What Is a Film Fixer? The Complete Guide to Production Fixers
Everything international productions need to know about film fixers — what they do, when you need one, how they compare to other production roles, and how to hire a fixer for your next shoot in Belgium
So what is a fixer, exactly? In the film industry, a fixer is the local production expert who stands between your creative vision and the practical reality of filming in an unfamiliar country. They secure permits from municipal offices, assemble local crews, scout locations, liaise with authorities, and translate not just language but culture — making sure a visiting production operates smoothly within systems it does not fully understand. The term came from foreign journalism, where correspondents relied on trusted local contacts to arrange access and solve problems in unfamiliar territories. The film industry adopted it, then expanded the scope dramatically. A journalist's fixer might arrange a single interview; a film fixer coordinates weeks of complex logistics involving dozens of people, multiple locations, and substantial budgets. Belgium presents a particular case. It is a trilingual country — French, Dutch, and German — with separate regional governments, distinct film commissions, and a commune-level permit system that changes depending on whether you are shooting in Flanders, Wallonia, or the Brussels-Capital Region. At the same time, Belgium offers one of Europe's most generous production incentives through its Tax Shelter programme, making it an increasingly attractive destination for international co-productions. Navigating this combination of bureaucratic complexity and financial opportunity is precisely why fixers exist. This guide covers what they do, when you need one, how they differ from line producers and coordinators, what they cost, and how to find the right one for your project.
As Fixers in Belgium, we bring local expertise to international productions filming in Belgium. Our team's deep knowledge of local regulations, crew networks, and production infrastructure ensures your project runs smoothly from pre-production through delivery.
ACT 01
What Is a Fixer?
Defining the Role That Makes International Production Possible
A film fixer is a local production professional who coordinates, facilitates, and manages the logistical requirements of international productions shooting in their country or region. The word surfaces in journalism, diplomacy, even real estate — but in the film industry it refers specifically to someone with deep territorial knowledge, production experience, and the network of contacts needed to keep a foreign shoot running without interruption. In Belgium, where three official languages, two major film funding systems, and dozens of individual communes each control their own permit processes, that local expertise is not a luxury. It is a structural requirement.
- ●Fixers maintain established relationships with permit offices, location owners, crew networks, and equipment suppliers across their territory
- ●They serve as the production's official local contact with government authorities, police, community leaders, and cultural institutions
- ●Most production fixers working in Belgium operate in at least three languages and understand both local administrative customs and international production standards
- ●The role spans everything from a single freelance coordinator to a full [production service company](/services/)
The Origin of the Term in Film
The word 'fixer' arrived in the film industry via foreign journalism, where reporters working in unfamiliar countries depended on local contacts to arrange access, translate conversations, navigate bureaucracy, and keep them out of trouble. When international film production expanded through the 1990s and 2000s — driven by cheaper air travel, digital technology, and growing tax incentive programmes — production companies discovered they needed that same on-the-ground intelligence, but at a scale journalists never required. A correspondent's fixer might arrange a meeting with a government official. A film fixer coordinates permits across multiple municipalities, hires forty local crew members, manages customs clearance for a truckload of imported camera equipment, and troubleshoots every logistical problem that surfaces during a three-week shoot. The job title stayed the same. The job itself became something far more demanding.
Individual Fixer vs Production Service Company
These terms overlap but describe different levels of service. An individual fixer is typically a freelancer — a single experienced local who provides coordination, translation, and problem-solving for smaller productions. A production service company is a registered business that delivers comprehensive film fixer services: crew hiring, equipment sourcing, accounting, insurance, permits, location management, and full production oversight. Belgium's production landscape has matured significantly in recent years, particularly as the Tax Shelter programme has drawn more international work. Many individual fixers who once handled small documentary shoots now operate as full production service companies capable of managing feature-scale logistics. When productions search for a fixer in Belgium, they increasingly need the complete infrastructure that a service company provides — especially when Tax Shelter compliance, VAT management, and bilingual permit applications are involved.
ACT 02
What Does a Fixer Do?
A Comprehensive Breakdown of Fixer Responsibilities
What does a fixer actually handle on a daily basis? The answer is broader than most producers expect. A production fixer's responsibilities span the entire lifecycle of a shoot — from the earliest scouting conversations to the final equipment return and financial reconciliation. In Belgium, several of these tasks carry additional complexity due to the country's administrative structure.
