On a production, “catering” and “craft” get used loosely, and the confusion shows up at budgeting time. They’re two different services with two different jobs. Craft services keeps a crew going between meals with snacks and drinks; unit base catering provides the actual meals from a full mobile kitchen. Knowing which you need, and usually you need both, is the first step to costing them properly.
If you’re planning TV and film catering, this is a straight comparison of what each service covers and what moves the price, so nothing gets missed when you build the budget.
We provide the full catering operation and can talk you through where craft sits alongside it. Productions that budget well treat the two as separate lines from the start, rather than discovering the gap halfway through a shoot.
What is the difference between craft services and catering?
Catering is the meals; craft services is everything in between. Catering provides sit-down hot food at set times built around the call sheet, while craft services is the running supply of snacks and drinks available throughout the day.
They get confused because both involve feeding the crew, but they solve different problems. Catering handles the proper meals a working crew needs to keep going through long days. Craft, or “crafty,” handles the gap between those meals, when there’s a five-minute break but no time to sit down. On a professional shoot, the two usually run as distinct services, sometimes from one supplier on smaller jobs, more often planned separately on larger ones.
What does craft services include on a film set?
The running supply that keeps energy up between meals: hot drinks, snacks, fruit, sometimes light hot items, laid out for the crew to grab on a quick turnaround. It’s available throughout the day, not served at fixed times.
Its whole purpose is to keep people going when the schedule is tight and there’s no window for a proper break. A camera crew resetting between takes, a sparker up a ladder, a runner sprinting between departments: none of them can down tools for a sit-down meal at that moment, but all of them need something to keep the tank topped up. Good craft is quietly important to morale and pace, and crews notice fast when it’s thin.
What does unit base catering include?
The meals and everything needed to produce them. A self-contained mobile kitchen at the unit base, serving hot breakfast and lunch, plus dinner on longer or overnight shoots, all timed around the call sheet.
A full service brings the kitchen, the power and water to run independently of the site, the crew to cook and serve, a dietary spread covering the whole unit, and the compliance a professional set expects, including RAMS and insurance. It’s the substantial part of the food operation, the part that keeps a crew properly fed through a long shoot day rather than merely topped up.
What affects the cost of craft services?
Mostly crew size and how many days you need it. Craft is the lighter of the two services, but it scales with headcount and duration, and on a big crew over a long shoot it adds up to more than people expect.
The range and quality of what’s on offer moves it as well. A basic tea, coffee and biscuits table sits at one end; a well-stocked spread with fresh fruit and hot options at the other. It’s an easy line to under-budget precisely because each item is small, but multiply small by a hundred crew across a six-week shoot and it stops being an afterthought.
What affects the cost of unit base catering?
The things that drive any location catering job: crew size, the number of services a day, shoot length, and how remote and self-sufficient the location forces you to be. Each one pushes the figure, and together they explain most of the variation between quotes.
Crew size and services a day set the volume, since two hundred people fed twice is four hundred meals out of the kitchen. Shoot length determines how long the operation runs. Location does more than people expect: a site with vehicle access and nearby supplies is straightforward, while a remote spot with no power, no water and a long track in means the caterer brings everything and factors in getting it there. Same crew, same menu, different cost, purely because of where you’re asking them to work. The menu standard and the dietary spread sit on top of all of it.
Do you need both craft services and catering?
Most professional productions, no matter the size, need both. The meals keep the crew fed; craft keeps them going in between. Budgeting for one and assuming the other comes free is the classic mistake.
On a very small or short shoot, you might combine them under a single supplier. On anything larger, they’re usually planned separately, because the volumes and the logistics are different. The clearest way to cost the two is to give your caterer the crew size, the number of shoot days, the services you want and the locations, and let them break down both parts so you can see the full picture before you commit.
Get both parts costed properly
We can cover the full catering operation and talk you through where craft fits alongside it, so nothing gets missed at budgeting time.
Find out more about our TV and film catering or contact us and send us the shape of your shoot and we’ll break it down.
