Speccing talent trailers for a location shoot?
Tell us the location, the dates and how many rooms you need. We will confirm the plating and the licence class up front so the permit and the unit match.
Two questions, two different pages
"Talent trailer" and "star wagon" are used interchangeably in practice, and separating them by name is not useful. What is useful is separating the two questions a towed production trailer raises.
Who may legally tow it is a federal licensing question, covered in our star wagon guide. Where it may legally sit is a local permitting question, and that is this page.
Commercial plates, or the posted space is not yours
Productions in Los Angeles reserve curb by posting no-parking signs through FilmLA. The qualifying condition is specific: those signs are "intended for production vehicles with commercial license plates only."
For a trailer sourced from a production rental house that is routine. For a unit pulled in at short notice from a general rental fleet, or towed by a crew member's own truck, it is a question worth asking before the permit is drawn rather than at 6am on a residential street.
And the crew cannot fill the gap
FilmLA is equally direct on the other half: "All municipalities require cast and crew vehicles to be parked on private property. Cast and crew vehicles may not park on public streets," and personal vehicles in posted areas face citations. So the posted curb is for commercially plated production vehicles, and everyone else needs a private lot. Those are two separate arrangements and both have to exist.
Curb is sold by the foot, so measure the convoy
FilmLA publishes posted no-parking at $69 per 300 feet of linear curbside space, and requires the request to specify the street name, the side of the street, given as N/S, S/S, E/S, W/S or B/S, and the footage or endpoints.
That makes basecamp a linear measurement rather than a vehicle count, and it is the number to bring to the permit rather than a guess.
| Setup | Approx. curb needed | Units at 300 ft | Posted no-parking fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two talent trailers plus a tow vehicle each | 150 ft | 1 | $69 |
| Small basecamp: talent trailers, honeywagon, production truck | 250 ft | 1 | $69 |
| Mid basecamp: add makeup, wardrobe and a generator truck | 450 ft | 2 | $138 |
| Full basecamp on a feature | 700 ft | 3 | $207 |
Fee computed from FilmLA's published $69 per 300 feet. The footage figures are illustrative setups, not published standards; measure your own convoy including tow vehicles and working gaps.
Los Angeles Recreation and Parks basecamp is listed separately at $450 per day, which is a different product from curbside posting and worth pricing against it where a park site is workable for your location.
Taillights at ten
FilmLA states that "Standard filming hours are from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday – Friday and 9 a.m. – 10 p.m. on weekends," and that exceptions require survey evidence of resident support.
Note what that survey requirement means practically. An exception is not a form you file, it is evidence you gather from the people who live there, and gathering it takes time you have to allow for.
The hours bound the trailer, not just the camera
A talent trailer that has to be positioned before 7am, or collected after 10pm, is doing something outside standard hours on a residential street. Weekend mornings are tighter still at 9am. Build the delivery and collection windows inside the permitted hours, or secure the exception early enough to actually get the survey done.
Three days of notice sits upstream of your schedule
FilmLA requires three days advance notice to the neighbourhood before filming starts, with exceptional activity potentially needing more, and states that its "standard notification service satisfies all neighborhood notification requirements."
That is a lead time on the location, and it constrains late changes. Moving basecamp two streets over the day before is not a logistics decision, it is a notification problem, and the trailer supplier is not the party who can solve it.
One more worth knowing: base camp locations and crew parking locations are listed separately on the permit application from filming locations, and in most cases do not count toward the five filming location limit. So basecamp is its own line on the permit and needs its own address.
What most people get wrong: assuming these rules travel
Everything above is Los Angeles, and it is published because Los Angeles films more than anywhere else. Other jurisdictions permit production differently, price curb differently or do not post curb at all.
We are not going to extrapolate LA's numbers to your city. What does travel is the shape of the problem: a talent trailer on a public street is a permitted object, the permit has a plating requirement, an hours window, a notice period and a footage-based cost, and all four sit upstream of the delivery. Ask your local film office those four questions and you will have the equivalent numbers.
"On production the trailer is rarely the hard part. The hard part is that somebody has permitted a certain number of feet of kerb on one side of one street, and the thing I am sending is longer than they measured, or it is plated in a way that does not match what the sign is for. So I ask for the permit footage and the plate requirement before I pick a unit, and that conversation takes five minutes and saves the morning."
— Ben Kiser, Co-Founder, EventFleetRV
Plan it in this order
- Confirm the trailer and tow vehicle carry commercial plates if you are using posted curb.
- Measure the whole convoy in linear feet including tow vehicles and working gaps.
- Book curb footage against that measurement, at $69 per 300 feet in the City of Los Angeles.
- Arrange private-property parking for cast and crew vehicles separately. They may not use the street.
- Fit delivery and collection inside the permitted hours, or start the survey for an exception early.
- Allow the three-day notification lead time and treat late basecamp moves as a permit problem.
- Separately confirm the licence class needed to tow the unit. See the star wagon guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you park a talent trailer on a public street in Los Angeles?
Only as a permitted production vehicle in posted space. FilmLA states that posted no-parking signs are "intended for production vehicles with commercial license plates only," and separately that "All municipalities require cast and crew vehicles to be parked on private property. Cast and crew vehicles may not park on public streets." Personal vehicles in posted areas face citations.
How much does curbside space cost for a film basecamp in Los Angeles?
FilmLA publishes posted no-parking fees at $69 per 300 feet of linear curbside space, and requests must specify the street name, the side of the street and the footage or endpoints. A basecamp needing 450 feet of curb therefore books two units at $138. Los Angeles Recreation and Parks basecamp is listed separately at $450 per day.
What hours can a production operate in a Los Angeles residential zone?
FilmLA states that "Standard filming hours are from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday – Friday and 9 a.m. – 10 p.m. on weekends," and that exceptions require survey evidence of resident support. Anything a talent trailer needs to do outside those hours, including arriving, leaving or running equipment, is an exception to be secured rather than assumed.
How much notice do neighbours get before filming?
FilmLA requires three days advance notice before filming starts, with exceptional activity potentially needing more, and states that "FilmLA's standard notification service satisfies all neighborhood notification requirements." That notice period sits upstream of your delivery schedule, so a late change to basecamp location has a lead time attached.
What is the difference between a talent trailer and a star wagon?
The terms overlap heavily in practice and are often used interchangeably for towed production trailers providing private rooms for cast. The useful distinction for planning is not the name but the two separate questions each raises: who may legally tow it, which is a licensing question, and where it may legally sit, which is a permitting question. This page covers the second.
Sources
Both FilmLA pages, checked September 8, 2026. These are City of Los Angeles requirements and do not apply elsewhere.
- FilmLA — Area Requirements: City of Los Angeles — the commercial license plate condition on posted signs, the prohibition on cast and crew vehicles parking on public streets, the $69 per 300 feet posted no-parking fee and the street-side and footage specification, standard filming hours and the survey requirement for exceptions, the $450 per day Rec and Parks basecamp fee, and the three-day notification requirement.
- FilmLA — Applying for a Film Permit — that base camp and crew parking locations are listed separately from filming locations on the application and in most cases do not count toward the five filming location limit.
Related Production Guides
Ben co-founded EventFleetRV and oversees all fleet operations and logistics. With extensive experience coordinating RV deployments for NASCAR events, major festivals, and corporate productions, he ensures every fleet delivery exceeds client expectations.