- ●[Filming permits](/services/pre-production/film-permit-acquisition/) — researching commune-level requirements in Flanders, Wallonia, or Brussels, preparing applications in the correct administrative language, and managing renewals or amendments during production
- ●[Crew sourcing](/services/film-crew/) — identifying, vetting, and hiring local crew across all departments, drawing from both the Flemish and Francophone talent pools depending on shoot location
- ●Equipment — arranging rental from trusted Belgian suppliers, coordinating customs clearance for gear arriving from outside the EU, and sourcing backup equipment at short notice
- ●[Location scouting](/services/pre-production/location-scouting-services/) — finding locations that match creative briefs while being filmable, permit-compatible, and logistically accessible across Belgium's compact but diverse geography
- ●Government and institutional liaison — serving as the production's official local contact with commune authorities, police zones, regional film commissions like Screen.brussels and the VAF, and cultural heritage bodies
- ●Translation and cultural mediation — navigating Belgium's language divide, translating between Dutch, French, German, and English as needed, and interpreting local customs for international crews
- ●Transport and accommodation — organizing vehicle fleets, driver arrangements, hotel blocks, and daily crew logistics across a small country with excellent motorway and rail connectivity
- ●Budget management — building accurate local budgets in euros, managing petty cash and local invoicing, and preventing cost overruns caused by unfamiliarity with Belgian pricing and VAT requirements
- ●Emergency problem-solving — handling sudden weather changes, equipment breakdowns, permit complications, and the unexpected logistical challenges that surface on any international shoot
Pre-Production: Laying the Groundwork
Before a single frame is shot, the fixer establishes the foundation that determines whether a Belgian production runs smoothly or collapses under administrative weight. This starts with location research — not just finding photogenic canals in Bruges or modernist architecture in Antwerp, but identifying places that are practically filmable, accessible to equipment trucks, and obtainable through the correct commune's permit process. Belgium's permit system operates at the municipal level, and each commune has its own application requirements, fee structures, and processing timelines. A shoot that crosses commune boundaries may require separate permits from each. The fixer researches and files these applications in the appropriate language — Dutch in Flanders, French in Wallonia, either in Brussels — and follows up with offices that operate on their own schedules. Simultaneously, they source local crew matched to the production's technical and budgetary needs, arrange equipment rental, organize transport and accommodation, and build budgets that account for Belgian-specific costs international producers would not anticipate.
Production: On-Set Problem Solving
Once cameras roll, the fixer becomes the production's operational anchor. They manage relationships with commune officials who may visit the set, coordinate with Belgian police zones that oversee road closures or crowd management, and handle the stream of on-the-ground challenges that international shoots inevitably generate. Belgium's compact geography means locations can change rapidly — a morning shoot in central Brussels, an afternoon in the Ardennes, the next day in Ghent — and the fixer ensures each transition is logistically seamless. They translate in real time between the production team and local vendors, explain Belgian customs and workplace norms to visiting crew, and manage the cultural dynamics of operating in a country where a location owner might speak only Dutch while the equipment vendor speaks only French. On documentary productions, fixers also arrange interviews, identify contributors, and provide editorial context about Belgian politics, culture, and institutions that shapes the story being told.
Administrative and Legal Compliance
International productions in Belgium face administrative requirements that are more layered than in most European countries. Work permits for non-EU crew, equipment customs declarations, Belgian employment law compliance, social security contributions for locally hired staff, VAT registration, insurance requirements, and financial reporting all require careful handling. Belgium's Tax Shelter programme — which offers up to 42% effective tax relief on qualifying Belgian expenditure — adds another dimension: productions seeking this incentive must comply with specific spending requirements, documentation standards, and audit procedures. The fixer coordinates with local accountants, legal advisers, and Tax Shelter intermediaries to ensure the production captures every eligible benefit while remaining fully compliant. Getting this wrong does not just risk fines; it can disqualify the entire production from incentive eligibility.
ACT 03
When Do You Need a Fixer?
Five Scenarios Where a Local Fixer Is Essential
Not every shoot requires a fixer, but the overwhelming majority of international productions benefit from having one — particularly in Belgium, where the intersection of linguistic complexity, regional governance, and financial incentive compliance creates a landscape that rewards local expertise.
