Permits

Utah has 84,000 square miles of beautiful and unique terrain and most of it is considered public lands. The Utah Film Commission does not issue filming permits, but our office assists productions in finding the contact and process to obtain a permit. Filming permits are often required by cities and counties across Utah, as well as federal and state agencies such as BLM, US Forest Service, National Parks, Utah State Parks, DNR, UDOT and State Trust Land.

Location Scouts and Managers

We highly recommend hiring a local location scout/manager. They can assist with finding and securing locations and the permit process. Location scouts and managers registered in our directory can be found here. 

Permit Information

Permit costs range widely depending on the jurisdiction. Most city and county film permit costs are around $50 – $250 per day. (e.g. Salt Lake City’s film permit costs $142 for up to 3 locations).  Many rural counties do not currently require a film permit, but this can be a beneficial tool to show the economic impact of film, television or commercial production across our state. The Utah Film Commission uses film permit data in aggregate for reporting the growth of the Utah film industry.

We have federal, state, tribal, county and city permits in Utah. See below for film permit process and/ or permit application pages.

• Bureau of Land Management
• National Parks
• Navajo Nation Parks & Recreation
• Tribal Nations
• Trust Lands Administration
• USDA Forest Service
• Utah State Parks
• Utah Department of Transportation
• Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands
• Check Film Ready Utah information for individual county and city film permit details

Permit Timelines

You and your location team should always plan ahead as much as possible. The more time the better, particularly for high-impact requests and federally-owned areas. Permit timelines can vary between jurisdictions. 

• Federally-managed lands usually require at least 15 business days to process,  sometimes more depending on the size and impact of the production. See more information about filming access during the Federal Shutdown above.
• City, county and state permits range between a minimum of 4 business days to sometimes 10-15 days for processing.

For more information, please contact our office so we can better understand how best to support your production.