Running for Time Team

You might have heard of production 'runners', but what do they actually do? Time Team runners Tim Chambers and Ben Alpers talked about what's involved in their jobs.

'Production running is all about lots of tea and sandwiches!' says Tim. 'For this job it's a bit of "pick and mix" really. There's the basic running about to fetch stuff for the production crew, but also a lot of location work. I've done a few films before and they have their own location people, but on Time Team both roles are combined. We have to look after the health and safety side of things and make sure that whoever owns the site we're working on is happy as well.'

'Before Time Team I was a runner in New Zealand,' says Ben. 'I was on the same crewing agency as Mak Knighton (the runners' boss on Time Team) and got hired by him. Basically Tim and I have a full working week out of each shoot. We have the rigging day before everything starts and then the clearing up and de-rig at the end. Between us we share all the jobs from getting people tea and sandwiches to running out cables. When we're not filming we help with the post-production work by doing things like copying all of the rushes (the 30 or so original tapes from the three days of filming) for the director and editors. Sometimes there need to be three copies of the rushes so we can end up watching a hundred tapes and then delivering them across London.'

'The best part of the job is the travelling,' says Tim. 'Ben takes his camera everywhere – he's a real tourist. You can't be a runner for ever, so most people do this to get a start in the production business. It's a good way in, great fun and we love it.'

Hear audio files featuring Ben Alpers and Tim Chambers.

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