- ●The production is filming in a country where the team does not speak Dutch, French, or German — or needs to operate across all three language communities
- ●You are entering Belgium for the first time with no established local contacts or knowledge of the commune-level permit system
- ●The shoot requires permits from multiple communes, police zones, or cultural heritage authorities
- ●The production wants to access Belgium's Tax Shelter incentive and needs local compliance support
- ●The timeline is compressed and delays caused by administrative missteps would cost more than fixer fees
Belgium's Language Divide
Belgium's trilingual reality creates practical challenges that go beyond translation. Government offices in Flanders conduct all business in Dutch. Wallonian communes operate in French. The Brussels-Capital Region is officially bilingual, but individual offices may lean strongly toward one language. German-speaking municipalities in the east have their own administrative norms. A production that cannot communicate in the correct language will not just struggle — in many cases, they will not receive a response to their permit application at all. Beyond language, cultural mediation matters. The pace of business, the formality of correspondence, the expectations around scheduling and hospitality differ between regions. A fixer who has worked across all of Belgium's communities understands these dynamics instinctively and prevents the miscommunications that waste time and erode goodwill with local partners.
Complex Permits and Multi-Commune Logistics
Belgium's commune system means that filming in a single city may involve permits from multiple municipal authorities. A production shooting in Brussels that wants to film near the European Parliament, in the Marolles neighbourhood, and at a location in Ixelles is dealing with three different communes, each with its own permit process. Moving outside Brussels into Flemish Brabant or Walloon Brabant introduces entirely different regional frameworks. Heritage sites — the Grand Place, medieval belfries, the Atomium — trigger additional layers of cultural protection approvals. A fixer who has navigated these systems hundreds of times knows which commune office handles what, what documentation is required, what the realistic processing timelines are, and how to present a production in a way that accelerates rather than delays approval.
Tax Shelter Compliance and Financial Incentives
Belgium's Tax Shelter is one of Europe's most attractive production incentives, offering an effective tax benefit of up to 42% on qualifying Belgian expenditure. But accessing it requires working with a licensed Tax Shelter intermediary, meeting specific spending thresholds in Belgium, maintaining detailed financial documentation, and complying with audit requirements that can extend well beyond the production period. Productions that attempt to navigate this system without experienced local support risk losing eligibility for the incentive entirely — or worse, triggering compliance issues that create problems long after the shoot has wrapped. A fixer with Tax Shelter experience coordinates the relationship between the production, the intermediary, and Belgian tax authorities, ensuring that every qualifying expenditure is documented correctly and every compliance requirement is met.
ACT 04
Fixer vs Line Producer vs Production Coordinator
Clarifying the Role Boundaries
One of the most common questions we receive is how a production fixer differs from a line producer or a production coordinator. The roles share some practical overlap but serve fundamentally different functions within a production's organizational structure.
- ●A fixer provides local expertise, logistics, and problem-solving specific to a particular territory
- ●A line producer manages the overall production budget, schedule, and operational execution across all locations
- ●A production coordinator handles administrative workflows — call sheets, travel bookings, paperwork, and crew communications
- ●On international shoots in Belgium, all three roles often operate simultaneously with clearly defined responsibilities
Where the Roles Overlap
The confusion is understandable. On a domestic shoot, a line producer handles many of the tasks a fixer would cover internationally — sourcing crew, managing budgets, coordinating permits. The critical difference is territorial knowledge. A line producer based in London or Los Angeles cannot walk into a commune office in Ghent and negotiate a permit application in Dutch. They cannot call a trusted gaffer in Antwerp at short notice, or explain to a location owner in Liege why the production needs to close their street for six hours. The fixer fills that gap. On smaller international productions coming to Belgium, the fixer may effectively serve as the local line producer — managing budget, crew, and logistics under the production company's guidance. On larger shoots, the fixer works alongside a visiting line producer, handling everything that requires local presence, language, and relationships while the line producer manages the broader production picture.
