time. But if you use that moment to show what you can do, you’ll go far.” 

Get in touch directly with Direct Film through [email protected] or call them on 07971969815.