General Information

Why is Unitbase.co.uk recognised as the leading film location agency in the UK?

Well, read on to find out...Unitbase.co.uk is a London based film location agency servicing the media industries, such as film, television and stills photography and event production. If you need a film location, unit base, production base or event venue get in touch on 020 7239 8906 or have a look at our fantastic location library. Unitbase.co.uk has outstanding filming locations available for shoots ranging across residential property, car parks, waterways, warehouses and production office space, which can also be used to house set build space as a viable alternative to using an expensive film studio.

As film location agents we have wide experience of managing location productions for film, drama, television, music promos, virals, events, product launches and stills photography. Unitbase.co.uk represents the multinational location portfolios of several corporate clients' including National Car Parks (NCP), British Waterways, Hammerson PLC, Heathrow Express, Stanstead Express, VSM Estates Limited and many others who have had great success using their property as film locations. The addition of such amazing spaces into Unitbase.co.uk's database means we can offer an outstanding range of film locations, including high rise views, city skylines, urban decay, empty spaces and much more.

Unitbase.co.uk is proud to have the finest location collective library in the UK which has every type of film location on its books. We regularly attract business from overseas production companies wishing to film in the UK and can effectively offer the services of a traditional location fixer for productions from across the world. Unitbase.co.uk is also an affiliate member of both Film London and The Guild of Locations Managers, playing an active role in promoting and facilitating filming in London and throughout the UK. Unitbase.co.uk is intent on improving this location partnership with fellow organisations and promoting spaces as great film locations in and around London.

Unitbase.co.uk was the first and remains the only company to regulate film unit parking in London. So, what is a unit base? A unit base is simply an off street car park close to film locations, with no height or width restriction, that can facilitate the many vehicles associated with a location shoot, like Winnebago's, caterers, dining buses, make up and wardrobe trucks, camera and lighting vehicles and of course plenty of crew cars! In other words, all essential facility vehicles required by production to support a location shoot. Location Managers want a unit base as close to their film locations (or sets) as possible to minimise the amount of travel time between film locations and the unit base, which gives the crew and artists the maximum amount of time at their filming location. Unit bases are an essential commodity in the process of location filming. In fact without unit bases location shoots could not be achieved.

Unitbase.co.uk continues to discover new unit bases that we open up and made available to the industry as parking solutions, thus helping to promote filming in London. These off street car parks are usually owned by private or independent owners whom we represent, to manage all film unit parking with the production company on their behalf. Unitbase.co.uk benefits the industry by regulating the parking process with contractual agreements between the owners and production, which legally protects both parties in the event that the owner does not permit access on time (or to schedule) and that the production does not overrun by agreeing overtime charges at a pre determined rate. Unitbase now represents 99% of privately owned off street car parks in Central & Greater London and many Borough Car Parks can be viewed on the unit base map page on our website.

So who had the original idea for unitbase.co.uk? The answer is Company Directors Piers Read and Ben Piltz, who recognised a gap in the market and that unit base parking, was completely unregulated leaving productions vulnerable to difficulties. Before Unitbase.co.uk existed, it was not uncommon for productions to be unable to access car parks close to their film locations with time to prepare for the day of filming, even though they had paid the car park owner in advance. To boost their existing knowledge of car parks in the capital, both men set about walking the streets of London in the winter of 2003, meeting hundreds of car park owners, to sell them the idea of Unitebase.co.uk. Six months later Unitbase.co.uk was launched and began trading in May 2004 and has since grown into a market leader for film unit parking and film locations. The collective effort of everyone at Unitbase.co.uk has resulted in us being recognised as a top location agent in London and the UK. Besides supplying unit bases, Unitbase.co.uk offers a film locations library which includes properties owned by corporate clients with substantial portfolios, as well as lavish locations owned by private residential home or property owners. Unitbase.co.uk specialises in creating revenue for owners of empty property portfolios.

A filming location works for different productions in many different ways and is entirely dependent on the script or idea behind the production and, of course, the budget. Unitbase.co.uk works closely with the key organisations governing and regulating filming in the UK, including GOLM (The Guild of Location Managers) and all the UK Film Council's regional screen agencies, Scottish Screen, Northern Film & Media, Screen Yorkshire, North West Vision, Northern Ireland Screen, East Midlands Media, Screen West Midlands, Film Agency Wales, South West Screen, Screen South, Screen East and of course, Film London. 

Unitbase.co.uk offers a free scouting service to find locations for productions that are not already in our library. So why not give Unitbase.co.uk with your location brief? We are waiting to hear from you so we can help...contact Unitbase.co.uk on 020 7239 8906 or email info@unitbase.co.uk.