When You Need Which Role
For a small documentary crew spending four days in Brussels, a fixer alone is usually sufficient. They handle everything locally while the producer manages the project remotely. For a medium-scale commercial shoot across multiple Belgian cities, you typically need a fixer for local logistics plus either a line producer or production coordinator managing the overall schedule and deliverables. For a large feature film or television series taking advantage of Belgium's Tax Shelter — the kind of multi-week production that involves substantial local spend — you need all three: a line producer overseeing the global budget and schedule, a production coordinator managing administrative workflows, and a Belgian fixer or production service company handling every aspect of local execution. The fixer's role expands and contracts to match the production's requirements.
ACT 05
What Does a Fixer Cost?
Understanding Film Fixer Services Pricing
Fixer costs vary by the scope of services required, the length of engagement, the country, and the complexity of the production. We do not publish fixed rates — they fluctuate too much by project to be useful out of context — but here is how pricing typically works and what drives the numbers.
- ●Individual fixers typically charge day rates that reflect the Belgian market and their level of experience
- ●Production service companies quote project-based fees covering the full scope of local coordination, compliance, and crew management
- ●Full-service fees generally represent a percentage of total local production spend
- ●The cost of not engaging a fixer — permit rejections, language barriers, Tax Shelter disqualification — routinely exceeds the fixer's entire fee on international shoots
Day Rate vs Project Fee
A freelance fixer charging a daily rate suits small-scale productions — a documentary crew of three or four people shooting in a single Belgian city for a few days, or a journalist who needs local support for a specific story. For anything more complex, a production service company offers better value because they consolidate coordination, crew hiring, equipment sourcing, permit management, and compliance into a single relationship. Comparing a freelancer's day rate to a service company's project fee is misleading; the company replaces multiple roles you would otherwise fill separately, and in Belgium, their familiarity with Tax Shelter procedures and multi-commune permit systems can directly affect your bottom line.
What Influences Pricing
Several factors determine what you will pay for fixer services in Belgium: the duration of engagement (pre-production research, production days, and wrap each add time), the number of shooting locations and communes involved, the size of the local crew being managed, the complexity of permits required — heritage sites, EU institutional buildings, and public events each carry additional requirements — and whether the production needs specialized coordination such as aerial filming over urban areas, marine logistics along the Belgian coast, or military liaison for period-piece productions. Tax Shelter administration adds its own layer if the production is structured to access that incentive. The clearest path to an accurate quote is sharing your complete project brief and receiving a detailed, line-by-line budget you can evaluate and discuss.
The ROI of Hiring a Fixer
Productions that skip the fixer to reduce costs frequently spend more in total. A single lost shooting day on an international production — caused by a rejected permit, a location that falls through, or a crew miscommunication — costs far more than the fixer's entire engagement. In Belgium specifically, the financial calculus is even starker: a production that fails to properly structure its local spend may forfeit access to a Tax Shelter benefit worth tens or hundreds of thousands of euros. Beyond preventing problems, experienced Belgian fixers save money through their knowledge of local pricing, their vendor relationships that yield preferential rates, and their ability to build realistic budgets that prevent the cost overruns caused by unfamiliarity with the market. The fixer is not an added line item. They are risk mitigation and financial optimization in a single role.
ACT 06
How to Choose a Fixer
Six Criteria for Selecting the Right Production Partner
The quality of fixer services varies considerably, and choosing the right partner is a decision that reverberates through every department of your production. Here are the criteria that matter most when evaluating potential fixers for a shoot in Belgium.
- ●Demonstrated experience with productions of similar scale and format to yours, ideally including Belgian-specific work
- ●A registered Belgian business with production insurance, clear contractual terms, and transparent pricing
- ●Established relationships with commune offices, regional film commissions (Screen.brussels, VAF), and local equipment and crew networks
- ●Multilingual capability — at minimum Dutch, French, and English — with responsive communication during pre-production
- ●References from recent productions that you can contact directly and question in detail
- ●Cultural fluency — a fixer who understands international production standards and can bridge the gap between Belgian administrative culture and foreign client expectations
Evaluating Experience and Track Record
Request a production list and examine the scale, format, and recency of previous work. A fixer whose experience is concentrated in small documentary shoots may not be prepared for a large commercial production, and vice versa. In Belgium, also ask about regional experience: a fixer who works primarily in Brussels may have limited relationships in Wallonia or the Flemish countryside. Look for breadth across Belgium's regions as well as depth in the production format you need. Contact references directly and ask about problem-solving ability, communication quality, budget accuracy, and whether the referring producer would hire the fixer again. A fixer who has coordinated hundreds of productions in Belgium brings institutional knowledge about specific communes, specific locations, and specific vendors that a newer entrant cannot replicate.
