Film Career · Art
Greensperson
Art · IATSE craft locals
- Union
- IATSE craft locals
- Day rate
- ~$40–$65/hr
- Experience
- 0–2 yrs
What does a Greensperson do?
The greens department handles plants and landscape on camera: dressing a jungle onto a soundstage, reviving a lawn between takes, or clearing sightlines a location scout never noticed. On period and fantasy work, greens can be one of the busiest corners of the art department.
What does a Greensperson make?
- About $40-$65 an hour, or $1,900-$3,200 a week (Local 44 scale around $40-$46), roughly $65K-$120K a year.
- Union tier, overtime, and the volume of live or artificial landscaping drive it.
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
On the job
- Dress sets and locations with live, cut, and artificial plant material
- Maintain greens continuity through shooting days and weather
- Source plant material and manage its transport, care, and disposal
- Alter landscapes: laying sod, clearing brush, and building planted worlds
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You know plants and landscaping and how to make them read on camera
- You can build and maintain live and artificial dressing
Soft skills
- You are patient and detail-oriented
- You enjoy physical, outdoor, craft-based work
Career progression
Greens crews grow from laborer and set dressing ranks into dedicated greens people, then key greens on shows big enough to carry the department. Horticultural knowledge separates career greens people from general dressers.
A typical path, from entry to the top of the craft. Times are rough and vary by market, luck, and how steadily the work comes.
- Production Assistant· 0-2 yrs
~$35K–$55K/yr
- Greenspersonyou are here· craft peak
~$65K–$120K/yr
How do you become a Greensperson?
Landscaping, nursery, and horticulture backgrounds transfer directly. Get onto set dressing or construction crews and volunteer for every greens task; on smaller shows greens is absorbed into set dec, which is exactly where you can claim it.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by IATSE craft locals contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.