Assistant Directors

Here is how this works in practice. We place first assistant directors from Iceland's small, decades-seasoned Reykjavík crew base — 1st ADs who run the floor, drive the shooting schedule and keep each department in step while the director stays on the creative work. Our 1st ADs brief fluently in English and integrate at once with global shoots, having delivered features and series across the country's most demanding locations. They build weather-cover days into each schedule, hold alternative shot lists, and set up with the Environment Agency of the country on covered-area access.

Here is the short of it. For multi-unit shoots we staff a full AD department, supplementing the Icelandic core with 2nd and 3rd ADs from the UK and mainland Europe under a lead 1st AD, with EEA membership letting EU crew join without visas. We also help shoots schedule against the 25% production cost reimbursement, rising to 35% for qualifying larger shoots and TV series, so shooting days are planned around recoverable spend.

Here is the breakdown. The 1st AD's job in Iceland is shaped by conditions found almost nowhere else. The subarctic, maritime climate produces famously fast-changing weather, and the light swings from near-24-hour daylight under the Midnight Sun in June to only four to five hours of usable light in midwinter — both of which the AD must turn into a workable schedule.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. The volcanic Highlands, Landmannalaugar and Þórsmörk among them, are reachable only in summer via F-roads, and filming in the UNESCO-listed Vatnajökull National Park and Þingvellir National Park is set up under strict 'leave no trace' practice. Productions including 'Game of Thrones' and 'Interstellar' relied on ADs who could move a unit decisively when a weather window opened. A 1st AD who knows the country's seasons and terrain keeps a shoot on schedule and safe.