Assessing Professionalism and Infrastructure
A reliable production fixer or service company in Belgium should be a registered business with appropriate insurance, clear contractual terms, and the infrastructure to support your production properly. They should provide itemized budgets with clear line items, not round-number estimates that obscure the detail. They should respond promptly and substantively during pre-production — the quality of their communication before the shoot is the strongest predictor of their performance during it. In Belgium's regulated business environment, also confirm that the fixer can handle Belgian employment compliance for locally hired crew, manage VAT-compliant invoicing, and — if relevant — coordinate with Tax Shelter intermediaries. Be cautious of fixers who cannot provide a registered address, proof of insurance, or a clear written contract. The fixer handles significant budgets and carries substantial logistical responsibility; professionalism is foundational, not optional.
Testing the Relationship Early
The quoting and initial discussion process is your clearest window into the working relationship you are about to enter. Does the fixer ask thorough questions about your project before quoting, or do they send a number without understanding the scope? Do they offer suggestions based on their Belgian knowledge — recommending a location you had not considered, flagging a commune with notoriously slow permit processing, or pointing out that your desired shoot dates overlap with a national holiday? Do they communicate potential challenges honestly, or assure you that everything will be straightforward? The best fixers push back constructively. They tell you when your timeline is unrealistic, when your location choice will create permit problems, and when your budget does not account for Belgian realities. That kind of honest, proactive partnership is what distinguishes a fixer who will protect your production from one who will simply agree with you until problems arrive on set.
ACT 07
Real-World Examples of Fixers in Action
How Production Fixers Solve Problems That Would Stall a Shoot
The value of a fixer is most tangible through concrete scenarios. Here are three anonymized examples from our experience that illustrate what a production fixer brings to an international shoot in Belgium.
- ●Cross-commune permit coordination: managing simultaneous permit applications across three Brussels communes with different language and documentation requirements
- ●Tax Shelter recovery: restructuring a production's local spend to recapture eligibility for the Belgian Tax Shelter after the original plan fell short of qualifying thresholds
- ●Trilingual crew assembly: building a cohesive local crew from both Flemish and Francophone talent pools for a production shooting across both regions
The Multi-Commune Permit Challenge
A British commercial production planned a three-day shoot across central Brussels, requiring locations in three different communes. Each commune had its own application form, its own fee structure, and its own processing timeline. The production company submitted identical applications to all three, translated into French. One commune — in a bilingual area where Dutch-language submissions were preferred — delayed processing. Another required supplementary documentation the production had not anticipated. With the shoot date approaching and only one of three permits confirmed, the production contacted our team. Our fixer resubmitted the delayed application in Dutch with appropriate formatting, personally delivered the supplementary documentation to the second commune with a cover letter explaining the production's timeline, and negotiated an expedited review. All three permits were confirmed four days before the crew arrived. Without local intervention, the production would have lost at least one of its three planned locations — and the entire shoot schedule would have required costly restructuring.
Rescuing Tax Shelter Eligibility
A European co-production shooting partly in Belgium had structured its budget to qualify for the Tax Shelter incentive, but midway through pre-production, several planned Belgian expenditures shifted to other countries due to scheduling changes. The production's qualifying Belgian spend dropped below the threshold required by their Tax Shelter agreement. Our fixer reviewed the entire production budget, identified areas where Belgian suppliers could replace foreign ones without affecting quality or schedule — local equipment rental instead of importing from Germany, Belgian post-production facilities for specific deliverables, additional local crew hires that the production had planned to bring from abroad — and restructured the spend to meet the qualifying threshold. The production captured the full Tax Shelter benefit, which represented a six-figure saving. The fixer's fee was a small fraction of the incentive recovered.
Building a Bilingual Crew
A documentary series needed a full Belgian crew for a two-week shoot that moved between Antwerp, Brussels, the Ardennes, and Bruges. The production required crew members who could work comfortably in both Dutch-speaking and French-speaking environments, communicate effectively with local contributors in either language, and maintain professional cohesion across regional and linguistic lines. This is not a trivial requirement — Belgium's language communities are culturally distinct, and not every crew member is equally comfortable operating across both. Our fixer drew on a network built over years of cross-regional production work, assembled a crew where key positions were filled by genuinely bilingual professionals, and briefed the entire team on the specific cultural sensitivities of each location. The shoot moved seamlessly between regions with zero language-related delays or miscommunications — a result that would have been extremely difficult to achieve without deep knowledge of Belgium's specific talent landscape.
