Short answer:
Yes — but figure out who owns the road before you put the camera car on it.
Tennessee has some fantastic roads for commercial production: rolling country lanes, wooded two-lane roads, suburban streets, downtown corridors and highways cutting through genuinely beautiful scenery.
But filming on a road is different from filming next to one.
Once you're affecting traffic, placing equipment in the right-of-way, controlling vehicles or requesting a closure, you're dealing with the agency responsible for that road.
And in Tennessee, that isn't always the same agency.
First: Who Controls the Road?
This is the first question we ask.
A road near Nashville might be controlled by:
Metro Nashville / NDOT
Another city or municipality
A county
The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT)
A state park or other government agency
A private property owner
The permit you need depends on the road.
A Nashville film permit does not automatically give you permission to film on a state highway — and a permit involving a state road doesn't necessarily cover the local street where you're staging production.
So before you start planning traffic control, identify the jurisdiction.
Not glamorous.
Very useful.
Filming on Nashville Streets
Inside Nashville and Davidson County, commercial filming is coordinated through the Nashville Department of Transportation's Film + Special Events Office.
If your production is affecting a Metro street, lane, sidewalk or other public right-of-way, additional right-of-way permitting may be required.
That includes situations where you're:
Closing a street
Closing or controlling a traffic lane
Blocking a sidewalk
Placing production equipment in the right-of-way
Reserving public parking for production vehicles
Impeding normal traffic
For a full overview, see How to Get a Film Permit in Nashville: Requirements, Costs + Timing and Do You Need a Permit to Film on the Streets of Nashville?
What Does a Nashville Street Closure Cost?
As of 2026, Nashville's permit fee for a temporary street or lane closure is $160 for up to five days, with additional daily fees after that.
But don't confuse the permit fee with the total cost of controlling the road.
Depending on the production, you may also need:
A traffic-control plan
Barricades + signage
Police officers
Neighborhood or business notification
Parking control
Additional right-of-way permits
The $160 permit is the easy part.
It's everything required to safely execute the closure that needs to be considered in the budget.
What About Tennessee State Highways?
If you're looking at a road controlled by the State of Tennessee, you'll need to coordinate with TDOT rather than assuming the local Nashville film permit covers it.
This becomes especially important with:
State routes
Major highways
Interstates
Bridges
Roads involving state-controlled right-of-way
The exact approval process depends heavily on what you're proposing.
A camera positioned safely on private property photographing a road is very different from a commercial production requesting lane control for a moving automotive shot.
If a state-controlled road is essential to the creative, involve TDOT early.
Can You Completely Close a Road for a Shoot?
Potentially.
But the road matters.
A quiet local street may be considerably easier to control than a major arterial or state highway.
When evaluating a road for a commercial shoot, we'd look at:
Traffic volume
Speed limit
Number of lanes
Intersections
Driveways
Businesses + homes
Emergency access
Alternate routes
Time of day
Length of the requested closure
The prettiest road isn't always the best road.
For automotive work especially, a slightly less perfect road with low traffic and good control points can be much more valuable.
Intermittent Traffic Control Is Different From a Full Closure
You may not need to shut down a road all day.
For some shoots, intermittent traffic control may allow production to temporarily hold vehicles while a shot is completed and then reopen the road between takes.
That can be useful for automotive, running, cycling or talent crossing a roadway.
But it still needs to be coordinated and approved.
Do not send a PA into the road with a walkie and optimism.
Police May Be Required
Depending on the location and traffic-control plan, law-enforcement officers may be required to safely manage traffic.
In Nashville, police support isn't automatically included with your basic film permit and can become an additional production cost.
This is one of the differences NYC producers may notice immediately. We break that down further in Nashville Film Permits vs. NYC Film Permits: What Producers Should Know.
If you're planning road work, identify police requirements early enough to include them in the location budget.
Automotive Shoots Need More Than a Pretty Road
For a car commercial, the hero road is only one part of the scout.
We're also looking for:
Safe turnaround points
Places to stage picture cars
Camera-car access
Shoulders
Crew parking
Basecamp
Nearby holding
Intersections where traffic can be controlled
Background traffic
Road condition
Power lines + signage
Sun direction
Cell service
And, importantly:
Where does the road actually go?
A beautiful two-mile stretch isn't especially helpful if there's nowhere to turn the company around.
Country Roads Can Be Production Gold
This is where Middle Tennessee gets interesting.
Within roughly an hour of Nashville, you can find beautiful two-lane roads winding through:
Farms
Open fields
Rolling hills
Forests
Horse country
Small towns
Creeks + rural landscapes
For lifestyle and automotive work, those roads can give you an enormous amount of production value without sending the company three hours away.
See Where to Find Rural Film Locations Near Nashville Without Driving Three Hours and What Can You Shoot Within One Hour of Nashville? for more on the surrounding area.
Don't Forget About Basecamp
A road doesn't come with a greenroom.
Before locking a rural road, figure out where you're putting:
Motorhome
Hair + makeup
Wardrobe
Client
Catering
Crew cars
Equipment trucks
Sometimes the best solution is pairing the road with a nearby farm, church, commercial property or private piece of land that can function as basecamp.
That's another reason we scout the area around the hero location — not just the frame.
Time of Day Matters
Road conditions can change dramatically throughout the day.
A quiet rural road at 10 AM may become a commuter route at 4:30 PM.
A downtown street that's manageable early Sunday morning may be impossible Friday afternoon.
When scouting roads, look at traffic during approximately the hours you intend to shoot.
And if the road is visually dependent on light, consider sun direction too.
That winding road through the trees may look incredible at 5 PM.
At noon?
Maybe not so much.
Can You Film From a Moving Vehicle?
Potentially, but how you're doing it matters.
A handheld camera operated safely from a normal passenger position is a very different production footprint from:
Camera cars
Process trailers
Vehicle-mounted rigs
Tracking vehicles
Drones
Traffic control
Anything affecting normal road operation or creating an unusual vehicle configuration needs to be evaluated for safety and permitting.
Don't build the entire automotive treatment around a Russian Arm and then mention it for the first time on the permit application.
The Short Version
Yes, you can film on roads and highways in Tennessee.
But first determine who controls the road.
For Nashville streets, you'll generally coordinate through NDOT and the Nashville Film + Special Events Office.
For state-controlled roads and highways, TDOT may need to be involved.
If you're closing lanes, stopping traffic or significantly occupying the right-of-way, expect additional traffic-control requirements and potentially police, barricades, signage and other production costs.
And if you're scouting for automotive work:
Don't just find the prettiest road. Find the road you can actually produce.
Looking for Roads Near Nashville?
Nashville Location Company scouts and sources roads, rural landscapes, neighborhoods, downtown streets and other locations throughout Nashville and Middle Tennessee for commercial photography, advertising, branded content, film and motion productions.
Send us your creative brief, reference images, vehicle requirements and shoot dates.
We'll find the road, determine who controls it and start figuring out what it would actually take to put a production there.
Preferably before someone falls in love with the hero shot.