Film Career · Transportation
Picture Car Coordinator
Transportation · Teamsters
- Union
- Teamsters
- Day rate
- ~$500–$1,200+/day
- Experience
- 3–6 yrs
What does a Picture Car Coordinator do?
The picture car coordinator sources, schedules, and manages every vehicle that appears on camera. They break down the script for vehicle needs, find the cars through vendors, marketplaces, and private owners, arrange transport and staging with the teamster crew, and keep vehicles camera-ready through the schedule. This is the role Revolution's marketplace serves directly.
What does a Picture Car Coordinator make?
- Day rate about $500-$1,200+ (often billed weekly, roughly $3,000-$6,000), roughly $90K-$200K+ a year.
- Rate swings hard on specialization: sourcing and prepping hero or period vehicles and managing a fleet commands the top; commercial and indie work sits lower.
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
- Break down the script for every vehicle the story needs
- Source cars through vendors, marketplaces, and private owners
- Schedule vehicle work and stage cars with the teamster crew
- Keep vehicles camera-ready, insured, and documented through the run
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You know vehicles and can source, prep, and maintain a fleet
- You can manage vehicle logistics on set
Soft skills
- You are organized about detail and problem-solving
- You like the mix of cars and production
Career progression
On union shows this is a picture-car specialization inside the Teamsters transportation department rather than a separate wage classification. Coordinators rise from picture car and transportation crews: driver, then picture car captain or assistant coordinator, then coordinator. Deep vendor networks and vehicle knowledge are the promotion criteria, and busy production markets keep good coordinators booked year round.
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.
- Teamster Driver (Picture Car Driver)· 3-6 yrs
~$70K–$150K+/yr
- Picture Car Coordinatoryou are here· specialist peak
~$90K–$200K+/yr
How do you become a Picture Car Coordinator?
Enter through the transportation department as a driver and learn the picture car side deliberately: vendors, values, transport rigging, and paperwork. Vehicle expertise from restoration, dealership, or motorsport work accelerates the track once you pair it with set experience.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by Teamsters contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.
For productions
Sourcing picture cars for a production?
Revolution is the picture-car marketplace built for film and TV: find, vote on, budget, and book the vehicles that appear on camera in one place, free for productions.
Explore the production platform