ACT 08
Common Questions
What is a fixer in the film industry?
A fixer in the film industry is a local production professional who coordinates and manages the practical requirements of international productions shooting in their country or region. In Belgium, this includes navigating the trilingual administrative system (Dutch, French, German), securing permits from individual communes, sourcing local crew, arranging equipment, scouting locations, and providing cultural and linguistic mediation. The term originated in journalism and was adopted by the film industry as international production expanded. Today, fixers range from individual freelance coordinators to full production service companies offering comprehensive logistical, financial, and compliance support.
What does a film fixer do?
A film fixer manages the complete range of local logistics for international productions. In Belgium, this includes researching and securing filming permits from commune authorities (in the correct administrative language), sourcing and hiring local crew from both the Flemish and Francophone talent pools, arranging equipment rental, scouting and securing locations, liaising with regional film commissions such as Screen.brussels and the Flanders Audiovisual Fund, providing translation across Dutch, French, and English, organizing transportation and accommodation, managing local budgets and VAT-compliant invoicing, and coordinating Tax Shelter compliance when applicable. Their involvement typically spans pre-production planning through post-shoot wrap.
How much does a fixer cost?
Fixer costs in Belgium vary based on the production's scale, duration, scope of services, and complexity. Individual freelance fixers charge day rates that reflect the Belgian market, while production service companies typically quote project-based fees covering full local coordination and compliance. The total fee generally represents a percentage of local production spend. In Belgium specifically, the fixer's cost should be weighed against the financial value they protect — including access to the Tax Shelter incentive, which can represent a benefit of up to 42% on qualifying Belgian expenditure. A fixer who ensures Tax Shelter eligibility often pays for themselves many times over through that single function alone.
What's the difference between a fixer and a line producer?
A fixer provides local expertise, logistics, and problem-solving specific to a particular country or territory. A line producer manages the overall production budget, schedule, and operational execution, typically from the production company's home base. The core distinction is territorial knowledge: a line producer based in another country cannot navigate Belgian commune offices, negotiate in Dutch or French with local vendors, or manage the specific compliance requirements of the Tax Shelter programme. On large international productions shooting in Belgium, both roles work in parallel — the line producer manages the global picture while the fixer handles local execution across Belgium's complex administrative landscape.
Do I need a fixer for a small shoot?
It depends on your existing knowledge of Belgium and the specifics of the shoot. A small crew that already speaks Dutch or French and has worked in Belgium before may manage certain straightforward shoots independently. However, even small productions benefit from a fixer when filming across language boundaries (moving between Flanders and Wallonia), when commune-level permits are required, when the timeline is tight, or when the production wants to structure its spend to access Tax Shelter benefits. Belgium's administrative complexity means that even a simple-seeming two-day shoot can encounter language barriers and permit requirements that a local fixer resolves in hours but would cost a foreign crew days of frustration.
How do I find a fixer in Belgium?
The most reliable way to find a fixer in Belgium is through established production service companies with a registered local presence, verifiable Belgian production experience, and appropriate insurance coverage. Regional film commissions — Screen.brussels for the Brussels-Capital Region, the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) for Flemish Belgium, and the Centre du Cinema for the Wallonia-Brussels Federation — can provide recommendations. You can also request referrals from production companies that have recently filmed in Belgium. When evaluating candidates, request an itemized quote, check references from productions of similar scale, confirm the fixer operates as a registered Belgian business, and ask specifically about their experience with cross-regional shoots and Tax Shelter coordination. Our team provides comprehensive fixer and production services across all of Belgium's regions and language communities.
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Need a Fixer for Your Next Production?
Whether you are planning a documentary, feature film, commercial campaign, or co-production structured through Belgium's Tax Shelter, our team provides comprehensive fixer and production services across all of Belgium's regions and language communities. We handle permits, crew, equipment, locations, compliance, and every logistical detail so you can focus on the creative work. Contact Fixers in Belgium to discuss your next project.
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